Outline of ethics

Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concern matters of value, and thus comprise the branch of philosophy called axiology. The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to ethics. The following examples of questions that might be considered in each field illustrate the differences between the fields: Descriptive ethics: What do people think is right? Normative ethics (prescriptive): How should people act? Applied ethics: How do we take moral knowledge and put it into practice? Meta-ethics: What does "right" even mean? Applied ethics – using philosophical methods, attempts to identify the morally correct course of action in various fields of human life. Economics and business Business ethics – concerns questions such as the limits on managers in the pursuit of profit, or the duty of 'whistleblowers' to the general public as opposed to their employers. Development ethics (economic development) Ethics in management Ethics in pharmaceutical sales Lifeboat ethics (economic metaphor) Bioethics – concerned with identifying the correct approach to matters such as euthanasia, or the allocation of scarce health resources, or the use of human embryos in research. Ethics of cloning Veterinary ethics Neuroethics – ethics in neuroscience, but also the neuroscience of ethics Utilitarian bioethics Organizational ethics – ethics among organizations. Professional ethics Accounting ethics – study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. Archaeological ethics – Computer ethics – deals with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct.