History Of Ethics
The ethics has undergone many changes and transformations in history.
(Vatican fresco of the School of Athens )
Summary |
Ethics in History
Ethics at the Veterans
The etymology of the word Greek ethics (as opposed to the Latin etymology of morality ) refers to the philosophy Greek , which can be regarded as the source of philosophy West.
It seemed indeed a need to integrate the most fertile of the philosophy of ancient Greece , and especially the thought of Aristotle.
The formal study of ethics began in ancient Greece.
The first study was the Presocratics , and especially Socrates , which can be considered the first philosopher of ethics.
Plato is the thinker of the Idea of Good, as light and possibility of access to knowledge.
Aristotle , meanwhile, gave the Ethics an organized fashion and brought new conceptual grids. Aristotle defines in the Nicomachean Ethics , four causes , the most important meaning is the final cause , he developed the concept of teleology. For him, the golden rule of ethics is the pursuit of telos , the final cause, which will find its fulfillment in the right measure, finding the right medium for happiness. Aristotle considers ethics of a more anthropological and naturalistic than Plato.
It was then Epicurus and Epicureans , and Zeno and the Stoics who were interested in the subject.
In the Hellenistic period, after the collapse of the empire of Alexander the Great , new forms of ethics appear, while the Greeks are dominated by the Roman world. While the Romans favored the action, the Greek Stoics emphasize them the knowledge. For Stoics , ethics is the normative knowledge of human behavior, whose end is knowledge and action lines. Among the Stoics, Epictetus considers that it is vain for a single individual to want to influence events that we can not control, and that we should feel responsible that events over which we can have an influence.
For these philosophers, he is aware of the standards of nature, that is to say the reason (for the physical world is informed by its laws that are expressions of the divine). This knowledge is wisdom, state of the psyche (soul) that makes it somewhat invincible. In this sense, ethics involves a superhuman mastery of the passions. In view of the ancients, this mastery of the world closer to god.
Ethics in the Carolingian period
During the Renaissance Carolingian , the thought of Plato has been taken over by the humanists of the period: The Banquet , The Republic ...
Ethics in the Late Middle Ages
After the rediscovery of the philosophy of Aristotle in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and especially its metaphysical , ethical issues have been formalized by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century. It has sought to reconcile Christianity and the philosophy of Aristotle. Ethical issues are the subject of the Second Part (Secunda Pars) of the Summa Theologica.
The idea of finding the right measure, which is perceived by Aristotle, is found in major religions, Christianity , but Buddhism ...
Ethics in the modern period
A great wind of skepticism will open in this period, the value of ethics proposed by the Church in the earlier period. In the climate of the Reformation , the advances of science leading figures such as Montaigne and Descartes to question some traditional affirmations of the medieval period (Case Galilee ), to challenge such final causes that Aristotle had presented in its metaphysics.
In the early seventeenth century , the casuistry is given in teaching Catholic and among Protestants to study cases of conscience. Its excesses are reported by Blaise Pascal in the Provincial ( 1656 ).
A philosopher of ethics in the classical period is Baruch Spinoza ( 1,632 - 1677 ), who lived a few decades after Descartes. Spinoza was first developed a theory of knowledge Ethics in Contemporary In the nineteenth century , ethics has been little philosophical work. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote two short treatises ethical-religious ( 1849 ). Certainly the emergence and development to the company in Europe and parts of the world of ideas positivist and materialist during the Industrial Revolution , the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century helped to discredit the metaphysics (law of the three states of Auguste Comte , giving a value may be excessive science called "accurate". An ethic based on an attitude simply altruistic (the term was coined by Auguste Comte ) is insufficient to deal with substantive issues: the referents of Comte completely ignore the ancient philosophy. In Anglo-Saxon and Northern Europe, there appeared a analytic philosophy , which focuses on utilitarianism. Ethics is seen as part of the benefit to society. This view is often seen as more pragmatic ( William James ), or more eclectic. Forms of sociology that have resulted have made the connection between the different sciences less understandable. The epistemology , which was not clearly identified in Greek philosophy, and was developed to achieve better visibility on the contribution of different science in human development. In addition, philosophy has probably lost its traditional division, focusing on topics such as the time , the consciousness , the perception ... Thus, the current use of the word ethics has tended to make it equivalent to " morality ". Ethics on the lines of morality are reportedly living first as a personal matter, the conduct of each covered ultimately by his own conscience individual. Meanwhile, the value of science is apparent since the early twentieth century as more relative ( Henri Poincar and The Value of Science ). In recent decades, the challenges of society poses ethical questions because the original human risk contemporaries, such as climate change. Faced with the choice of technology in general, the philosopher German Hans Jonas puts ethics in the field of liability in relation to global risks that may pose techno-science in relation to civil society and future generations. This he develops in The Principle of Responsibility (1979). The precautionary principle is thus closely related to ethics (it is one result). This philosophy is behind the line of thought that occurs in many international meetings related to sustainable development and its collateral issues. The ethics of Hans Jonas is classified either in continental philosophy , or in analytic philosophy. Although the word ethics does not appear explicitly in the titles of his works, the philosopher Dominique Bourg addressed the philosophical and political issues green. He participated in the work of the Committee Coppens for the preparation of the environmental charter. The philosopher Paul Ricoeur also addresses ethical issues related to responsibility (ethics and responsibility). Ethics Today
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