The comparative study of ethical values in Judaism Christianity and Islam

Ethics and Philosophy of Ethics

Simply put, ethics is the study of morality. But there are many

different approaches to studying morality, reflecting different assumptions

about its nature and about how best to understand it; Moral philosophy is

one such approach, and it is unique in the scope and depth of the questions it

raises and the way it sets about answering them.

Indeed, it is almost certain that one cannot understand morality fiilly

without raising the kinds of questions moral philosophy asks.

The study of moral philosophy is exciting and challenging in its own

right. Whatever the nature of reality, and however the universe came into

being, morality is now a part of it. Love, hate, values, thoughts, feelings,

emotions, obligations, virtues, and principles- the elements of morality- are

in their own way as real as atoms and electrons, and to understand our world

fully we must be prepared to study them as seriously as we do the chemical

and physical properties of things. They are, of course, often dismissed as

"subjective", "relative", or merely "matters of opinion". Even if that should

be true (which is far from obvious), they nonetheless exist in some way or

can be explained in terms of things that exist. In any event, such claims

simply reflect implicit theories about the nature of morality, and they are by

no means the only such theories, nor necessarily the most plausible ones.

These and other theories can be assessed adequately only thrpugh moral

philosophy.