Understanding Ethics: The Study of Morality and Human Actions
Ethics, derived from the Greek word ethos, explores the principles that guide human behavior, relationships, and moral judgments. It delves into what is right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust, aiming to provide a framework for ethical conduct in society. With a focus on moral philosophy, ethics raises questions about the nature of morality, the standards for ethical behavior, and the significance of terms like good, right, and just. Ultimately, ethics seeks to uncover the foundations of morality and how individuals can lead a virtuous life in community settings.
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Etymologically, ethics is derived from the Greek word- ethos, which means custom. The idea of custom here is to suggest that every custom sets certain limits that it expects that individuals and groups will not cross In this regard there is a social control on what is good or bad, how we should relate to one another, how people in the community should relate to other living things, the environment, celestial being, and distant people. It has as its main goal carrying investigation into the morality of human action. Its focus is on how human beings can live a moral life and the right standards used in evaluating
Ethics, also referred to as moral philosophy, is the branch of philosophy that deals with moral rules that ought to guide social relations among humans as well as regulate how human beings ought to relate with other living and non-living entities around them Ethics is a field of philosophy where the analytical and critical tools of philosophy are focused on human actions. It is a field that seeks to unearth the nature of morality and what the right moral judgement entails.
It is concerned with the evaluation of human actions in order to determine whether these actions are right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. It helps furnish humans with direction on what is the appropriate way to conduct ourselves in the pursuit of what is good over evil, what is right over what is wrong, and what is just over what is unjust, among others
Some of the questions that are raised in ethics are: What makes an action right or wrong? What is the moral standard? Who determines what is morally right- God, society, or the individual? Is what is morally right subjective, relative or absolute in nature? What do the terms employed in moral judgement like good, right, or just, mean?
Ethics has as its subject matter- morality. Ethics is the systematic study of what is right, wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. Morality refers to that which is good or thought to be good, that which is just or that which is thought to be unjust. It has to do with living a good life in the society. The good life in question refers to living a life of virtue.
The requirement that human beings should be just is founded on the belief that human beings are rational. As rational beings we are expected to know that which is right or wrong or injurious to humanity
As rational beings, it is expected that reason and experience will make humans know those things which we like or which is good for us, and that the actor will not want the opposite for recipients of his/her action. Rationality presupposes that we do not want harm to befall us and the implication of this is that we would want to do unto others as we want others to do unto us.
It is also founded on the fact that human beings are rational in the sense that seeing that human beings are rational will require that they seek adequate justification or relevant evidence that will enable them make justifiable decisions concerning their actions in their quest to determine the proper way to behave.
Ethics as an inquiry Ethics has been defined as an inquiry into the moral worth of human conducts. In other words it entails making investigation. As a result of the fact that ethics deals with human action the investigations conducted in it are far-reaching touching nearly all facets of life
The Ultimate aim of ethics The ultimate aim of ethics, is to furnish human beings with standards with which they can make distinction between those "actions that are good and those that are bad, between those that are right and those that are wrong, between those that are acceptable and those that are not acceptable, and between those that are commendable or not commendable."
It is for this reason that we have an ethics of nearly every facet of life- Business Ethics, Environmental Ethics, Research Ethics, Medical Ethics, Work Ethics, Christian Ethics, Medical Ethics, Bioethics The reason for these various ethics is because of the recognition that there are diverse ethical challenges that lurk around in different disciplines and facets of life that require effective response able to ensure that moral principles are "sustained in the various areas of human operations."
Ethics make a bifurcation of action into two- the good or the bad, the just or unjust. In doing the separation ethics separates actions into the moral or the immoral, and thus further underscore norms that human conducts should make their actions conform to and condemns vices which they should run away from. Through this ethics prescribes the type of human behaviours that are intrinsically good in themselves and the criteria for adjudging actions one is about to undertake as either moral or immoral.
If people adhere to the principle of ethics and its recommendation then social order will be maintained.
BRANCHES OF ETHICS Ethics is studied under the following branches 1. Meta-Ethics 2. Normative Ethics 3. Applied Ethics
Meta-Ethics One of the tools of philosophy, of which ethics is a branch, is language; the other being logic It is with language that we communicate ideas and thus it is important to ensure that one has a good grasp of the language with which one is communicating. Language is however made up of words or terms or concepts which could have more than one meaning; and it is important to ensure that the concepts one is using is clearly understood.
According to P.O. Bodunrin, "the first step in philosophical reasoning analysis."8This step allows the philosopher to explicate the concept or idea being discussed, thereby allowing the philosopher to unearth the meanings of his terms and avoid linguistic muddle. is conceptual
The explanation and clarification of ethical concepts is done in meta-ethics. Meta-ethics may be defined as: a sub-branch of ethics dedicated to promoting understanding of employed in ethical discourse so that people are better positioned to interrogate principles of action in ethical reasoning a better terms concepts and
Some of the words used in ethics are: good, bad, wrong, right, moral, duty, obligation, virtue, freedom, rationality, choice, immoral. Metaethics is interested in examining these concepts and others in order to show what they mean in moral discourse.
Things done in metaethics 1. Clarification of concepts. For example; antinaturalism sees goodness as a simple, nonnatural, and indefinable property 2. investigating the meaning of ethical statement. For example: Emotivism claims that every ethical statement shows the emotion of the person making an ethical claim and is an attempt to evoke the same feeling from others. So when one says lying is wrong the person is showing his attitude to lying and expects others to display similar attitude
Another example is prescriptivism which is the metaethical theory that says that one is making a universal prescription about an action which one likes or dislikes, such that if one says stealing is wrong then one is recommending to everyone to desist from stealing
3. The third thing that is done in meta-ethics is the identification of the source of moral standards. In other words there is an attempt to know what make a moral action right or wrong? For example we have: the divine command theory: which holds that what is right or wrong depends on God saying so.
Ethical relativism: this metaethical theory posits that what is morally right or wrong has its source in the individual, society, culture, or period (epoch)
Normative ethics The second branch of ethics is normative ethics. This is the branch of ethics given to determining the norms with which to evaluate which action is right or wrong. It is the branch of ethics given to development of "principles that ought to guide human conduct, or "the formulation of moral rules that have direct implications for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life should be like."
Generally speaking two traditional forms of theories have emerged from this branch of ethics. They are: 1. Teleological ethical theories 2 deontological ethical theories
Teleological ethical theories Teleological ethical theories are also called consequentialist ethical theories. These are theories that place consequence or outcome of an action to determine if the action in question is right or wrong. an action is right if it brings about good result and wrong if it brings about bad result. emphasis on the
There is, however, no consensus among proponents of teleological ethical theories as to what qualifies a result as good or bad. Some moral philosophers are of the view that it is the ability of an action to bring pleasure that determines whether the result of the action is good; while if an action produces pain then the result is bad. Thus, for philosophers who subscribe to this view, an action is right if it promotes the greatest amount of pleasure over pain; and wrong if it enhances more pain than pleasure
Examples of teleological ethical theories are: Ethical hedonism Ethical egoism Ethical altruism Utilitarianism- the greatest amount of good must be promoted for the greatest number of people affected by the result of the action
Critique of teleological ethics However, teleological ethical theories have some shortcomings. One is that they require that we foresee the outcome of our actions, which incidentally is what humans are not totally capable of. Some consequences which are foreseen to bring good results sometimes end up producing bad ones and vice versa.
In addition, humans are often incapable of foreseeing which action will purely benefit self, or others, or even the majority. Actions that one believes will favour oneself sometimes favour others too, while benevolent actions sometimes favour one in addition to favouring others. Fact is that the demarcation is not often an easy one to make.
Another major failure of consequentialism is that it makes it appear that the end justifies the means. But the problem is that an evil means cannot justify a good end. If an action is informed by a bad motive, even if the consequence of that action is good, the action cannot be said to be morally good.
Deontological ethical theories Deontological ethical theories generally agree that it is the nature of an action in itself that makes an action good or bad and not just the consequence. deontological ethical theories place importance on rules, motives, and the nature of the action itself in deciding the rightness or wrongness of an action. Kant's Moral Theory is an example of deontological ethical theories
