There are many thematic fields within philosophical ethics, and they stand within an open field of systematic options that one, as a philosopher, ought to know. The theories that you encounter in the study of ethics for the most part fail to make precisely this clear. They conceal that the concrete positions of individual philosophers must first be systematically situated within this field. The present introduction neither presents a concrete position as "the author's ethics", nor does it constitute a "blind" reconstruction of familiar approaches and an immanent presentation of the thematic fields. In each chapter, an unusual, analytically oriented strategy of presentation is chosen. The aim of the present book is to convey, in the discussion of classical thematic fields of ethics, philosophical competence in the evaluative exploration of theories and in the targeted presentation of systematic aspects of positions in ethics.

The themes are comprehensive and very traditional: happiness, the scope of ethics, non-cognitivism, egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, value ethics, realism, freedom, moral psychology, solidarity, loyalty. In reading and working through the book, one may thus discern the connection between historical perspectives in ethics and their analytical methods. For it is shown how the discussion within the aforementioned thematic fields is structured by metaphilosophical or metaethical presuppositions. The book is conceived for the study of philosophical ethics within a university context. It concludes with an extensive service section that points you toward relevant literature, introduces modern research methods, and recommends effective strategies for mastering the subject matter.