Philosophical Ethics Adapted from Thomas White, "ethics," Chapter 1, Business Ethics: a Philosophical Reader (new York: Macmillan Publishing, 1993)

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions. Philosophical ethics differs from legal, religious, cultural and personal approaches to ethics by seeking to conduct the study of morality through a rational, secular outlook that is grounded in notions of human happiness or well-being. A major advantage of a philosophical approach to ethics is that it avoids the authoritarian basis of law and religion as well as the subjectivity, arbitrariness and irrationality that may characterize cultural or totally personal moral views. (Although some thinkers differentiate between "ethics," "morals," "ethical" and "moral," this discussion will use them synonymously.)