Socrates tells us that we should discuss ethics daily, for the unexamined life is not worth living. Every day does seem like a bit much, but since ethics, as Socrates later observed, is “no small matter, but how we ought to live,” maybe he is right. After all, what is more important than how we ought to live?

As a traditional area of philosophy, ethics, or moral philosophy, has a deep and complex history. Rather than being a body of settled knowledge about right and wrong, ethics is best seen as a rational inquiry into fundamental questions about value, justice, dignity, obligation and the proper ends of human life — the big, meaningful questions in life.

There is no shortcut to “ethical behavior.” Perhaps people can be conditioned to act ethically, maybe threats or fines or concerns about eternity can compel such behavior. But the great moral philosophers like Aristotle, Mill, Kant or Rawls would be appalled. The profundity of ethics cannot be captured as a simple-minded means to an end, like if you are ethical you’ll get a good job. Indeed, they would dismiss such motivation as unethical in the first place. And taking an ethics course is unlikely to turn an unethical person into an ethical one.

So why take an ethics course? We must remember that we are multidimensional beings. Yes, we have professional lives and ethics is surely important there, but we also have personal and civic lives. Ethical questions pervade them all. The state calls on each one of us when we vote to render an opinion about the great moral questions of the day: questions about abortion, capital punishment, war, allocation of resources, global warming, same-sex marriage, the treatment of animals and on and on. Do we have rationally defensible views about these weighty matters? In our personal lives ethical questions are no less important: What is the nature of friendship, what is forgiveness, can we have obligations to ourselves, is it immoral to use drugs, what is a good life? These and many other questions (like is relativism true? or why be moral at all?) require us to probe ever deeper into the foundational matters having to do with how we ought to live.

Ethics classes taught in a philosophy program examine the grounds for rational justification of ethical judgments, broadly conceived. We seek a coherent understanding of why particular actions are right or wrong and, in true Socratic fashion, we should be prepared to accept the view which has the weight of reason on its side. Sometimes this is easy; sometimes it is hard. I asked my ethics class early this semester if slavery was immoral. They looked surprised but nodded that it was; then I asked them why, and they looked even more surprised. They had some vaguely coherent things to say and when pressed for further explanation, lapsed into silence. I’m sure they found it utterly bewildering. Now, toward the end of the semester, they can explain the immorality of slavery insightfully, appealing to the sophisticated ideas and arguments of the moral philosophers we have been studying. And where they disagree about why slavery is wrong, they are willing to pursue the matter further, evaluating the reasons offered, analyzing concepts and seeking firm justification. Sure, this is an easy case, but the relevant moral principles and approach to the material are the same when we get to difficult cases. No surprise: When we study moral philosophy we become better at thinking about morality. Is that important? You tell me.

Frederik Kaufman is professor and chair of the philosophy and religion department. E-mail him at kaufmanf@ithaca.edu.