Ethics As A Philosophical Discipline

Ethics as a philosophical discipline

Ethics is considered the philosophical discipline that studies good and evil, its relationships with morality and human behavior, but what is really ethics?

We must understand that ethics and moral is not the same (and this is where we will enter the paradoxical conflict of: "moral against ethics"), although they have the same meaning of Latin and Greek;We define morals as the set of principles, criteria, norms and values that direct our behavior and are based on the actions we do before a society, at the same time, ethics is the theoretical reflection of morals, which in my perspective is likeThe saying of the sword and the wall, of analytical duty and moral power, because, as it says in its meaning, ethics is (and emphasized) "the theoretical reflection of morals". Without talking about how subjective moral is for now, we must understand that although it is not the same, they are aimed at them: ‘living well’ as a virtuous being, somehow, a man of "good to do"and that adapts to the moral concepts of its surroundings.

"To find yourself, think about yourself" – Socrates mentions us, and I want to start talking about the emergence and history of ethics and its development during the different processes of humanity so that in this way, at the end of the essayWe can understand what it means to be ethical.

The principle of ethics arises (or we assume that it arises) in the 5th century.

of n.and. With Socrates (who was accused of corrupting youth and condemned to drink hemlocks, which ended his life) who is considered the father of ethics and one of the first great philosophers of ancient Greece. He considered as "virtue" what was common for the entire human race and in all circumstances, for example, justice, courage or self-control. In this way not only opposed the relativism of the sophists, but also extracted from all the virtues those that we would call "moral virtues" today ".

One of his disciples and also one of the greatest philosophers in history (Plato) fundamentally accepts socratic identification between virtue and knowledge. The lack of virtue does not imply a perversion of human nature;By his own nature, man seeks good to himself, but if he does not know good, he can take as good, erroneously, anything and, consequently, act incorrectly;The lack of virtue is equivalent, then, to ignorance. The emperor of Rome, Marco Aurelio:

“Every morning he remembers reviewing this account: today I will stumble with at least one fisgen, with an ungrateThese people ignore good and evil, on the contrary, I have learned and meditated, on the one hand, that the nature of good consists of the honest and that of evil in the clumsy ”.

Only those who know the idea of good can act correctly, either in public as in privatepart of the soul do what should. We can conclude that all of the above implies that good life for man is a life in which the ‘material’ and ‘spiritual’ needs are met.

In ethics and morals we talk a lot about human nature, just as the following two great philosophers exposed, on the other hand, Jean-Jacques Rousseau said: “Man is naturally good, it is the society that corrupts him.”, In the counterpart and with some historical advantage, Nicolás Machiavelli said that:“ Man is bad by nature, unless they need him to be good.".

Nature can be described as the basic state of things, its true being, it is here where this clash of nature (or the true human being) begins to gather meaning depending on the subjectivity in which we are, for example, if We talk about prehistory and focus on the first civilizations (and in our assumptions) we can affirm that they were "wild" or unreasonable beings that could understand the minimum concept of good and bad, in my interpretation, human nature or human nature or Our essence is that of ignorance, entering spiritual issues such as Catholic religion, we can talk about the first humans of the earth, "Adam and Eve" who thanks to their encounter with the snake could obtain knowledge. The true nature of man is ignorance, perhaps not complete, but the inability to understand his reality in depth, and that, we assume what differentiates us from all other animals, the ability to deepen our existence to theremote and empty information where we arise, I consider it incapacity because despite being able to use reason (knowledge) we continue with too many doubts.

If we go to the philosophical approaches that expose Machiavelli and Rousseau, we can say that ethics, being the analysis of morality that is born from the sense of Rousseau of being good always but that we are corrupted by a third party, and with moral I can say that Machiavelli were right, because they have always taught us or tried to teach to be good, with rules, norms and structures that in the end are simple banal things that can be eliminated from one moment to another.

“After so many years studying ethics, I have concluded that all of it is summarized in three virtues: courage to live, generosity to live together, and prudence to survive.” – Fernando Savater.

In this research to theoretically understand ethics I sought to review the social context in which I live, "the problem of ethics in the 21st century", much of what was found were references to financial ethics and financial systems from different countries, such asIt is socialism and capitalism, with doubts in my head I reflected why today and my reality ethics is only based on money, and this phrase from Benjamín Franklin came to mind: “Of the one who believes that themoney can do everything, it can be suspected with foundation that will be able to do anything for money.”And this is where the greatest conflict of the last centuries enters, which has led us to wars and world crises: the economic development of a country, is the ethical problem of the S. XXI Well, who has money, has the power.

Let us answer, then, to the questions of what has created the beginning of philosophy, of analytical thought, of what has led man to the summit of his intelligence and apogee of his reason, because everything begins with those great philosophers of the timeGreek where the first doubts began to emerge, the first societies that carried the standard of research in their blood and that always sought the explanation to all the phenomena that occurred, from there, from those times the social construction movement arises for a coexistence for a coexistenceAssertive, effective and especially healthy, where man was recognized as the same, among his rights that enjoyed as the punishments themselves that were challenged to those who commit crime;The mystical word "moral" arises and everyone rejoices in it with new norms of civil behavior, of expression, of thought and endless possibilities that could have been attributed. Let us speak then of the moralistic principle attributed to Socrates, father of philosophy, that although he did not leave texts in which it would be demonstrated that he was a pioneer of the doubts that occur to man, we can say that through his oral teaching towardsHis student Plato left the echoes of his voice in the brands of history that still, remains a fundamental and basis in modern societies. Now, our central theme is "ethics" but what is? Ethics according to the "abbreviated philosophical dictionary" tells us that: it is the science that deals with morality, its origin and its development, the rules and norms of behavior of men, of their duties towards society,The homeland, the state, & c. Sometimes it is attributed to the term "ethical" the same sense as to the term "moral". But we must understand that ethics is the study of moralof values, because the study of a subject is not the same to determine from a perspective greater than good or bad according to our "moral" determining whether there is a medium common good to which it is intended to be achieved. Now, let’s talk about ethics in the different axes that make up our lives and give a reflection to each of them to be able to make clear the true meaning of morals.

"When the duty is clear, to doubt the line of conduct that must be followed is already falling" – Víctor Hugo.

The ethics in the socio-personal aspect we will define it as "ethics in my life" and for me ethics is to overcome my pillar of values before my desires, beliefs and seek a common good for my direct society;being someone who before the moral regulations established seeks how to perform in the best possible way and also, the improvement of these in the face of new social problems and controversies.

Ethics in policies perhaps one of the deepest issues that we can talk about, through times we can see so changing societies in different social aspects, from their uprisings, revolutions, art, culture there is always something that connects to man and is politics, because among all countries only 48 are under some type of dictator or socialist regime, and even in these countries the issue that moves the world has been corruption, impunity, the luxurious life of those who have Power and seek way to take advantage of them without some kind of fear of being harmed, in this, ethical man in the face of a problem such as corruption, which is so real that no one can deny the fact that it is only the imagination Of those who do not have opportunities, someone ethical fight to stop these abuses, to look for those responsible for selling their homeland to give life, to punish them and attach them as a memory of their betrayal of the Servi Social cio a fair conviction to what has been committed, Fernando Savater told us in his book “Ethics in urgency."That" the serious thing is not corruption, but, impunity."And while we, that we know that there is corruption and it is ourselves who encourage her excusing her with phrases like" the one who does not make."We will never advance as a society, we will never achieve that dream of a free, fair, honest world because it is the same human who interferes with that, it is the same human who flatly denies her progress.

Ethics in religions is also controversial in the moral aspects that have been defended during generations and the echoes of the conquests that still rumble and demand justice but, I am only focusing on the Catholic doctrine because it is the greatest known and practiced through the world and times; Let’s start by stating that this religion has a fairly strong value system since the creation of the "10 commandments" in the exodus of Egypt, in which the worst sins that one can make or the rules that we must follow for a True coexistence, the ethical being is to reflect today if these commandments would still be functional in our society, being ethical implies that despite being a Catholic I must put my values ​​before and really seek in the moral balance if the doctrines they are giving me are The right and correct.

I conclude with the flag of freedom that left us in Legado Sartre by saying that “morality is a matter of humans and God does not have to intervene in them.”And it is we who through ethical reflection must seek beyond the established, propose new regulations that compete the needs of here and now, that man can really enjoy his existence, freedom and his dream of an honest world,Where man can be man.