Who said that ethics is the study of right conduct?

• A. Plato
• B. Aristotle
• C. Descartes
• D. Kant

Answer: (B)

In ethics, a central question is what counts as right conduct and how we should live. Aristotle answers this by framing ethics as the study of the good life through virtuous character. He argues that the way to act rightly is to cultivate virtuous dispositions—like courage, self-control, justice, and practical wisdom—and to choose the mean between excess and deficiency in different situations. This emphasis on character and practical guidance for living well makes the study of right conduct central to his ethical project; ethics becomes a practical inquiry into how to act rightly so that a human life is good. The other philosophers occupy related territory but with different foundations: Descartes centers on method and certainty, Kant on universal duties and rules, and Plato on the theory of the good and ideal forms—areas that don’t align as directly with ethics understood as cultivating virtue and right action in daily life.