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NAME: IHEKA CHINONSO CHIDOZIE
DEPARTMENT: LAW
COURSE CODE: GST 113
COURSE TITLE: LOGIC, PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN EXISTENCE
ETHICS AND HUMAN CONDUCT IN THE SOCIETY
In Aristotle’s book politics, man was referred to as “zoon politikon”,
meaning “political animal” and this is aimed at portraying human beings
as social beings.
The main terms in the topic being discussed should be firstly explained:
Ethics are moral principles that guide a person’s behaviour
Human Conduct means the array of every physical action and observable
emotion associated with individuals, as well as the human race as a whole.
Society means the aggregate of people living together in a more or less
ordered community. However, the rules in the society do not border strictly
on how individuals should relate to one another; they are also established
to govern conducts regarding how persons should relate to other things
that are of value to the society.
Thus, this topic is basically inferring that human beings are supposed to
inculcate good behaviour in order to meet up with the standards of the
people in which they live with. It is an obvious fact that a person is not an
island and he has to associate with people in his daily life. If people should
live together, there should be a standard towards which they live. That is
the reason for rules. They are made in order to govern conducts regarding
how people should relate to other things that are of value to the society.
Moral principles are of importance to the society in the sense that they lead
to the structured study of what is right/wrong, good/bad, just/unjust which
is also referred to as “ethics”.
Ethics as a field of philosophy emphasises the analytical and critical tools of
philosophy which are focused on human actions. It is a rational inquiry
that seeks to discover the nature of morality and what the right moral
judgment entails. Ethics as a rational enquiry is practised with the belief
that human beings are rational, and as rational as they are, they will find
efficient reasons that will enable them to make legitimate reasons in
relation to their actions in their search to determine the appropriate way of
life.
The ultimate aim of ethics is to enlighten human beings on the standards of
life in which they can choose between what is wrong/right, good/bad or
commendable/not commendable.
In attaining the ultimate aim of ethics, moral philosophers undertake two
tasks which are:
 Presenting us with better understanding of concepts used in moral
discourse and,
 Developing theories that people can appeal to in making moral decisions
and which serve as justifications for human conduct.
The first task falls under the sub-branch of ethics referred to as Meta
ethics while the second task is undertaken under the rubric of Normative
Ethics.
META ETHICS
Bodunrin stated that, “the first step in philosophical reasoning is
conceptual analysis.” This approach allows the philosopher to explicate the
concept or idea that is being discussed, thereby allowing the philosopher to
uncover the meanings of his terms and avoid linguistic middle.
The issues addressed in meta ethics are those pertaining terms such as
“right”, “wrong”, “good”, “bad”, “morality”, “moral judgment” among
others. The aim here is to engender a better understanding of concepts and
terms used in ethical discourse in order to ensure that people are better
positioned to interrogate principles of action in ethical reasoning.
Metaethics is equally involved with the meaning of ethical statements.
There are different Meta ethical theories which attempt to address certain
issues concerning moral principles. These include:
Emotivism- this deals with the fact that a speaker expresses his attitude
towards an action and seeks to influence the attitude and also the conduct,
of the listener.
Prescriptivism- this suggests how moral statements should be understood.
The divine command theory- this theory aims to address issues relating to
the origin or justification for moral standards. Proponents of this theory
see God as the source from which our moral code derives.
Ethical relativism- the proponents of this theory believe that it is the
individual, culture that determines the rightness or wrongness of an action.
NORMATIVE ETHICS
This sub branch of ethics deals with the standards or criteria that make an
action moral or immoral and also help one to make moral judgment. The
main focus of this branch of ethics is to determine principles that ought to
guide human conduct as well as the formulation of moral rules that have
direct implications for what human actions, institutions, and ways of life
should be like.
The first set of theories is called teleological ethical theories. They have in
common the emphasis placed on the consequences of an action in
determining its rightness or wrongness.
The normative ethical theory called ethical hedonism is an ethical theory
that interprets the rightness or wrongness of an action in the way that
pleasure is the only intrinsic good worth seeking and pain is the only
intrinsic bad and should be avoided.
Three different normative theories attempt in answering the questions of
which happiness or pleasure is meant for. They are:
Ethical Egoism- this suggests that the performer of an action should seek to
utilise pleasure or happiness to the peak for himself.
Ethical Altruism- this interprets that the wellbeing of others has to be met
before oneself.
Utilitarianism – this theory holds that an action is morally right if it
promotes the greatest number of pleasure or happiness for the greatest
number of people.
It is therefore understood that human conduct has been influenced by
ethics in two dimensions which are that it enables people to have better
understanding of terms, concepts and statements used in moral reasoning.
The second is that it makes available frameworks of action in form of
normative theories that can guide human actions and, if conformed to,
allow people to act rationally and morally.