Ethical arguments for moral principles

Apart from metaethics, in ethics there are arguments of two main levels: 1. application arguments, which apply moral principles to specific (groups of) cases, and 2. justifications of moral principles. A quick analysis shows that application arguments use standard argument schemes (or combinations thereof) as they have been identified by the epistemological approach to argumentation. About arguments for moral principles, however, there is deep dissent. The contribution criticises some of the respective proposals but mainly analyses two promising types: 1. demonstration of adequacy, i.e. establishing and justifying some adequacy conditions and showing that certain moral principles fulfil them; 2. instrumentalist justification, i.e. establishing and justifying the aim or function of morality and showing that certain moral principles, norms etc. are good means to realise this function.