Ethics,
also known as moral philosophy,
is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality —
that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and
vice, justice and crime, etc. There has been a very wide range of
views on the question among different civilizations and among
different philosophers.
The Moral
Intellectualism of Socrates
Socrates was a Greek philosopher, born
in 469 BC. He was predominantly interested in Ethics and is
considered the father of moral intellectualism.
Moral intellectualism can be explained
as follows: only if we know what is right can we act right, only if
we know what is just can we act justly. Therefore, virtue is
knowledge (of what is good and bad). Knowledge is, then, sought as a
means to ethical action. When people act immorally, they do not do
so deliberately; they do it because they are ignorants. According to
Socrates, knowledge is sufficient for being virtuous and virtue is
sufficient for being happy. Self-knowledge is the sufficient
condition to the good life. Our true happiness is promoted by doing
what is right.
Knowledge = virtue, good
Ignorance = bad, evil, not
useful
He also said that it is better to
suffer injustice than to do it, as doing injustice damages our soul.
Our convictions seem contrary to moral intellectualism, as we believe
that someone may know something is wrong and yet do it. For moral
intellectualism, perfection is a consequence of the perfection of the
intellect or reason.
Aristotle’s
Eudaimonia
Aristotle
was born in 384 BC. He was a Greek philosopher, a polymath, a
student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
He
taught that virtue has to do with the proper function of a thing. An
eye is only a good eye as it can see, because the proper function of
an eye is sight. He reasoned that humans must have a specific
function to humans, and this function must be an activity of the
soul, in accordance with reason. Aristotle identified such an
optimum activity of the soul as the aim of all human deliberate
action, eudaimonia,
generally translated as “happiness” or sometimes “well being”.
To have the potential of ever being happy in this way necessarily
requires a good character or moral/ethical virtue.
The
Greek term eudaimon
is composed of two parts: eu
means “well” and daimon
means “divinity” or “spirit”. To be eudaimon
is therefore to be living in a way that is well-favoured by a god.
But Aristotle never pays attention to this etymology, and it seems to
have little influence on his thinking. He regards eudaimon
as a mere substitute for “living well”. These terms are not
simply descriptions of someone’s state of mind, but they play an
evaluative role: they give you an idea about what actions are
correct.
Aristotle
presents eudaimonia as the highest human end. Aristotle asserts that
above the particular goods such as money and health there is another
type of good that is good in itself. This higher good is the cause
of whatever goodness there is in all other (particular) goods.
Aristotle labels this higher good eudaimonia. He roughly equates
eudaimonia with happiness, which he identifies with living or doing
well. Eudaimonia is a first principle, therefore everything else we
undertake we do for its sake.
Aristotle’s
search for the
good is a search for the highest
good, and he assumes that the highest good, whatever it turns out to
be, has three characteristics: it is desirable for itself, it is not
desirable for the sake of some other good, and all other goods are
desirable for its sake.
Aristotle
also establishes the doctrine
of the mean to help us
understand which qualities are virtues. According to this doctrine,
every ethical virtue is a condition intermediate between two other
states, one involving excess, and the other deficiency. The
courageous person, for example, judges that some dangers are worth
facing and others not, and experiences fear to a degree that is
appropriate to his circumstances. He lies between the coward, who
flees every danger and experiences excessive fear, and the rash
person, who judges every danger worth facing and experiences little
or no fear. Aristotle is careful to add, however, that the mean
is to be determined in a way that takes into account the particular
circumstances of the individual. Once we see that temperance,
courage and other generally recognised characteristics are mean
states, we are in a position to generalise and to identify other mean
states as virtues.
Epicurean
Hedonism
Epicurus
of Samos, born in 341 BC, founded his school, The
Garden, in Athens.
Epicurus’
philosophy is based on the theory that all good and bad derive from
the sensations of pleasure and pain. What is good is what is
pleasurable and what is bad is what is painful. Then, this is the
basis for moral distinction between good and bad.
The
good life for Epicurus is the result of the pursuit of pleasure and
therefore his ethics is called hedonism
(hedoné
means pleasure in Greek).
But he points out that we must seek pleasures which endure
throughout a life-time, not momentary pleasures. Examples:
intellectual pleasure, serenity of soul, health of body. He also
distinguished between higher and lower pleasures:
- Higher pleasures: pleasures of the mind -intellectual and aesthetic.
- Lower pleasures: pleasures of the body -food, drink, and sex.
We
must pursue the higher pleasures most preferably, so we can reach the
tranquility of soul.
Even though every pain is evil and pleasure good, Epicurean hedonism
is meant to result in a calm and tranquil life, not libertinism,
overindulgence or excess. Peace of mind and mental well-being is
achieved through philosophy
Epicurus
also put great stress on friendship because one’s own pleasure is
dependent on others too.
He
also believed we should not fear death. The fear of death only
arises from the belief that in death there is awareness. But he
argues that when a man dies, he does not feel the pain of death
because he no longer is, and he therefore feels nothing. As Epicurus
said, “death is
nothing to us”.
When we exist, death is not, and when death exists, we are not.
