Foundations of Ethics

Ethics is the study of morality, ideas of right and wrong that guide the actions of individuals, communities, and entire civilizations to do what is believed to be right and just. Ethical frameworks shouldn’t be confused for laws or social norms because they vary by culture. Instead, ethics tends to focus on deeper questions that help us reflect on our set of values and decisions. To demonstrate, when asking others how they define ethics, an assortment of answers will be given.

Ethical Frameworks

Philosophers have considered the different ways to approach moral decisions. Utilitarianism judges actions by their consequences, the greatest good for the highest amount of people. In contrast, deontological ethics claims that certain actions are wrong, regardless of the outcome. Virtue ethics, on the other hand, focuses on cultivating moral character traits rather than rules or results. Each framework offers different insights but real-life decisions often require balancing these perspectives.

Morality vs Social Conventions

It’s easy to confuse ethics and morals with cultural norms or personal preferences. Eating with your elbows on the table, for example, may break social etiquette but isn’t immoral. Ethics digs deeper such as distinguishing between what is and what should be. Recognizing when current opinion conflicts with moral principles is an important skill. This can be seen in practices like slavery and Indigenous genocide—legal for the time but morally indefensible. This distinction invites us to question whether morality is objective, existing independently of human opinion, or subjective, shaped by individual or cultural views.

Applied Ethics

Philosophy comes to life when we use it for every day issues. Is it ethical to eat meat? Should maintaining comforts come at the cost of others’ lives? Who bares the responsibility for climate change? Case studies exist to reveal our philosophies in an abstract manner, such as the Trolley Problem. Scenarios like this show that there are rarely perfect answers in the real-world, but ethical reasoning helps us navigate complex ideas with nuance, rather than relying on gut reactions, peer pressure, or blind adherence to dogma. It’s worth noting that any philosophy demanding acceptance and condemning criticism is not a philosophy worth following. Our understanding of reality is refined in the forum of public dialogue.

Your Ethical Toolkit

As you explore ethics, keep three tools handy:

  • Critical Questioning: What assumptions, biases, and/or fallacies are these views rooted in? What do the individuals gain from their perspective? Understanding the answers to these questions will provide insight into the validity of someone’s philosophy and argumentation.

  • Empathy: How will a decision affect others? How would I feel in their position? Empathy plays an important role in understanding good and evil across many cultures as we see how acts we view as evil are perpetrated by those lacking empathy towards victims while acts we view as good are carried out by those who feel a strong sense of empathy.

  • Intellectual Humility: Could I be wrong? Do I really know enough about this subject to act as an authority figure? Intellectual humility is a requirement for anyone looking to conduct scientific research. Nobody, not even the those who revolutionized their respective sciences, are above criticism or mistakes.

Ethics and morality are the foundations of who we are as individuals, as a community, and as a society. They consist of various frameworks which we use in writing policies, procedures, laws, and more allows us the opportunity to better understand the source of our opinions and biases. This foundation prepares you to engage with advanced topics like justice, human rights, and meta ethics. Remember: philosophy isn’t about memorizing answers, it’s about learning to ask better questions that provide insight into our actions and the motivations behind them.

  • What is ethics?

  • Which philosophical framework judges actions by their consequences?

  • True or False: Virtue ethics claims that certain actions are wrong, regardless of outcome.

  • Explain the differences between morality and law, what are some examples of laws that are immoral?

  • Define objective and subjective in your own words.

  • How does ethical reasoning help us?

  • What is the trolley problem?

  • Explain the three tools for exploring ethics.