What is morality, or ethics? It is a code of values to guide man’s choices and
actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of
his life. Ethics, as a science, deals with discovering and defining such a
code.
The first question that has to be answered, as a precondition of any attempt to
define, to judge or to accept any specific system of ethics, is: Why does man
need a code of values?
Let me stress this. The first question is not: What particular code of values
should man accept? The first question is: Does man need values at all—and why?