AN INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS

What is ethics about?

All humans need to make decisions concerning the right thing to do.  Most humans want to do what is good.  It is good to do the right thing. 

Often knowing what is the right thing to do, knowing what is right, and knowing what is good is not all that easy.  The answers to the questions, "What is the right thing to do?" and "What is the good?" aren't obvious to many and people do not universally agree about that. But, humans need answers to these questions. 

This text is concerned with a matter of considerable importance: the GOOD.  

Ethics is a branch of Philosophy which deals with the issue of the GOOD.  The question here is:  what is the GOOD?  What is meant by the GOOD?  The answer is needed so that humans will know how to live a GOOD life.  People need to know what the GOOD is in order to choose the GOOD.  Ethics deals with theories of the GOOD.  

Ethics is not the same as morality.

Etymologically, "ethics" and "morals" have the same meaning. "Moral" comes from Latin "mos" meaning habit or custom; and "Ethics" from the Greek "ethos" that means the same.

The difference is that ethics is the philosophical and scientific study of the moral and it is theoretical while moral is practical. Ethics is about reasoning and depends on philosophy whereas moral is the behavior in which our life consists of.

Nowadays ethics and moral have come to mean different things and they refer to different areas or levels:

-       Moral has to do with the practical level or of action. Ethics has to do with the theoretical level or reflection.

Moral is the set of principles, criteria, norms and values ​​that guide our behavior. Moral makes us act in a certain way and allows us know what we should do in a particular situation. It's like a kind of compass that guides us, tells us what the way forward, directs our actions in one determined direction. The compass shows us the way. In life you have to try not to lose the north.

Ethics is the theoretical reflection on morality. Ethics is responsible for discussing and basing reflexively the set of principles or rules which make up our moral.

As a conclusion: moral and ethics raise different questions. Moral has to do with the practical level of action and tries to answer to the question: what should I do? ethics, however, has to do with the theoretical reflection and tries to answer to questions like: What is moral? How do we apply reflection to our everyday life?

Ethics is a term generally reserved for the philosophical reflection about the nature of the good life, of right action, of duty and obligation, etc. In this sense, ethics is a philosophical discipline, while "morals" is not.

*Adapted from: 
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/pecorip/SCCCWEB/ETEXTS/ETHICS/Chapter_1_Introduction/Normative_Ethics_and_Metaethics.htm

http://cmap.upb.edu.co/rid=1GCFQ589B-RNNRQV-97/eticaymoral%20s%C3%ADntesis.pdf

Following the ethical search for the GOOD and with the hope of learning how to live a GOOD life, we are going to work on some important aspects of ethics this course:

1-    Freedom

2-    Happiness

3-    Ethics in politics

4-    Equal rights in society

     

 Recommended activity: 

TESTS ON PHILOSOPHICAL AND ETHICAL QUESTIONS

http://philosophyexperiments.com/