Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Although there is a fair bit of agreement concerning the overall nature of normative ethics—it strives to state and defend the basic principles of morality, to identify and articulate the basic duties, virtues, rights, and so on—there is little agreement concerning how to understand what the rival theories that are proposed within normative ethics are up to. Lacking anything like a suitable map of the field, we don’t always see clearly whether distinct theories are offering incompatible claims about the same issue or are instead answering questions that arise at different levels. This essay tries to lay out the basic outlines of a more adequate map. If successful, the account offered should have a familiar feel to it; we should recognize it as a plausible account of what we have been doing all along in normative ethics.</jats:p>