Morality is the distinction between right and wrong.

It is the determination of what

should be done and what should not be done. Morals deal with behaviors as well as
motives.

Morals differ among cultures, and there are morals that are relative, i.e., dependent
upon situations and context.

One of Aristotles most famous works is the nicmochean ethics. And it was a
book that was written for Aristotle son Marcus to explain goodness and to try to
give him some guidance for action in the world. Now one thing that you need to
know when it when trying to understand Aristotle's morality or his philosophy in
general is the idea of teleology. Teleology Is the belief that everything that exists
has a purpose or goal.

And so when Aristotle looked at the natural world he saw that a lot of things in
the natural world seem to go toward a particular goal or purpose so for example.
If you see an acorn and plant that into the ground then it's very clear that it's
going to grow into an oak tree. It's not like if you plant the acorn in the ground
it's going to be an elephant, it will grow into an oak tree. So the oak tree is the
teleos or the purpose, the acorn has a map inside it that helps it to grow into that
oak tree that we call the DNA today now the big question is if the acorns purpose
is to grow into an oak tree. What is a humans purpose? Aristotle believed it was
happiness through morality

So the big question is how do we achieve happiness. Can we achieve lasting true
happiness through power money and fame ? Well Aristotle would say no. He
would say that lasting happiness can only be achieved through morality. Now
there's a reason for this.

Aristotle suggests that morality or virtue is something that we are meant to do

was human beings. He says if you really think about it, if your rational mind is at
work then your reason will lead you to be moral. It's only when you allow your
reason to be corrupted by your emotions or your appetite. Then you will allow
yourself to do things that are not virtuous.

So for example my reason tells me that I ought to be courageous I ought to stand

up in defence of myself and my family. But if I fear, if Ive got that emotion of
fear that appetite of fear inside me then that's going to keep me from being
courageous. That's where some would say we need to follow our reason and not
allow our appetites to sway us in either direction. That's why Aristotle says the
key to human life and the key to happiness is the practice of virtue because
virtue is in accord with human reason.

Epicurus' ethics is a form of egoistic hedonism; i.e., he says that the only thing that is
intrinsically valuable is one's own pleasure; anything else that has value is valuable merely as
a means to securing pleasure for oneself.

The utilitarian view of happiness written by Mill is centerd on the fact that happiness is attained by maximizing a
persons utility. maximizing happiness and reducing suffering in order to improve your quality of life
If a serial killer was going to kill many people, a person who had utilitarianism beliefs would prefer to have the
serial killer be put to death than to lose the lives of many innocent people. This is true, because killing the serial
killer would reduce the amount of suffering and maximize happiness for a greater number of people.