--- title: Ethics & Moral Philosophy description: This topic examines the concepts of right and wrong, moral duty, and human well-being. You will study major ethical frameworks—including utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics—and apply them to contemporary moral dilemmas. category: social-sciences subcategory: philosophy difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/ethics-and-moral-philosophy --- # Ethics & Moral Philosophy This topic examines the concepts of right and wrong, moral duty, and human well-being. You will study major ethical frameworks—including utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics—and apply them to contemporary moral dilemmas. ## Available Resources 5 Books • 1 Courses • 5 Websites • 1 Papers ## Websites ### 1. 1000-Word Philosophy Peer-reviewed introductory essays, each about a thousand words, on ethical theories and applied questions, written by academic philosophers and closing with references. Gives you an accurate first pass at a topic plus a route into the primary literature. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://1000wordphilosophy.com/category/ethics/ **Tags:** ethics, moral-philosophy, applied-ethics, metaethics, philosophy ### 2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Ethics The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy's ethics section collects peer-reviewed articles on normative theories, metaethics, and individual moral philosophers. Reading it gives you working definitions of consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics, plus the standard objections to each. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://iep.utm.edu/ethics/ **Tags:** ethics, moral-philosophy, normative-ethics, metaethics, reference ### 3. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Ethics Peer-reviewed reference entries maintained by Stanford philosophers, opening at the virtue ethics article. Each entry surveys a position's history, main arguments, and live objections, with bibliographies that show you where the current scholarly debate stands. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/ **Tags:** ethics, virtue-ethics, metaethics, philosophy, reference ### 4. The Ethics Centre Website of The Ethics Centre, a Sydney-based non-profit publishing articles, explainers on ethical theories and thinkers, and case discussions on business, professional, political and personal dilemmas. Readers see how frameworks such as consequentialism, deontology and virtue ethics apply to real decisions. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ethics.org.au **Tags:** applied-ethics, moral-philosophy, business-ethics, ethical-decision-making ### 5. utilitarianism.net Utilitarianism.net is an educational resource that explains utilitarian and consequentialist ethics with clear overviews of core concepts, major thinkers (Bentham, Mill, Singer), common objections, and recommended readings. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://utilitarianism.net **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy ## Courses ### 1. Introduction to Political Philosophy Explore fundamental questions about justice, liberty, and power in this introductory political philosophy course by Steven B. Smith. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://oyc.yale.edu/political-science/plsc-118 **Tags:** political-philosophy, political-theory, classic-texts, open-courseware ## Podcasts ### 1. Very Bad Wizards **Author:** Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro Very Bad Wizards is a podcast featuring a philosopher (Tamler Sommers) and a psychologist (David Pizarro), who share a love for ethics, pop culture, and cognitive science, and who have a marked inability to distinguish sacred from profane. Each podcast includes discussions of moral philosophy, recent work on moral psychology and neuroscience, and the overlap between the two. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** en | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://sites.libsyn.com/474285/site **Tags:** ethics, moral-psychology, philosophy, cognitive-science, podcast ## Papers ### 1. Famine, Affluence, and Morality **Author:** Peter Singer Peter Singer's 1972 essay in Philosophy & Public Affairs. It argues that if we can prevent something very bad without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to. Distance does not matter, so affluent people are obliged to give far more to famine relief. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil308/Singer2.pdf **Tags:** effective-altruism, utilitarianism, moral-obligation, global-poverty, applied-ethics ## Books ### 1. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion **Author:** Jonathan Haidt Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that moral judgments come from intuition first and reasoning second, and presents moral foundations theory to explain why liberals, conservatives and religious groups disagree. Readers gain a research-based framework for understanding political polarization and moral conflict. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0307455777?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** moral-psychology, moral-foundations-theory, political-polarization, social-intuitionism, religion ### 2. The Righteous Mind **Author:** Jonathan Haidt Jonathan Haidt's account of moral psychology, arguing that moral judgments come from intuition before reasoning, setting out Moral Foundations Theory, and explaining how religion and group loyalty bind people. Readers understand why liberals, conservatives and libertarians disagree so persistently. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307455777?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** moral-psychology, moral-foundations-theory, political-psychology, religion, social-psychology ### 3. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals **Author:** Immanuel Kant Kant's 1785 argument that morality rests on reason rather than consequences or sentiment. Working through it, you will follow the derivation of the categorical imperative and his case for treating persons as ends in themselves. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1607962772?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy ### 4. Utilitarianism **Author:** John Stuart Mill Mill's 1861 defense of the greatest happiness principle, answering common objections to it. Reading it, you will see how he distinguishes higher from lower pleasures and attempts to ground justice within a utilitarian framework. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1517491037?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy ### 5. The Ethics of Aristotle **Author:** Aristotle Penguin translation of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle's account of virtue, habit, and the good life. You will come away understanding eudaimonia, the doctrine of the mean, and why he treats character as something trained rather than chosen. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140440550?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, philosophy --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/ethics-and-moral-philosophy