文档介绍：UNIT A2
What is ethics?
Ethics — also known as moral philosophy — may be defined as the systematic study of standards of human conduct and moral judgment. Ethics involves the examination of morality or "the tendency to do right or wrong, or ... beliefs about what's right and wrong, good and bad."1 In the Ethics Readings Handbook, the terms "ethics" and "morals" will be used interchangeably.
In our moral beliefs, we reveal our conception of what it is to be human and what is an appropriate human behaviour. Morality is also a matter of shared beliefs. Allegiance mon values unites individuals into munity, for it provides standards for making and assessing not only individual choice, such as the question "What should Deepak do?" but also collective choice, as in "What should a mittee do about a CGA who deliberately overvalues an inventory to secure a financial advantage for an employer?"
Ethics is important because it helps move moral discussion beyond the simple expression of opinion or "gut reactions" and into the realm plicated, difficult choices. In the face of moral disagreement, it is not enough to declare that a particular option is right or good simply because you like it or because your handbook tells you it is right. What is needed is some account of why you are in favour of that particular option. That account ideally will do more than just persuade others to adopt y