Aristotle

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Aristotle
The word “ethics” is derived from the Greek word “ethos,” which refers to the moral principles that govern the course of actions of an individual or society. Thus, ethics determines whether the person does wrong or right. Aristotle, the father of ethics virtue, argued that ethics is an innate quality that cannot be trained to an individual. This paper deviates from the teachings of Aristotle and holds that ethics is learned (Barnes, Jonathan, & Anthony, 13).
The ability to tell the wrong from the right does not develop abruptly, but just like physical development, it develops in stages. The early stages referred to pre-conventional level, a child discerns a wrong from the right based on what the authority says. Thus, if the parent says that doing something is wrong, then the child will refrain from doing it. The next level of ethical discernment is referred to as the conventional level and comes at the adolescent stage (Kenny, 17). At this stage, the subject has mastered the norms of those groups they subscribe to, for example, family, religious groups and other social circles. At this stage, morality is dependent on the groups’ loyalty. Asking a teenager why something is right, they will base their argument on the beliefs of their social groups. The last stage is termed as post-conventional. An individual in this phase does not define right or wrong based on group loyalties instead of their view of morality is founded on universal perspectives (Barnes et al.

15).
Education is the constant factor across three stages of development. From a tender age, children learn that doing some activities is wrong from parents. At the youth stage, we are influenced by social circles. Whereas some individuals hold on this level even in adulthood, others lean on the post-conventional stage of universal perspective. Summing it up, individuals acquire their ethical leaning from the experiences and influences of their upbringing backgrounds.
Works cited
Barnes, Jonathan, and Anthony Kenny, eds. Aristotle’s Ethics: Writings from the Complete Works. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Kenny, Anthony. The Aristotelian Ethics: A study of the relationship between the Eudemian and Nicomachean ethics of Aristotle. Oxford University Press, 2016.