Reflecting Upon Ethics: What is it?

Fresco – Castillo de Chapultepec, Mexico DF - Mexico

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

Reflecting Upon Ethics: What is it?

Ethical Judgments

         “Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits for society, fairness, or specific virtues” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, & Meyer, 2010). By gathering one’s thoughts after reading this definition of ethics, one can conclude that it is about how people should live righteously in search of happiness. Hence, ethics then manifests itself in our lives as moral judgments regarding all human endeavors.

         “Plausible ethical judgements are made through a process of moral reasoning and in terms of things we value” (The Open University, 2020). Feeling the lure of temptation by trying to frame the moral judgments’ lore, it can be roughly stated that people phrase their ethical assessments in terms of what they look for or what it is expected from their actions. In the end, ethics is “what people should or should not make happen, what people should and shouldn’t do, and why” (The Open University, 2020). And based on these ideas of making happen and doing, humans phrase their understanding of moral judgments.

         Not trying to upend the order of moral judgments, many of people’s ethical judgments are phrased in terms of what they look for. As it can be observed without having to brood over for a lengthy moment, that the list below specifies many of the things one looks for in life. “Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, & Meyer, 2010). Ethics is a fearsome way of living in a world where bloodlust is every and anywhere; yet it is what it is expected from others to collective attain society’s best interests, one’s happiness, fairness among peers, safety for oneself and people in one’s inner circle, and rights.

Ethical judgments are phrased in term of …	best interests
	happiness
	fairness
	safety
	rights
Adapted by Prof. Jonathan Acuña from The Open University’ Global Ethics (2020)

         As people delve deeper into understanding ethical assessments, it is necessary to take note of the feelings brimming inside oneself when talking about responsibilities, duties, rights, consequences, decency, morality, and virtue. These are not things people are exactly looking for in their lives’ ethics, but these are moral constructs linked to ethical actions that are expected from fellow people. Ethics is also “the study and development of one’s ethical standards” (Velasquez, Andre, Shanks, & Meyer, 2010), which are encased within all these types of actions in a person’s life.

Ethical judgments are phrased in term of people’s…	duties
	responsibilities
	rights
	bad consequences
	decency, morality, virtue
Adapted by Prof. Jonathan Acuña from The Open University’ Global Ethics (2020)

 One does not have to be out of one’s wits to comprehend that humanity is ruled by ethics. This is not about thinking that the gods rule from on high, and they are the ones who instruct humans to act morally in the eyes of their fellow people. As stated by Aristotle (2016), “every craft and every investigation, and likewise every action and decision, seems to aim at some good; hence the good has been well described as that at which everything aims.” Humans are ruled by reason, and reason should be governed by morality aiming at goodness.

References

Aristotle. (2016). Nicomachean Ethics. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

The Open University. (2020). Ethics. Retrieved October 17, 2020, from FutureLearn.Com: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-ethics/3/steps/905593

Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, T., & Meyer, M. (2010, January 1). What is Ethics? Retrieved October 19, 2020, from Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University: https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethical-decision-making/what-is-ethics/

 

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