Expressed in these terms, perhaps the major reason to study ethics is because whether we examine ethical questions explicitly or not, they are answered by each and every one of us every day in the course of living our lives. Presumably, the executives at Enron did not wake up one morning and choose to defraud their stockholders and employees. The actions we take and the lives we lead give practical answers to these fundamental ethical questions. Our only real choice is whether we answer them deliberately or unconsciously. Thus, the philosophical answer to why you should study ethics was given by Socrates over 2,000 years ago. "The unexamined life is not worth living.