ethics

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
The origins of ethics
- Mythical accounts
  - Introduction of moral codes
  - Problems of divine origin
- Prehuman ethics
  - Nonhuman behaviour
  - Kinship and reciprocity
- Anthropology and ethics
The history of Western ethics
- Ancient civilizations to the end of the 19th century
  - The ancient Middle East and Asia
    - The Middle East
    - India
    - China
  - Ancient and Classical Greece
    - Ancient Greece
    - Socrates
    - Plato
    - Aristotle
  - Later Greek and Roman ethics
    - The Stoics
    - The Epicureans
  - Christian ethics from the New Testament to the Scholastics
    - Ethics in the New Testament
    - St. Augustine
    - St. Thomas Aquinas and the Scholastics
  - The Renaissance and the Reformation
    - Machiavelli
    - The first Protestants
  - The British tradition from Hobbes to the utilitarians
    - Hobbes
    - Early intuitionists: Cudworth, More, and Clarke
    - Shaftesbury and the moral sense school
    - Butler on self-interest and conscience
    - The climax of moral sense theory: Hutcheson and Hume
    - The intuitionist response: Price and Reid
    - Utilitarianism
      Paley
      Bentham
      Mill
      Sidgwick
  - The Continental tradition from Spinoza to Nietzsche
    - Spinoza
    - Leibniz
    - Rousseau
    - Kant
    - Hegel
    - Marx
    - Nietzsche
- Western ethics from the beginning of the 20th century
  - Metaethics
    - Moore and the naturalistic fallacy
    - Modern intuitionism
    - Emotivism
    - Existentialism
    - Universal prescriptivism
    - Later developments in metaethics
      Moral realism
      Kantian constructivism: a middle ground?
      Irrealist views: projectivism and expressivism
      Ethics and reasons for action
  - Normative ethics
    - The debate over consequentialism
    - Varieties of consequentialism
    - Objections to consequentialism
    - An ethics of prima facie duties
    - Rawls’s theory of justice
    - Rights theories
    - Natural law ethics
    - Virtue ethics
    - Feminist ethics
    - Ethical egoism
  - Applied ethics
    - Equality
    - Animals
    - Environmental ethics
    - War and peace
    - Abortion, euthanasia, and the value of human life
    - Bioethics

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images

Code of Hammurabi

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

For Students

Code of Hammurabi

Read Next

Well-balanced of stones on the top of boulder

What’s the Difference Between Morality and Ethics?

Aristotle (384-322 BC), Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. One of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western thought, Aristotle established the foundations for the modern scientific method of enquiry. Statue

Philosophers to Know, Part I

Plato (left) and Aristotle, detail from School of Athens, fresco by Raphael, 1508-11; in the Stanza della Segnatura, the Vatican. Plato points to the heavens and the realm of Forms, Aristotle to the earth and the realm of things.

Plato and Aristotle: How Do They Differ?

Black and white photo of people in courtroom, hands raised, pledging

Order in the Court: 10 “Trials of the Century”

Aristotle statue located at Stageira of Greece

Aristotle at 2,400

Discover

Scottish fold cat. A genetic mutation caused (in the original cat-1961) the ears to bend forward and down.

Shorthair Cat Breeds

A mug shot taken by the regional Colombia control agency in Medellin

Pablo Escobar: 8 Interesting Facts About the King of Cocaine

Ahura Mazda - relief of the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazda at the ancient ruins of Persepolis in Iran. Also known as Ormazd Zoroastrianism,

Which Religion Is the Oldest?

Stylish light blue jeans on wooden background, closeup of inset pocket

Why Do Jeans Have That Tiny Pocket?

Fish. Lionfish. Lion-fish. Turkey fish. Fire-fish. Red lionfish. Pterois volitans. Venomous fin spines. Coral reefs. Underwater. Ocean. Red lionfish swims by seaweed.

10 of the World’s Most Dangerous Fish

Srinivasa Ramanujan, Indian mathematician and autodidact.

6 Interesting Facts about Srinivasa Ramanujan

Colorful winter sunset

What's the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox?

ethics: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	moral philosophy

Photos

Code of Hammurabi

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

See All Images →

Topics

optimism Trolley problem history of ethics legal ethics biocentrism ethical relativism casuistry hedonism intergenerational ethics teleological ethics metaphysics epistemology philosophy of art aesthetics philosophy of science philosophy of mind political philosophy philosophical anthropology philosophy of language philosophy of law

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Socrates

Socrates

Greek philosopher

Aristotle

Aristotle

Greek philosopher

Plato

Plato

Greek philosopher

Justus of Ghent: Saint Augustine

St. Augustine

Christian bishop and theologian

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant

German philosopher

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

German philosopher

Benedict de Spinoza

Benedict de Spinoza

Dutch-Jewish philosopher

David Hume

David Hume

Scottish philosopher

Adam Smith

Adam Smith

Scottish philosopher

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

British philosopher and economist

Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer

German philosopher

Bernard Williams

Bernard Williams

English philosopher

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

German philosopher

Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair MacIntyre

Scottish-born philosopher

Epicurus

Greek philosopher

Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Australian philosopher

Emmanuel Lévinas

French philosopher

Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

Persian scholar

Derek Parfit

British philosopher

List

Aristotle (384-322 BC), Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. One of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western thought, Aristotle established the foundations for the modern scientific method of enquiry. Statue

Philosophers to Know, Part I

Demystified

Well-balanced of stones on the top of boulder

What’s the Difference Between Morality and Ethics?