Living With Ethics – Part One
The one argument that I as a pagan have heard over and over again from people following the monotheistic religions is that as a pagan I lacked an ethical foundation and orientation. Keeping that in mind I set out on this voyage.
As I’ve mentioned on MY BELIEFS page, every person has a code of ethics and moral standards that they live by. These codes and standards can be influenced by the tenants and commandments of the religion they follow, the culture they come from or both. This had me thinking. Paganism isn’t the same for everyone so there was no unified commandments or tenants that I could point to (or so I thought) and I come from two opposing cultures that have nothing in common (again so I thought). So what was I supposed to do? Being the kind of person I am I decided to hit the books. The result is a three-part essay of which this is the first installment.
This essay is going to define ethics in general and give me the foundation on which I can build on. The points covered in this installment are definitions of ethics and its etymology, a look at ancient ethics with a spotlight on virtue ethics and happiness.
From the American Heritage Dictionary, Ethics are defined as a set of principles or right conduct or a theory or a system of moral values. [1] This is a very general definition of ethics. If we go to a more specialized dictionary for a definition, we have a more in depth definition.
According to the Philosophical Dictionary, ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human conduct. There are four subcategories pertaining to ethics: descriptive ethics, normative ethics, applied ethics, and meta-ethics. Descriptive ethics is the factual study of the ethical standards or principles of a group or tradition. Normative ethics is the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions. Applied ethics is the use of these theories to form judgments regarding practical cases. And finally meta-ethics is the careful analysis of the meaning and justification of ethical claims. [2]
Looking at the etymology of the word I found ethics comes from Middle English “ethik”, which comes from Old French “ethique” and from the Latin “ethice”, both of which come from the Greek “ethikos”. [3] This is interesting since for me to get a good foundation in ethics I had to go all the way to Ancient Greece.
From the philosophical dictionary definition, I found two of the subcategories pertaining to ethics most interesting. The first is normative ethics and the second is descriptive ethics. Virtue ethics theories are a part of normative ethics and they form (for me) the foundation of ethical living. Descriptive ethics is what I hope to look at in the second installment of this essay.
The best place to start this discussion is with the concept of happiness, both ancient (as put forward by the ancient Greek Philosophers, who happen to be pagan) and modern (as seen from my experience and point of view).
The ancient concept of happiness is very simple. Happiness is having a happy life; it applies to your life as whole not just moments in it. [4] The modern concept of happiness (and this is my own point of view) does not deal with life as a whole but rather with moments and fleeting experiences within it. It deals with the “feel-good” moments of our lives and the actions we took during these moments.
By comparing the two concepts we can see how the ancient philosophers’ approach to ethics differs than ours. The ancient philosophers were more concerned providing an account of the “good life”, while more modern philosophers are focused on right or wrong actions. Ancient philosophers were more interested in looking at the motives for morality and the reasons someone would want to be “good”. And they tended to be more concerned with virtues of character more than the principles of the right action. In other words it was not about rules and regulations but about building character and human excellence.
So let us define some terms. Virtue is the conformity of one’s life and conduct to moral and ethical principles. Vice is an immoral or non-ethical habit or practice. Most if not all vices and virtues are character traits. A character trait is a deeply engrained feature of a person’s personality. The ancient philosophers linked happiness to moral virtues; these moral virtues included courage, moderation, justice, wisdom, and honor. The question to ask then is how does one cultivate this “good life”? You cultivate a strong character; you learn and acquire knowledge that helps you asses situations correctly, and by being disciplined. No one said being virtuous was easy and if one is not careful even virtues can turn into vices. [5] [6]
For me this constitutes one part of living with ethics. This (Virtue Ethics) is the foundation upon which I can start building my ethical life. The next step is to look at the two cultures that I come from and see the ethical values engrained in them. The combination of elements of cultural ethics and virtue ethics will be the final building block of my ethical life.
Works Cited:
[1] “Ethics.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 17 Jun. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Ethics>.
[2] “ethics” Philosophical Dictionary August 8, 2002. April 12, 2010. www.philosophypages.com/dy/e9.htm#eth
[3] “Ethics.” The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 17 Jun. 2010. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Ethics>.
[4] Irwin, Terence. The Development of Ethics: A Historical and Cultural Study Volume I. Oxford University Press, USA. 2007.
[5] Ingram, David. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Ethics. Alpha, USA. 2002
[6] Kenny, Anthony. Ancient Philosophy (A New History of Western Philosophy Series). Oxford University Press, USA. 2007.
- Posted in: Essays ♦ Ethics and Philosophy
