Outline of ethics

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ethics.

Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy "Ethics" The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concern matters of value, and thus comprise the branch of philosophy called axiology.Random House Unabridged Dictionary: Entry on Axiology.

Branches The following examples of questions that might be considered in each field illustrate the differences between the fields: Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right? Normative ethics (prescriptive): How should people act? Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice? Metaethics: What does "right" even mean?

Applied ethics

Applied ethics – Using philosophical methods, attempts to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life. Economics and business Business ethics – Concerns questions such as the limits on managers in the pursuit of profit, or the duty of 'whistleblowers' to the general public as opposed to their employers Development ethics (economic development)

Bioethics – concerned with identifying the correct approach to matters such as euthanasia, or the allocation of scarce health resources, or the use of human embryos in research

Neuroethics – ethics in neuroscience, but also the neuroscience of ethics

– ethics among organizations.

Accounting ethics – study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy.

Computer ethics – Deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct

– the ethics of technology in society

Machine ethics – the moral behavior of artificial moral agents Roboethics – the moral behavior of humans as they design, construct, use and treat artificially intelligent beings

Social ethics – ethics among nations and as one global unit

Nonidentity problem – A philosophical problem regarding moral duties to future people, given that actions today affect who exists in the future

Bridge ethics – codes of ethics applied during play of the card game known as contract bridge Environmental ethics – concerned with issues such as the duties of humans towards landscapes and species Animal rights (also known as animal liberation) – the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings Climate ethics – concerned with the ethical dimensions of climate change, and concepts such as climate justice.

Metaethics Metaethics or moral epistemology – concerns the nature of moral statements, that is, it studies what ethical terms and theories actually refer to. Moral syncretism – the attempt to reconcile disparate or contradictory moral beliefs, often while melding the ethical practices of various schools of thought. Moral relativism and relativism Fallibilism – the philosophical principle that human beings could be wrong about their beliefs, expectations, or their understanding of the world Moral skepticism – a class of metaethical theories all members of which entail that no one has any moral knowledge

Discourse ethics – discovering ethical values through argument

Neuroethics – ethics in neuroscience, but also the neuroscience of ethics Situated ethics – a view of applied ethics in which abstract standards from a culture or theory are considered to be far less important than the ongoing processes in which one is personally and physically involved

Cognitivism Cognitivism

Moral nihilism – the metaethical view that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral (see also nihilism)

Non-cognitivism Non-cognitivism

Normative ethics Normative ethics – concerns what people should believe to be right and wrong. Consequentialism – moral theories that hold that the consequences of one's conduct are the true basis for any judgement about the morality of that conduct. Thus, a morally right act (or omission) is one that will produce a good outcome (the end justifies the means).

Ethical altruism – an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have a moral obligation to help, serve, or benefit others, if necessary at the sacrifice of self-interest Ethical egoism – the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest Deontological ethics – approach that judges the morality of an action based on the action's adherence to a rule or rules. Moral absolutism – view that certain actions are absolutely right or wrong, regardless of their circumstances such as their consequences or the intentions behind them. Thus stealing, for instance, might be considered to be always immoral, even if done to promote some other good (e.g., stealing food to feed a starving family), and even if it does in the end promote such a good.

Virtue ethics – describes the character of a moral agent as a driving force for ethical behavior. Aristotelian ethics – the beginning of ethics as a subject, in the form of a systematic study of how individuals should best live. Aristotle believed one's goal should be living well and "eudaimonia", a Greek word often translated as "well-being" or "happiness". This could be achieved by the acquisition of a virtuous character, or in other words having well-chosen excellent habits.

Eudaimonism – system of ethics that measures happiness in relation to morality. Ethics of care – a normative ethical theory

Divine command theory – claims that ethical sentences express the attitudes of God. Thus, the sentence "charity is good" means "God commands charity".

Ethics and religious culture – a course taught in all elementary and high schools in Quebec

Biocentrism – an ethical point of view which extends inherent value to non-human species, ecosystems, and processes in nature

Descriptive ethics

Related areas

History

Concepts

Single principles

Rights and legal concepts

Guidelines and basic concepts

Extrinsic value or instrumental value

Human experience

Practical ethics

Law

Government agencies

Toi Te Taiao: The Bioethics Council – New Zealand council on bioethnics, 2002-9

Awards

Organizations

Standard Ethics Aei – sustainability rating agency based in Brussels

Persons influential in the field of ethics

Confucius (551–479 BCE) Socrates (469–399 BCE) Plato (424/423–348/347 BCE) Aristippus (c. 435–356 BCE) Aristotle (384–322 BCE) Mencius (c. 372–289 BCE) Epicurus (341–270 BCE) Jesus (7–2 BCE – 30–36 CE) Epictetus (55–135 CE) Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) David Hume (1711–1776) Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) Georg W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900) William James (1842–1910) Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) John Dewey (1859–1952) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) G. E. Moore (1873–1958) Paul Tillich (1886–1965) Karl Barth (1886–1968) J. L. Mackie (1917–1981) G.E.M. Anscombe (1919–2001) R. M. Hare (1919–2002) Philippa Foot (1920–2010) John Rawls (1921–2002) Bernard Williams (1929–2003) Alasdair MacIntyre (1929–2025) Thomas Nagel (born 1937) Derek Parfit (1942–2017) Peter Singer (born 1946) Jonathan Dancy (born 1946)

Events

Foucault–Habermas debate concerning power within society

Publications Ethics in America – television series, 1988–89

Books Nicomachean Ethics – most popular ethics treatise by Aristotle

Journals American Journal of Bioethics Bioethics Business Ethics Quarterly Business and Professional Ethics Journal Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics Environmental Ethics Ethics & International Affairs Ethics (journal) Ethics and Language Experiments in Ethics IRB: Ethics & Human Research Journal of Business Ethics Journal of Business Ethics Education Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics Journal of Information Ethics Journal of Medical Ethics Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal Legal Trends in Bioethics Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics Neuroethics Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy Professional Ethics Religion & Ethics Newsweekly Teaching Ethics The Economics and Ethics of Private Property The Freedom Paradox: Towards a Post-Secular Ethics The Journal of Ethics

Outline of ethics

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