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Ethics

Also Known As Moral Philosophy
Ethics

The branch of philosophy concerned with how one ought to live and act, and with what makes an action right or a life good. Three broad families of answer have dominated the Western tradition: virtue ethics, associated with Aristotle, which asks what character traits make a person excellent and treats right action as what a virtuous person would do; deontological ethics, associated with Kant, which grounds rightness in duty and in principles that could be willed as universal law regardless of consequences; and consequentialism, most fully developed as utilitarianism by Bentham and Mill, which judges an action by the balance of good and harm it produces. Ethics also covers metaethical questions about whether moral claims can be true at all, and applied questions about specific practical dilemmas, but the founding question, how should one live, is Socrates' own, asked in nearly every dialogue Plato wrote.

Facts
Disputed
Key Debate
Consequentialism versus deontology, sharpened by the trolley problem: whether the rightness of an action is fixed entirely by its consequences, as consequentialists hold, or by duties and rules that can forbid an act even when it produces the best outcome, as deontologists hold, with trolley cases used to test the two views against shared intuitions. 1
The trolley problem and its variants have been used since Philippa Foot and Judith Jarvis Thomson to sharpen, without settling, the older dispute between consequentialist and deontological ethics.
Key Debate
Whether morality is discovered or made: the Socratic tradition treats the good as an objective target reason can pursue through examined dialogue, while Nietzsche treats inherited morality as a historically contingent human invention, open to revaluation rather than discovery. 2
A third position denies both horns: J.L. Mackie's error theory holds that ordinary moral discourse commits speakers to objective values and objective prescriptions, but that no such objective moral facts exist at all, so moral claims are not so much discovered, made, or revalued as systematically false; see the attached dissent.
Central Question
How should one live, and what makes an action right or a character good? 1
Key Debate
The is-ought problem: David Hume observed that moral writers slide, unnoticed, from statements of what is the case to statements of what ought to be the case, a transition he found could not be validly made from facts alone, since the distinction of vice and virtue is not perceived by reason or founded merely on the relations of objects; whether any such gap between fact and value can be bridged remains a live question in metaethics. 1
FAQs

What is the is-ought problem, and why does it matter for ethics?

David Hume pointed out that moral writers often slide from statements about what is the case to statements about what ought to be the case without justifying the move, and whether that gap between fact and value can ever be closed is still debated.

David Hume observed that moral writers slide, often unnoticed, from statements of what is the case to statements of what ought to be the case, a transition he argued could not be validly made from facts alone, since the distinction between vice and virtue is not perceived by reason or founded merely on the relations between objects. Whether any such gap between fact and value can be bridged remains a live question in metaethics, and it is one of the reasons some philosophers doubt that ethical conclusions can ever be derived from purely factual premises.
Connections

Associated With

Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Bioethics (Wikipedia)
Source Environmental Philosophy (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Philosophy of Sport (Wikipedia)
Socrates, Philosophers
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Includes

Source Wikipedia: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak
Source Alasdair MacIntyre (Wikipedia)

The Rebel is a moral philosophy of revolt and its limits.

Source Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Source Albertus Magnus (Wikipedia)
Al-Kindi, Philosophers
Source Al-Kindi (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Allan Gibbard
Source Antisthenes (Wikipedia)
Source Antonio Escohotado, Wikipedia
Source Argument from Marginal Cases (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Avital Ronell, Wikipedia
Source Encyclopedia.com (Columbia Encyclopedia): Hagerstrom, Axel
Source Axel Honneth (Wikipedia)
Bad Faith, Concepts
Source Jean-Paul Sartre (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Source bell hooks (Wikipedia)
Source Benjamin Hale (Wikipedia)
Source Bernard Williams (Wikipedia)
Source Carneades (Wikipedia)
Source Categorical Imperative (Wikipedia)
Cheng Yi, Philosophers
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cheng Yi
Source Christine Korsgaard (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: Christopher Cordner
Cicero, Philosophers
Source Cicero (Wikipedia)
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Cornel West (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source David Lewis (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: David Rodin
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Derek Parfit (Wikipedia)
Source Didier Kaphagawani (Wikipedia)
Source Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Source Wikipedia: Dirk Baltzly
Source Divine command theory (Wikipedia)
Source Principle of double effect (Wikipedia)
Source Donna Haraway (Wikipedia)
Source Elizabeth Anscombe (Wikipedia)
Source Emmanuel Levinas (Wikipedia)
Source Enrique Dussel (Wikipedia)
Epicurus, Philosophers
Source Etienne Vermeersch, Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia: Eva Dadlez
Source Evolutionary debunking (Wikipedia)

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Discusses

Also in Society and Culture Atlas: which this subject discusses.

Source Wikipedia: Cultural Relativismtier 3
Sources
1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language and Information
  • s.v. Ethics
  • entry: Socrates
  • s.v. Doing vs. Allowing Harm
  • entry: Hume's Moral Philosophy, Section 5 Is and Ought
    Attention to this transition would 'subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceiv'd by reason.'
  • Includes: Aristotle
  • Includes: Immanuel Kant
  • Includes: David Hume
  • Includes: Simone de Beauvoir
  • Includes: Jeremy Bentham
  • Includes: Utilitarianism
  • Includes: Existentialism
  • Includes: The Nicomachean Ethics
  • Includes: The Categorical Imperative
  • Includes: Socrates
  • Includes: Friedrich Nietzsche
  • Includes: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
  • Associated With: Aristotle, entry: Aristotle's Ethics
  • Associated With: Immanuel Kant, entry: Kant's Moral Philosophy
  • Associated With: Jeremy Bentham, entry: Consequentialism
  • Includes: Cynicism
  • Includes: Diogenes of Sinope
  • Includes: The Analects
  • Includes: Self-Reliance
  • Includes: The Conduct of Life
  • Includes: Mohism, entry: Mohism, Introduction
    They were the first in the tradition to engage, like Socrates in ancient Greece, in an explicit, reflective search for objective moral standards and to give step-by-step, tightly reasoned arguments for their views.
  • Includes: Virtue Ethics, entry: Virtue Ethics, Introduction
    Virtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics.
  • Includes: Deontology, entry: Deontological Ethics, Introduction
    In contemporary moral philosophy, deontology is one of those kinds of normative theories regarding which choices are morally required, forbidden, or permitted.
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2. Moral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophySection 3.2
Quote, Section 3.2
John Mackie...argues that when we participate in moral discourse we commit ourselves to the existence of objective values and objective prescriptions, but there are no such things.
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Ethics (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIntroduction
Quote, Introduction
Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right.
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Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Includes: Confucius
  • Includes: Zeno of Citium
  • Includes: Stoicism
  • Includes: Confucianism
View the Source
Jean-Paul Sartre (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  • Includes: Jean-Paul Sartre
  • Includes: Bad Faith
View the Source
Albert Camus (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Albert CamusView the Source
Trolley Problem (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: The Trolley Problem, Introduction
Quote, Includes: The Trolley Problem, Introduction
The series usually begins with a scenario in which a runaway trolley (tram) or train is on course to collide with and kill a number of people.
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Environmental Philosophy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Environmental Philosophy, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Environmental Philosophy, Lead section
Environmental philosophy includes environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, ecofeminism, environmental hermeneutics, and environmental theology.
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Philosophy of Sport (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Philosophy of Sport, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Philosophy of Sport, Lead section
These issues cover many areas, but fall primarily into five philosophical categories: metaphysics, ethics and moral philosophy, philosophy of law, political philosophy and aesthetics.
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Bioethics (Wikipedia)
WikipediaAssociated With: Bioethics, Lead section
Quote, Associated With: Bioethics, Lead section
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health
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Is-Ought Problem (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Includes: Is-Ought Problem, Lead section
    It was first articulated by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who saw a significant difference between descriptive statements (about what is) and prescriptive statements (about what ought to be).
  • Includes: Is-Ought Problem, Lead
    The is-ought problem is the question of whether moral statements about what ought to be can be inferred from objective statements about what is.
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John Dewey (Wikipedia)
Includes: John Dewey, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Dewey, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of education, epistemology, journalism, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, metaphysics
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Wikipedia: Mozi
WikipediaIncludes: Mozi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Mozi, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, social and political philosophy, logic, epistemology
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Judith Butler (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Judith Butler, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Judith Butler, Infobox: main_interests
Feminist theory, political philosophy, ethics, psychoanalysis, phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, discourse, embodied cognition, embodiment, sexuality, gender studies, Jewish philosophy
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Michel de Montaigne (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Michel de Montaigne, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Michel de Montaigne, Infobox: main_interests
Christianity, classical studies, ethics, human nature, pedagogy, philosophy of science, poetry, political history, sociability, virtue
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Peter Singer (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Peter Singer, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Peter Singer, Infobox: main_interests
Applied ethics, Bioethics
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Lucretius (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Lucretius, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Lucretius, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, metaphysics, natural philosophy, atomic theory
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George Santayana (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: George Santayana, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: George Santayana, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion
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Cornel West (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Cornel West, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Cornel West, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, philosophy of religion, ethics, race (classification of human beings), race, caste, democracy, liberation theology
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Martha Nussbaum (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Martha Nussbaum, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Martha Nussbaum, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, ethics, feminism, liberal theory
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Alasdair MacIntyre (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationIncludes: Alasdair MacIntyre, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Alasdair MacIntyre, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, metaethics, history of ethics, social philosophy, political philosophy
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Protagoras (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Protagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Protagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Language, semantics, rhetoric, agnosticism, ethics
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Josiah Royce (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Josiah Royce, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Josiah Royce, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, philosophy of religion, metaphysics
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Elizabeth Anscombe (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia
  • Includes: Elizabeth Anscombe, Lead
    She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics.
  • Includes: G.E.M. Anscombe, Lead
    She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics.
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Watsuji Tetsuro (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Watsuji Tetsuro, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Watsuji Tetsuro, Infobox: main_interests
Aesthetics, ethics, culture, religion
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Enrique Dussel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Enrique Dussel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Enrique Dussel, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of liberation, ethics, political economy, theology, history
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Philippa Foot (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Philippa Foot, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Philippa Foot, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, aesthetics
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Derek Parfit (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Derek Parfit, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Derek Parfit, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, personal identity, rationality, philosophy of mind
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Judith Jarvis Thomson (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Lead
Quote, Includes: Judith Jarvis Thomson, Lead
Judith Jarvis Thomson (October 4, 1929, November 20, 2020) was an American philosopher who studied and worked on ethics and metaphysics.
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J.L. Austin (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: J.L. Austin, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: J.L. Austin, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, philosophy of perception
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Paul Ricoeur (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Paul Ricoeur, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Paul Ricoeur, Infobox: main_interests
Phenomenology Hermeneutics Philosophy of action Moral philosophy Political philosophy Philosophy of language Personal identity Narrative identity Historiography Literary criticism Ancient philosophy
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Emmanuel Levinas (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Emmanuel Levinas, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Emmanuel Levinas, Infobox: main_interests
EthicsmetaphysicsontologyTalmudtheology
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Michael Sandel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Michael Sandel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Michael Sandel, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, jurisprudence, ethics
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David Lewis (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: David Lewis, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: David Lewis, Infobox: main_interests
LogicPhilosophy of languageMetaphysics EpistemologyEthics
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T. M. Scanlon (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: T.M. Scanlon, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: T.M. Scanlon, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, political philosophy
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Christine Korsgaard (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Christine Korsgaard, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Christine Korsgaard, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophyKantianism
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Axel Honneth (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Axel Honneth, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Axel Honneth, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, Social philosophy, Moral philosophy, Critical theory, Recognition (sociology), Recognition
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Nel Noddings (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Nel Noddings, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Nel Noddings, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of education, ethics
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Pythagoras (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation)Includes: Pythagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Pythagoras, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, Mathematics, Metaphysics, Music theory, Mysticism, Politics, Religion
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Kaṇāda (Wikipedia)
Includes: Kanada, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Kanada, Infobox: main_interests
:Metaphysics :Ethics :Physics
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Isaiah Berlin (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Isaiah Berlin, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Isaiah Berlin, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, philosophy of history, history of ideas, ethics, Marxism, modern history, Russian history, Russian literature, Romanticism
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Al-Kindi (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Al-Kindi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Al-Kindi, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy, Islamic theology (kalam), logic, ethics, mathematics, cryptography, physics, chemistry, psychology, pharmacology, medicine, metaphysics, cosmology, astrology, music theory
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Cicero (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Cicero, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Cicero, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, Politics, Philosophy of law, law, rhetoric, theology, ethics, epistemology
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Donna Haraway (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Donna Haraway, Lead
Quote, Includes: Donna Haraway, Lead
Her work criticizes anthropocentrism, emphasizes the self-organizing powers of nonhuman processes, and explores dissonant relations between those processes and cultural practices, rethinking sources of ethics.
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Henry Sidgwick (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Henry Sidgwick, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Henry Sidgwick, Infobox: main_interests
Economics, ethics, political philosophy
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Carneades (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Carneades, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Carneades, Infobox: main_interests
Epistemology, ethics
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Gabriel Marcel (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Gabriel Marcel, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Gabriel Marcel, Infobox: main_interests
Ontology, subjectivity, ethics
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Theophrastus (Wikipedia)
Includes: Theophrastus, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Theophrastus, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, grammar, history, logic, metaphysics, natural history, physics, botany
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Antisthenes (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Antisthenes, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Antisthenes, Infobox: main_interests
Asceticism, ethics, language, literature, logic
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Frank Cameron Jackson, Wikipedia
Includes: Frank Jackson, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Frank Jackson, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of mind, epistemology, metaphysics, meta-ethics
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Pietro Pomponazzi, Wikipedia
Includes: Pietro Pomponazzi, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Pietro Pomponazzi, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of mind, Natural philosophy, Ethics, Aristotelianism
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Wikipedia: J. L. Mackie
Includes: J.L. Mackie, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: J.L. Mackie, Infobox: main_interests
Metaphysics, philosophy of language, ethics, philosophy of religion
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Wikipedia: Allan Gibbard
Includes: Allan Gibbard, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Allan Gibbard, Infobox: main_interests
Meta-ethics, social choice theory
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Wikipedia: Simon Blackburn
Includes: Simon Blackburn, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Simon Blackburn, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, truth theory, philosophy of language
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Wikipedia: R. M. Hare
Includes: R.M. Hare, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: R.M. Hare, Infobox: main_interests
Moral philosophy, political philosophy
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Wikipedia: Peter Railton
Includes: Peter Railton, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Peter Railton, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, philosophy of science
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Kocc Barma Fall (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Kocc Barma Fall, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Kocc Barma Fall, Infobox: main_interests
ethics, politics and society
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Walda Heywat, Wikipedia
Includes: Walda Heywat, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Walda Heywat, Infobox: main_interests
Reason, ethics, religion
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Zera Yacob (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Zera Yacob, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Zera Yacob, Infobox: main_interests
Reason, ethics, religious tolerance
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Wikipedia: Samuel Ramos
Includes: Samuel Ramos, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Samuel Ramos, Infobox: main_interests
IdentityMetaphysics EpistemologyEthics
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Wikipedia: Zerahiah the Greek
Includes: Zerahiah the Greek, Lead
Quote, Includes: Zerahiah the Greek, Lead
Rabbi Zerachiah the Greek (in Hebrew, Zerachiah ha-Yavani or ha-Yewani; sometimes known by the acronymistic nickname "Ra'Za'H") was a Greek-Jewish ethicist who resided in the Byzantine Empire in the thirteenth or fourteenth century.
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Wikipedia: Tadeusz Kotarbinski
Includes: Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Tadeusz Kotarbinski, Infobox: main_interests
Ontology, formal logic, ethics, praxeology
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Wikipedia: Miskawayh
Includes: Miskawayh, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Miskawayh, Infobox: main_interests
History, Theology, medicine, ethics and philosophy
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John McDowell (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: John McDowell, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John McDowell, Infobox: main_interests
Metaphysics, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of perception, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of mind, ethics, meta-ethics
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Wikipedia: Mikhail Bakhtin
Includes: Mikhail Bakhtin, Lead
Quote, Includes: Mikhail Bakhtin, Lead
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; Russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin]; 16 November [O.S. 4 November] 1895-7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the philosophy of language, ethics, and literary theory.
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Gianni Vattimo - Wikipedia
Includes: Gianni Vattimo, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Gianni Vattimo, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics Political philosophy
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Avital Ronell, Wikipedia
Includes: Avital Ronell, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Avital Ronell, Infobox: main_interests
Addiction, deficiency, dictation, disappearance of authority, disease, drugs, excessive force, ethics, legal subjects, rumor, stupidity, technology, telephony, tests, trauma, war
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Antonio Escohotado, Wikipedia
Includes: Antonio Escohotado, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Antonio Escohotado, Infobox: main_interests
Liberalism, metaphysics, culture, ethics, freedom, history of communism, sociology, drugs, politics, dialectic, Marxism, fractal, drug liberalization, history of commerce, political philosophy, history of slavery, law
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Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Wikipedia
Includes: Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Jesús Padilla Gálvez, Infobox: main_interests
Logic, ontology, epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of science, ethics.
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Etienne Vermeersch, Wikipedia
Includes: Etienne Vermeersch, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Etienne Vermeersch, Infobox: main_interests
Philosophy of science, History of philosophy, History of Christianity, Bioethics, Environmental philosophy, Moral philosophy, cultural criticism
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John Anderson (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: John Anderson, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Anderson, Infobox: main_interests
Political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of sexuality, philosophy of religion
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Wikipedia: Nick Zangwill
WikipediaIncludes: Nick Zangwill, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Nick Zangwill, Infobox: main_interests
Aesthetics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of logic, meta-ethics
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Wikipedia: John Corvino
WikipediaIncludes: John Corvino, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: John Corvino, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, applied ethics, LGBT studies, early modern philosophy, David Hume
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Wikipedia: H. J. McCloskey
WikipediaIncludes: H. J. McCloskey, Lead
Quote, Includes: H. J. McCloskey, Lead
Henry John McCloskey (1925-2000) was an Australian moral philosopher and writer.
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Wikipedia: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak
WikipediaIncludes: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, Christian philosophy, philosophy of Hegel and Emmanuel Levinas
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Wikipedia: Neera K. Badhwar
WikipediaIncludes: Neera K. Badhwar, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Neera K. Badhwar, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, political philosophy
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Samantha Vice (Wikipedia)
Includes: Samantha Vice, Lead
Quote, Includes: Samantha Vice, Lead
Her areas of specialisation are ethics and social philosophy, and she is especially well known for her work on the existential and moral philosophy of race.
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Wikipedia: Simon Hailwood
WikipediaIncludes: Simon Hailwood, Lead
Quote, Includes: Simon Hailwood, Lead
Simon Hailwood is a British philosopher whose research concerns moral philosophy, political philosophy, environmental philosophy, environmental ethics, political realism, and pragmatism.
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Joseph Agbakoba (Wikipedia)
Includes: Joseph Agbakoba, Lead
Quote, Includes: Joseph Agbakoba, Lead
He is best known for his work around development philosophy and ethics for Africa, and his association with reasonabilism, Afro-constructivism, transcolonial theory, and Africanity as creative self-manifestive identity, among other concepts in contemporary African thought.
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Hans-Martin Sass (Wikipedia)
Includes: Hans-Martin Sass, Lead
Quote, Includes: Hans-Martin Sass, Lead
Hans-Martin Sass (4 December 1935, February 6, 2023) was a bioethicist.
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Didier Kaphagawani (Wikipedia)
Includes: Didier Kaphagawani, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Didier Kaphagawani, Infobox: main_interests
Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics
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Wikipedia: Christopher Cordner
WikipediaIncludes: Christopher Cordner, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Christopher Cordner, Infobox: main_interests
ethics
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Wikipedia: Eva Dadlez
WikipediaIncludes: Eva Dadlez, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Eva Dadlez, Infobox: main_interests
aesthetics, ethics, philosophy of fiction
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Robyn Bluhm (Wikipedia)
Includes: Robyn Bluhm, Lead
Quote, Includes: Robyn Bluhm, Lead
Robyn Bluhm (born 1969), is associate professor at the Department of Philosophy and Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University, as well as a member of The NeuroGenderings Network, a group which promotes "neurofeminism". She is the current joint editor of the IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
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Mpho Tshivhase (Wikipedia)
Includes: Mpho Tshivhase, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Mpho Tshivhase, Infobox: main_interests
African philosophy, applied ethics, philosophy of psychology
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Willie Esterhuyse (Wikipedia)
Includes: Willie Esterhuyse, Lead
Quote, Includes: Willie Esterhuyse, Lead
Willem Petrus "Willie" Esterhuyse, OLS (born 19 August 1936) is an emeritus professor of philosophy and business ethics at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, a columnist and critic of apartheid.
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abstract
Quote, Includes: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abstract
Emerson developed a metaphysics of process, an epistemology of moods, and an “existentialist” ethics of self-improvement.
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Wikipedia: Henry David Thoreau
WikipediaIncludes: Henry David Thoreau, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Henry David Thoreau, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics, poetry, religion, politics, biology, philosophy, history
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Iris Murdoch
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Iris Murdoch, Abstract
Quote, Includes: Iris Murdoch, Abstract
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) was a prominent British philosopher of the second half of the 20 th century, best known for her moral philosophy.
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Gaudapada (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Gaudapada, Page categories: ConsequentialistsView the Source
Bernard Williams (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Bernard Williams, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Bernard Williams, Infobox: main_interests
Ethics
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Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Page categories: Iranian ethicistsView the Source
Albertus Magnus (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Albertus Magnus, Page categories: Natural law ethicistsView the Source
Shantideva - Wikipedia
Includes: Shantideva, Page categories: ConsequentialistsView the Source
Henry Odera Oruka (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Henry Odera Oruka, Page categories: Kenyan ethicistsView the Source
Motsamai Molefe (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Motsamai Molefe, Lead
Quote, Includes: Motsamai Molefe, Lead
Motsamai Molefe is a South African philosopher, one of the thinkers to have popularised African philosophy, and specifically Applied Ethics in context of Ubuntu philosophy.
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Wikipedia: Jose Ferrater Mora
Includes: Jose Ferrater Mora, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Jose Ferrater Mora, Infobox: main_interests
Applied ethics, animal ethics, metaphysics
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bell hooks (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: bell hooks, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Samantha Brennan
WikipediaIncludes: Samantha Brennan, Page categories: Canadian ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Per Bauhn
WikipediaIncludes: Per Bauhn, Lead
Quote, Includes: Per Bauhn, Lead
His main research interests include ethics and political philosophy, but also aesthetics.
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Wikipedia: David Rodin
WikipediaIncludes: David Rodin, Page categories: New Zealand ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Henry David Aiken
WikipediaIncludes: Henry David Aiken, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Wikipedia: Jean-Godefroy Bidima
WikipediaIncludes: Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Lead
Quote, Includes: Jean-Godefroy Bidima, Lead
His fields of interest are cited as " Continental philosophy, literatures and arts of the Francophone world, African philosophies, juridical anthropology and medical ethics".
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Wikipedia: Dirk Baltzly
WikipediaIncludes: Dirk Baltzly, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Dirk Baltzly, Infobox: main_interests
virtue ethics
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Benjamin Hale (Wikipedia)
Includes: Benjamin Hale, Lead
Quote, Includes: Benjamin Hale, Lead
Benjamin S. Hale (born 1972) is an environmental philosopher and ethicist at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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Categorical Imperative (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Categorical Imperative, Lead
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The categorical imperative (German: Kategorischer Imperativ) is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant.
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Divine command theory (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Divine Command Theory, Lead
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Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism) is a meta-ethical theory which proposes that an action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God.
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Argument from Marginal Cases (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Argument from Marginal Cases, Lead
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The argument from marginal cases (also known as the argument from species overlap) is a philosophical argument within animal rights theory regarding the moral status of non-human animals.
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Evolutionary debunking (Wikipedia)
Includes: Evolutionary Debunking Argument, Lead
Quote, Includes: Evolutionary Debunking Argument, Lead
that, because humans (like all organisms) have an evolutionary origin, the principles of ethics and morality that we have devised are invalid and cannot be considered objective knowledge.
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Utility Monster (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Utility Monster, Lead
Quote, Includes: Utility Monster, Lead
The utility monster is a thought experiment in the study of ethics created by philosopher Robert Nozick in 1974 as a criticism of utilitarianism.
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Principle of double effect (Wikipedia)
Includes: Doctrine of Double Effect, Lead
Quote, Includes: Doctrine of Double Effect, Lead
The principle of double effect is a set of ethical criteria which Christian philosophers have advocated for evaluating the permissibility of acting when one's otherwise
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Yi I - Wikipedia
Includes: Yi I, Article text
Quote, Includes: Yi I, Article text
The Essentials of the Studies of the Sages (성학집요; 聖學輯要) - Fundamentals of Confucian ethics, self-cultivation and statecraft.
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Wikipedia: Rhina Toruño Haensly
WikipediaIncludes: Rhina Toruño Haensly, Article text
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below.) She taught courses in modern philosophy, existentialism, contemporary French philosophy, ethics, and social and political philosophy.
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Harry Frankfurt (Wikipedia)
Includes: Harry Frankfurt, Page categories: American ethicistsView the Source
Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex (Wikipedia)
Includes: Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex, Lead
Quote, Includes: Ngamen Kouassi Cyrille Dalex, Lead
Ngamen, a professor of philosophy, has specialty in Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy.
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Richard Joyce (philosopher) (Wikipedia)
Includes: Richard Joyce, Infobox: main_interests
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Meta-ethics Moral psychology
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Sharon Street (Wikipedia)
Includes: Sharon Street, Infobox: main_interests
Quote, Includes: Sharon Street, Infobox: main_interests
Metaethics, normative ethics
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Ubuntu Philosophy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaIncludes: Ubuntu Philosophy, Overview
Quote, Includes: Ubuntu Philosophy, Overview
In South Africa, it has come to be used as a contested term for a kind of humanist philosophy, ethic, or ideology, also termed Ubuntuism propagated in the Africanisation (transition to majority rule) process of these countries during the 1980s and 1990s.
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Justus Lipsius
Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Justus Lipsius, Introduction, moral philosophy
Quote, Includes: Justus Lipsius, Introduction, moral philosophy
Lipsius’s lifelong project was to transform contemporary moral philosophy through a new reading of the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca, while also revitalizing contemporary political practice by drawing on the insights provided by the Roman historian Tacitus.
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Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Cheng Yi
Internet Encyclopedia of PhilosophyIncludes: Cheng Yi, Opening summary, moral cultivation
Quote, Includes: Cheng Yi, Opening summary, moral cultivation
The way of moral cultivation for Cheng Yi is through composure and extension of knowledge which is a gradual way towards sagehood.
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Encyclopedia.com (Columbia Encyclopedia): Hagerstrom, Axel
Encyclopedia.com (Columbia Encyclopedia)Includes: Axel Hagerstrom, Late career, philosophy of morals
Quote, Includes: Axel Hagerstrom, Late career, philosophy of morals
Near the end of his career Hägerstrom's interest was in practical philosophy, particularly the philosophy of morals, religion, and law.
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Key Debate

Ordinary moral discourse commits speakers to the existence of objective values and objective prescriptions, reasons for action that would bind regardless of any agent's desires, but no such objective moral facts exist. Such properties would be metaphysically queer, unlike anything else in a naturalistic world, and our capacity to know them would be equally mysterious. Moral judgments are therefore not correctly analyzed as either the Socratic discovery of an objective good or a Nietzschean invention open to revaluation; they are, on this error theory, systematically and uniformly false, even though speakers do not intend or realize this when they make them.

A dissenting reading, from an independent laneMoral Anti-Realism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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