Nine Ethical Perspectives and Existentialist Ethics
1 – Aristotelian Ethics
According to Aristotle, we must always act avoiding exaggerations and extreme attitudes. Virtue is in a fair compromise, a balance. For example, courage is good and is right in the middle of cowardice and irresponsibility.
2 – Stoic Ethics
The most important is doing your duty; we must put aside feelings and emotions.
3 – Hedonistic Ethics
According to this ethic, it is nature that tells us, through pleasure or pain, what is good and what is bad. Everything I like is morally good, and what I dislike is morally bad. There are no rules; I must be guided by my taste.
4 – Selfish Ethics
Well is all right for me. It is very good to do good, as long as I receive something in return.
5 – Formalist Ethics
We must always think that we are a model for all others. We should be examples of good practice for everyone.
6 – Christian Ethics
Every human being is a living image of God. The person, the human being, is the supreme value in all creation, so the basic rule is love of neighbor. Love and do what you like, St. Augustine said. Christian ethics is not simply a moral philosophy; it is a philosophical ethic based primarily on standards for the systematic evangelical rationally in light of ethical systems of Greeks (Aristotle) and the fundamental principles of Roman law.
7 – Positivist Ethics
Well is anything that benefits society. We should not seek only our welfare but the general good of the group. This ethic has two flaws: 1. Unknown personal ethical values, 2. Not always what benefits society at large is ethically right.
8 – Pragmatic Ethics
Well is what is useful, which serves me; there are no absolute moral rules. All is good if it serves the ultimate goal you want (the end justifies the means). It’s a Machiavellian ethic; good intentions are not valid.
9 – Axiological Ethics
We have a duty to always do the morally valuable. We must sharpen our sensitivity to capture ever more universal values and goals. The hard part is knowing when we have the ethical sensitivity sufficient to base our moral conduct.
Existentialist Ethics
Only good action is free and unbiased. Many of the traditional ethical values (compassion, humility, obedience, etc.) are reprehensible attitudes. So it is necessary to fundamentally change the traditional scale of values. Much of this ethic is based on the doctrine of the philosopher Nietzsche, who does not accept the founding values of our Western civilization. Existentialists do not accept the freedom we have to fulfill our duties and not to satisfy selfish whims. Despite differences in thoughts of their representatives, there are points of convergence:
The Person: There are two modes of existence: Being thing and being a person. The person exists only in the full sense as aware of their existence and is free to create their personal essence. Things have their ultimate essence, and man can “create itself.” The person continues their life to things by using them as instruments of their own existence, so in a sense, the essence of things also depends on man (employment we do it). “Human life is being myself with things in the world” – Heidegger, “It’s me and my circumstances” – Ortega y Gasset. So the problem of knowledge acquired for a character is existentialist anthropocentric. “The reality is not given to us as spectators but as actors” – Marcel
Freedom: Man is essentially free, but this is difficult and painful. To live is to be in permanent conflict to maintain our freedom. Continuous obstacles can easily strip us of our category of authentic people: habits, fear, ignorance, suggestion from others, propaganda, tyranny, and so on. Our freedom is a “Freedom in Danger” that few men manage to remain masters of their own existence. Many revolutionary movements have emerged to overthrow tyrannical systems during this century (Africa, Europe, and America) and have clearly been inspired by existentialism.
Existential Angst: The existence of man is anxious; anxiety is at the root of the same essential constitution. The constant spiritual tension, essential to maintain liberty itself, is in itself a source of continued anguish. However, man longs to maintain permanent ties of friendship with other men, but even deeper in love, this locks the danger of slavery. Love easily turns into subjection to the tyranny of one another. Moreover, his spiritual condition of being conscious is the cause of man’s worst torture: not only is he destined to die necessarily, like other living creatures, but he even knows that he has to die. “We are simply condemned to death” – someone. Here lies the anguish of the need to survive together with the certainty of death. “Man is human suffering” – Sartre. Others encourage us to hope and salvation of life through love for God and men. “There is freedom in isolation” – Japers says true love is able to produce the miracle of saving human life from despair while maintaining the free spirit of love. According to this ethic, only the act performed by authentic people (free and conscious act) can have moral value. They will only be disapproved if they are not spontaneous. They admit a morality based exclusively on custom, habit, convention, or law. Morality must be free and personal. That freedom has become for many an existentialist moral relativism (it’s good what each believes is good) or outright immorality (everything is good that I want).