ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we saw that philosophy is a discipline or field of knowledge with a number of sub-disciplines, one of which is ethics. In this chapter, we will explore the sources of ethics, similarities and differences between ethics and religion-based morality, and the rather complex relations between ethics and law. The following three chapters will explore three different major approaches to ethical reasoning that have been dominant in philosophy, and that are widely cited in courses and writings on business ethics. There is no clear, agreed-upon definition of ethics, so description will be attempted rather than definition. Ethics is a branch of philosophy. In its most general sense, it deals with the question of how humans should live. Socrates was quoted by Plato as saying that the unexamined life is not worth living.1 Ethics is about that examination. Aristotle asked, “What is the good for humans?”2 Ethics is generally considered to deal with relations of humans to each other. Some mostly contemporary philosophers also see ethics as concerned with how humans deal with other living things and with their environment in general. One way to describe the field of ethics is that it deals with those actions affecting other people that make us feel good or bad about ourselves. While this description points to important elements of ethics, most philosophers agree that ethics is not just, or not even primarily, about how we feel. Ethics is part of philosophy, and philosophy is a rational discipline. Ethics, then, is also a rational approach to human interactions. Feelings of guilt or pride or shame might well be an indicator that we are dealing in the area of ethics, but almost all philosophers would agree that there is more to ethics than a simple formula stating that human interactions that make us feel good are ethical and those that make us feel bad are not.3
