Philosophy:Outline of ethics

Short description: Overview of and topical guide to 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. The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concern matters of value, and thus comprise the branch of philosophy called 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)
  • Ethics in management
  • Ethics in pharmaceutical sales
  • Lifeboat ethics
• 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
  • Ethics of cloning
  • Veterinary ethics
  • Neuroethics – ethics in neuroscience, but also the neuroscience of ethics
  • Utilitarian bioethics
• Organizational ethics – ethics among organizations.
• Professional ethics
  • Accounting ethics – study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy.
  • Archaeological ethics
  • Computer ethics – Deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct
    • Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics – Code for ethical use of computers
  • Engineering ethics
  • Journalism ethics and standards
  • Research ethics – Ethical practice in scientific research
    • Internet research ethics
  • Legal ethics
  • Marketing ethics
  • Media ethics
  • Medical ethics, also known as clinical ethics
    • Evidence-based medical ethics
    • Military medical ethics
  • Nursing ethics
• Ethics of technology
  • Technoethics – the ethics of technology in society
  • Ethics of terraforming
  • Cyberethics
  • Ethics of artificial intelligence
    • 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
  • Internet ethics
  • Information ethics – Branch of ethics
• Social ethics – ethics among nations and as one global unit
  • Population ethics
  • Nonidentity problem – A philosophical problem regarding moral duties to future people, given that actions today affect who exists in the future
  • Sexual ethics
• 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.
  • Environmental virtue ethics
  • Trail ethics
• Ethics of eating meat
• Public sector ethics
  • Government ethics
  • Ethics in public administration
  • International ethics
  • Regulatory ethics

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
• Particularism
• Rationalism
• Conventionalism
• Axiology
• Formal ethics – Formal logical system
• Rationality
• Discourse ethics – discovering ethical values through argument
• Ethics of justice
• Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development
• Evolutionary ethics
• 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
• Philosophical realism
• Naturalism

Cognitivism

Cognitivism

• Moral realism
  • Ethical naturalism
  • Ethical non-naturalism
• Moral anti-realism
  • Ethical subjectivism
  • Moral nihilism – the metaethical view that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral (see also nihilism)

Non-cognitivism

Non-cognitivism

• Emotivism
• Universal prescriptivism
• Quasi-realism

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).
  • Utilitarianism
  • Negative utilitarianism
  • Ethical hedonism
  • 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.
  • Graded absolutism
  • Kantian ethics
• Pragmatic ethics
• 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.
    • Nicomachean Ethics
    • Eudemian Ethics
    • Magna Moralia
• Eudaimonism – system of ethics that measures happiness in relation to morality.
• Ethics of care – a normative ethical theory
• Living Ethics
• Religious ethics
  • Divine command theory – claims that ethical sentences express the attitudes of God. Thus, the sentence "charity is good" means "God commands charity".
  • Ethics in the Bible
  • Ayyavazhi ethics
  • Buddhist ethics
    • Buddhist ethics (discipline)
  • Christian ethics
    • Situational ethics
  • Islamic ethics
    • Islamic bioethics
  • Jain ethics
  • Jewish ethics
    • Jewish business ethics
    • Jewish medical ethics
  • Religious values
  • Playing God (ethics)
  • Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics
  • Ethics and religious culture – a course taught in all elementary and high schools in Quebec
  • Religious views on business ethics
  • Scientology ethics and justice
  • Ethics of circumcision
• Secular ethics
• Biocentrism – an ethical point of view which extends inherent value to non-human species,[1] ecosystems, and processes in nature
• Rights ethics
• Feminist ethics

Descriptive ethics

• Descriptive ethics
• Moral psychology

Related areas

• Value theory
• Philosophy of economics
• Political philosophy
• Philosophy of law
• Deontic logic
• Religious ethics
• Action theory
• Practical reasoning
• Morality
• Moral character
• Visual ethics
• Ethics of belief

History

• History of ethics in Ancient Greece
• History of business ethics
• History of animal rights
  • History of animal testing
• History of medical ethics
• History of computer ethics – Philosophy concept in computing
• Contemporary ethics

Concepts

Single principles

• Autonomy
  • Social:Self-determination
• Egalitarianism
• Golden Rule
• Categorical imperative
  • Universalisability
  • Kingdom of Ends
• Non-aggression principle
• Liberty
  • Positive liberty
  • Negative liberty
    • Harm principle

Rights and legal concepts

See also: Biology:Outline of rights

• Consent
• Human rights
• Just War
• Justice
• Natural and legal rights
• Political freedom
• Rights
• Rule according to higher law

Guidelines and basic concepts

• Good and evil – Philosophical dichotomy
  • Good
  • Evil
• Commensurability (ethics)
• Ideal (ethics)
• Moral agency
  • Moral responsibility
• Moral patienthood
• Norm (philosophy)
• Principle
• Self-interest
• Sin
• Taboo
• Universal code (ethics)
• Value (ethics)
  • Extrinsic value or instrumental value
  • Intrinsic value (animal ethics)
  • Intrinsic value (ethics)
• Vice
• Virtue

Human experience

• Conscience
• Free will
• Happiness
• Love
• Moral emotions
  • Guilt (emotion)
  • Shame
• Suffering

Practical ethics

• Dual loyalty (ethics)
• Evasion (ethics)
• Trust (social sciences)

Law

• List of ECHR cases concerning legal ethics
• Enron Code of Ethics
• Ethics in Government Act
• Medical Code of Ethics
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
• UN Principles of Medical Ethics

Government agencies

• Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
• Commission on Federal Ethics Law Reform
• Committee on Publication Ethics
• District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics
• Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
• Ethics Commission
• Ethics Commissioner (Canada)
• Ethics Committee (European Union)
• Ethics committee (disambiguation)
• Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology
• International Bioethics Committee
• International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants
• Jeffersonville Ethics Commission
• Nevada Commission on Ethics
• Office of Congressional Ethics
• Oklahoma Ethics Commission
• Pennsylvania State Ethics Commission
• San Francisco Ethics Commission
• Texas Ethics Commission
• The President's Council on Bioethics
• Toi Te Taiao: The Bioethics Council – New Zealand council on bioethnics, 2002-9
• United States House Committee on Ethics
• United States Office of Government Ethics
• United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics

Awards

• Nobel Peace Prize
• Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism

Organizations

• Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
• Center for Ethics at Yeshiva University
• Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy
• Center for bioethics and medical humanities
• Centre for Applied Ethics
• Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics
• Centre for Human Bioethics
• Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine
• Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
• Cumberland School of Law's Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics
• Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists
• Ethics Resource Center
• Ethics and Democracy Network
• Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation
• Ethics and Public Policy Center
• Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
• Foundation for Thought and Ethics
• Institute for Business and Professional Ethics
• Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
• Institute for Global Ethics
• Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation
• Institute of Business Ethics
• International Neuroethics Society
• International Society for Environmental Ethics
• Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
• Kenan Institute for Ethics
• Kennedy Institute of Ethics
• Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
• Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics
• Maguire Center for Ethics
• Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
• National Catholic Bioethics Center
• National Core for Neuroethics
• National Tribunal of Journalistic Ethics
• Nihon Ethics of Video Association
• Nuffield Council on Bioethics
• School for Ethics and Global Leadership
• Society for Business Ethics
• Society of Jewish Ethics
• St James Ethics Centre
• Standard Ethics Aei – sustainability rating agency based in Brussels
• The Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics

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

• Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA
• Ethics Bowl
• Foucault–Habermas debate concerning power within society

Publications

• Ethics in America – television series, 1988–89
• Lindner Ethics Complaint of the 83rd Minnesota Legislative Session

Books

• Nicomachean Ethics – most popular ethics treatise by Aristotle
• Eudemian Ethics
• Magna Moralia
• Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics
• Encyclopedia of Ethics
• Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy
• Ethics (book)
• Life sciences, ethics and democracy
• How to Observe Morals and Manners
• The Ethics of Ambiguity
• The Ethics of Liberty
• The Methods of Ethics
• Principia Ethica
• The Right and the Good
• Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice
• Practical Ethics

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 Ethics & Social Philosophy
• Journal of Information Ethics
• Journal of Medical Ethics
• 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

See also

• Index of ethics articles
• Outline of philosophy
• Resources for clinical ethics consultation – index article

External links

• Ethics, 2d ed., 1973. by William Frankena
• Ethics Bites Open University podcast series podcast exploring ethical dilemmas in everyday life.
• University of San Diego – Ethics glossary Useful terms in ethics discussions
• National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature World's largest library for ethical issues in medicine and biomedical research
• The Philosophy of Ethics on Philosophy Archive