Abstract: The history of western ethics is in general divided into four periods as ancient,medieval,modern,and contemporary time.They take hold of essential features of their own which can be characterized in perspective of central field(s),of leading spirits,of academic relationship structure,and of focuses in disputation.The essential features of Greek & Rome ethics is described as follows: its central fields are the theory of virtue and the outlook on life;its leading spirits are anthropocentrism,temperatism and eudemonism;its academic relationship structure is the co-existence of many close schools which dispute eagerly on these or those issues;and its focuses in disputation lie chiefly between temperatism and untemperatism on the pattern of life and between hedonism and aretiehism on the standard of morals.Those of medieval Christian theological ethics as follows: its central fields are the theological theory of virtue and the theological outlook on life;its leading spirits are theocentrism,asceticism and mysticism;its academic relationship structure is on the whole the presence of one school which takes a monopolized position exclusively;and its focuses in disputation lie chiefly between determinism and libertarianism on the moral faculty and between devotionalism and rationalism on the moral action.Those of modern western ethics as follows: its central field is the philosophy of morals;its leading spirits are humanitarianism,individualism,hedonism,rationalism,and subjectivism;its academic relationship structure is the gradual increase of loose schools which make a controversy sometimes with each other;and its focuses in disputation lie chiefly between human nature’s goodness and badness and between utilitarianism and deontalism on the standard of morals.Those of contemporary western ethics as follows: its central fields are the linguistics of morals,the psychology of morals,the philosophy of morals and the outlook on life
;its leading spirits are neo-humanitarianism,neo-individualism,neo-utilitarianism,irrationalism,and relativism;its academic relationship structure is the prosperity of various kinds of schools which argue vehemently among one another on these or those issues;and its focuses in disputation lie chiefly between scientism and humanism on the disciplinary nature of ethics and between individualism and collectivism on the relationship of individual interests to common ones.

Key words: Greek &, Rome ethics;medieval Christian theological ethics;modern western ethics;contemporary western ethics;essential feature