Bankers' bonuses, MPs' expenses – the recent financial and political crises suggest a failure of ethics. "Citizen ethics in a time of crisis" is a project by the Guardian, in association with the Citizen Ethics Network, designed to instigate debate about who deserves what, how politics can help humanity flourish and what we mean by a good life. We asked prominent thinkers to explore key questions – read the full pamphet here, and join the debate on the individual articles we have reproduced for this series on Comment is free.