Ethics in Philosophy - Essay Example

A worldview Paper about Ethics in Philosophy

Abstract

Worldview represents a philosophical collection of assumptions held by an individual regarding various aspects of one’s society and the environment. A worldview, commonly regarded as either a conscious or subconscious process, affects the way a person approaches and views every element about life and its reality. At least every individual holds fundamental views that define their worldview. There exist a variety of philosophical ideas, theories, beliefs, and insights that seem consistent with people’s point of view. Some of the areas of worldview include ethics, philosophical anthropology, ontology, theology, and metaphysics among others. Ethics stands as a branch of philosophy that defends, synthesizes, and recommends aspects of right and wrong conduct in a given setting. This worldview paper seeks to explore the various aspects of ethics and provide a critical evaluation of moral philosophy.

The Historical Development of Ethics

Surprisingly, Plato labeled the Socrates as the founders of Western ethics. Additionally, Plato agreed that individuals possess the natural tendency of doing the right things. On the other hand, people who engage in wrongful practices have an element of ignorance. So, about Plato’s assertions, both knowledge and ignorance breed right and wrong in the society respectively. The integration of wisdom, self-awareness, and knowledge results in happiness and acceptable virtues in a given community. As such, the ancient Greek philosophers equated self-awareness and self-knowledge with the essential good practices in a unique setting. If one analyzes all aspects of ethics, the person will identify the right practice, adhere to the good virtues, and attain happiness in one’s life.

In an important way, ancient Greek philosophers adopted various doctrines that interpreted and suggested the origin and practicality of ethics in several disciplines of philosophy (Franks 2). Some of the doctrines include hedonism and cynicism. Most philosophers such as Diogenes of Sinope recommended people to practice cynicism by living their lives by nature. Diogenes of Sinope echoed that such life seemed simple and would grant happiness to a person. Consequently, a detachment from conventional materials and ideas would provide one with peace, wisdom, and joy. In the other example, hedonism advocates for maximization of pleasure and minimization of pain. Cyrenaica hedonism, a subgroup of hedonism, grants people with an excuse to gratify themselves regardless of the pain and troubles inflicted on other members of the community.

Value-Free Descriptive Ethics

Also identified as comparative ethics, descriptive ethics involves the examination of individuals’ perception of morality (Voskuijl and Evers 281). The philosophical approach focuses on and explains the phenomenon behind some of the decision-making processes. Philosophers, equipped with some experience in descriptive ethics, try to reveal individuals’ belief about economic practices in business such as moral values, rights actions, and recommendable moral agents (De Graaf 251). Believers of descriptive ethics accredit the existence of guidelines of value and conduct. However, the descriptive ethics rarely establish guidance to members of a community in making decisions. On the same note, the approach hardly provides a platform to measure the reason for the existence of absolute moral values in the society. In most cases, the application of value-free ethics occurs in fields such as sociology, history, evolutionary biology, and psychology among others. Also, some philosophical arguments rely on information obtained from descriptive ethics.

Apparently, the value-free approach to ethics works best by making a comparison between various ethical systems (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica np). For example, philosophers may engage in arguments by comparing the past and the present ethics to justify their ideas. Empirical findings show that most communities observe moral policies that forbid certain actions. Such rules, accompanied by their respective sanctions and punishment, make members follow and adhere to the recommended moral values in the society. Physical and economic conditions contribute to the differences or similarities between several communities on how they perceive some moral values. Every society has established values regarding several aspects such as individual obligations, sexual activity, personal welfare, and property ownership among others (De Graaf 255). Conversely, some social scientists embrace the universality of certain moral values like forbidding murder, incest practices, and theft. Surprisingly, some scholars consider the diversification of particular virtues like polygamy and monogamy, voluntary feticide and illegalization of abortion, and cross-cultural marriages against the traditional ones (Voskuijl and Evers 294).

Meta-Ethics

Seemingly, meta-ethics covers issues from moral epistemology to moral semantics. In this case, metaphysics entails all aspects of ethics from a bird’s point of view. The two core parameters of meta-ethics include relativism of metaphysics and the underlying mental foundation of psychological issues. Interestingly, considering the first parameter, metaphysics involves the study of objects and forces that exist in the universe. The subject defines the physical items such as rock and the non-physical components such as spirits. Some proponents of metaphysics consider moral values as objective because they exist in a spiritual form beyond the subjective human interventions. As such, the unique proponents agree that moral values exist as absolute and eternal principles that apply to all rational creatures in the world. According to Plato, after comparing numbers and other mathematical relations, moral values cannot change with time (Brickhouse and Smith np).

Again, the psychological motive of individuals’ moral conduct and judgment define the psychological elements of meta-ethics. The inherent selfishness of people, regarded as an aspect of altruism and egoism, stands as the most important principle of moral psychology. In the view of Thomas Hobbes, selfish desires prompt the actions of all people from all backgrounds (Williams np). Even if an event appears selfless, like helping the poor individuals in the society, there exist selfish elements of such a move such as imposing power over other people. However, other disciplines such as psychological hedonism attribute pleasure as the main motivation behind people’s actions. On the other hand, some scholars such as Joseph Butler agree that psychological altruism makes individuals demonstrate aspects of instinctive benevolence towards their fellow members of the society (White np).

In a surprising way, there exists a dispute about the responsibility of reason in supporting moral actions. David Hume asserted that moral assessment involves a person’s state of emotions and not one’s reason (Fieser np). So, regardless of the extent at which a person amasses all reasons one wants, such a move cannot constitute a moral assessment. Besides, while prescriptive element commands one to help the low-income families, emotive element makes one approve the personal feeling of helping such families. However, Immanuel Kant disagreed with the conventional approach and stated that acts of reason greatly influence moral assessments (McCormick np).

Normative Ethics

The regulation of right and wrong conducts depends on the interpretation of ethical standards envisioned in normative ethics. As a sensible approach, normative ethics measure the proper behaviors in a given society. Virtue theories, duty principles, and consequentiality postulates help to explore the ultimate criterion of moral conduct. In this case, about the virtue laws, most analysts agree that morality requires individuals to adhere precisely to the set rules of conduct such as respecting one’s property and “do not kill” (Fieser np). Presumably, normative ethic encourages people to learn such policies and engage in actions that adhere to those standards. Aristotle once suggested that virtues act as admirable habits that individuals should acquire to regulate their emotions (Sachs 3). For instance, due to one’s natural feeling of fear, a person needs to learn the virtue of courage to withstand any obstacles or challenges in life.

Furthermore, duty laws reflect the particular obligations that drive people to care for something else such as family, children, kings, employers, and the vulnerable members of the community among others. Among the four basic duty theories, the first one classifies obligations to God, oneself, and others. Samuel Pufendorf urges people to acknowledge the existence and nature of God (Fieser np). Besides, regarding the duty towards oneself, people should nature skills and talents that would not harm their bodies or reputation. The duty towards other people results due to the contract between different people. As such, people should treat their counterparts in decent ways and consider then as equal members of the society. Other duties such as rights policies help to justify a unique claim over other people’s behavior. For example, some laws such as the U.S Constitution grants no right for one person to harm another one.

As a common practice, most people find it necessary to weigh the consequence of their actions to exercise their moral responsibility. According to the guiding principle of consequentiality, an action may appear morally right if its consequences collectively favor the associated parties. Such a condition requires people to determine whether the total positive consequences outweigh the overall negative consequences. The positive and negative aspects mirror the proper and improper morals in the society. As a matter of fact, the public welcomes the attributes stipulated by the consequentiality regulations.

Practical and Applied Ethics

Admittedly, regarding such a category within the area of philosophy, applied ethics presents itself as a structure that enhances the execution of ethical principles in real life. Every problem in life depends on specific ethical approaches that may lack some elements of universality. Such techniques can only solve unique problems in a given environment. Some of the controversial moral topics that need the interpretation of practical ethics include abortion, client-lawyer relationships, euthanasia, and animal rights. Over the years, philosophers have subdivided applied ethics into various groups such as environmental ethics, medical ethics, sexual ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics plus others. Notably, practical ethics have to meet two core principles: highly controversial and distinctively a moral issue. In a case example, many Americans regard the practice of shooting as morally wrong. As a result, analysts may not prefer the views of Americans as part of applied ethics. However, gun control issues seem controversial and receive divergent opinions from most Americans. Therefore, gun control may fall under applied ethics such as legal ethics.

Additionally, despite the challenges associated with listing them, it seems prudent to explore the normative principles of applied ethics. The principle of personal benefit identifies the level at which a given action may increase the welfare of the concerned person. On the other hand, social benefit weighs the degree at which an action enhances positive changes in the given society. Also, while the principle benevolence encourages superior individuals to support their junior colleagues, the principle of paternalism such superiors to provide an enabling environment that would nurture the skills and talents of the junior ones. There exist several principles of applied ethics that deal with global issues such as justice, human rights, sovereignty, legal regulations, and honesty among others. Consequentiality and duty-based methods help to establish the wide spectrum of classical normative principles.

Honestly, reflecting the earlier piece of thought, there exist various topics debated by ethicists in different schools of philosophy. In particular, biomedical ethics deal with many issues that occur in the medical setting (Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade 2). Medical practitioners constantly find it hard to cope with processes that involve health and death of patients. Contentious views of morality arise regarding medical issues such as genetic treatment of fetuses, vaccine testing, surrogate mothering, voluntary abortion, and the transplantation of body organs. In another scenario, the treatment, and management of patient suffering from AIDS has raised issues about mandatory screening and treatment with particular drugs. Some drugs, despite having a capability of treating a given illness, may interfere with the proper functioning of an individual’s metabolic processes. Other issues the justifiability of suicide and physician-assisted suicide.

Conclusion

In summary, every individual may have one’s perception of specific issues in life. Some of the lessons in philosophy enable one to accept the fact that ethics defines the theory of good actions while morality compares one practice from the other. Apparently, ethics does not rely on particular acts and established moral codes. However, ethics encompasses as many moral behaviors as possible hence making up an individual’s worldview about ethics. As per the discussion, the classical Greek philosophies encouraged the moderation of all practices in the society. In such regard, there exists a single category of good practice and another one of evil practices. In a similar condition, value-free descriptive ethics encourage people to appreciate the diversity of ethical frameworks in different societies. Descriptive ethics measures the views of individuals about the morality of certain activities. Additionally, applied ethics reveals the complexity associated with the implementation of ethical practices in fields that require a high level of expertise. The applied ethics help to solve problems that raise controversies, especially in a medical or legal setting (Jonsen, Siegler and Winslade 3). Amazingly, with the intervention of normative ethics, people can identify different standards that define the right and wrong conducts among them. Above all, every person has many approaches to ethical matters hence depicting different worldviews from each other.

Cited Work

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