Ethics and Moral Philosophy
The systematic study of moral theory, from the foundational frameworks of virtue, duty, and consequence to contemporary applied and metaethical debates.
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The eudaimonist tradition of character-based ethics, from Aristotle's account of virtue as a habituated mean, through its Stoic and Thomistic reworkings, to its twentieth-century revival in Anscombe and MacIntyre and its contemporary debates.
The duty-based tradition that grounds morality in universalizable rational principles rather than in consequences or character, from Kant's categorical imperative to its pluralist, contractualist, and applied successors.
The consequentialist tradition that evaluates the rightness of actions by their outcomes, tracing a line from Bentham's felicific calculus through Mill, Sidgwick, and Singer to contemporary refinements of utilitarian theory.
The second-order inquiry into the meaning, truth, and objectivity of moral claims themselves: what moral language does, whether it states facts, and whether any of those facts could be objectively true.
The extension of moral theory to concrete dilemmas in medicine, technology, and humanity's relationship to the natural world, from the founding principles of biomedical ethics to the emerging challenges of climate change and artificial intelligence.
The feminist critique of impartialist moral theory and the development of an ethics grounded in relationship, care, and context, from Carol Gilligan's challenge to Kohlberg through Nel Noddings, Virginia Held, and the intersectional critiques that followed.