Ethics are what the Halacha says they are. However, there is wisdom among Goyim and philosophers may have been mechaven to the emet. Rav Soloveichik, in fat, used philosophical concepts to explain Tora.
As for making people ethical, each person has inborn weaknesses. Halacha or philosophy might make an innately unethical person less unethical or it may give him terutzim that will result in a chillul Hashem. It can only make him ethical if he seeks to break his yetzer hara. Thus, the record holder for longest prison sentence in American history (845 years) is a “Chossid” who bilked an insurance company out of so much money that it went bankrupt causing thousands of people to lose their policies and annuities in addition to the stockholders who lost their investments and the employees who lost their jobs.