Ethics

Ethics is a broad area of philosophy that addresses a variety of questions. In applied ethics, we might ask: is killing in self-defence morally permissible, is eating meat morally wrong?

An image of a magnifying glass viewing text about Ethics and its definition

Normative ethics generally asks what kind of moral theory is most defensible; for example, are actions right or wrong in virtue of their consequences or perhaps something else, like the intention or the character of the agent? Meta-ethics is the area that deals with questions like: what are values and are they objective or not?

Academics

People in the Department of Philosophy who work in this area include:

Farbod Akhlaghi

Lilian Alweiss

Samantha Fazekas

Rachel Handley

Adina Preda

William Ratoff