Which branch of ethics studies the universal or relative nature of moral values?

Which branch of ethics studies the universal or relative nature of moral values?

• A. Meta-ethics
• B. Applied ethics
• C. Normative ethics
• D. Descriptive ethics

Answer: (A)

Meta-ethics is the branch that asks about the status and meaning of moral values, including whether they are universal or culturally relative. It explores whether moral judgments are objective truths, mere expressions of attitudes, or something in between, and whether moral claims hold across all cultures or vary from culture to culture. This focus on the nature of morality itself is what distinguishes meta-ethics from other branches. Normative ethics asks what we ought to do and which actions are right; applied ethics takes those standards into concrete domains; descriptive ethics studies how people actually think and talk about morality. So the question of universal versus relative moral values falls squarely within meta-ethics.

Meta-ethics is the branch that asks about the status and meaning of moral values, including whether they are universal or culturally relative. It explores whether moral judgments are objective truths, mere expressions of attitudes, or something in between, and whether moral claims hold across all cultures or vary from culture to culture. This focus on the nature of morality itself is what distinguishes meta-ethics from other branches. Normative ethics asks what we ought to do and which actions are right; applied ethics takes those standards into concrete domains; descriptive ethics studies how people actually think and talk about morality. So the question of universal versus relative moral values falls squarely within meta-ethics.