How can you know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical?
Theory of Knowledge Essay First draft- Ines Mota How can you know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical? Ethics is very subjective and relative. It is considered relative because there are different behaviours that may want to exemplify the same value and also, the same behaviour may want to exemplify different values in different cultures. This can be demonstrated as Oriental culture do not kiss other people in the cheek to say hello. They take that as an offence, while European individuals always kiss when saying hello. Ethics can be described as what the society accepts or rejects. Ethics can be subjective because it differs from each ones point of view. Something that may be not ethical to me, such as a secretary having an affair with the boss, may be totally accepted by someone else. It can also be very relative, as ethics are society codes, that change based on time and circumstance. Nowadays it is not ethical to marry with a member from our own family while centuries ago, parents gave their total support for their children to marry with brothers or sisters. There are some people that have a different view of ethics. They believe that the same codes are applied to everyone, regardless of status, time or situation. To survive in a society, we have to know how to live in it and for it to happen, we have to know morality and ethical behaviour. Society is considered
How far do you consider these views to be justified?
How far do you consider these views to be justified? Prescriptivism can be justified to some degree, as it provides universal rules for people to abide by. The strengths of prescriptivism are the universal principles available to people. The universal principles encourage people to follow one's desires or needs, because the prescriptive values promote not only the person, but also others around them. In addition, people expect their moral statements to have some influence on others. However, Ethical Naturalism would dispute that ethical statements are more consistent, as it offers a current and methodical attitude on ethics, rather than stating universal prescriptions that aren't accurate claims. Some philosophers argue that there isn't a applicable reason for following one's opinion as everyone's' inclinations are unlike. This raises questions as to how a person would know whether their principles were right or wrong and what they would believe to be ethically true or false. Furthermore, by examining Ethical naturalism, some theorists believe that ethical statements are more consistent. This may be because verification can be supplied to sustain the claims made, whereas prescriptive statements cannot be verified by techniques such as science. Therefore, some may be guided to judge that prescriptivism is a less believable theory and subsequently not justified. Emotivists
Analysis of Moral Luck Views of Aristotle and Epictetus.
Analysis of Moral Luck Views of Aristotle and Epictetus by Selim Cillov U62-01-2757 Aristotle, the founder of western science, and Epictetus, one of the greatest stoicists, both has their theories for the issue of "Moral Luck". To have a basic idea about the topic, I believe we should describe it from a non-philosophical point of view. After doing that we can compare both Aristotle's and Epictetus' points of views and distinguish between them with examples from "Into Thin Air"(ITA), written by Jon Krakauer. Moral Luck, if described from general perspective, consists of the actions that happen by luck and result in moral ends. What I mean by moral ends is the situations that have something to do with moral or ethical values. Overall, moral luck deals with all the issues concerned with assertion of praise and blame, deliberation of responsibility, and things that are not in our control such as place of birth, our parents, our nationality and so on. Although they both have this structure in common, both Aristotle and Epictetus have different arguments about moral luck. Both Aristotle and Epictetus have a single point in common. They both have the idea of luck. Aristotle describes this as things that are not in our control and Epictetus describes this as things that are not up to us. The distinction between them is simple. Something that is not in our control can be
How can we know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical?"
Ioulia Samouilovskaia. 21.09.05. TOK: ethics and morality. "How can we know, if at all, that our behaviour is ethical?" In order to be able to answer this question we must first define what ethics is. Most of the dictionaries and philosophers define it as "a science of morality"; it's the study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person. And therefore in order to answer how we can know whether our behaviour is ethical, we must find out whether our behaviour is moral. However, there are several different ways to approach this question. For some people religion is the perfect example of what is good and bad, and therefore moral and immoral comes from religion. For others ethical behaviour is doing what the society in your country tells you to do, and the rest just follow their own opinion. This makes it very hard to decide whether our actions are correct or incorrect. In this essay we are going to look at these different groups and to decide which one of them is more ethical than the other. As I have mentioned previously, a lot of people identify ethics with religion. And yes, most religions do support high ethical standard, however this doesn't mean that doing everything the religion tells you to do is morally correct. And one reason for this is that the religions differ. For example in Islamic religions it is said that to
Utilitarianism. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham first developed the idea of utilitarianism after reading the phrase 'greatest good for the greatest number' in Joseph Priestley's Essay on Government. He had a desire to create a universal theory which would bring scientific certainty to ethics and eliminate moral disagreement. Utilitarianism can be defined in several ways and the principle has changed slightly since its conception. The definition is effectively that an action is deemed morally correct if it produces more happiness of all affected by it than any other alternative and wrong if it does not. Utilitarianism provides a clear method for deciding on a course of action that disregards personal confusion. Bentham's aim was to achieve a specific scientific formula to calculate how much pleasure and pain is produced from each proposed action. From this Bentham proposed the hedonic calculus which had seven criteria; intensity, duration, purity, extent, certainty, fecundity and remoteness. These factors weigh up the potential amount of pleasure or pain which might arise from moral actions to decide which would be the best option to take. Ideally, this formula should determine which act has the best tendency and is therefore right. Bentham hoped this theory could be used for criminal law reform. Incorporating it into criminal law seemed almost too
Truth or Truths
TRUTH OR TRUTHS? Since the birth of man until today, there had been many arguments about truth and it will continue existing after today. Some people said that truth is odd, some said that everyone has their own truth. People often say things like: * "Who's to say what's true? Everyone has different experiences; you might even say everyone has a different reality. So what's true is just a matter of opinion." * "Who's to say what's moral or immoral? Everybody has different views (or feelings) about right and wrong; so ethics is just a matter of opinion (or feeling). It's up to the individual or the culture to decide." These positions, and others like them, are forms of relativism. "Relativism is the view that judgments about truth and falsity, good and bad, are relative to the individual person or culture." This definition is correct provided that the subjects are JUDGEMENTS and/or ETHICS, because judgement is the opinion of someone about something. We cannot expect everyone to like skating, can we? For me skating might be extremely enjoyable, but others may find it unnecessary. We cannot deny the fact that skating cannot be done without a pair of skates, but can find it thrilling or boring. Who can see a definition like this in the dictionary: "Skating is an extremely enjoyable sport which is done by only teenagers." Another area where the thought of relativism is
What is utilitarianism? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the theory?
What is utilitarianism? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the theory? Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that the moral decision is the one which will produce the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. It is also sometimes known as the theory of usefulness. Usefulness refers to the amount of pleasure or happiness caused by an action. Today there are three main types of utilitarianism: act, rule, and preference. Act utilitarians maintain that the good action is the one that leads to the greatest good in a particular situation. Act utilitarianism is flexible and is able to take into account individual situations at a given moment. Act utilitarians believe that when determining whether the act is right, it is the value of the consequences of the particular act that count. If a law needs to broken to ensure that the greater happiness will result, then it is permissible to do so. The problem with act utilitarianism is that it has the potential to justify virtually any act. Rule utilitarians establish the vest overall rule by determining the course of action, which, when pursued by the whole community, leads to the greatest result. Some rules are necessary for us to follow in the quest to maximise happiness. However, this poses the problem of what should the rule utilitarianism do when the rule will produce a great amount of
In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically.
"On the Rainy River" Analysis The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities. In the essay O'Brien is faced with a conflict, a moral dilemma. He had to decide whether he was either going to go to the war and fight or was he going to run away and avoid the draft.
The Canterbury Tales: A Moral Reading.
Lauren Hoff IB World Literature Dr. Kilduff 9 Oct. 2003 The Canterbury Tales: A Moral Reading Aesop's fables are tales of moral value. They introduce to the reader things not to do, and how to get out of certain situations. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer follows along the same lines. Each character in the book has moral values that are looked down upon, with everything from polygamy, to dishonesty and cheating. An unmoral act or having unmoral qualities is something which is looked down upon and considered impure by not only others, but also you. Each character tells a story, which has a moral contained in it. These stories to some would be considered extremely vulgar and distasteful to be reading. On the other hand, these stories are showing precisely what a world would look like without any moral values what so ever, and how much a society depends on their morals. Although many of the stories are spoofs on the previous tale, becoming less tasteful, more vulgar, and more illicit than the previous, they contain moral values. There are several stories in The Canterbury Tales that illustrate a moral value In the Pardoners tale, the theme is that greed is the root of all evil. When three men discover bundles of coins, they all plot to kill each other so that their share of the money is greater, each dying in turn by the others hand. Their death was caused only by
Explain how a Hindu marriage service might guide a couple in their married life?
Explain how a Hindu marriage service might guide a couple in their married life? Most Hindus believe that marriage is an important duty for men and women. In the Hindu Society, a marriage does not just join together, but they bring two extended families. Most Hindu weddings take place at a time carefully chosen. There are many preparations before the wedding, such as cooking food, hosting parties for bride and grooms. Some traditional Hindu weddings takes place in the home of the bride, but modern Hindu weddings are often take place in hired halls so that enough guests can be accommodated, and a small altar is set up in the middle. The bride and her families wait in the hall to welcome the groom and his families. The priest and the two families will say the blessings and they join the couple's hands. The priest lights a sacred fire in honour of the god Agni, and recites the mantras, in the holy language of Sanskrit, the groom repeats the mantras which asks for marriage to be blessed with children. The couple exchanges garlands as a gesture of acceptance of one another and a pledge to respect one another as partners. The groom applies a small dot of powdered red lead, to the bride's forehead and welcomes her as his partner for life. The end of the bride's sari is tied to her new husband's scarf, this symbolises that they are joined together. Traditionally, the bride places