Ethics

Lore & Background

Ethics examines what obligations people have, what behavior is right and wrong, and how to lead a good life. Its main branches include normative ethics, which aims to find general principles governing how people should act; applied ethics, which examines concrete ethical problems in real-life situations such as abortion, treatment of animals, and business practices; and metaethics, which explores underlying assumptions and concepts, such as whether objective moral facts exist and how moral knowledge is possible. Influential normative theories are consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. Consequentialism holds that an act is right if it leads to the best consequences; deontology focuses on acts themselves and adherence to duties like telling the truth; virtue ethics sees the manifestation of virtues like courage and compassion as the fundamental principle of morality.

Reader's Guide

Ethics is closely connected to value theory, which studies the nature and types of value, such as intrinsic and instrumental value. Moral psychology investigates psychological processes involved in morality, such as reasoning and character formation. Descriptive ethics describes dominant moral codes and beliefs in different societies. The history of ethics began in the ancient period with ethical principles in Egypt, India, China, and Greece, including teachings associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and philosophers like Socrates and Aristotle. During the medieval period, ethical thought was strongly influenced by religious teachings, while the modern period shifted to a more secular approach concerned with moral experience and consequences. An influential development in the 20th century was the emergence of metaethics. The terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably, though some distinguish morality as focusing on moral obligations and ethics as broader, including ideas about what is good and how to lead a meaningful life.

Did You Know?

• The English word ethics originates from the Ancient Greek word êthos, meaning 'character' and 'personal disposition'.
• Ethics is divided into normative ethics, applied ethics, and metaethics.
• The three most influential normative theories are consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics.
• The history of ethics began in the ancient period with developments in Egypt, India, China, and Greece.