The system which Abelard elaborated as the second phase of his work was (in a broad sense) a theological one: an explanation of Christian doctrine. Yet, even more clearly than the first phase, it also contains a philosophy. Working as a logician, Abelard had been led by the ancient logical texts themselves into problems of ontology, epistemology and semantics. As a theologian, Abelard had from the start tended to see his subject in predominantly ethical terms. Philosophical ethics is not, then, a by-product of theological reflection, or a simple accompaniment to it. Rather, it guides Abelard's whole approach to Christian doctrine. For, although the form of Abelard's thought in its second phase is theological, the ethical theory Abelard develops both provides its underlying structure and allows it to fulfil its aims. His view of God and his works is, at base, an ethical one; and the purpose of his theology (no less than that of his great opponent, St Bernard) moral reformation.

Abelard explicitly recognized both the importance and the breadth of ethics: it is ‘the end and fulfilment of all other disciplines’ (Coll. 88: 1263– 4), which has as its task to discover what is the highest good and how it may be attained (Coll. 98: 1508–9; cf. 88: 1265 – 89: 1269). Ethics, then, embraces discussion of God, as the highest good, and his ordering of the universe, analysis of the most general evaluative terms and of the acts they are used to qualify, theoretical examination of laws and conduct, and practical consideration of social arrangements and individual behaviour.