Are ethics universal?..what I mean by that is are there universal ethics that apply to everybody in all situations?..or are we limited by social and cultural bounderies?
Data
Data
Business ethics.
Medical ethics.
Legal ethics.
etc…
Portent
Ethics are a human inventions that hold great things, because they do not rest on fantasy, but personal responsibility.
In my opinion it would be difficult to refer to a Universalized Ethics without reference to a higher power. For example a Christian may believe that Christian ethics has universal authority on the basis that it is laid down by God. If one is more vague one may claim a universalised ethical system can be derived from ‘natural law’ or something of that kind (if one gives creedence to such an authority). I do not find this meaningful.
If one accepts, as Harbinger states, that our ethical systems are human inventions then I think we have to accept that they are limited by society.[/list]
It is hard to say 100% of the time as far as universality, but in many cases we can say ‘yes’ some ethics and morals are of a universal nature.
We are all governed by 3 areas of laws.
1 - Natural Law
2 - Divine or spiritual law (if you believe in spiritual matters)
3 - Manmade laws
I find that sometime spiritual practitioners neglect the natural laws that govern our bodies and suffer in this area from lack of living a balanced life. Some of us forget we are spiritual beings residing in physical bodies living in physical world and governed my both spiritual and physical or natural laws in addition to man made laws. We need some effort with spiritual work and some effort in physical work for a good balance.
I will write a paper on this subject of universality when I get some time. In the meantime…
I discuss such concepts in these posts:
jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/ … ?topic=4.0
jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/ … topic=91.0
jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/ … opic=133.0
V (Male)
For free access to my earlier posts on voluntary simplicity, compulsive spending, debting, compulsive overeating and clutter write: vfr44@aol.com. Any opinion expressed here is that of my own and is not the opinion, recommendation or belief of any group or organization.
Forgot to mention.
Yes, Christian ethics and values are ‘generally’ good ones and I use many Christian values myself as a guide to living.
But we must never forget that knowledge without application is useless.
We cans see the truth to this statement for ourselves here:
jesusneverexisted.com/burning.html
V (Male)
For free access to my earlier posts on voluntary simplicity, compulsive spending, debting, compulsive overeating and clutter write: vfr44@aol.com. Any opinion expressed here is that of my own and is not the opinion, recommendation or belief of any group or organization.
I don’t think a “higher power” is necessary in order to have a universal ethics, but perhaps I’m misunderstanding “higher power”. I see three conditions for a universal ethics (they may not be exaustive, though I think they are; and one may be a more specific case of another)
First, it seems any ethical system must be internally consistent. This requires at the very least some logic for determining consistency. If there is a universal logic, then that’s a step in the right direction. Further, there must be a universally true foundation for this system of logic, some set of premises to build statements of ethical duty off of. Again, if no such truth exists, no universal system is possible. This truth must also be accessible to us, or else it’s existence is useless to us: whether or not it exists, if it cannot be known to exist, a system cannot be built on it which is known to be universal.
That said, I don’t think that there is a universal ethics, because I don’t think that these conditions are met. Or, rather, I don’t think the last is met, and so I don’t think the other two can be said to be met and therefor cannot be treated as though they have been met.
Furthermore, I think the idea of ethics in general has a problem. Ethical duty seems to imply choice, i.e. saying that it’s ethical or unethical to do x seems to imply that it was possible to do otherwise than x. If no such ability is present, the action was no more an ethical decision than the ticking of a clock or the motion of the planet. And I don’t think we have that choice, or even that the future is still only potential, i.e. that the is an actual possibility of multiple things happening. At the very least, these things cannot be known, and so if we were to hit on a universal ethics, it would be entirely by accident and we couldn’t show that it was a universal ethics.
Sorry to foul up the thread with determinism, but it’s relevant: no choice, no ethics, no universal ethics.
Hi Carleas, if I understand you then we may be in agreement. When I referred to a higher power being required for a universal ethics, this could be understood as a higher or universal ‘truth’ which we can refer to and apply to our actions (not necessarily God)
As you say,
Whether this universally true foundation is from God, natural law, or simply exists, doesnt matter but my thinking is that it must be there and is what i refer to (perhaps vaguely) as higher power
I hope that makes it clearer
See Mr. Kant for an “explanation”.