Research subject Applied Ethics

Applied ethics examines practical moral problems and offers guidance for solving them, typically by employing concepts and arguments from ethical theory. But the traffic of ideas goes both ways: practical problems often raise questions that advance ethical thought in general. Applied ethics bridges ethical theory and our moral life.

Philosophers working in applied ethics are interested in issues like the permissibility of abortion, the ethics of eating meat mass-produced on factory farms, or the distribution of scarce life-saving medical resources. As these examples show, there are no strict disciplinary boundaries of applied ethics. Its sub-fields include bioethics, environmental ethics, business ethics, research ethics, and any other area where moral questions arise.  Philosophers bring their expertise of ethical thought to clarify and analyze the moral aspects of a practical problem and to provide insights for its resolution.