Ethics is everywhere. We are surrounded by ethical problems and ethical dilemmas. In a hospital, you might have multiple patients but only a limited amount of resources, so the question is, whom do you treat first. Or we have countries that are poor and other countries that are rich and both have somehow to share the burdens of global warming. How do we share these resources in a fair way?

These might be some ethics questions.

Ethics is the study of how we ought to behave, and why. There are many different theories of ethics, for example, utilitarianism (we ought to behave so that we maximise benefit for all), or Kantian ethics (we ought to treat all human beings as ends). Ethics only becomes relevant when our behaviour affects others and not only ourselves.

Think of some situations in your everyday life and whether these are examples of moral behaviour or not. For example, if you think of attending a class, or going to work, or being honest. Are these moral issues?

Most people would probably say to be honest is a moral command. It’s what the Bible and other religions tell you. Being honest is a morally right behaviour, while going to work or attending one’s classes is something one does for one’s own benefit: you want to earn money, you want to earn a degree. But it is not something that we would immediately perceive as a moral action.

So what makes not lying, or being honest a moral command as opposed to going to your classes or eating lunch? You can say “I will eat lunch now,” or “I will eat a cookie every day before I go to bed.” Would this be a moral command or not?

The first thing that comes to mind is that when you think about actions like, I have to tell the truth, I should not kill, I should be loyal to my family, or other commands like that, they have to do with other people. So these are not commands that affect only me and nobody else. While other resolutions, like “I will eat a cookie every night before I go to bed” affect only me; except if this cookie is very unhealthy for me and I’m slowly killing myself eating these cookies, then eating them might affect others who depend on me.

But as long as I’m not harming anyone, what I do in my room when the door is closed affects only me. And there doesn’t seem to be a moral component to this.

So morally relevant behaviour needs to affect others. Morality is about relating to others in a particular way. 

Let’s say I’m driving on a private street on my own land. I am free to drive on the right side or on the …

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