Blogging through my Dissertation

Video Game Ethics October 4, 2007

Having consulted my research adviser I have realised that the question I was wanting to answer was too vague, also I had fallen short in realising the complexities involved when researching issues of violence imitation from computer games. It was suggested to me that perhaps it would be better to look at gaming from the angle of moral philosophy. From this it was decided that I should get to grips with the basics of ethics. I found a very useful website http://caae.phil.cmu.edu/Cavalier/80130/ which features an on-line guide to Ethics and Moral Philosophy.

Within the subject there are three predominant areas: Metaethics, Normative Ethics and Applied Ethics. The first is concerned with the nature of ethics and discussing different ways of approaching it. It aims to show the limitations of moral philosophy and ethical thinking. The discipline of Normative Ethics is predominantly interested in determining what should be contained and what should feature in the moral behaviour of humankind. The third and final paradigm deals with moral issues that may occur within a specific situation/realm. It aims to apply ethical thinking to a specific situation where issues may need to be discussed. This area will be the predominant focus of my research as I aim to apply moral philosophy onto the structure of video games. Having glanced through a number of journal databases, there seems quite a rich source of information dealing with the issue of ethics in gaming.