Éthiques

Éthiques, or ethics, is the branch of philosophy that studies morality, including what counts as right and wrong, good and bad, and how people ought to live. In French, éthique is singular and éthiques appears in plural forms or in phrases such as codes of ethics. The field distinguishes normative questions about how we should act from descriptive beliefs about how people actually behave, and it intersects with law, religion, and culture.

The discipline is commonly divided into normative ethics (the theories and rules that guide action), meta-ethics (the nature and meaning of moral judgments), and applied ethics (contemporary problems in medicine, business, technology, and the environment).

Major theories include utilitarianism, which assesses actions by their consequences; deontology, which emphasizes duties and rules; and virtue ethics, which focuses on character and flourishing. Other approaches include contractarianism, care ethics, and moral particularism.

Ethical inquiry informs professional codes, public policy, and everyday decision making. Applied ethics analyzes dilemmas such as medical consent, privacy, environmental responsibility, and the ethics of artificial intelligence, aiming to translate abstract principles into practical guidance and policy.

Historically, ethics extends from ancient philosophy through medieval and modern thought to current debates about relativism, universalism, and pluralism. Key figures include Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and contemporary thinkers addressing globalization, technology, and global justice.