Method-Based Approach

A Method-Based Approach to Moral Judgment: how to put ethical theories, codes and principles into practice

When you are applying ethics, you generally start with one or more theories, principles or codes that are relevant to your area, some controversial cases, and some procedure for arriving at better or worse answers about the morality of particular actions, policies, structures, or agent(s).

To take a moral perspective on a particular area of practice or inquiry, you choose the cases and ethical theories, principles and codes appropriate to your particular area, and then use the method to apply the theories to cases. This section offers guidelines for case and theory selection, and then describes a method for applying theories to cases. The purpose of this section is to provide guidelines for selecting useful tools and cases, and describe a generic procedure for applying ethical tools to cases.