Philosophy
Mamulashvili B. Ethics as Science about Moral. Bioethics - Tbilisi: Lega - 2001 32 p. - in Georgian.
Ethics is a philosophic discipline, studying morals. There exists the world of morals and the science, describing and studying this world. There is tradition, according to which the morals is understood as a system of norms, accepted and shared in given society. Morals has its' roots in their culture and quite steadily is passed by from one generation to another. As for morality, it characterises actual actions of individuals, regarding compliance with these norms.
Ethics occupies specific place in the philosophy, what is usually distinguished by "is statement" (existential) and "ought statement" (normative). Therefore it is called practical philosophy. And practice implies actual behaviour and actions of an individual, what, somehow or other, concerns other individuals too.
Assessing relations, studied by ethics have some structure, in the most cases obligations and duties of an individual are fixed by laws. Non-compliance is punished by moral, administrative or disciplinary sanctions. Legal sanctions are based upon enforcement and moral sanctions - upon condemnation. Mechanism of functioning of moral norms is not limited to external sanctions. This external control is continuation of the internal control of a person. In this case moral norms become the belief and the deepest value, determining the character of a person. It is very hard for a person to act against them and sometimes it is even impossible. This internal control, self-estimation of own intentions and actions, regarding compliance to moral norms is called conscience. Legal norms do not determine ultimately, what should do an individual in one or another situation; it only determines the scopes, which should not be violated. Similarly there are the norms in the sphere of morals, function of which is to protect privacy of life.
All actions of a person do not undergo real evaluation, general ethical consideration and analysis. Ethics is interested in only those situations, when a person has actual and free choice - to act or not to act. Choice envisages existence of alternatives and each of these alternatives have its' own moral substance. Choice is actually only in the case, if each alternative is within his abilities. Choice made by the person is permanently associated with responsibility for performed action. Ethics is interested in autonomous behaviour and autonomous person.
Individuals, in their attempts to justify their decisions, apply some ethical rules. Quite frequently these ethical rules, themselves are to be justified. In such cases it is necessary to apply the higher rules - ethical principles. And to justify the ethical principles, ethical theory is necessary. It is more general and hence abstract system of conceptions and within this framework the principles are not only justified, but also come into the system.
There is no uniform generally recognised theory in the ethics. History of ethics, comprising development of two and half thousand years, is a history of number of inter-antipathy theories, the most ancient of which are associated with the names of Plato and Aristotle. These ancient theories are still quite actually. They are discussed, shared, enriched and disseminate all over the world - in the most recent researches. Non-existence of generally accepted ethical theory is not an incidental fact. Humans differ from each other, as in cultural-historical, also in individual - personal contexts, including ethical problems. Significant basis for difference of ethical theories is provided by the point of view - on what side of human behaviour or action is focused attention in the process of assessment. On this basis there are differed two types of theories: utilitarian and deontological. The article regards the latter two theories in detail.