The course contributes to the broader educational objective of the CdS by providing the historical and conceptual tools suitable for understanding the basic themes and currents of the Western ethical tradition. The course also introduces students to the reading of some fundamental texts of this tradition, providing the essential tools for their analysis, and their historical contextualization, for the framing of the main themes dealt with in them and for their critical discussion. In this way, at the end of the course the student will acquire (1) the basic knowledge related to the different moral doctrines, (2) will develop his / her understanding of the main theories that characterize the discipline and (3) will develop the necessary competences, in terms of autonomy of judgment and specific communication skills, which will allow him/her to orient himself, in a conscious and critical way, in the debates that characterize contemporary moral philosophy in the context of the various "applied ethics" (nature and environment, bioethics, technoscience and posthumane , information and communication, economy and work, multiculturalism, etc.).