ETHICAL THINKING

1
ETHICAL THINKING

• To the layman the world ethics suggests a set
  of standards by which a particular group or
  community decides to regulate its behavior. This
  is a kind of descriptive empirical inquiry.

2

• Anthropologist, historians, psychologist and
  sociologist conduct this type of study.
• This type of inquiry mainly describes or explains
  the phenomena of morality or work out a theory of
  human nature, which bears on ethical questions.
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3

• We also discuss about normative ethics. In this
  connection we discuss the sort of thing, which
  Socrates was doing. Here we investigate into the
  content of moral principle and virtues and their
  justification. This in fact involves a
  philosophical thinking about ethics.

4

• This type of normative thinking asks, what is
  right, good or obligatory. This may take the form
  of asserting a normative judgments like
• I ought not try to escape from prison.
• Knowledge is good.
• It is always wrong to harm someone.

5

• However, there are also questions about morality
  this type of inquiry is not concern with the
  principle, which should guide our conduct, or how
  we must live. Rather it aims at the puzzles
  about the logical form of morality. For example
  the question of objectivity or subjectivity of
  moral judgments. These questions are not directly
  concern with any particular form of moral life.
  This is what is called as meta-ethical thinking.

6

• A life which is worth living for may also be a
  worth dying for.
• The best way to live is to be virtuous, even if
  virtue undermines the pleasures of life or life
  itself .

7

• Socrates knew that he had done right and had been
  treated unfairly by the court. He then faced an
  unenviable choice to turn down the offer to
  escape and face his punishment as a good citizen,
  or to leave Athens for sanctuary elsewhere and
  continue to lead his own life with its pleasures
  and satisfaction.

8

• He chose to stay and be executed on the ground
  that there are matters more important than even
  life itself.
• That which is most worth living for may also be
  worth dying for.
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9

• I would rather die after spoken about my manners
  than speak in your manners and live.
• The difficulty is not to avoid death but avoid
  un-righteousness for that runs faster than death.
• Be a good cheer about death, and know your
  character, no evil can happen to a good man.
• The un-examined life is not worth living.
  .. Socrates.