- Published: September 14, 2022
- Updated: September 14, 2022
- University / College: University of Canberra
- Level: College Admission
- Language: English
- Downloads: 36
Not everybody can see reality as it is. People see different angles and dimensions of a single fact as per their mindset and then choose to act likewise. That reaction may not be appropriate and ethical in accordance with the given situation. However, there are some basic social ethics that need to be followed in order to deal with people successfully. Without following those basic ethics, society will be intolerable to live in.
The problem arises where people expect these basic ethics from the people they are dealing with and get disappointed. In the real world, the definition of social ethics differs from person to person and the diversity cause misunderstanding between people because what is ethical for one person may not be ethical for another person. In the real-world, we need to understand each other and give them the space for explaining their own ways of implementing ethics and then find out midway for both people.
Generally, people only follow ethics that are enforced on them by society and non-compliance may lead them to isolation or becoming a laughing stock. But they comply without understanding the main idea behind social ethics and such practices lead to social artificial images without actual acceptance of diversity and respect for each other.
Q. Just what are we doing when we say that something is good or right, bad or wrong? In answering, consider the views of the met ethicists discussed in the lecture, especially Ayer and Stevenson.
In making a moral judgment that is something is right or wrong ethically, we only express our emotions and do not judge the situation. As per Ayer, there is a method of understanding moral propositions. The method established by him was as follows:
Only those statements are significant which can be logically verified having factual content.
Statements that lack factual content are mere expressions of emotion and do not possess any value.
According to Ayer,
What one is said to know to be true, secondly that one can be sure of it, and thirdly that one should have the right to be sure
(The Problem of Knowledge (1956), p. 35)
The problem begins when the people with Utilitarianism (i. e. causing happiness by avoiding pain) evaluate every action on the moral foundation by believing that their thinking is a Universal law. Such people overlook that ethics are not facts. Sometimes the bad things cause happiness and good things can cause pain like War against terrorism also affects several innocent lives.