Key Ethical Theories and Concepts of Happiness
Socrates and the Foundation of Western Ethics
The good thing is to do something. Above all, the community itself is understood as the virtue par excellence, and the ability to excel, giving some power to the virtuous. The good man is trying to excel by providing the best services to his community, and this is the idea of behaving morally. The good is to try to be the best to provide a service to the community. The creator of Western ethics, Socrates, raises fundamental ethical questions and proposes methods and attitudes for resolving them. Possibilities to reflect: the attitude of seeking truth relentlessly. Searching for the truth is opposed to dogmatism; the truth is in the heart of men, reflection, and dialogue. Socrates calls his method maieutics, in this case, the art of giving birth to the truth. Moral concepts discovered through this method apply to all men. Wisdom, virtue, and happiness are identified. Those who know, work according to her. Those who do evil do so through ignorance.
Kant: Deontology and Formalism
Kant is a deontologist because he cares about duty and is formalistic. The contents of the rules do not matter. He is a proceduralist because he wants to clarify the procedure for deciding that a rule is correct.
Ethical Materials
Ethical materials indicate what is good. It is the matter, the contents of the good. Heteronomous ethics identify the morally good with an end that man’s will is not given to itself, but that is given to him by nature.
Imperatives
Hypothetical imperatives require only persons who want an end. They are tips for a reasonable reason or calculator, not mandates, moral forces. Categorical imperatives are universal and unconditional. Do not kill or lie because it is not proper to do so. They are moral mandates.
Formal Traits of Reason
It is universal, which refers to beings that are not ends in themselves. They form part of a universal legislation in a realm of fines. If men are able to give us these moral laws, it is because they are autonomous and not heteronomous.
Implications of Autonomy
Human dignity: “beings can be exchanged at a price for others because a good will equivalent can be found for them. The morally good is to have good will.” Can we expect to be happy?
Values
Values are not captured through reason but through emotional intuition, a faculty called axiology. It is possible to build a pure science of values, which consists of three types: all values are positive or negative, there is a relation between value and duty, and our emotional intuition captures the values arranged in a strict hierarchy. The moral good is the willingness to make a higher value instead of a lower one.
The Starting Point of Discourse Ethics
The starting point of discourse ethics is the fact that people argue on standards, and we are interested in determining which attitudes are morally correct. Two different attitudes: discuss without any desire to see if the rule is correct or not, take the dialogue seriously, concerned about the problem, and whether we can understand each other. The first attitude makes dialogue absurd; the second one makes sense.
Communitarians vs. Universalists
Communitarians: Universal principles alienate individuals from the community. To acquire their identity, they have to ignore virtues they should cultivate to make it thrive. The loss of the community dimension produces disengaged individuals without strong ties, such as those given by family or religion. Universalists: Communities are essential for the development of a person, but community solidarity is a group solidarity, which is the authentic universal solidarity.
Happiness and Self-Realization
Being happy is self-realization, achieving the goals of a human being. Aristotle said that the ultimate goal is happiness. Happiness is a perfect good, wanted for itself and no other superior to it; good enough by itself, so whoever has it no longer wants something else; good that is achieved with the exercise of the activity most characteristic of the human; good activity that is achieved by a person who exerts a continuous function in their society, and to do better is to acquire virtues that help you do it. Actions that are aimed at themselves are more perfect than those whose purposes are different from them because, in this case, the effects are more important than the actions. It is also performed to live morally according to their practical intellect, controlling their passions to achieve happiness. In this task, two kinds of virtues will help us: dianoetic and ethical. Dianoetic is under caution because it is practical wisdom that helps us deliberate. We propose what we should do in all our lives. Ethics requires policy; the individual’s highest good, happiness, requires a polis, a city with just laws.
Happiness as Self-Sufficiency
To be happy is to be self-sufficient, to benefit by itself without depending on anything or anyone. It is to be wise and happy. They consider that happiness consists of the radical freedom of the individual against all rules and social institutions. Man is good by nature, and it is wise to live according to nature. Heraclitus says it is better to ensure peace of mind, thus making it insensitive to suffering and opinions.
Happiness as Pleasure
To be happy is to experience pleasure and get rid of the level of moral intellect. It is a calculating intellect. Epicureanism is about good enjoyment. Wisdom has two roots: pleasure and calculating intellect. Utilitarianism considers that human beings have social feelings, and as a source of satisfaction, the goal of morality is pleasure. It is about achieving the greatest happiness for the largest possible number of people. The arithmetic of pleasures: pleasure is likely because, as all pleasures are equal in quality, the pleasures of different individuals can be compared with each other to reach a total maximum of pleasure. The act of utilitarianism requires assessing the correctness of each action by its consequences. Utilitarianism of the rule requires consideration of whether the action before us is subject to some of the rules.