Ethics  

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By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists.

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Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The term comes from the Greek word ethos, which means "character". Ethics is a complement to Aesthetics in the philosophy field of Axiology. In philosophy, ethics studies the moral behavior in humans, and how one should act. Ethics may be divided into four major areas of study:

• Meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth values (if any) may be determined;
• Normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;
• Applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;
• Descriptive ethics, also known as comparative ethics, is the study of people's beliefs about morality;

Ethics seeks to resolve questions dealing with human morality—concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime.

Further reading

• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

See also