What is the relationship between philosophy and ethics?

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Thank you for your question. In the broadest terms, ethics is a branch of philosophy. Alongside this branch are others such as epistemology, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and logic. Unlike these other fields, however, ethics is now extending its reach beyond the confines of traditional departments of philosophy. For instance it is not hard to find departments concerned with one or another area of "applied ethics" in such places as medical schools, law schools or business schools. Bioethicists are often found in schools of medicine, and scholars of business ethics are often found in business schools. Analogous things can be said for law schools, and engineering schools often have faculty concerned with environmental ethics.

Less administratively and more substantively, ethicists share with other philosophers a desire to make progress on urgent questions in spite of the fact that at least right now we in general do now know how to answer them by means either of empirical demonstration or mathematical proof.

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