Human Action, Ethics, and Social Behavior: Key Concepts
Human Action and its Consequences
Action refers to an intentional human intervention. It involves a conscious decision by a human agent. Involuntary or unconscious actions are not considered true actions. Only conscious and voluntary actions, including the underlying mental processes, are considered observable human behavior.
Consequences are the outcomes of an action, often unintended by the agent. The agent aims for a desired outcome but may not anticipate or desire all the resulting consequences.
Causes and Reasons
Reasons explain events, while causes are distinct from their effects. Actions are driven by reasons.
Reasons and Beliefs
An agent’s desire to achieve an end is a reason for action. This desire is a mental state and part of the action itself. Beliefs also serve as reasons for action. If an agent believes a particular action will not lead to their desired end, they may choose a different course. Both the desired end and the beliefs about how to achieve it are reasons for action.
Social Behavior and Rational Action
Social Behavior: Many factors influencing our actions originate from our social environment (friends, family, etc.). We are born and live in society, which significantly shapes our behavior.
Rational Action: Rationality involves the proper use of reason in our beliefs, motives, and actions. It means choosing the best option in each circumstance after considering all relevant factors. A rational action is based on sound reasons and beliefs that are consistent with each other. Machiavelli’s idea that “the ends justify the means” suggests that the path taken to achieve a goal is irrelevant as long as the goal is achieved.
Philosophical Perspectives
The Perfect Skeptic
Skepticism posits that humans cannot know things as they truly are in themselves. We can only know things as they relate to us, our circumstances, and our sensory systems. Skepticism discourages making judgments about things, leading to a state of tranquility.
How Should I Live?
Skepticism recommends following the customs and laws of one’s society. Accepting prevailing conventions without concern brings about the inner peace characteristic of the happiness we seek.
Primitive Christian Ideals
After Jesus’ death, his followers believed in his resurrection and the imminent return of the Messiah. This belief led to the formation and expansion of early Christian communities. The hope for the Messiah’s return was accompanied by repentance, prayer, radical moral principles, mutual aid, brotherly love, poverty, and communal living.
Ethical Theories
Ethical theories are systematic sets of ideas about rational morality. They attempt to identify and justify what constitutes good, right action, duty, and virtue.
Metaethics
Metaethics focuses on questions such as the meaning of moral terms, the truth value of moral judgments, and the justification of moral judgments.
Normative Ethics
Normative ethics deals with moral life, providing a foundation for and systematizing existing moral beliefs. It can also generate new moral beliefs and behaviors and apply them to specific individual and collective issues.
Imperative Theories
Imperative theories address the question, “What should I do?”
- Consequentialist Theories: These theories base the moral correctness of an action solely on the goodness of its consequences.
- Ethical Egoism: This theory asserts that the moral correctness of an action is justified solely by its contribution to the agent’s well-being. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) defended this view, stating that morally correct actions are those that are most satisfactory overall, considering their results and consequences.
- Utilitarianism: This theory maintains that the moral correctness of an action is justified solely by its overall utility. An action is morally right or obligatory if and only if it produces a greater amount of happiness than any alternative action. Classical utilitarians include Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Sidgwick.