Download NAME: EMMANUEL EMMANUELA OLUWATOSIN. DEPARTMENT

NAME: EMMANUEL EMMANUELA OLUWATOSIN.
DEPARTMENT: MEDICINE AND SURGERY
COURSE: GST 113 (LOGIC, PHILOSOPHY AND HUMAN EXISTENCE)
DATE: 10 October 2016.
ASSIGNMENT
READ AND CRITICALLY REVIEW CHAPTHER NINETEEN, TITLED “ETHICS AND
HUMAN CONDUCT IN THE SOCIETY” ON PAGES 119-207.
The idea of human being referred to as “zoo politikon” meaning political animals by
Aristotle portrays human beings as social beings, in the sense that no human being can
survive alone or be an island( or a Robinson Crusoe) and be satisfied with himself or herself.
In full consideration and conclusion it means that all human have spiritual, political, social
and all other goals to fulfil among the people around them or that dwell in their surroundings.
In socializing with people there is a challenge one must face which is the code of conduct of
the individual. In order to remain at peace with oneself and others on must learn to live and
act with good conduct so as to survive. However the society has learnt that there is so much
importance of moral rules hence furthering the development of ethics. Ethics is the systematic
study of what is good or bad, what is wrong or right, what is just and unjust.
Ethics is a field of philosophy where analytical and critical tools of philosophy are
focused on human actions. It is an inquiry into the moral worth of human conducts; it touches
every part or aspects that deal with human conduct or the other. The good or right actions are
moral and the bad or wrong actions are immoral. Ethics however helps humans to know
human conducts or vices that are immoral or should be run away from or condemned.
Metaethics, according to bodunrin is “the first step in philosophical reasoning is conceptual
analysis”. Metaethics does not deal with any wrong or right action; hence it is not an ethics
that talks about the rightness or wrongness. It is concerned with the meaning of ethical
statements. Ethical statements make universeable prescription; if one says that “stealing is
bad” it simply implies that that individual is trying to tell his audience that stealing is
immoral or bad and should be avoided. It’s like commanding everyone that they should not
steal. Some metaethical problem addresses or tries to prove the justification of the moral
standards. Its aim is to understand what is right or wrong or what is moral or immoral. In this
aspect, in determining what is right or wrong or moral or immoral, it is done by making
reference to God’s word. Hence, anything that God says is bad is immoral, while anything he
says I good is moral. In that sense God is the source of our moral derives. For some other
people the source of their moral drives is their culture and tradition. Their tradition
determines what is right and wrong. Simon Blackburn defined ethics as the study of the
concepts involved in practical reasoning: good, right, duty , obligation, virtue, freedom,
rationality, choice and also the study of the objectivity, subjectivity, relativism, or scepticism
that may attend claims made in these term.
Normative ethics is a sub-branch of moral philosophy (ethics) that deals with issues
that we individual find so hard to conclude on the fact that they are immoral or moral derives
or makes you unsure on what steps to take concerning this issues. Due to confusions human
beings or individual have had on certain complicated issues (issues that do not confirm to
being bad or good), philosophers put up normative theories to help in determining the
rightness or wrongness of this issues. The first set of the theories is teleological ethical
theories. This set of theories is set at looking at the consequences of an action in determining
the rightness or wrongness of the issue. An action is therefore bad or wrong if it leads to bad
result and good or right if it leads to good results. For philosophers in this aspect, if the issue
promotes more pleasure than pain, it is right but if it promotes more pain than pleasure, it is
said to be wrong. Ethical hedonism (a normative ethical theory) is an ethical theory that
interprets the rightness or wrongness of an action this way. For ethical hedonist pleasure is
the intrinsic good worth seeking while pain is the intrinsic bad worth avoiding. Ethical
egoism (one of three theories to shed light upon whom the pleasure should be for)
recommends that the performer should have the maximum pleasure. Teleological ethical
theory requires that we foresee the outcome of your actions. Ethics has two dimensions of
influence on an individual; the first is to enable the individual to understand the terms,
concepts and statements employed in moral reasoning or moral discourse and the second
which is creating theories for guiding people, for them to behave rationally or morally.