3.3 Descriptive ethics versus normative ethics

Ethics questions value systems and deals with justifications for the values that apply to them. If it primarily takes a descriptive approach, i.e. takes stock and interprets, it is referred to as descriptive ethics. A descriptive approach to ethics can be used to analyse social contexts.

Example

For example, you can analyse what role morality plays in our lives or you can shed light on the phenomenon of disputes over moral issues, to name just two possible aspects.

It is important that this investigation maintains a neutral stance and is therefore not itself judgemental. Descriptive ethics makes value-free statements about existing value systems and moral concepts. It therefore has more the character of an empirical study. For more information on descriptive respectively normative ethics, see [Sc02, p. 25f.] and [Ku99, p. 42f.].

Example

If, for example, one were to analyse the values of an mining community, i.e. identify the values that guide its members and ask, for example, what role these values play for the mining community itself and for its relationship to other communities and areas of our society, then one would arrive at descriptive-ethical statements

These findings can help to better understand such groups and possibly compare them with other mining communities or even other social groups, such as doctors, bankers or professionals of the electric industry. From this, conclusions could be drawn about the compatibility of their respective values. So if - to stay with the practical example - a chip manufacturer commissions a mining company to supply a specifc raw material of suitable quality, then knowledge of the differences or overlaps between the respective value systems of the respective professionals could help to avoid misunderstandings and conflicts. However, the question of whether the values represented in a community are good or bad, whether they are desirable or despicable, cannot be answered by descriptive ethics.

There is also another type of ethics that is not neutral on moral issues but makes moral judgements and develops moral demands. This type of ethics is known as normative ethics. As a rule, when we speak of ethics, we mean precisely this type, i.e. normative ethics. Even and especially when the attribute of normativity is not explicitly mentioned. Many people intuitively associate the word ethics with a series of commandments or prohibitions.

In the broader context of ethics in relation to mining, ethics should also be understood in the sense of normative ethics, unless otherwise stated. After all, it is always about the key question "What should we do?", a question posed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) in the 18th century. This initially very general question can become very concrete in practical situations, as the following example illustrates:

Example

What should a company sustainability officer do if she discovers that her employer is not disposing of waste in accordance with Directive 2006/21/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on the management of waste from extractive industries, for example, when disposing of tailings? What should she do if she also discovers that this was made possible in the first place by a mining engineer friend from her company?

YouTube

When you load this media, content is loaded by the service providers and your IP address is transfered to them.

Give consent and load media

Maybe the company has clear internal compliance guidelines according to which this case would have to be reported. But still the company sustainability officer may find herself in a quandary. She may feel obliged towards her befriended colleague, but may also feel the need to report the recognised misconduct. She may also be worried about her job, for example if she suspects that the colleague has acted on behalf of and in agreement with the management. In such a case, her possible moral intention to report the recognised breach of duty could be curbed by her own existential fears. So what should the company sustainability officer do in such an unpleasant ethical dilemma? What is the right thing to do? What is the ethical thing to do?

Normative ethics formulates ethical commandments or prohibitions. It provides answers to the question "What should I do?". It is nothing less than a question of what is right and good behaviour. It is obvious that this is not a purely technical instruction. Ethics is not a simple instruction manual for life; it is not an algorithm for people in dilemma situations. Our pluralistic and differentiated society is too complex and interwoven for simple instructions and behavioural programmes to lead to (ethically) good and resilient decisions and actions. This applies all the more to the mining sector, which is highly interconnected globally. Simple answers to complex questions are not very promising.