What is it that we understand by Ethics? Is it just a subject? Does it have practical implications? What does ethical behaviour comprise? And so and so on... The more I read chapter 1, the more questions I ask myself!
First of all, the concept of Ethics is going to vary from individual to individual. I can think that at times lying is ethical whereas someone else may regard lying as a terrible thing!! Then, all of us have an ethical system of our own: we may share some ideas but we may not share some others. This ethical system is culturally-bound: from birth we're taught that some things are good or bad. From this point onwards, we choose...
Secondly, it is because we're free that we're capable of choosing. And in every choice we make, we're also taking ethical decisions. We decide what is convenient for us or not, whether we care about others or just us... we decide how we want to live our lives. The way we live, honouring or not our lives, is what we call Ethics!
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Towards the development of ethical thinking
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3 comments:
What a catchy start, Andre! 8-)As I went through it, I was "filled" with questions myself:
* is there any subject which has no "practical implications"? Any learning, for that matter?
* is all ethics an individual matter?
* how do you combine "being taught" and "cultural bounds" with "freedom to choose"? (thinking about this one, I invite you to enjoy a text by Joseph Epstein on this).
Questions, questions, questions... perhaps that's basically what Ethics is about: questioning? ;-D
Looking forward to your next posts,
Gladys
And more and more questions! Right Gladys? There are certain things we don't chooose, as Epstein says. But still the way we decide to live our life is up to us!! (Luckily ;))
I think that within the moral of the society in which we live we make our own choices, we make ethical decisions: these decisions will vary from individual to individual.
Anyway, the more I read Savater, the more questions I ask myself... then Ethhics must be about asking questions!
Great deduction, Andrea!;-)
LOL,
Gladys
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