Ethics and Western Discourse

Ethics has been a part of Western discourse since the earliest formulation of Western discourse. Aristotle's famous Nichomachean Ethics is aimed at addressing the gap in the young man's moral education and so to cultivate ethics, which is identified with virtue, and prepare him for eventual rulership of the body politic. He states that "moral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name ethike is one that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit)" (1947, p. 331). Thus ethics, or virtue, is a lifelong effort of learning. It is important for young people to learn to be good. Not bad advice, even for 333 BC or so. Aristotle, of course, is just one example of a major Western philosopher who took ethics as his subject, and his work can be set beside the ethical injunctions of such texts as the Bible. The relevant point is that the modern world is the beneficiary of several thousand years of serious philosophical examination of ethical conduct. Thus it might seem as if ours would have evolved into the most ethical and honest civil society imaginable because we have had plenty of time to form honest habits.

Alas, such is not the case. Indeed, in The Cheating Culture, David Callahan argues that the reverse is so often true that abandonment of such values as hard work and fairness in favor of seeking immediate advantage through expediency, has become a social norm. Callahan offers a series of examples to demonstrate how far afield people have straye

Related Essays

Ethics: When is justifiable to violate the law? .... King justifies his case with reference to Western, particularly Judeo-Christian .... survivalist, and militia enclaves, which ignore the discourse of moral .... (3511 14 )

The Death Penalty in a Civil Society .... the European Enlightenment, the Western discourse of capital .... theory in capital- punishment discourse specifically. .... About the Death Penalty." Ethics: Theory and .... (2549 10 )

Japanese Culture and Western Influence .... science and art while preserving Oriental ethics." Further, the .... from another it touches the discourse of globalization .... men as resistant to Western influences in .... (3527 14 )

Capital Punishment from a Philosophical Perspective .... honor human life, two issues dominate death-penalty discourse in the .... "How to Argue About the Death Penalty." Ethics: Theory and .... History of Western Civilization .... (5962 24 )

Origins of Modern Feminism and Literature .... Black Womanist Ethics. .... as a colonialist threat, particularly if colonialist discourse--from public .... Ahmed explains: Veiling--to Western eyes, the most visible .... (3130 13 )

Category: Philosophy - E