Ethics and Philosophy of Ethics
Simply put, ethics is the study of morality. But there are many
different approaches to studying morality, reflecting different assumptions
about its nature and about how best to understand it, Moral philosophy is
one such approach, and it is unique in the scope and depth of the questions it
raises and the way it sets about answering them.
Indeed, it is almost certain that one cannot understand morality fiilly
without raising the kinds of questions moral philosophy asks.
The study of moral philosophy is exciting and challenging in its own
right. Whatever the nature of reality, and however the universe came into
being, morality is now a part of it. Love, hate, values, thoughts, feelings,
emotions, obligations, virtues, and principles- the elements of morality- are
in their own way as real as atoms and electrons, and to understand our world
fully we must be prepared to study them as seriously as we do the chemical
and physical properties of things. They are, of course, often dismissed as
"subjective", "relative", or merely "matters of opinion". Even if that should
be true (which is far from obvious), they nonetheless exist in some way or
can be explained in terms of things that exist. In any event, such claims
simply reflect implicit theories about the nature of morality, and they are by
no means the only such theories, nor necessarily the most plausible ones.
These and other theories can be assessed adequately only thrpugh moral
philosophy.