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.”