ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the ethical framework that shapes the discussions about social work and the law throughout the book. It describes four major western schools of thought about ethical codes and social values – Kantian, utilitarian, virtue and care. At first sight these may appear rather remote from contemporary social work practice, but not at all: the central question that they all address is how do we decide what to do, how do we evaluate the moral worth of a course of action? How important is our understanding of our duty (the Kantians), our assessment of the consequences (the utilitarians), our sense of what the good person would do (virtue ethics), or our feelings of care and the importance of relationships (care ethics)?
