Understanding Ethics: Definitions, Rules, and Philosophers
1. Definition of Ethics
Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies human actions, classifying them as morally good or bad, proper, prohibited, or permitted. The repetition of these actions forms habits (from the Latin mos, moris, hence the word ‘moral’), shaping a freely acquired moral character (in Greek, ethos, hence ‘ethics’).
2. Classification of Rules
Human life is a series of decisions. What constitutes the right decision in each case? A ‘correct decision’ can refer to the means employed to achieve an end (resulting in hypothetical standards) or the purposes we should pursue (giving rise to categorical or unconditional rules, which are moral norms; e.g., ‘do not lie,’ ‘keep your promise’). Hypothetical standards can be unconventional or technical (e.g., ‘pour gasoline’) or conventional, depending on an agreement between people. These may be social (e.g., ‘greet neighbors’) or legal, codified, and sanctioned for failure to comply (e.g., ‘drive on the left’).
3. The Problem of Moral Relativism
Moral relativism is the doctrine that reduces moral norms to hypothetical, conventional social norms. It considers moral predicates like ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘just,’ and ‘unfair’ to lack absolute meaning, instead being relative to the values of a specific cultural community. The reasoning is that if objective moral standards existed worldwide, they would be universally recognized. However, actions valued differently across societies suggest the absence of such standards.
This reasoning is structurally sound but relies on questionable assertions. Objective truths may exist without universal recognition (e.g., the Earth revolving around the sun, which was not widely accepted five centuries ago). Furthermore, significant agreement exists regarding general principles: most societies value justice, hospitality, courage, and so on.
4. The Sophists and Socrates
The Greek Sophists were teachers of rhetoric and dialectic in the 5th century BC, skilled in the art of exposition and persuasion. They were among the first to charge for teaching. Prominent Sophists included Protagoras, who stated that ‘man is the measure of all things’ (truth is relative to the individual), and Gorgias, who claimed ‘there is nothing; but if there were, we could not know it; even if we knew it, we could not communicate it’ (a skeptical viewpoint).
Socrates argued differently from the Sophists. His starting point in the search for objective truth was the awareness of his own ignorance (‘I know that I know nothing’). He did not charge for teaching, preferring dialogue through questioning to help others discover the truth for themselves. He believed that if one knows what is good, one will do it. He wrote nothing; our knowledge of his doctrine comes from his student, Plato. Socrates was accused of introducing new gods and corrupting the youth, and was sentenced to death.
5. The Eudaimonistic Ethics of Aristotle
Aristotle spent twenty years in Plato’s Academy, tutored Alexander the Great, and founded his own school, the Lyceum. In his Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that the ultimate goal of human life is happiness (eudaimonia). He asserts that the proper function of man is rational activity (man is a logikon zoon, a rational animal).
He divides virtues into intellectual virtues (like prudence) and moral virtues (such as courage or temperance).
6. The Hellenistic Schools: Epicureans, Cynics, and Stoics
Epicurus, a Greek philosopher of the 4th-3rd century BC, founded a school known as the Garden. He affirmed that the right action is that which produces the greatest pleasure or the least pain for oneself. He believed it is necessary only to satisfy natural and necessary desires, avoid unnecessary ones, and eliminate fear, including the fear of death, because ‘when death is, I am not; and when I am, death is not.’
Cynics (‘the sect of the dog’), like Diogenes, disregarded all existing values.
For the Stoics, such as Epictetus (a freed slave) or Marcus Aurelius (Roman emperor), liberation from the passions leads to equanimity of mind. One must live ‘according to nature,’ or ‘according to reason,’ and accept fate. Their motto is ‘endure and renounce.’ According to Seneca, in his letters to Lucilius, we must live rightly, honoring the divine within man.