'Ethical World' is a book on moral philosophy written by Dr.Kadankavil
Thomas.He is a member of staff in Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram since
1972.He holds a doctrate in philosophy from Gregprian university ,Rome
,and another from the university of Fordham ,U.S.A. This book contain
ten chapters and these chapters deal with subjects like western
schools, moral erxperience,notion of obligation,virtues and
vices,analysis of human action,norms of morality,destiny of human
life,schools of ethics in eastern tradition etc.In the first chapter
the author deals with ethical problems,,classifications of ethical
theories and differnt ethical schools in the eastern tradition.
Ethical problems
The central problames of philosophical ethics are certain basic facts
of morality and the questions related to this facts are what do we
mean by good and evil?.This problem has initiated the search for
meaning and standards of good in general. Secondly we feel an
obligation to to good and avoid evil.
Classification of ethical theories
The history of European ethics can be classified chronologically in to
Greek period,medival period and modern period.Various ethical theories
arose in these periods can be arrange in the following way.
1 Telological and axiological ethics
Teleological ethics stress es on the orientation of good action to
the final goal and axiological ethics stresses the value aspect in
the good.
2 Deontological ethics and formalistic ethics
These theories stresses the obligation in ethcal consciousness and
hold that rightness and wrongness of an action depend on act itself
and not on the consequences.
3 Absolute and relative ethics
Absolute ethics hold the view that it is possible to have a universal
and eternal moral code but relative ethics hold the view that moral
standard varies according to the circumstances.
4 Objective and subjective ethics
Subjectve simply stands for human proposal and objective stands for
real factor in things.
Ethics in western philosophy
Ancient greek philosophy period can be divided in to three such as
pre-socratic ,socratic and post socratic.Protogoras introduced
relativity in to ethics.He said man is the measure of all things , it
mean man is the sole judge of what is true and what is false.socrates
undertook his search for knowledge on the basis of conviction that
virtue and knowledge are identical and Aristotle belived that all
moral virtues are parts of knowledge.The cynic ideal of virtue is the
simplicity of living.Anisthenis regarded pleasure as evil.stoism says
perfect happiness can be attained only through the practise of
virtues.Epicurianism stress the superiority of mental pleasure over
sensual pleasure.In reublic plato says ethical knowledge is more
austere than mathematics.The chief among the neo Platonist are
Plotinus and philo Judaeus .
Christian ethics till twelth century was influenced by platonic, neo
platonic and stoic schools.One of the important aspects of Christian
ethics is its emphasis on god,s will as the ultimate will and ultimate
end of all ethical judgements.The metaphysical and ethical aspects of
all the writings of st.Augustine is God ,the omnipotent,omnibenovolent
creator of man and the universe.The problem how to reconcile the
existence of evil in the world with omnipotence of god offered a
natural point of entry for Augustine in to the field of moral
philosophy. Contrary to the moral theory of fransiscans Dominicans
were emphasizing the role of practical reason in moral
life.scolasticism started with Anslem .The aim of it is to find a
reconciliation of the antagonism between dialectical effort to obtain
satisfaction for the reasons under the conditions fixed by the
traditional dogmas of Christian faith.The summum bonum for man,
according to Thomas aqunas is objectively god and subjectively the
happiness to be derived from loving vision of His perfections.
Jewish ethics is theocratic ethics Philo tried for the comparison of
old textament and greek philosophy.It is the duty of man to obey
commamndments and do justice.Maimonides accepted the Aristotelian
doctrine of virtue and as the mean between the extreams of excess and
defect.
Francis Bacon in his book Advancement of learing says that moral good
and duty are somehow related to the welfatre of the societyHerbert
Spencer assumes thjat life is of fundamental value and the elongation
of life isw supream good.Francis bradely proposed self-realization as
goal of ethics .Erich fromm characterized his ethics as humanistic.
Human act
Human acts are those acts which are directed by human will and its
essential qualities are knowlegde,freedom and voluntariness.act of
double effect means it is not practically possible to avoid all evil
effect of an action because there will be certainly some unforseen
unintented evil effect for any good action.Conditions for this kinds
of acts are the following..1)the act must be good in itself 2) The
good intented must not be obtained by means of evil effect 3) the evil
effect must not be intent for itself but only permitted.
Moral law
Moral laws are laws concernig with morality and types of moral laws
are eternal and temporal, natural and positive ,divine and human .St.
Thomas gives a brief definition of morality. The law is nothing else
than an ordinance of reason for common good promulgated by him who has
the care of the community.Thus we see that a law must be mandatory ,
reasonable for the common good , promulgated and authoritaive
Indian Ethical tradition
Indian ethics are found in vedas ,upanisads and other religious
writing.The term dharma means justice.justice means doing eqality to
all.The theme of gita give appeal to emotions rather than
intellect.According to gita that which make a person yogin is that
regular practise of devotional contact with god.Ethics in ramayana
gives a good message to the humaity.In Raman we an ideal person he
sacrifies everything for the well fare of zzhis country.The ethics of
Ramayana are truths, virtues ,life affirmation, wealth and pleasure
Conclusion
Ethics is the normative science of human action and its basic
assumptions are freedom , knowledge and voluntariness.The book
'Ethical world ' gives a brief description about different aspects of
ethics.The book also deal with the ethical ideas of different
philosophers of different times like Thomas Hobs , Fransis
Bacon,Aquinas , Augustine etc.This assignment gave me an insight int
to the different aspects of moral philosophy.
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