INTRODUCTION
Ethics can be properly understood only in the light of the value philosophy places upon human species. The distinction between human or man animal once accepted, and now often debated, again is now recognized in degree (human are generally more intelligent) but not in kind. But without holding out for a distinctly human dignity the experience of moral absolute can have no justifiable validity. Therefore we start our study of morals with the assumption that man does possess an immaterial soul or spirit. This fundamental principle is the basis for absolute principle in ethics.
BODY AND SOUL
What Aristotle regarded as the form of the bodily organism was for St. Thomas Aquinas the immortal soul in man. He insisted upon the natural unity of body and soul and ruled out the presence of the form of corporeity for the entire organism and sentient soul distinct from the cognitive principle or the intellectual or spiritual soul. This unity of the principle if the substantial form of organism brings every action in the organism, directly or indirectly under the sway of intellect or reason. In this Thomistic conception of man, a human mind could not come into existence without a body, and the material for its thinking is provided when embodied through the agency of the body. The classical argument for the survival of the mind, soul after death is based on the incorporeal character of thought.
We are aware of ourselves as thinking and sentient organisms and that these functions derive from a unitary principle of activity. Philosophy, aided by the positive assurance and content from religion, leaves us with the hope of immortality which is to be attained through the proper activity of man who is capable of conceiving and affirming his existence in a future beyond death through his moral development.
ETHICS AS SCIENCE OF HUMAN CONDUCT
'Ethics' comes from the Greek ethos, meaning character. It seems to pertain to the individual character of persons. In philosophy this term is used to refer to the study on human conduct and human values. 'Morality' comes from the Latin moralis, meaning customs or manners. It seems to point to the relationship among human beings. When we speak of people as ethical or moral, unethical we usually mean that they are good or bad people. But when we refer to human actions as moral, ethical, immoral, unethical, we mean that they are right or wrong.
MORAL VALUES
It is an undeniable fact that mankind has moral value- consciousness. Someone can be a good scholar, athlete, businessman, politician, scientist, artist, soldier, entertainer, companion, and at the same time morally a bad man. On the other hand, even if someone is a failure in all these respects, he could be morally a good man, For moral values are understood to be those which make a man good purely and simply as man. We recognize moral values as distinct from and more fundamental, more valuable than other values. The reason is that moral values are the expression of each one's unique personality in its innermost core. It is being revealed through one's free act of choice. There are morally good or bad human acts which make men morally good or bad.
CONSCIENCE
Personal judgment about the rightness or wrongness of actions on the basis of general moral principles is called conscience. A person's conscience may come in conflict with the customary morality and statutory laws. A person's inner capacity to feel a moral obligation, which is conscience, has to be used as the basis for resolving the conflicts or doubt about moral duties. In the constitution of conscience we can at least distinguish four facts: 1) the memory of a past experience which has created pain, unpleasantness or uneasiness, or fear of punishment, 2) the awareness that an individual has to be a faithful member of his group. Conscience is in part the voice of the community in us which is imparted to us through the training and experience of the early formative period, 3) the religious experience or experience of the divine within, which calls man to respect the rights of the other men, 4) the element of reflection which supplies a foundation or justification for one's moral obligation. Here we shell just dwell on the factor of reflection in the feeling of moral obligation.
THE SOCIALIZING AGENCIES
Man is always aware that he cannot live a fill human life apart from his fellowmen. He has to co-operate with other men to meet the common needs and achieve common aims. For the development of language, agriculture, industry and art man has to function as a member of a society. All those activities which help him to develop a spirit of co-operation and mutual aid in seeking some common good are socializing agencies in the development of moral consciousness.
CONCLUSION
It was Kant who first made the notion of doing one's duty for duty's sake into a philosophical aim. Why should I do my duty? The justification for fulfilling the obligation arising from duty is usually found in the teleological view of religions. Thus in Christianity 'Eternal life' (what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Mt 19: 16) is the goal and ethics or moral behavior is only an aid or instrument for achieving this goal. Here, duty has a supra- ethical reference which makes the former meaningful for Christian. The Hindu ethics is also to a large extent teleological although the 'deontological trend' (duty for duty's own sake) is also found there. Of the four desirable ends (pursuhartas) moksha is the ultimate ideal. Even if one does not have the earnest desire to attain moksha, he has the duty to perform dharma. In this sense Hindu ethics is deontological. But ideally every one ought to seek moksha and, therefore this supra- ethical reference makes Hindu ethics also teleological. Therefore the "Complete morality is reached only when the individual recognizes the right or chooses the good freely, devotes himself heartily to its fulfillment and seeks a progressive social development in which every member of the society shall share." All human acts, therefore, which are performed by the free will in accordance with the hierarchical order of powers and functions intended by God, will be morally good; acts contrary to this order will be morally evil. Man's nature, therefore is the immediate or proximate norm of morality also man is creature of God; man must strive to know and love God in this world, so as to be happy with God for ever. Thus, we may say, the proximate objective norm of morality for man is his own rational nature considered in its threefold relation to the world, society and God.
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