The Landscape of Ethical Philosophy

Each of you carries within yourself a moral compass, shaped by family, culture, religion, and personal experience. But have you ever stopped to ask: Where did these beliefs come from? Are they universally true? Are there moral facts as concrete as mathematical theorems, or is morality simply a human construction, as variable as fashion trends?
These are not merely academic questions gathering dust in philosophy textbooks. These are the questions that have sparked revolutions, toppled empires, and continue to shape every significant decision in your personal and professional lives. When a doctor decides whether to tell a patient a devastating diagnosis, when a politician weighs the needs of the few against the many, when you decide whether to return a wallet found on the sidewalk—you are engaging with 2,500 years of ethical thought, whether you realize it or not.

What we embark upon today is nothing less than joining the greatest conversation in human history. Picture, if you will, a vast amphitheater stretching across millennia. In the front rows sit Aristotle and Confucius, debating the nature of virtue. Behind them, medieval scholars like Thomas Aquinas wrestle with divine command theory. The Enlightenment philosophers—Kant with his rigid categorical imperatives, Mill with his utilitarian calculus—occupy the middle sections, while modern thinkers like Sartre, Rawls, and Singer continue the debate in the contemporary rows.
And now, today, you take your seat in this grand amphitheater. You are not passive observers but active participants in this ongoing dialogue about how we ought to live.