The Role of ethics in our daily life

Introduction

The reason why I am writing blog on Ethics is because of this important reason, that ethics and daily life are inseparable. By knowing ethics, knowing what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, a person can direct his life in a right and good manner. The purpose of behaving ethically is happiness. In this case, a person who conducts himself ethically is a happy person, though some may deny it. Beyond that, behaving ethically can create harmonious relationship and consequently peaceful community.

Based on such reason, we cannot dismiss ethics from our daily life but we have to be guided by it. We have to subscribe to it.    By knowing ethics, we are guided in decision making and our behavior.  When we are encountering many problems, at least, we know how to deal with the problems and how to behave in a certain situation. It is a fact that in some circumstances, we often do not know how to solve some ethical problems and even we do not know how to behave in ethical manner. Thus ethics will guide us on how to deal with a problem in a particular time and particular situation.

The Reason Why We Need Ethics

The First reason is that we may get more light for our daily problems. We often encounter moral dilemma in our life. We some time reach a point that as if we are at a cross road, either going to the right or to the left, there is no better choice. Going to the right is wrong and going to the left is also wrong. Within such situation, one has to decide because not deciding would mean avoiding responsibility and it would be morally wrong. Thus the concern is how are we going to decide in dealing with those problems? On what ground are we going to decide? Ethics will guide us in those situations. Thus ethics play an important role to guide our decision in our daily problems.  Second reason is that it makes clearer to us why one act is better than another. It is only through ethics we can compare two acts or persons why one is good and is bad.  Third reason is that Morality is the best way of living. Fourth reason is that morality helps us to see what are the prevalent sins and moral dangers of our day and thus arouse us to put the weight of our blame and praise where they are needed.

The purpose of ethic was clear at the beginning. The goal of a theory of ethics was to determine what is good, both for the individual and for the society as a whole. For the Greeks, Ethics was to develop virtuous and moral character. They believe that such character would make one know the right thing to do and live the right way of life. Later, philosophers have taken different positions in defining what is good, on how to deal with conflicting priorities of individuals versus the whole, over the universality of ethical principles versus “situation ethics” in which what is right depends upon the circumstances rather than on some general law and over whether goodness is determined by the results of the action or the means by results are achieved (relativism, universalism, Kantianism).     

What Is Morality

In line with what we have discussed above, we get a clearer view of what morality is. Morality is originated from Latin word: “moralitas” which means “manner, character, and proper behaviour. Thus morality refers to a code of conduct, by which human beings regulate their lives. While ethics is  derived from the Greek word: “ethos” which means “ characteristic way of acting”, “habit”, “custom”.Thus, ethics studies the characteristics of behavior of man as endowed reason and free will.  From the root word of ethics and morality, it can be concluded that both are referring to the same thing or the same meaning.   

In other words, ethics is the science of the morality of human acts. It is the study of the behaviour of man as moral being, who is able to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad. 

Different Kinds of Morality

a. Descriptive Morality.

Descriptive morality is a code of conduct endorsed and adhered to by society, group and individuals. Moral codes in this sense differ from society to society, within society, and among individuals. So, in its descriptive sense, morality is whatever a society, group or individual say it is. It is not consistent in their application. Such morality leads to relativism. Relativists argue that morality is applied to a certain context, not universal.

The danger of such morality is division. How can people be united in one society if each one moral value is recognised by the society? Each will practice his/her own value which may lead to a conflict of values in one society. Harmony may be sacrificed, conflict may arise.

b. Normative Morality

Normative morality is a code of conduct that would be accepted by all rational people under certain idealized conditions. In other words, morality is the set of correct moral principles which ought to be adopted by all rational agents.

This is the concern of moral philosophy which seeks, firstly, to formulate a set of principles with which all rational agents ought to comply. Second, to explain why the system is ought to be adopted. It involves the question of validity of the code of conducts by which people adhere to. 

Scope of Ethics

1.      Man and fellow man. It deals with the “oughts” or “shoulds” of human existence in relation to others. The questions like: “how should I treat other people? Is helping other people in need something I ought to do? So it investigates how a person should live his life with others because he does not live in absolute freedom. His desires and action, how he treats himself and others is necessarily regulated by generally accepted principles of morality that consider the welfare of others.

2.      Man and his society.

Ethics is also a study of man, as a member of moral community. It investigates how man should relate to his community and vice versa. It prescribes how man should best contribute to the welfare of his community and how the community should best foster his personal growth and improvement. “The question like: does my action benefit the society in general? Is it right to prioritize the interest of society over the interest of the individuals? Does society respect my rights and dignity?     

3.       Man and other Sentient Being.

Ethics also deals with the relationship between human beings and other sentient creatures (lower forms of animals). The main concern here is about proper attitude toward the sentient being that are capable of feeling the pain. How do we see this sentient being around us? Do we see them as object or subject? Do we see them in their instrumental value or intrinsic value? Is it ethical to use other sentient beings which are also capable of experiencing pains, for the advancement of human knowledge?

4.      Man and his natural environment.

It deals with how man treats his natural environment. It tries to provide rational basis for environmental protection in view of the duty to respect the right of the future members of the community. Is it ethical to sacrifice the environment for the sake of progress and development? Basis for our respect to the environment is not purely based on their instrumental value but their intrinsic values in which we respect the environment because they have value in themselves despite of their use.      

 Conclusion

From the points we have discussed, definitely ethics is a code of conduct of all rational being in relation to other rational beings, non-rational beings and environment. Ethics regulate human behavior on how to relate properly with the environment around him. The main purpose of living ethically is for human happiness. The assumption is that when a person has a good relationship with others and with the environment, definitely he should be happy.