Philosophy of Humanity

Ethics (Moral Philosophy)

Definition

Human activity represents yet another domain that falls within the central concerns of philosophical analysis. The branch of philosophy dedicated to the study of human behavior is called ethics, or moral philosophy. The word "ethics" is derived from the Greek words ἦθος (ēthos, character) and ἔθος (ethos, habit). Though these two words sound the same, they are spelled differently in Greek and carry distinct meanings. The first refers to character, a trait received from nature; the second denotes habit, a trait acquired over the course of life. In both cases, they pertain to qualities of a person that shape their behavior. The Greek notion of "ethics" was translated into Latin by the Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. To convey the concept, he coined the term philosophia moralis, derived from the Latin mores, which corresponds to the Greek ἔθος. Thus, the terms "ethics" and "moral philosophy" are synonymous.

Unlike most other philosophical disciplines, which result in knowledge, ethics not only studies human behavior but also seeks to change it. This gives it the right to be called practical philosophy and distinguishes it from theoretical philosophy.

Ethics has a well-defined subject. It attempts to answer the question of how a person ought to behave and seeks to justify moral norms. However, not all human actions fall within the purview of ethics. Moral philosophy has traditionally distinguished between two types of actions:

• Actus humanus—an act that a person undertakes as a result of their own decision. For example, acts of charity, assistance, lawfulness, crime, or insult are carried out through a person’s choice. Even actions performed under coercion belong here, as coercion can only influence a decision but not dictate it.
• Actus hominis—an act that a person performs without making any conscious decision. Examples include breathing, sleeping, reflexes, and circulation of blood. All these actions occur without the involvement of human consciousness or volition.

Ethics is concerned with actus humanus and all that is related to it, while actus hominis remains outside the scope of moral philosophy. The latter is not subject to moral evaluation. For instance, claiming that a person is performing good or evil simply by breathing contradicts common sense. Breathing, like any actus hominis, is neither good nor evil; it does not fall under moral judgment. In contrast, a morally healthy person would regard a crime as an evil act and an act of mercy as a good one. These actions must and should be morally evaluated because each is an actus humanus.

Human beings are naturally curious about the causes behind all phenomena in the world. Both actus humanus and actus hominis occur, and their nature and causes thus arouse human interest. As a result, distinct fields of study investigate each type of action. For example, actus hominis is studied by anatomy and physiology, while actus humanus is the subject of moral philosophy.

The distinctive feature of ethics, which allows it to be called practical philosophy, lies in the fact that it does not study what human actions are, but rather what they ought to be. To determine how human actions should be, they must be analyzed according to some criterion. Hence, the existence of ethics necessitates a standard by which human actions can be evaluated. That standard is the concept of good. People desire to be treated well, they teach children to do good, they praise good deeds, and they take pride in their own good actions. Likewise, through education and sometimes coercion, they prohibit evil, suffer when wronged, judge evil deeds negatively, and feel shame for their own actions if they deem them wrong. Therefore, the analysis of human actions and moral norms, or how these actions should be, is impossible without examining the concept of good.

However, the notion of good has been interpreted in various ways throughout the history of philosophical thought. What kind of action should be considered good? Is there an absolute Good? Are the criteria of morality universal across people, nations, and epochs? All these questions fall within the realm of moral philosophy.

A third subject of moral philosophy is the relationship between the first two: that is, between human action and the Good. In other words, moral philosophy examines not only how people act and how they ought to act, but also why they ought to act in this manner. Why should a person strive for good and avoid evil? Why should their actions be good? The answer to these questions constitutes the justification of morality, a problem to which philosophers have devoted much attention.

There is hardly a person who does not intuitively sense that human actions ought to be good; this axiom seems self-evident. However, the question of why this should be so has required significant intellectual and spiritual effort to answer.

Morality is an inseparable element of human life. Since humanity has existed, so too have people acted, and whenever one acts, one must decide what their actions ought to be and why they ought to be one way rather than another. Reflection on this topic is already an engagement with ethics. Morality is also closely intertwined with religion. Before the emergence of philosophy as a specialized field of knowledge, morality was justified solely on the basis of religion: one must be good and do good deeds because God commands it. With the development of philosophy, other ways of justifying morality arose, but to this day, non-religious foundations for morality remain relatively weak and inadequate. No law, including moral law, can exist without a lawgiver, nor can it be enforced without one who ensures its observance, meting out punishment and reward.