Ethics is simple.
Good things are good, and bad things are bad.
Ethics is how we compare the good things, and which good things
we may want more than other good things.

Understanding how good things are compared is simple.
It is universal and doesn't need to be written down to understand.

Everywhere and at every time, in every language, people smile
and laugh and use swear words, and have fears and have desires
and motivations.

Think about that for a moment. Every human community
everywhere in history uses swear words. Some things are
universally human.

Universally, people value Love, Respect, Loyalty, Justice, and
Mercy.

Ethics is about the contrast of universal values.

(The use in language of the words Morality and Morals is
different semantically from the word Ethics.

I must say this in today's culturally sensitive climate;
Morality is different from Ethics.
In that;
Ethics is derived from universal values and judging the contrasts
of values when two or more values or motivations are in conflict.
While Moral codes and Morality may be culturally derived from
any one of any specific tradition and may have a focus limited to
a specific tradition.

If someone were to take offense at my statements here, I hereby
proactively retract my offending statements and share in your
indigence at my existence, thanking all that is holy, for us to have
never met.)

Ethics is the conflict between good things and how good things
contrast.

Ethics is not about the contrast of bad things.
There is no conflict when everyone agrees about what they don't
want.

And there is no conflict when judging what people don't want in
contrast with what people do want. People value what they want
and reject what they don't want. Good things are good, and bad
things are bad.

Ethics is about the conflict between good things.
When good things conflict, the contrasting values can overlap in
these four ways.

Justice vs Mercy.
Present needs vs Future needs.
Many vs Few.
Loyalty vs Honesty.

Ethics is how people judge the contrasts of what people value in
any combination of these four types of ethical conflicts.

Plus asking Who benefits and Who takes credit.

That's it. These four contrasts, and two questions. Simple.
Even if people don't know it or write it down, that is all there is to
Ethics.

Which may be why people simply expect of each other to be
ethical.

Most of the rest of the study of Ethics is about gaining experience
with recognizing how each of these contrasts can play out, how
these four types of contrasts can overlap, and recognizing who
benefits and who takes credit.

For an example; Loyalty vs Honesty.
Let's say you are young and in school at that time in your life
when your friends mean the whole world to you. As you walk
into the school bathroom, you see your best friend has broken a
window and says to you, before leaving 'don't tell anyone'. Next a
teacher walks in and asks you who broke the window; how do
you reply?

Means vs Ends as an ethical question falls under some
combination of Many vs Few and Present Needs vs Future Needs.

Something like Free Will vs Predestination is more of an example
of a philosophy question, but any of the questions asking 'do
actions have consequences' falls under Justice vs Mercy.

That pretty much does it for now. I'll see you in the comments
and in chat in the next session and in our upcoming
teleconferences.