Core Concepts and Challenges in Moral Philosophy
Foundations of Ethics and Morality
Defining Ethics
Ethics refers to moral judgments and sets of principles concerning an action (good, bad, right, wrong). The repetition of acts creates habits that determine attitudes. Throughout life, personality is formed through behavior.
The Concept of Ethics is a discipline that seeks to value judgments, provided that such value judgments are applied to the distinction between good and evil.
Defining Morality
The Concept of Morality is a set of beliefs, customs, values, and norms held by groups that influence our behavior and guide us in determining whether an action is right or not.
Ethics vs. Morality: Key Differences
Ethics analyzes the philosophical principles that form the basis of a code of conduct, which is morality. It is an abstract thought that allows describing behavior in terms of goodness or badness. Morality, conversely, refers to a concrete code of prohibitions and requirements accepted by a social group or moralist.
Contemporary Ethical Challenges
Ethics permeates all social life and requires personal coherence. Addressing modern challenges requires appropriate ethical frameworks.
Bioethics and Life Sciences
Bioethics is a branch of applied ethics or science dealing with problems arising from the use of new technologies and medical advancements. Key issues include:
- Human Genome: The complete DNA sequence, genetic manipulation, and cloning. Ethics often opposes human reproductive cloning.
- Euthanasia: Ending life painlessly for a sick individual.
- Active Euthanasia: Death is negotiated and actively induced.
- Passive Euthanasia: Attention or treatment that keeps the patient alive is interrupted.
- Donated Organs: Ethical considerations regarding procurement and allocation, allowing recipients to continue with their lives.
Ecological and Social Ethics
Ecological Crisis and Sustainability
Ecology is a branch of biology that studies the relationship between living organisms and their environment. The Ecological Crisis involves issues like deforestation and pollution. Ethical frameworks advocate for sustainable development.
Social Justice and Minority Rights
Minorities have the right to non-discrimination. Related issues include:
- Positive Discrimination: Preferential treatment for minorities to access certain resources, aiming to correct historical imbalances.
- Homophobia: Hatred and discrimination toward homosexual individuals.
- Animal Rights Violation: The ethical recognition that animals possess inherent rights.
Globalization and Professional Ethics
The Impact of Globalization
Globalization is a commercial and economic process that unifies global markets, societies, and cultures, leading to major changes and often exacerbating differences between rich and poor nations.
Professional Codes of Ethics
A Code of Ethics sets out the ethical standards governing the conduct of members of a specific profession.
Major Ethical Theories: Happiness, Pleasure, and Utility
Ethics of Happiness (Eudaimonia)
This framework views happiness as a virtue.
Teleological and Monistic Theories
Teleological theories assert that there is a purpose (telos) to life, and morality is measured around achieving that purpose. Monistic-Ende theories connect the purpose of life directly to the connection between happiness and virtue.
Aristotelian Ethics
For Aristotle, the good life or happiness of man is achieved when the mind reaches its own perfection. The good life lies in the constant exercise of human reasoning powers. These capabilities apply both to the knowledge of truth and to the decisions made in life. Aristotle proposed three paths to the good life:
- Ideal Pleasures: People obey the ideal punishment and reward system.
- Wise and Virtuous People: Individuals who get involved in the life of the ideal city.
- Wise Caution (Contemplative Life): People focused on perfect contemplative life centered on wisdom.
Virtue is acquired through practice to act in a harmonious and balanced way. Aristotle emphasized practical wisdom (phronesis), which orients our life toward finding the mean between extremes.
Happiness as Pleasure: Epicureanism
Epicureanism is a philosophical current developed during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Epicureans are materialists, believing that everything is composed of matter. Happiness, therefore, is achieving the highest degree of pleasure (ataraxia, or tranquility).
- Active Pleasures: Those we must actively pursue.
- Passive Pleasures: Those that prevent humans from suffering in the body (aponia) or being upset in the soul.
Natural pleasures are subdivided into physical or ephemeral pleasures and intellectual or durable pleasures. Social pleasures are often seen as making people unhappy.
Happiness and Utility: Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a set of ethical theories agreeing that the criterion for happiness and the purpose of moral actions is utility. For Jeremy Bentham, the end of man is the pursuit of happiness, which he identifies with the good and the useful.