Ethics, Morality, and Human Behavior in Society
Ethics and Morality
Since human beings are grouped into societies, they need to develop a set of rules to regulate their behavior with other members of the community.
Moral or morality comes from the Latin “mor, moris,” meaning “usual.” It can be defined as the set of rules or standards by which our behavior is governed, or the behavior of a human being is ruled.
Morality can also be defined as what people must do to maintain social stability.
Ethics illustrates our moral behavior, about the problems
Descartes: Rationalism and the Method of Doubt
Descartes: Rationalism and the Pursuit of Certainty
Descartes, a proponent of rational authority, believed that truth resides in reason. His grand project was to achieve the certainty of universal knowledge. In epistemology, Descartes argued that we must doubt all knowledge to arrive at the truth. He posited that knowledge is acquired through reason, and the objects of knowledge are ideas, which are immediately comprehended.
For Descartes, certainty is found in mathematical knowledge, as these are
Read MorePedro Crespo in ‘The Mayor of Zalamea’: Character & Values
Analysis of Pedro Crespo: Values and Character
Pedro Crespo, a wealthy farmer who is later appointed Mayor of Zalamea, is a dynamic character with a strong sense of social honor. He believes in natural law, acknowledging differences in lineage, but firmly asserts that all are equal before the law and that justice must be served. He rejects the notion that honor and class can be bought, a point he subtly challenges his son on. Crespo is characterized by his initial caution and his principle of treating
Read MoreC.S. Lewis on Moral Values: Tao Supremacy
Item 4: The Lack of Instinct as the Foundation of the New Morality
C.S. Lewis offers several criticisms of instincts as the basis for values:
- If it is an instinct, an unavoidable natural impulse is naturally obeyed, why write books like the Green Book that exhort us to obey instinct?
- Claiming that if people obey the instinct to die for the country or friends as instinctive, happiness and satisfaction are only achieved when we are dead, and therefore is not satisfaction or happiness at all.
- If instinct
Thomistic Philosophy: God, Reality, and Ethics
The Reality: Hylomorphic Perspective
Where Does Reality Come From and What’s its Purpose?
Reality is a whole subject, hylomorphic. The first problem is to prove the existence of God.
Demonstrating the Existence of God
It is necessary to demonstrate the existence of God rationally.
- Is it necessary? Yes, because the existence of God in reality is not evident through the senses.
- Is it possible? Yes, because God imprints footprints in perceptible reality. From effects, we can reach the cause. This is the
Understanding Life’s Core Concepts: A Philosophical Lexicon
Understanding Life’s Core Concepts
Cast: This metaphor means that we, living beings, did not choose our circumstances, our world, nor the time to enter it. Suddenly and fatally, without our decision, we are in the world.
Knowledge: All knowledge is an elaboration of the continuing revelation that consists primarily of living, a development of the first fundamental attribute of life. The theory of knowledge of Ortega’s perspectivism posits that all knowledge, including mathematical-experimental science,
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