WHAT IS ETHICS?

● A branch of Philosophy and social science and an academic discipline that aids in understanding and
adapting situations that affect lives.
● How human persons ought to act in the search for the definition of right conduct and good life
● It is an inquiry into some standard to guide one’s action, or as a tool to understand a given condition.
● Ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as:
○ Good and evil, right and wrong
○ Virtue and vice, justice and crime

ETHICS - theory of right action and the greater good.

- “Systematic study” of underlying principles of morality.
- Science of Morals

MORALITY - “ practice”, rightness or wrongness of human action.

- “Prescriptive”
- Tells us what we ought to do.
- Exhorts us to follow the right way
- Practice of ethics

Ethics, generally speaking, is about matters such as the good thing that we should pursue and the bad
thing that we should avoid: the right ways in which we could or should act and the wrong ways of acting. It
is about what is acceptable and unacceptable in human behavior. It may involve obligations that we are
expected to fulfill, prohibitions that we are required to respect, or ideals that we are encouraged to meet.

“Standard definitions of ethics have typically included such phrases as 'the science of the ideal human
character' or 'the science of moral duty.”
|Rushworth Kidder |

“Ethics is "a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms
sentient creatures" | Richard William Paul and Linda Elder|

The study of standards of conduct and moral judgment; moral philosophy.

The system or code of morals of a particular person, religion, group, profession, etc.

Ethics is defined as a moral philosophy or code of morals practiced by a person or group of people.