Ethics is a field of philosophy. You appear to believe in moral subjectivism, which is at least controversial[1], and probably a minority opinion among ethicist

Ethics is a field of philosophy. You appear to believe in moral subjectivism, which is at least controversial[1], and probably a minority opinion among ethicists. The fundamental question of ethics "What should we do?" is one of the foundational questions of human existence, so it is quite fitting for the field. Philosophy is pretty much as legit as the people writing the papers and the others peer-reviewing it are. The process obviously isn't empirical, instead you have to very narrowly define your axioms, and then in small steps argue from these axioms until you are at a final, logical conclusion. If your axioms are wrong, then the paper doesn't work. If your arguments are illogical or ambiguous, a peer-researcher will draw holes in it. If I would compare the process with my own field, CS, I would probably compare it to system design. There exist a few fundamental axioms we have to follow, and a few things we want to optimize for. In a lot of cases, through argument it becomes clear which is the best method. In other cases though it is either unclear, or dependent on the priorities you set yourself. [1]https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-anti-realism/ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-anti-realism/