Morality and Ethics: Understanding Human Conduct
What is Morality?
Morality encompasses the rules governing conduct, defining what we do and what we *should* do. It’s about identifying the right actions and avoiding the wrong ones. It ultimately leads to freedom. Morality involves both emotions and reason.
What is Ethics?
Ethics involves reflections on morality. It analyzes and substantiates the validity of moral principles. It asks the fundamental question: “What should I do?” Ethics provides a framework for reflecting on the criteria that should guide our actions.
The Good Life
The concept of a “Good Life” is often associated with happiness and the satisfaction of our desires, guided by intelligence. It involves virtue – acting in a morally correct manner. Morality helps us distinguish between good and bad.
Different Perspectives on Morality
- Moral Intellectualism: This perspective suggests that good and evil are ideas that can be discovered through reason. Those who act badly are simply ignorant of these ideas.
- Moral Emotivism: This view posits that moral judgments are based on feelings, not ideas. Moral sentiments are often rooted in social connections, such as family.
Stages of Moral Development
- Preconventional Stage: Focus is on personal satisfaction and avoiding suffering. Rules are followed out of self-interest, influenced solely by rewards and punishments.
- Conventional Stage: Discovery of societal rules and norms. Understanding the world leads to a sense of embarrassment when deviating from accepted behaviors.
- Postconventional Stage: Emphasis on values. Rules are understood as means to achieve values, and these rules can be changed to improve society.
Moral development requires a nurturing environment (society) that provides intelligence, language, and a framework for understanding human morality. Natural tendencies contribute to moral growth and the evaluation of moral criteria.
Fundamental Aspects of Morality
- Life Orientation: Morality provides a guide for navigating life.
- Self-Esteem: Moral actions are seen as valuable and rewarding, contributing to a sense of being a “good person.”
- Social Cohesion: Morality fosters order and cohesion within a society.
Freedom and Determinism
- Freedom of Action: The ability to do what we have decided without external constraints, within certain limits.
- Freedom of Choice: The ability to choose among various preset options without any external force.
External Actions are subject to a universal order (laws, regularities) and collective heteronomy (we cannot decide them).
Internal Actions are governed by moral autonomy (we can choose them through knowledge, critical thinking, and having criteria). Ignorance of freedom is a fallacy.
Determinism: Various forms of determinism (scientific, historical, genetic, sociological) attempt to reduce human actions to predetermined factors. This can be challenged through *reductio ad absurdum*.
Defenders of Freedom:
- Buridan: Uses *reductio ad absurdum* to argue for freedom.
- Kant: Freedom is not a matter of knowledge and its truth or falsity cannot be proven.
- Hume: Freedom from external and internal coercion.
- Bergson: Consciousness cannot be subjected to the laws of the physical world.
- Sartre: Humans are not predefined; we must choose. We exist first and then define ourselves.
Relativism vs. Universalism
- Relativism: Good and evil are relative to society. Moral codes should not be judged from outside that society. This implies tolerance (“Who are you to criticize my moral codes?”).
- Universalism: While accepting the existence of diverse moral codes, universalism posits that there is a right and a wrong, and seeks moral truth.
- Ethnocentrism: The belief that one’s own moral code is correct.
Moral Justification Systems
- Foundation in God: A moral action is good if it aligns with the will of God. A single God implies universalism and a single valid code. Multiple gods raise ethical and theological questions about which god’s will to follow.
- Foundation in Nature: Nature is seen as a source of inspiration, beauty, and goodness. The guideline is “if something is natural, it is good.” However, natural facts cannot be equated with values.
- Foundation in Law: Collective acceptance of laws as guidelines for conduct. An action is good if it conforms to the law.
Rights and Duties
Duty is always a transitive concept: We have duties because someone has rights. For example, the right to life implies a duty not to kill. Different approaches exist for promoting rights, but there are commonalities in defending rights and values to improve life.
Globalization and Human Rights
Process of Globalization: The background of human rights.
- Cosmopolitanism: National identities cannot override the equality of all people. Emphasis on a shared *logos*.
- Christianity: Defense of the equal dignity of all people as children of God, possessing immortal souls.
- Modernity: Intellectuals and social movements culminated in the Declaration of Rights, establishing universal human values. The English Bill of Rights is a key example.
Generations of Rights
- 18th Century: Defense of individual freedom.
- 19th Century: Focus on freedom from injustice, implying economic and social equality.
- 20th Century: Rights related to equality and solidarity, particularly for the most vulnerable.