Ethical Theories and Moral Norms: A Comprehensive Guide
Moral Norms
Moral norms are rules that regulate individual and collective life. They guide human actions to ensure they are good, fair, or correct.
Definitions of Ethics
- Philosophical Ethics: This branch of philosophy rationally reflects on morality. It seeks a rational basis for morality and moral judgments based on rational criteria.
- Practical Ethics: This is practical knowledge that aims to teach us how to act rationally. It not only seeks to theoretically ground moral standards but also aims to guide conduct based on human and moral values.
Ethical Theories
Material Ethics
Material ethics considers the foundation of moral action to lie in the object of the action. Ethical reflection should focus on analyzing the qualities of that object and how it can be achieved.
Formal Ethics
Formal ethics understands that the basis of moral action is in the action itself, regardless of the agent’s objective.
Material Ethics: Eudaemonism
Eudaemonism arose from the relativism and skepticism among Greek philosophers regarding moral values, as they felt these were not subject to absolute universal criteria. Socrates believed in the existence of morally valid concepts for all humans. His position was that achieving moral well-being is crucial.
Plato introduced the myth of Eros, a demigod representing desire. The term Eudaemonism comes from eu (good) and demon, referring to the possession of a good spirit.
Aristotle stated that all men tend towards happiness but introduced new elements: passions and desires that guide behavior to achieve it. To achieve happiness, one must practice virtue. There are two types of virtues:
- Intellectual Virtues: Also known as “dianoetic,” these include wisdom, intelligence, and prudence.
- Ethical Virtues: These include strength, temperance, and modesty, and are incorporated through custom.
Aristotle believed that only through goodness could we achieve happiness. He also required the presence of material goods for a man to be truly happy. This led to criticism of Plato’s idealism.
Hedonism
Hedonism maintains that the ultimate aim is human pleasure, understood in both physical and intellectual terms. Epicurus was the most important philosopher of this ethical school.
According to Epicurus, pleasure was the absence of pain, which is the greatest desire. The happiest Epicurean is one who annuls three fears: the fear of fate, the fear of death, and the fear of God.
Stoicism
Stoicism originated in Greece but was developed by Seneca. Wisdom provides self-sufficiency from feelings and passions through the rational control of any life situation. Serenity and control are achieved by enduring and avoiding disruption from successes or failures.
Thomistic Christian Ethics
Represented by St. Thomas Aquinas, this ethic is finalist. God is the highest court of perfection, and human action should be oriented towards seeking and contemplating Him. Another influence is Aristotle. Aquinas says that virtue is to improve man so that it allows him to find inner happiness and strength throughout life. Both Aquinas and Aristotle place happiness as the ultimate goal.
Utilitarian Ethics
This doctrine states that the supreme value to which human action should aim is utility. Two authors stand out:
- Jeremy Bentham: The principle of utility is based on pleasure and pain, providing a standard for what is fair, good, bad, etc. To choose what is good, one must calculate pleasures and pains based on criteria like intensity and duration.
- John Stuart Mill: He distinguished different kinds of pleasures and considered understanding, imagination, and moral sentiments to be greater than the merely sensitive. His morality is inductive, as it insists that all its proposals are drawn from experience.
Formal Ethics: Kant’s Categorical Imperative
In Kant’s transcendental idealism, human reason has two zones: one for theoretical learning and another that determines what to do. This requires accepting preconditions under which a conscience exists in humans: it has a universal sense of duty.
The will is guided by formal principles and constitutes the basis of Kantian autonomous morals. These are expressed by imperatives:
- Hypothetical Imperatives: These are precepts and ethical standards of materials. Their answer is in the form of reward or punishment.
- Categorical Imperatives: These are unconditional. The categorical imperative has objective and universal validity, announcing a principle of conduct independent of the object to be achieved and the consequences of the action.
The Material Ethics of Values: Max Scheler
Max Scheler criticized Kantian formalism for neglecting the emotional aspect of many human acts. Values are central to his ethical theory.
Existentialism
Existentialist ethics does not establish a priori moral objects to be pursued. It insists on the priority of existence over essence and, therefore, on the open nature of the human being. The core of existentialism is that man should take charge of his own life and build a project that can give meaning to existence.
Two conclusions can be drawn:
- Existentialism does not deny that there are other moral objects worthy of achieving. These must be constructed and selected by each person based on their existence.
- The important thing is that these actions and choices are carried out with existential awareness, stemming from the individual’s life project.