Outline of ethics

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

Ethics – major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.^[1]

Nature of ethics

Main article: Ethics

Ethics can be described as:

• a branch of philosophy

Essence of ethics

• Right vs.wrong

Branches of ethics

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?
• Meta-ethics: 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 (economic metaphor)
• 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.
  • Abolitionism (bioethics) – the bioethical school and movement that endorses the use of biotechnology to maximize happiness and eliminate suffering
  • Ethics of cloning
  • Veterinary ethics
  • Neuroethics – ethics in neuroscience, but also the neuroscience of ethics
  • Utilitarian bioethics
• Decision ethics – ethical theories and ethical decision processes.
• Empirical ethics – ethics based on the collection of empirical data
• 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.^[2]
    • Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
  • Engineering ethics
  • Journalism ethics and standards
  • Research ethics
    • Internet research ethics
  • Legal ethics
  • Marketing ethics
  • Media ethics
  • Medical ethics (aka 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
• Social ethics – ethics among nations and as one global unit.
  • Population ethics
  • Sexual ethics
• Bridge ethics – codes of ethics applied during play of the card game known as contact bridge.
• Environmental ethics – concerned with issues such as the duties of humans towards landscapes and species.
  • Animal rights – also known as animal liberation, is 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 – in international relations
  • Regulatory ethics

Problem areas in archaeological ethics

• Human remains
• Responsibility of the Archaeologist vis-a-vis local traditions and cultures
• Responsibility of the Archaeologist vis-a-vis the architectural remains that have been uncovered during an excavation
• Responsibility of the Archaeologist vis-a-vis dissemination of the material uncovered, not only in academic circles but also to a broader public, both in the area of the excavation and from where the Sponsors come
• Balancing World, National and regional claims to various parts of the archaeological record
• protecting Archaeological sites and objects from illegal trade

Meta-ethics

• Meta-ethics or moral epistemology– concerns the nature of moral statements, that is, it studies what ethical terms and theories actually refer to.
• Moral nihilism – the meta-ethical view that nothing is intrinsically moral or immoral (see also nihilism)
• 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 knowledg
• Particularism
• Rationalism
• Conventionalism
• Axiology
• Formal ethics
• 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

Non-cognitivism

Non-cognitivism

• Emotivism
• Prescriptivism

Cognitivism

Cognitivism

• Philosophical realism
• Naturalism
• Non-naturalism
• Ethical subjectivism
• Moral realism
• Universalisability

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
• 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 other contexts 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
• 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 – most popular ethics treatise by Aristotle
    • Eudemian Ethics
    • Magna Moralia
• Eudaimonism – system of ethics that measures happiness in relation to morality.
• Ethics of care – a normative ethical theory
• Ethical egoism – the normative ethical position that moral agents ought to do what is in their own self-interest
• 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, a Christian ethical theory
  • Islamic ethics
    • Islamic bioethics
  • 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
  • Ethics (Scientology)
  • Ethics of circumcision
• Secular ethics
• Biocentrism (ethics) – an ethical point of view which extends inherent value to non-human species,[1] ecosystems, and processes in nature
• Altruism (ethics) – 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
• Rights ethics (thought in the American and French Revolutions)
• Feminist ethics

Descriptive ethics

• Descriptive ethics

Related areas

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

History of ethics

Main article: History of ethics

• History of ethics in Ancient Greece
• History of business ethics
  • Compliance and ethics program
• History of animal rights
  • History of animal testing
• History of medical ethics
• History of computer ethics
• Contemporary ethics

General ethics concepts

Single principles

• Golden Rule
• Silver Rule
• Harm principle
• Non-aggression principle
• Autonomy
• Egalitarianism

Rights and legal concepts

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

Guidelines and basic concepts

• Principle
• Virtue
• Norm (philosophy)
• Universal code (ethics)
• Value (ethics)
  • Extrinsic value or instrumental value
  • Intrinsic value (animal ethics)
  • Intrinsic value (ethics)
• Ideal (ethics)
• Commensurability (ethics)
• Moral responsibility

Human experience

• Happiness
• Suffering
• Conscience
• Free will

Practical ethics

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

Law

• Communist Party of China 52 code of ethics
• Enron Code of Ethics
• Ethics in Government Act
• Medical Code of Ethics
• UN Principles of Medical Ethics
• List of ECHR cases concerning legal ethics
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

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 International Media Ethics
• Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy
• Center for bioethics and medical humanities
• Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions
• 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
• Computer Ethics Institute
• 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
• Ethicspoint – U.S.-based corporation dealing in regulatory compliance software
• 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 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 Corporate Compliance and 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
• Sydney Bioethics Program
• University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

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)
• Georg W. F. Hegel (1770–1831)
• Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)
• Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855)
• Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860)
• John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)
• Henry Sidgwick (1838–1900)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
• William James (1842–1910)
• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948)
• John Dewey (1859–1952)
• G. E. Moore (1873–1958)
• Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
• Karl Barth (1886–1968)
• J. L. Mackie (1917–1981)
• G.E.M. Anscombe (1919–2001)
• John Rawls (1921–2002)
• Bernard Williams (1929–2003)
• Philippa Foot (1920–2010)
• Alasdair MacIntyre (1929– )
• Thomas Nagel (1937– )
• Derek Parfit (1942– )
• Peter Singer (1946– )
• Jonathan Dancy (1946– )

Events

• Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA
• Reconciling Poetics and Ethics in Architecture Conference 2007
• Ethics Bowl
• Foucault–Habermas debate concerning power within society

Publications

• Ethics in America – television series, 1988-9
• 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
• Search for Designation or Twenty Seventh Theorem of Ethics – science fiction novel
• The Ethics of Ambiguity
• The Ethics of Liberty
• The Methods of Ethics
• Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice
• Genethics: The Clash between the New Genetics and Human Values
• Practical Ethics
• Complete Conduct Principles for the 21st Century ^[3]

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
• 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
• List of topics in sexual ethics
• Outline of philosophy
• Resources for clinical ethics consultation – index article

References

External links

Find more about Ethics at Wikipedia's sister projects
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Media from Commons
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks
	Learning resources from Wikiversity

• An Introduction to Ethics by Paul Newall, aimed at beginners.
• 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
• Ethics entry in Encyclopædia Britannica by Peter Singer
• The Philosophy of Ethics on Philosophy Archive
• Ethics updates Provides resources and updates on current literature, both popular and professional, that relate to ethics.
• Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics Resources, events, and research on a range of ethical subjects from a Christian perspective.

v t e Outlines General reference Culture and the arts Geography and places Health and fitness History and events Mathematics and logic Natural and physical sciences People and self Philosophy and thinking Religion and belief systems Society and social sciences Technology and applied sciences