ETH201 Official Handouts

INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF ETHICS

In our general discussions and daily life routine, we listen and use many times remarks such as, this is good, this is wrong, this is bad, this is very good, Mr so and so has good behavior whereas others have not this.

Now the point is that on which basis we decide or determine that this is good and this is bad?

This question can easily be replied by saying that this parameter or standard is provided by ethics. This is vast term and it is a major branch of Philosophy.

Definition of Ethics

Ethics is defined as the study of "what is right or good in conduct”. The word Ethics has been taken from Greek word “ethora” means character and this is connected with custom or habit.

Moral philosophy

The term “moral philosophy” is also used for this subject, which means same thing as ethics. The word “moral” has also been derived form Greek word “moras” meaning habits or customs, whereas the word “Philosophy” has been derived from two Greek words “Phillian” and “Sophia” meaning seek and wisdom respectively.

There is also another word that represents this kind of discussion known as axiology, means scientific study of values, or only study of values.

So we can say that the moral philosophy is the name of such habits and deeds by which wise ness, reasoning and good intellect is taken.

It also (Ethics) discusses men’s habits and customs or in other words their characters, the principles on which they habitually act, and considers what it is that constitutes the rightness or wrongness of those principles, the good or evil of those habits.

These terms “right” and “good” seem requires little explanation.

Right

The word " Right" has been derived from Rectus, which is Greek word, meaning straight or according to rule. When we say that conduct is right, we mean primarily that it is according to rule. Rules however, have reference to some result to be achieved by them, and it is this fact that is indicated by the second term “Good”.

Good

The term “good” is connected with the German gut means valuable for some end. Any thing is considered to be good when it is valuable for some end. Thus, particular kinds of medicines are said to be good when it is useful for this or that complaint. Similarly, when we speak of conduct as good, we may mean that it is serviceable for the end or ideal that we have in view.

It should be carefully observed that the term “good” is also used to signify not something which is means to an end, but some thing which is itself taken as an end. Thus the summum bonum, or supreme good, means the supreme end at which we aim.

Hence, when we say that the study of Ethics is concerned with the rightness or goodness of human conduct, we mean that it is concerned with the consideration of the serviceableness of our conduct for some ideal or end at which we aim, and with the rules or general principles by which our conduct is to be directed in order that this end may be attained. But of we are to consider the serviceableness of our actions to an end, and the rules or conditions by which by this end is to be attained, it is evident that writing of book, the passing of an examination, and so on. But since Ethics is the study of conduct as whole, not particular kinds of conduct, it is not any of these special ends it sets itself to consider, but the supreme or ultimate end to which our whole lives are directed. This end is commonly referred to as the Summum Bonum or supreme good.

Now it is no doubt open to question at the outset, whether there can be said to be any one supreme end in human life. Men aim at various objects. Some desire wealth, others independence, others power. Some are eager for fame, others for knowledge, and others for love and some again for highest good in serving others. Some are fond of excitement, some fill their lives with many sided-interests-art and science and the development of social and political institutions, others are tempted to regard all these as vanity and sometimes even turning from them in all disgust to believe that the best thing of all would be to die and be at rest, while others again fix their highest hopes on life beyond death to be perfected in better world than this.

But little consideration service that many of these ends can not be regarded as ultimate, if, for instance, we were to question to those who are seeking for wealth or independence are power, we should generally find that they would explain their desire for these objectives by enumerating the advantages which attainment of the desired objects would bring, the possibility of such an explanation proves that these objects are not regarded as ultimate ends by those who pursue them, but are desired for the sake of something else.

According to John S. Mackenzie, as he discussed in his book “A manual of Ethics” There are three ultimate ends for human beings, which are Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Still, we hardly seem to be justified in starting with the assumption that there is any one ultimate end in human life. The question whether any such end can be discovered is rather one that must be discussed in this study. What it is necessary for us to assume is simply that there is some ideal in life, i-e that there is some standard of judgment by reference to which we are able to say that one form of conduct is better than other. What the nature of this ideal or standard is –whether it has reference to single ultimate end, to set of rules imposed upon us by some authority, to an ideal type of human life which we are somehow enabled to form for ourselves, or in what other possible way it is determined-we must endeavor to discover as we go on.

The Normative Ethics

Traditionally, normative ethics (also known as moral theory) was the study of what makes actions right and wrong. Classical theories in this vein include utilitarianism, Kantianism, and some forms of co Tractarianism. These theories offered an overarching moral principle to which one could appeal in resolving difficult moral decisions.

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato (who was also a Greek Philosopher and author of book “Republic”) and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology. His famous book on this subject is “Ethics”.

Ethics as a major branch of philosophy

Ethics is a major branch of philosophy encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct.

Ethics is not a practical Science, in view of the fact that Ethics is concerned with action, it has sometimes been characterized as a practical science, but this is on the whole, misleading. There are scientific studies that may rightly be characterized as practical, such as medicine, engineering or architecture. Such studies are directed towards the realization of a defined result. The study of moral Ethics, as a theoretical study, differs from this, just as logic and aesthetics do. Logic deals with the general conditions involved in discovery and apprehension of truth, and aesthetics deals with the general conditions involved in the production and appreciation of beauty.

In like manners, Ethics deals with the general conditions involved in the rightness or goodness of conduct. In all these it is true that reflection on the principles involved may be expected to help us in the application of them. One who has studied Logic may be expected to think more accurately than he otherwise would, one who has studied aesthetics may be expected to have finer appreciation of beauty in nature and art than he would otherwise posses and to be more careful in artistic productions. So also one who studies Ethics ought to have a finer moral discernment and a more zealous and discriminating pursuit of what is right good than he would otherwise have had. But this is not necessarily the case, nor is it the primary object of such studies. The most distinguished logicians are not necessarily the best thinkers and discoverers. Interest in and familiarity with particular subjects is generally of more importance. Similarly, the greatest poets and painters or the most appreciative lovers of nature are not always students of aesthetic principles. And, just in the same way, it is not buy the study of ethics that men and women become heroes or saints.

The objects of those studies that are described as normative is to supply a knowledge of guiding principles rather than to explain how they are to be applied, and this is perhaps even truer of Ethics than it is of Logic or aesthetics, since action covers a larger part of human life than thought or the appreciation of beauty and is to a greater extent learned by practice rather than by systematic reflection.

Ethics is not the Art of conduct. It is now generally recognized that truth, Beauty, and Goodness are ultimate ends for human being. It appears to be absurd to ask why we should want to know To apprehend what is beautiful or to do what is right; but it is not immediately apparent what the exact nature of these great ends is, or what are the conditions that have to be observed for the attainment of them.

The application of these conditions may be said to be an art; and in that sense we may say that there is an art of thinking and an art of conduct, just as there are art of painting, music and poetry by which beautiful objects are created, but Logic is not properly to be called the art of thinking, nor is aesthetics to be called or identified with any of the particular arts by which beautiful objects are called into being. In those studies that are called normative we are rather seeking for insight into the nature of those supreme values –truth, beauty and goodnessto which particulars modes of knowledge, appreciation and action are subsidiary.

It has become customary to regard such studies as belonging to the province of philosophy, rather than as being either science or arts. It has even been urged that the study of the supreme values is the one object of philosophical studies, which aim, as the name implies, at the acquisition of wisdom rather than particular modes of knowledge. It has to be recognized, however, that this distinction has not always been present to the minds of those who have written about Ethics and in dealing with the subjects in a general it appears that the history of Ethics is the history of views that are more or less erroneous but the errors cannot be treated as due merely to human perversity. They are due rather to certain difficulties that are inherent in the nature of the subject.

Is there any art of conduct?

It has been noticed that it appears to be erroneous to speak of Ethics as an art of conduct. It has also been noticed that Ethics is the akin of Logic and aesthetics. The major reason is that the essence of conduct lies in an attitude of Will not in the possession of a particular kind of skill. The good painter is one who can paint beautifully and a similar remark applies, on the whole, to a thinker, who thinks well and very well for the welfare of mankind. But a good man is not one who can, but one who does, act rightly. Of course, sometimes the right action may be refraining from any over activity. They also serve who only stand and wait, but to stand and wait is a form of conduct. Conduct is not a capacity but a habit, in Aristotle’s phrase; it is a “Habit of Choice”. Where we choose to act or refrain from acting, we are in either case making a choice. We have to decide to do or not to do. The study of Ethics has a direct