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Ethics

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Arrows point from what you learn first to what it opens. Right-click a concept (or press and hold it) for its lessons and stories.

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ConsequencesDutyEmpathyEnds and meansFairnessHarm and consentHonesty and white liesMoral dilemmasMoral questionsMoral reasoningPeople are not toolsPractice and characterPromisesRelativismRightsThe four moral questionsThe golden ruleThe greatest goodThe middle wayThe trolley problemThe widening circleTreating like cases alikeVirtue and characterWhat if everyone did it?ArgumentIn LogicWhat science can't answerIn Philosophy of Science

Learning path

In the order the concepts build on each other.

  1. Moral questionsLockedA question about right and wrong, what we owe each other and how to live - what someone should do, not only how things are. Ethics is the careful study of such questions.Opens after: What science can't answer
  2. Moral reasoningLockedBacking a moral judgement with reasons others can share, check and weigh. A feeling that something is wrong is a useful alarm, but not yet a reason.Opens after: Moral questions, Argument
  3. Harm and consentLockedHarm is making things worse for someone - their body, feelings, things or how others see them - and causing it needs a strong reason. Consent, a free and knowing yes, can make the same act fine; a no settles it.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  4. Honesty and white liesLockedHonesty is saying what you believe true. A white lie is a small lie told to be kind; it is where honesty and kindness pull apart. Often there is a third answer that is both true and kind.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  5. PromisesLockedA promise makes an obligation - a reason to act you didn't have before - because someone now counts on you. A much stronger reason can outweigh it, but even then something is still owed.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  6. RelativismLockedThe view that right and wrong are only what each culture or person believes. Customs really differ and deserve respect, but relativism means nobody could ever have been wrong - not even a society that allowed slavery.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  7. Treating like cases alikeLockedGiving the same judgement to cases that are alike in every way that matters - and asking "what is the difference, and does it matter?" before judging two cases differently.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  8. Virtue and characterLockedA third way of reasoning, from Aristotle: ask not only "what should I do?" but "what kind of person should I be?". Character is the kind of person you are; good traits of character - honesty, courage, kindness - are virtues.Opens after: Moral reasoning
  9. ConsequencesLockedEverything that follows from an action, near and far, wanted and unwanted. Looking at results judges a choice by its consequences for everyone it touches.Opens after: Harm and consent
  10. FairnessLockedGiving each person what they are due, with no favourites. What someone is due can mean equal shares, shares by need or shares by effort - and a fair way of deciding can matter as much as the result.Opens after: Treating like cases alike
  11. Moral dilemmasLockedA choice where good values pull in different directions, so something good is lost whatever you choose. Check the facts, weigh the reasons, look for a third way - and something may still be owed.Opens after: Promises, Harm and consent
  12. Practice and characterLockedAristotle thought we become good the way we learn a skill: we become brave by doing brave things. Virtues are good habits of acting, seeing and feeling - and bad habits grow the same way. We also learn from role models.Opens after: Virtue and character
  13. The golden ruleLockedTreat others as you would want to be treated - or, as Confucius put it, don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you. It works best when you swap places completely, imagining their wishes.Opens after: Treating like cases alike
  14. The middle wayLockedAristotle's idea that each virtue is a mean between two mistakes, too little and too much: courage lies between cowardice and recklessness. The middle depends on the situation and takes judgement.Opens after: Virtue and character
  15. EmpathyLockedImagining how things are for someone else, and feeling something of what they feel. It shows what you had missed and moves you to act, but it shines brightest on people near us - so it needs reasons too.Opens after: The golden rule
  16. Ends and meansLockedThe end is the goal an action aims at; the means is the way you reach it. Looking at results says a good enough end can justify the means; others answer that some means are wrong whatever they lead to.Opens after: Consequences
  17. The greatest goodLockedBentham's and Mill's idea that the right choice does the most good - most happiness, least suffering - for everyone it touches, each person counting for one. Impartial, but good is hard to add up.Opens after: Consequences, Treating like cases alike
  18. DutyLockedSomething you must do, or must not do, whether or not it brings the best results - like not punishing the innocent or keeping promises. Duties protect people from being sacrificed for a plan, but they can clash.Opens after: Ends and means
  19. The trolley problemLockedPhilippa Foot's thought experiment (1967): switching a runaway tram to kill one instead of five, against pushing a stranger off a bridge to stop it. Same results, different judgements - so perhaps results aren't all that matters.Opens after: The greatest good
  20. People are not toolsLockedKant's second test: never treat a person merely as a means - only as a tool for your goals - but always also as someone with goals of their own. Every person has dignity, a worth not measured by usefulness.Opens after: Duty, Harm and consent
  21. The four moral questionsLockedThe course gathered into four questions to ask together: What will happen? Is there a duty or a right here? What would a good person do? How does it look from their side? Where they disagree is what you are really weighing.Opens after: Consequences, Duty, Virtue and character, Empathy
  22. What if everyone did it?LockedKant's test: imagine the rule behind your action were a rule for everyone. If it only works because others don't follow it - jumping a queue, a false promise - you are making an exception of yourself.Opens after: Duty, The golden rule
  23. RightsLockedA right is something each person is owed, which protects them even against what would be best for everyone else. Every right is someone else's duty. Human rights were written down in 1948.Opens after: People are not tools, Duty
  24. The widening circleLockedPeter Singer's idea that much of moral history is the circle of those whose good counts growing wider - the end of slavery, votes for women, human rights, children's rights - pushed by reasons and empathy.Opens after: Treating like cases alike, Rights

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