Name: Tahia Anjum Ema
Student ID – 212011038
Course: Ethics
Course code: UCC1202
Assignment: The Evolution of Ethics
Submitted to: Mohammad Tareque
Rahman Sir
Introduction
Ethics, in the simplest language, means a set of moral etiquettes that
decide how good and right a decision is. Ethical decisions are concerned
with how a decision of a particular individual effects the society and
whether or not that decision could be made better in context to the
given situation – the quality of a decision.
Speaking of Greek, ethical principles have evolved over time, and these
have not been the same for all part of the world. The best explanation
for this is that, along with the evolution of a civilization, so does their
ethics and moral principles change. If we take a look at the history of
ethics, we can divide them into a few categories.
Ancient Greek Ethics (5th Century BCE)
Some of the earliest known ethics were introduced and practiced by
Greek Philosophers, namely Socrates. Socrates’ theories were
discovered and preached in dialogues of Plato, Aristotle, Cynics, and the
likes.
Socrates is primarily credited as the Father of Western ethics. As
known from Plato’s dialogues, Socrates believed that nobody is ever
born evil, and that everyone is, by default, good. His philosophy
asserted that people could have only one good - knowledge and people
do bad things from only one bad - lack of knowledge, that is ignorance.
In another dialogue named Apology, Socrates stated that a person will
not think twice before endangering his/her own life or inviting death
itself by an action; they will only see if his action was just or not.
In the dialogue named Crito, Socrates says that a life is not worthy of
living if the body and the soul are ruined.
In contrast to what Socrates said in Crito, Plato presented an
intellectual objection that, the soul can have wants and desires that are
not always right or for the best. Therefore sometimes, you have to deny
what your soul wants or desires, to avoid adverse consequences in the
future.
Moreover, Aristotle had a different point of view. He states that “Nature
does nothing in vain”, meaning that everything that happens in the
course of nature, happens for a definitive reason - when a person acts
according to their full potential, they will only do good, and therefore be
happy. Aristotle believed that there should be moderations set for all
extremes behaviors, for example, courage is the moderate standard set
between both cowardice and inconsiderate recklessness. He asserted
that a person should not just live for the sake of living but should live
with the conduct taught by moderate virtue.
Cynicism was the ethical philosophy developed by the Greek
Philosopher, Diogenes of Sinope, who lived his life in a tub on the
streets of Athens. His philosophy attributed to the mindset that
anything that is conventionally considered “good” is not actually good or
even necessary, and that humans should just live a simple life in the
accords of nature.
Cyrenaic Hedonism is the ethical concept that was mainly brought into
light by Aristippus of Cyrene, a Greek city in the North. Hedonism is
based on the principle that every action should optimize pleasure and
reduce pain, no matter how others have to suffer for it, or even of the
adverse consequences that may happen. Aristippus said that pleasure is
the end goal of life, and that there are no categories of pleasure. His
idea was that pleasures that are readily available are better to attain,
no matter what the consequence are, than to wait to achieve something
better in the future. He also stated that bodily pleasures are much
better than mental pleasures. This contradicts his own statement
where he said pleasures do not differ from one another.
Medieval Ethics (Mid 8th Century)
Medieval ethical philosophies branch out from the life and workings of
the Greek Philosophers Aristotle and Plato, and also the teachings of
different religions such as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc. Medieval
Philosophy mainly consists of classical Greek versions of Pagan
Philosophies, cultural and ethical philosophies of the new Christian
religion, including some heritages of Islam and Judaism. The time
period of the evolution of Medieval Ethics is known to be approximately
1300years.
Eastern Ethics (525 BC)
The branch of ethics that has been practiced since the beginning of
time, in the Eastern part of the world, focuses more on manners and
gestures of showing respect through action. Eastern ethics focuses on
deducing how right or wrong an action is from a context of the
expectations of a family, religion, society, and culture. Eastern ethics
teaches you to do right and good, in terms of what is expected by your
family or the society, and that the latter will be taken care of by the
universe.
One of the earliest ethical philosophies to be practiced in the east, is
Confucianism. Confucianism asserts the importance of maintaining
moral conduct between an individual person and the society itself. The
name comes from the Chinese philosopher Confucius. On the basis of
Confucianism, actions are never just simply good or bad, rather the
actions are tied to the moral virtues of the person committing them.
Therefore, if a person is virtuous, his/her actions are also moral,
regardless of what the outcome is.
Another ethical doctrine of the East is Taoism. The word “Tao” means
“the way”. Taoism is the practice of Chinese philosophy that actions are
considered moral and ethical if they align with the cosmic events, i.e.,
Tao. If a person’s actions are proper and moral, then it is ethical
because it is keeping up with Tao. If the actions are not appropriate,
then it is considered immoral, for which the universe may disrupt that
person’s life with consequences such as sickness, loss, etc.
Western Ethics (585 BC)
Western ethics are rooted from self-reflection of what is rationally and
logically, good, or right. It places its focus more on law and justice.
Western ethics centralizes more on the actions that find the truth or
justice better. Generally, there is a field of philosophies followed by
Western ethics, known as Normative ethics.
A school of thought of Normative ethics is Deontology. Deontology
focuses only on the premise that whether an action is right or wrong,
and not on the consequences of it. Its base is the belief that people
should commit to an action solely because it’s right and nothing else. A
deontologist’s judgement is only upon the morality of the actions itself.
A deontologist believes that there is no grey zone, either an action is
right, or it is wrong, there is no in-between.
Another branch of Normative ethics is Consequentialism, which is quite
literally the opposite of what Deontology focuses on. Consequentialism
focuses on how good or bad the consequence is of an action, to judge if
that action is good or bad. The base of Consequentialism is to judge the
goodness of the actions, by examining the goodness of the consequence
it produces.
Differences between Eastern and Western Ethics
Prime Focus:
Judgement on the
basis of:
Centralized Around:
Descended from:
Eastern Ethics
Western Ethics
Fulfilling expectations
of family, society,
culture, etc.
Religious Teachings
and Cultural values.
Finding righteousness,
truth, and justice.
Respecting familial,
societal, cultural, and
religious values.
Confucianism, Taoism,
Hinduism, Buddhism.
Logic, Reason, and
Aftermath.
Rational thought
process.
Athens, Rome, JudeoChristianity.
Conclusion
From this discussion, we can deduce that, ethics and its standards have
not and do not remain fixed; it has and always will keep evolving with
the transforming situations and circumstances.
References:
Wikipedia (2022, February 2). History of Ethics. Retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ethics#Jewish_ethics
Philosophy Basics. (2022) The Basics of Philosophy. Retrieved from:
https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_ethics.html?fbclid=IwAR2AB7wPohJ5xdc3X24bOXe4
gU-wgFwZeUWLz0MkMpoPMY_VScHklihNpyo
Meadows, C. (Claudia Meadows) (2022, March 27). Medieval Ethics. PhilPapers. Retrieved from:
https://philpapers.org/browse/medieval-ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2016, March 15). Medieval Philosophy. Retrieved from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/medieval-philosophy/#Ingredients
Difference Between. (2022) Difference between Western and Eastern Ethics. Retrieved from:
http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-western-and-eastern-ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2021, February 5). Ancient Ethical Theory. Retrieved
from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-ancient/#Cyre
Muscato, C. (Christopher Muscato). (2022, January 11). Eastern theories of Ethics. Study.com.
Retrieved from:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/eastern-theories-ofethics.html#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20most%20famous,thought%20for%20thousands%20of%2
0years
Muscato, C. (Christopher Muscato). (2022, January 11). Western theories of Ethics.
Study.com. Retrieved from:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/western-theories-ofethics.html?fbclid=IwAR3VKaPmJ4PWEItHWIlCK3LDC18_H5GWRvoGVI0AcrqnrDDpQ4Jr
Q7bpU_s