THE ETHICAL LANDSCAPE
The domain of ethics is large, divided into several areas of investigation and cordoned off from related subjects. So let us map the territory care- fully. As the term moral philosophy suggests, ethics is a branch of philosophy. A very rough character- ization of philosophy is the systematic use of criti- cal reasoning to answer the most fundamental questions in life. Moral philosophy, obviously, tries to answer the fundamental questions of morality. The other major philosophical divisions address other basic questions; these are logic (the study of correct reasoning), metaphysics (the study of the fundamental nature of reality), and epistemology (the study of knowledge). As a division of philoso- phy, ethics does its work primarily through critical reasoning. Critical reasoning is the careful, system- atic evaluation of statements, or claims—a process used in all fields of study, not just in ethics. Mainly this process includes both the evaluation of logical arguments and the careful analysis of concepts.
213006_01_001-019_r1_el.qxp:213006_01_001-019_r1_el 8/3/15 9:42 AM Page 5