How can we know, if at all, that our behavior is ethical?

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How can we know, if at all, that our behavior is ethical?

- Benjamin Yakiwchuk

Word Count: 1,269

        As human beings, how do we recognize that our actions towards ourselves, our surroundings, and to others around us are ethical? For instance, a student is caught cheating on a test in school. Why is this pupil punished for what they have done, and how do they know their actions were right or wrong? Ethics, as described by Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, is the “science of human duty; a particular system of principles and rules concerting duty, whether true or false; rules of practice in respect to a single class of human actions; as, political or social ethics; medical ethics.”  This means that ethics are what we, as humans consider right or wrong and are formed by the morals that each of us individually believe and abide by.  We can find human ethics in the judicial law system, religion, and in our everyday society throughout the entire world population.

        Individuals in a civilized group follow judicial laws. These laws outline what we can and cannot do. Our leaders have created these laws parallel to the daily changes that humans experience in society.  When these changes occur, they conclusively affect humans, resulting in new changes in the judicial law system as well. In such a case, many years ago it was thought that child labour was ethical because children were seen just as miniature adults who could accomplish the same workload as a grown man or woman. Today we realize that this is not the case, and view child labour as being unethical.  As a result, laws have been made in order to protect children from being immersed in our labour force.  We know through science of the mind and body, that child labour directly effects the psychological development of children.  Children are not fully physiologically developed to work as hard nor for as long as grown adults can. In response to the increase in our knowledge of such resembling situations, judicial laws are also changed to follow the development of human ethics.

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        When judicial laws and ethics are not followed, punishments serve to teach the prosecuted what is ethical and what is not. If you break a law such as killing another person, you will be tried and jailed on the lawful account of murder.  T        he majority of the punished will hopefully realize that what they have done is unethical, and that it should definitely not be done again.  Humanitarian laws have been created as a practical (and peaceful) guide to daily living.  Therefore, punishments are given to individuals who do not wish to abide by these guidelines in an attempt to ...

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