What is at stake when we do ethics?
What is at stake when we do ethics? In an important sense, the answer is everything we hold dear. Ethics is concerned with values—specifically, moral values. Through the sifting and weighing of moral values we determine what the most impor- tant things are in our lives, what is worth living for and what is worth dying for. We decide what is the greatest good, what goals we should pursue in life, what virtues we should cultivate, what duties we should or should not fulfill, what value we should put on human life, and what pain and perils we should be willing to endure for notions such as the common good, justice, and rights.