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v What is Ethics? State the purpose of Ethics with which you are familiar.
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INTRODUCTION
Naturally, human beings must co-exist in a society for them to survive. This implies that they relate with one another in various possible ways. In the process of this human relationship, several acts are perpetuated, of which some are recognised as good acts, some bad while some fall within the range of being neutral; as they are relative and subjectively perceived. This is the domain of Ethics, by which it seeks to justify these acts based on some criteria.
ETHICAL ORIENTATION IN PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy as a discipline foundationally has no particular definition due to the many controversies among several philosophers on how it should be conceptualized. Due to this some general consensus definitions have been arrived at by which philosophy can be defined. In this regard, the definition of philosophy as the, “search for value or the best forms life”, is the ethical definition and representation in philosophy; amongst its other consensus definitions.
THE ETYMOLOGY OF ETHICS
The word and concept of “Ethics” is etymologically gotten from the Greek words “Ethika” meaning “morals” and “Ethos” meaning “custom”. “Morals” represent the objective codes of human conduct while “customs” imply the traditional lifestyle of a people based on some strict rules. This is the origin of Ethics as a word and concept.
THE NATURE AND CONCEPT OF ETHICS
Before we define ethics, a brief analysis of what it does and how it operates is necessary in order to have a pre-understanding of its notion and vocation.
· Prescriptive and normative discipline
In contrast to most sciences, of which they are “descriptive” and tell us “what is”, ethics has been identified as a prescriptive and normative discipline. This is because, ethics has been identified as a discipline that tells us “what ought to be” regarding human conduct and behaviour.
· Justification of morality
Due to the fact that certain actions which have been seen as good or bad may not be reasonably applied so, in particular situations; ethics aims at instituting criteria by which such acts and moral decisions could be justified and certified.
· Reflects on morality via its theories
When confronted with moral issues, a moral philosopher or ethicist would tend to solve the problem by systematic reflection on the situations and conditions involved in order to speculate rightly. However, he or she does this by appealing to certain ethical theories and schools of thought. Some of these theories are Hedonism, Egoism, Naturalism, and Utilitarianism and so on.
THE DEFINITION OF ETHICS
It would be illusionary to expect that ethics as a discipline would have a particular definition. This is due to the fact that it entails several issues, like philosophy itself. However, it has been defined in some ways but one of the most accepted definition of Ethics is thus; “Ethics is the normative science of human conduct”. This very definition appraises the oughtness hallmark and principle of Ethics as a discipline.
ETHICS AS A SCIENCE
According to “Thomas Higgins”, ethics is the philosophic science which establishes the moral order of human act. However, science as a word can be viewed in two senses; the broad sense and the strict sense. In the broad sense, “science” is anything that is done systematically and according to basic intrinsic principles, while in the strict sense, “science” refers to the empirical disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology. In other words, it is in the broad sense of the word that, ethics can be viewed as a science. Hence, ethics is a non-empirical science.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS IN ETHICS
One of the intrinsic qualities of philosophy is the asking of fundamental questions. Hence, Ethics as a major branch of philosophy also does the same. Some fundamental questions in ethics are thus given;
· Why must I live a moral life?
· Is morality really relative or objective?
· Can human society survive without morality?
These and many similar ones are the kind of questions ethics deals with.
THE PURPOSE OF ETHICS
So many issues on morality and even much more are contained in the business of ethics. However, the major issue about it is found in the purpose of ethics as a discipline. Accordingly, one thing stands out and that is the fact that ethics wants to analyse the principles of morality and then guide human conduct along this path.
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