What is Ethics

Is a starving man entitled to food that does not belong to him? Are you ever justified in lying? Why do we classify certain actions as faults and others as virtues? These are all questions that belong to the field of ethics, that branch of philosophy that deals with human actions from the moral point of view, as right or wrong, right or bad. Its field is character and conduct, and moral judgments we pass.

You might, perhaps, think that there is no difficulty in deciding between right and wrong. There is a certain field in which custom or tradition provides an undisputed standard. We know not to murder our neighbors or steal their property. The only moral problem that arises in such instances is the practical one, whether we will do what we know is right.

But there are times when we do not know what to do. Suppose a manufacturer wants to pay his laborers a living wage but finds himself in competition with others who do not. If he raises his wages he falls into bankruptcy. What shall he do? In solving such problems ethics insists that we must act with reference to the actual facts involved. We must recognize worthwhile things, and act according to all these “values.”

The term “ethics” is derived from a Greek word meaning “manners,” “customs,” or “habits,” just as “morals” is derived from a Latin word with a similar meaning. Some philosophers—those of the naturalistic school—believe that our present ethical system is the outgrowth of very slow and unconscious alterations to these habits and traditions. Others, however, believe that standards are not truly ethical unless they are the result of reflection and conscious criticism of these habits and customs.