The term "ethics" deriving from the Greek "habit, way of life" "entered in common use with Aristotle who titled in this way his treatise of philosophy in practice" (Guido Calogero, Encyclopedia Italiana 14 (Treves, Treccani, Tumminelli, 1932): 447, s.v. "etica"). Since then the term has remained an acquired term within philosophy, just like that part of philosophy "that after logic, doctrine of knowledge, and physics, doctrine of reality, established how mankind had to practically behave vis a vis this new reality" (ibid.). The term, often also identified as morality, has there been "consecrated as a technical term for the designation of every doctrine that is speculatively elaborated around the problem of the practical behaviour of mankind" (ibid.). Therefore we can mean by the term ethics that area of moral philosophy that studies human behaviour, the science of habits and of social relationships. (61:1)

We ask ourselves if together with this definition, there exist possible modifications of the meaning of ethics in this modern world characterized by rapid changes. The personal choice that directs the behaviours in specific social situations is generally based upon moral principles of a religious kind, that differ in the different regions of the planet. For example in the West a behaviour is considered as ethical if it is in harmony with some of the laws deriving form the Jewish-Christian behavioural codes of the Old and New Testament, as per the example of the ten commandments. In Muslim countries the ethical behaviour depends on the coherence with the laws of the Koran, the sacred book of the Muslims, and so on in the various parts of the planet. In the West another generic "good ethical behaviour" has been come about, meant as "good human behaviour", independently of moral considerations of a religious kind linked instead to the "common sense of the father of the family." An innovative structure of ethics can be found in the writings of Baha'u'llah. He wrote many pages on many subjects, from which one can note that
Ethics derives from justice.
Therefore to examine the field of ethics, we need to first examine, that of justice. Therefore the study of ethics can be divided into two specific fields:
Justice at individual level
And collective justice.
The need for this distinction arises from the difference between ethics at the individual level and ethics at the collective or group level. We can now deepen together the main definitions of justice, and of ethics, where it stems from, in the light of Baha'u'llah's writings: (61:2)

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