Manly P. Hall shifts the student from logic to ethics, defining ethics as the philosophical science that seeks to understand morality. Hall distinguishes two fundamental questions: What is morality?—answered by examining the moral codes of civilizations—and What ought morality to be?—a far more abstract inquiry into ideal conduct. He surveys the major schools of ethical thought: theological (morality as divine command), rationalist (morality as reason’s perfection), hedonist (morality as pleasure and utility), biological (morality as natural adaptation), perfectionist (morality as self‑realization), intuitionalist (morality as mystical awareness of universal law), and materialist (morality as survival strategy). Each system attempts to define right action, happiness, and the moral impulse, yet none fully resolves the tension between relative human codes and the possibility of an absolute moral standard.

In the second half, Hall turns to the metaphysical foundations of ethics, drawing heavily on Plato. He argues that Divinity is intrinsically consciousness, intelligence, and virtue, and that virtue—understood as the principle of right relationships—is the final and most difficult human attainment. Ethics, therefore, is not merely morality but the broader principle of fitness: the harmonious alignment of personal action with universal purpose. Virtue manifests when action conforms to the intrinsic order of the cosmos, where “everything is where it ought to be, doing what it ought to do.” Hall concludes that true ethics requires synchronizing spiritual, mental, and physical life with universal law. When individuals “fit in” to the divine plan, they achieve virtue, morality, and happiness; when they violate universal fitness, suffering and social disorder follow.