ETHICS
From Philosopedia
ETHICS
Ethics is a philosophic discipline that deals not only with what is good and bad but also with moral duty and obligations.
Contents |
Ethics from Philosophers' Viewpoints
Naturalists who have written on the subject include
- William Kingdon Clifford, The Ethics of Belief and The Ethics of Religion (1880);
- G. E. Moore, Principia Ethica (1903);
- Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals (1929) and The Conquest of Happiness (1930); and
- P. H. Nowell-Smith, Ethics (1954).
Also, humanistic philosophers A. J. Ayer, Albert Schweitzer, and Bernard Williams have written extensively on the subject. The oldest continuing organization to have focused on humanistic ethics is South Place Ethical Society, founded 14 February 1793. The group meets in Conway Hall and serves as the potential focus of the British Humanist movement.
Bertrand Russell’s views on ethics (Power, 1938) included the following:
- • The fundamental defect of Christian ethics consists in the fact that it labels certain classes of acts “sins” and others “virtue” on grounds that have nothing to do with their social consequences. An ethic not derived from superstition must decide first upon the kind of social effects which it desires to achieve and the kind which it desires to avoid. It must then decide, as far as our knowledge permits, what acts will promote the desired consequences; these acts it will praise, while those having a contrary tendency it will condemn. (Education and the Modern World, 1932)
- • It’s very difficult to separate ethics altogether from politics. Ethics, it seems to me, arise in this way: a man is inclined to do something that benefits him and harms his neighbors. If it harms a good many of his neighbors, they will combine together and say, “Look here, we don’t like this sort of thing, and we’ll see to it that it doesn’t benefit the man,” and that leads to the criminal law, which is perfectly rational. {Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind, 1969}
- • The power conferred by military conquest often ceases, after a longer or shorter period of time, to be merely military. All the provinces conquered by the Romans, except Judea, soon became loyal subjects of the Empire, and ceased to feel any desire for independence. In Asia and Africa the Christian countries conquered by the Mohammedans submitted with little reluctance to their new rulers. Wales gradually acquiesced in English rule, though Ireland did not. After the Albigensian heretics had been overcome by military force, their descendants submitted inwardly as well as outwardly to the authority of the Church. The Norman Conquest produced, in England, a royal family which, after a time, was thought to possess a Divine Right to the throne. Military conquest is stable only when it is followed by psychological conquest, but the cases in which this has occurred are very numerous.
(See the entry for ethics in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 3.)
Ethical Humanism
See entry for South Place Ethical Society
Ethical Naturalism
To determine whether an “ought” can be deduced from an “is,” see Paul Edwards's Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 3.
Ethical Record
Ethical Record is published by South Place Ethical Society at Bradlaugh House, 47 Theobald’s Road, London, WC1X 8SP, United Kingdom. It reports on lectures, with brief letters, notices, and similar items.
Ethical Relativism
In ethics, ethical relativism is the belief that nothing is objectively right or wrong. The definition of right or wrong depends on the prevailing view of a particular individual, culture, or hist]]orical period. Although in the Trobriand Islands it was once ethical in the evenings for young women to climb through the open windows of eligible bachelors, such a practice is frowned upon in London and elsewhere. In Morocco and Greenwich Village, New York City, males who are friends can hold hands in public, a practice that could result in violence in America’s Bible Belt or in other parts of the world.
{DCL}
Ethical Union
The Union of Ethical Societies, which was formed in 1896, became the Ethical Union in 1920. In 1967, the organization became the British Humanist Association. {Nicolas Walter, New Humanist, February 1996}
