---
title: "History of ethics"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ethics"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:35.737272+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

== Twentieth century ==
The early twentieth century saw many debates on metaethics, that is, philosophical theory on the nature of ethics. Views ranged from moral realism, which holds that moral truths are about mind-independent realities, to evolutionary ethics, which believes ethical practices are merely evolved ways of behavior that led to evolutionary success, to the error theory of J. L. Mackie, which held that the entire notion of ethical obligation is a mistake.
Reflections on the Holocaust, such as those of Hannah Arendt, led to a deepening appreciation of the reality of extreme evil. The Holocaust impacted other Jewish philosophers immensely, for instance, the post-war period saw Emmanuel Levinas develop his 'ethics of the other' and situate ethics as 'first philosophy'. This philosophy showed a focus on the relation to the other in distress as central to the development of ethics and placed ethical theories center-stage in philosophy. Also, in reaction to the Holocaust, rights theories, as expressed for example in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, asserted the inalienable moral rights of humans to life, education, and other basic goods. Another response to the atrocities of World War II included existential reflections on the meaning of life, leading to approaches of ethics based on "the situation" and personal interaction.
In the late 20th century, there was a so-called 'aretaic turn' and renewed interest in virtue ethics. This turn is often traced to a paper by G.E.M. Anscombe entitled "Modern Moral Philosophy". This approach was then furthered and popularized by figures such as Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre, Rosalind Hursthouse as well as Paul Ricoeur. The revival of this ethical position congruently saw a return to engagement with earlier philosophers associated with moral philosophy such as Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle.

== Professional and applied ethics ==
While mid-twentieth century ethics mostly dealt with theoretical issues, medical ethics continued to deal with issues of practice. The 1970s saw a revival of other fields of applied ethics, the consideration of detailed practical cases in bioethics, animal ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, computer ethics and other speciality fields. The development of new technologies produced many new issues requiring ethical debate.

== See also ==
Ethics in religion
List of years in philosophy

== References ==

== Sources ==
MacIntyre, Alasdair (1998). A Short History of Ethics. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-415-04027-2.
Irwin, Terence (2007). The Development of Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-415-96824-9.
Malik, Kenan (2014-05-01). The Quest for a Moral Compass: A Global History of Ethics. Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1-78239-030-5.
Vetter, Tilmann (1988). The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-08959-4.

== Further reading ==
Becker, Lawrence C.; Charlotte B. Becker (2003). A History of Western Ethics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04027-2.
Crisp, Roger (2013). Oxford Handbook of the History of Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954597-1.

== External links ==
Ancient ethical theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Ancient ethics (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The Natural Law Tradition in Ethics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)