Ethics

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 & Videos

Code of Hammurabi

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

Marble bust of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher, showing a bearded man with a head covering and calm expression.

The Greek philosopher Plato

At a Glance

Code of Hammurabi

Ethics: Media

philosophy

Videos

Two black-and-white portraits of a mustached man flank handwritten notes; overlay text reads “Who was Friedrich Nietzsche?”

Answering Your Questions About Friedrich Nietzsche

This is the philosopher who said “God is dead.”

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Black-and-white photo of a suited man with glasses on a balcony; overlaid text reads “Who was Jean‑Paul Sartre?” with a hazy cityscape in the background.

Nausea, Nothingness, and Existentialism: Meet Jean-Paul Sartre

According to this philosopher, “Man is condemned to be free.”

Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Images

Code of Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi

Detail of the stela inscribed with the Code of Hammurabi showing the king before...

© Art Media/Heritage-Images/age fotostock

Herodotus

Herodotus

Statue of seated man said to be Herodotus; in the Louvre, Paris.

© Photos.com/Jupiterimages

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments

Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, with his brother, Aaron, standing to his right...

The British Library (Public Domain)

Buddha

Buddha

Head of Buddha in gray schist, 1st–3rd century ce,...

Sailko

Laozi

Laozi

Laozi.

© Photos.com/Jupiterimages

Confucius

Confucius

Confucius, statue in Shanghai, China.

© philipus/stock.adobe.com

Mencius

Mencius

Mencius.

From Myths & Legends of China by E.T.C. Werner, 1922

Marble bust of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher, showing a bearded man with a head covering and calm expression.

Pythagoras

Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, portrait bust.

© Photos.com/Getty Images

Socrates

Socrates

Herm of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, from a Greek original, second half...

© Alfredo Dagli Orti/Shutterstock.com

The Greek philosopher Plato

The Greek philosopher Plato

Plato, marble portrait bust copied from an original of the 4th century bce;...

© DeAgostini/SuperStock

Marble bust of Aristotle with a beard and draped robe, showing detailed facial features and wavy hair, set against a dark background.

Aristotle

Detail of a Roman copy (2nd century bce) of a...

© A. Dagli Orti—De Agostini/Getty Images

Marble bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, shown with short hair and draped clothing, displayed against a black background.

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero, detail of a marble bust; in the Capitoline Museums, Rome.

© AISA—Everett/Shutterstock.com

Bronze bust of Epicurus with a full beard and draped clothing, displayed on a round inscribed base at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

Epicurus

Epicurus, bronze bust from a Greek original, c. 280–270 bce;...

© Luigi Spina/Electa—Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

Jesus

Jesus

Jesus, detail of the Deësis Mosaic, from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, 12th century.

© senaiaksoy—iStock/Getty Images

St. Paul the Apostle

St. Paul the Apostle

St. Paul's escape from Damascus, medieval mosaic in the Palatine Chapel, Palermo,...

© Shawn McCullars

Painting by Lippo Memmi of Saint Augustine of Hippo wearing a red bishop's robe and mitre, holding a crozier and a book, set against a gold background.

Lippo Memmi: St. Augustine

St. Augustine of Hippo, tempera on panel by Lippo Memmi, early 14th century; in the...

Photos.com/Getty Images

Andrea da Firenze: St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts

Andrea da Firenze: St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments, with Personifications of the Virtues, Sciences, and Liberal Arts

St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned Between the Doctors of the Old and New Testaments,...

SCALA/Art Resource, New York

Portrait of Niccolo Machiavelli by Santi di Tito shows Machiavelli in black and red robes, holding a document, against a plain background.

Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli, oil on canvas by Santi di Tito; in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

© brandstaetter images—Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

English philosopher Thomas Hobbes

English philosopher Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes, detail of an oil painting by John Michael Wright; in the National...

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Ralph Cudworth

Ralph Cudworth

Philosopher Ralph Cudworth, engraving Andreas Nunzer, c. 1700-49.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (RP-P-1910-1156)

Joseph Butler

Joseph Butler

Joseph Butler, detail from an engraving by T.A. Dean, 1848, after a portrait by John...

BBC Hulton Picture Library

David Hume

David Hume

Scottish philosopher David Hume, oil on canvas by Allan Ramsay, 1766; in the Scottish...

Fine Art Images—Heritage Images/age fotostock

Jeremy Bentham: auto-icon

Jeremy Bentham: auto-icon

English philosopher and economist Jeremy Bentham's preserved skeleton in his own...

Universal History Archive/UIG/Shutterstock.com

Portrait of John Stuart Mill wearing a suit and cravat, looking directly at the camera with a serious expression.

John Stuart Mill

British historian, economist, and philosopher John Stuart Mill.

© London Stereoscopic Company—Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Henry Sidgwick

Henry Sidgwick

English philosopher and author Henry Sidgwick.

© Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Portrait of Benedict de Spinoza, 17th-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher, with shoulder-length dark hair, white collar, and black robe, set against a dark background.

Benedict de Spinoza

Dutch philosopher Benedict de Spinoza, oil painting, 17th century; in the Herzogliche...

Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images

Engraved portrait of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz with long curly hair, wearing a buttoned coat and cravat, facing forward.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, engraving, c. 1701.

© GeorgiosArt—iStock/Getty Images

Aquatint portrait of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, shown with white hair and wearing a high-collared shirt and buttoned coat, based on a painting by Garneray.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Swiss-born philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, aquatint by Pierre Michel Alix after...

Photos.com/Getty Images

Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant, print published in London, 1812.

© Photos.com/Getty Images

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, engraving by Lazarus Gottlieb Sichling...

Courtesy Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig, Portrait Collection 21/32

Portrait of German philosopher Karl Marx with a full white beard and hair, wearing a dark suit and white shirt, looking to the side.

Karl Marx

The ideas of the German philosopher, economist, and historian Karl Marx have been...

© Photos.com/Getty Images

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

Photos.com/Getty Images

William Orpen: G.E. Moore

William Orpen: G.E. Moore

British philosopher G.E. Moore, a cofounder of analytic philosophy, pencil drawing...

Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

A.J. Ayer

A.J. Ayer

British philosopher and educator A.J. Ayer, late 1980s.

Geoff A Howard/Alamy

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre, photograph by Gisele Freund, 1968.

Gisele Freund

E.O. Wilson

E.O. Wilson

American biologist E.O. Wilson, 2007.

© Sage Ross (CC BY-SA 3.0)

John Rawls

John Rawls

The leading political philosopher of the 20th century, John Rawls espoused a philosophy...

Harvard University News office

Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick

The libertarian philosopher Robert Nozick.

Harvard University News Office

Ronald Dworkin

Ronald Dworkin

American philosopher Ronald Dworkin, 2009.

David Shankbone

Alasdair MacIntyre

Alasdair MacIntyre

Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre, 2009.

© Sean O'Connor

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand

American writer Ayn Rand, 1962.

© New York Times Co.— Archive Photos/Getty Images

Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer, 2004.

Denise Applewhite/Princeton University

A history-making sheep

A history-making sheep

Dolly, born in 1996, was the first clone of an adult mammal.

© Ben Curtis—PA Images/Alamy

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