Description

The book introduces ethics as the study of morality—how people decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, and what they ought or ought not to do. Its purpose is to make ethical theories understandable and then apply them to real moral problems.

Main ideas

• Ethics and philosophy: Ethics is one of the major branches of philosophy and focuses on morality.
• Moral reasoning: People need to examine reasons, values and assumptions behind moral decisions.
• Different moral theories: The book introduces several approaches for deciding whether an action is morally right or wrong.
• Consequences: Some theories judge actions mainly by their results, such as utilitarianism.
• Rules and duties: Other theories focus on moral duties, principles and rules.
• Virtue: Virtue ethics focuses on developing a good moral character, rather than looking only at individual actions.