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Exploring Ethics, the field that deals with defining what is good and bad, and the moral obligations that ensue.

• ethics. From the Greek ethos for character, disposition, values.
• moral. From the Latin moralis for custom, habit, way of life, conduct.

It is important to know these words thoroughly because they have many connotations and many an argument can go awry by simple miscommunication. Many people say that ethics and morals are synonyms and for general usage they are. However if I am going to get deep into the subject, then I might as well use the words more precisely.

• Ethic (n.), ethics (n.), ethical (adj.), ethically (adv.), ethicalness (n.), and ethicality (n.). Ethics may be the a set of principles, or a study, or a system, or a theory that deal with the values, the ideas of good and bad conduct.
  • Unethical (adj.) will refer to values contrary to ethical values.
• Morals (n.), moral (n. & adj.), morally (adv.) will refer to behavior based upon ethics.
  • Immoral (adj.) and immorally (adv.) will refer to behavior contrary to moral behavior.
  • Amoral (adj.), amorally (adv.), amorality (n.), and amoralism (n.) will refer to behavior that is not based upon or related to ethics.
• Good (adj.). Positive, desirable, maximizing its nature, high quality, complete, leading to imperfection, etc.
• Bad (adj.). Negative, unfavorable, not true to its nature, low quality, incomplete, leading to imperfection, etc.

It is impossible to escape the flexibility and ambiguity of these terms in the English language but we'll have to make do. These distinctions should be pointed out:

• The terms unethical and immoral are imprecise.
  • EG: Choosing to wear brown or blue is not an immoral decision, rather it is an amoral decision.
  • EG: It is not precise to say that Hitler had an unethical system of ethics, rather he had a bad system of ethics.
• I will use variations of the word "ethics" more for the ideas and the word "moral" more for the behavior.
  • EG: Confucianism is a pragmatic system focused on moral behavior than the ethical reasoning.
  • EG: Kant's system of universal imperatives is more focused on ethical judgments than the moral behavior.
• It is traditional and more poetic to say "the moral of the story is...", but the anal would say "the lesson of the story is...".

Every one is an ethicist. A person who unknowingly performs good or bad deeds is not truly responsible for those deeds. Similarly, a person who performs good or bad deeds is responsible for those deeds. EG:

• If I unknowingly disarm a madman's bomb, then I am no hero.
• If I unknowingly arm a madman's bomb, then I am no villain.
• If I knowingly disarm a madman's bomb, then I am a hero.
• If I knowingly arm a madman's bomb, then I am a villain.

That is pretty clear; however ethics is really for dealing with more complicated issues. EG:

• Am I required to risk life and/or limb to save another life? two lives? 10 lives? a thousand lives?
• Who has the right to live on a patch of land?
• What retribution is due for sins performed by the generation before?

The Truth is an elusive animal and the most dangerous individuals are those who think they have grasped the Truth by its tail.

Scrap

Unsorted notes related to ethics.

• Here are some of my requirements for an ethical personal philosophy:
  • It should be non-partisan and independent of the following: Religion. Race. Sex. Age. Geography. History. Culture. Money. Technology. Species.
  • It should be concise and elegant.
  • It should be able to handle complex and changing problems.
  • It should satisfy reason and intuition.
• Discuss various ethical systems (utilitarianism, duty, rights, virtue, etc.)
• Discuss ethical thinkers (Mill, Brandt, Kant, Rawls, Locke, Melden, Aristotle, MacIntyre, etc.)
• Discuss various ethical issues:
  • capital punishment
  • abortion
  • pornography
  • suicide
  • prostitution
  • war
  • genocide
  • imperialism and expansionism
  • Poverty, Hunger, Disease
  • the distribution of goods and power
    • Fair wages. Labor union & outsourcing. Why is it OK for corporations to pay U.S. workers Labor Union wages but pay foreign workers wages that only support sub-standard living?
  • intellectual property
• Ethics v Tastefulness. 
• Ethical choice includes inactions as well as actions.
• Via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categorical_Imperative:
  • 'In his Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, Kant formulates the Categorical Imperative in three different ways:
    • The first (Universal Law formulation): "Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."
    • The second (Humanity or End in Itself formulation): "Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end."
    • The third (Kingdom of Ends formulation) combines the two: "All maxims as proceeding from our own [hypothetical] making of law ought to harmonise with a possible kingdom of ends." '
  • The Enquiring Murderer
• The "inevitable" immorality of extracting man from feelings, tradition, faith, mores, etc in favor of reason, nihilism, rationalism. EGs: French Revolution, Napoleon, Communism, Rope. The essential result is "virtuous violence", i.e. terrorism; the rationalization and justification of evil.

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2007-10-27 02:15:34Z) (Auto noted: 2007-11-17 06:20:22Z)