Ètics

Ètics, or ethics, is the branch of philosophy that studies moral principles and how they guide human conduct. It asks what is right and wrong, what people owe to one another, and how values such as justice, welfare, and autonomy should be understood and applied. Ethics interacts with law, public policy, medicine, business, and technology, and it often informs professional codes and standards.

Subfields include normative ethics, which asks how people ought to act; metaethics, which examines the nature of moral judgment and moral properties; and applied ethics, which analyzes concrete issues such as medicine, the environment, technology, and business. Descriptive ethics describes how people actually behave, as opposed to how they should behave.

Major theoretical frameworks include deontology (duty-based ethics), consequentialism (outcomes matter, including utilitarianism), and virtue ethics (character and virtues guide actions). Other approaches include care ethics, contractarianism, moral relativism, and moral pluralism. Philosophers use thought experiments, reasoned argument, and cross-disciplinary evidence to test ethical claims.

Historically, ethical reflection has roots in ancient philosophies and across diverse cultures. In the Western tradition, figures such as Aristotle and Kant shaped normative theories, while in other traditions Confucian and other moral philosophies have offered different insights. Today ethics informs professional codes, public policy, and debates on rights, equity, and sustainability.