Ethics is the field of understanding human behavior in relation to values. Ethicists carefully and critically explore how we think about and determine right and wrong and analyze the standards and motivations that govern personal and group action.

Ethics forms the basis of almost all personal decision-making, whether we are aware of it or not. The same is true of decision-making in professional life, including business, law, and medicine; in civil and political life; and in questions of social justice.