Ethics is one of major branches within philosophy. You can, obviously, dismiss the modern practice of philosophy if their results go over your head. But it's re

Ethics is one of major branches within philosophy. You can, obviously, dismiss the modern practice of philosophy if their results go over your head. But it's really difficult to argue the terminology, because ethics is part of philosophy more or less by definition. As to your objection: differences of opinion do not render the discussion worthless. Otherwise, non-philosophers would have just as little legitimisation to argue ethics as they do, considering religion, politics, and kindergarten kids similarly have people arguing opposing points of view. The argument is also selling philosophy somewhat short: Because while there are completely different paradigms of how to investigate ethics, they happen to agree on a surprisingly large canon, i. e. "don't kill too many innocents" (and, to incorporate the Greeks: "...and try looking good while doing so"). Many ideas of moral philosophy have become so widely accepted that we no longer notice them, sort of like the fish that don't have a concept of "water". "All men are created equal" came from those ivory tower talking heads at a time where it was a rather radical idea and got about as much ridicule as animal rights or the trolley problem are getting today in some quarters.