Wikipedia:Today's featured article/September 27, 2024
Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena, or what people ought to do. It includes three main branches: normative ethics, which seeks general principles for how people should act; applied ethics, which addresses specific real-life ethical issues like abortion; and metaethics, which explores underlying concepts and assumptions. Influential normative theories are consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics. According to consequentialists, an act is right if it leads to the best consequences. Deontologists focus on acts themselves, saying that they must adhere to duties, like telling the truth. Virtue ethicists, such as Aristotle (pictured), see the manifestation of virtues, like courage, as the fundamental principle of morality. The history of ethics dates back to ancient civilizations and has evolved through religious influences in the medieval period to a more secular approach in the modern era, with the emergence of metaethics in the 20th century. (Full article...)