Ethics is branch of moral philosophy that deals with values relating to human conduct by systematizing and recommending concepts of the rightness and wrongness of certain actions, which help defining the goodness and badness of the motives of such actions. In common sense, ethics are the rules of conduct recognized within a particular human group, culture, etc. It originates from the Greek word ethos, which means "character". There are four operational areas of study in ethics: Meta-ethics, Normative ethics, Descriptive ethics, and Applied ethics.
Almost every field of study have their own ethics to follow, which are well described in books written by subject matter expert. Learn about the ethics of your field with our collection of Books on Ethics.
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As per Richard Paul and Linda Elder of the Foundation for Critical Thinking, "most people confuse ethics with behaving in accordance with social conventions, religious beliefs, and the law", and they don't treat ethics as a stand-alone concept. What Paul and Elder stated for the term is: "ethics is a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms sentient creatures".