Principles of ethics

• Ethics


  The philosophical science that studies human behaviour with regards to the ultimate end of man
• Ethics can be understood as a type of behaviour, a type of character, or a type of knowledge
• Levels of intellectual penetration into reality


  • Experience
  • Trust
  • Practice
  • Science
• Experience


  Direct contact with reality, either external or internal
• Trust


  Confiding in other people's experiences and knowledge
• Practice


  Repeated and focused experiences that lead to improved knowledge and skills
• Science


  A systematic search for foundation and accuracy in knowledge
• Classification of science


  • Formal sciences
  • Empirical or experimental sciences
  • Human sciences; social sciences
  • Philosophical sciences
• Moral experience is essential for the knowledge of ethics, but ethics as knowledge is theoretical, not just practical
• The role of positive and human sciences is important in ethics
• Characteristics of the study of ethics


  • It is the philosophical science that studies human behaviour with regards to the ultimate end of man
• Cooks


  • Improve with years of practice
  • Knowledge is learnt in the "university of life"
  • Not fruit of research, but of trial and error, of accidental achievements
• Society


  Improves if the practice acquired is transmitted to the new generations
• "Apprentice system" and "mentors"

  • What they do in companies
  • What older politicians instil to their successors
• Moral life


  • Practice is essential way of knowledge
  • Good people are good because they practice good actions
  • The more good actions they do, the better they become
  • The more one loves the more loving one becomes
• Practice


  • The aim of ethics, to help us to be better
  • One does not know ethics just because one does good things
• Ethics knowledge


  • Based on ethical experiences, and good practices
  • As knowledge is theoretical, not practical
• Science


  • Systematic search for foundation and accuracy
  • Analyses experiences, traditions and practices to find out whether they are reliable
  • Compares sources, analyses experiences of different people, at different times, and from different angles
  • Ascertains whether the "facts" are objective and the degree of accuracy they have
  • Tries to find out the "cause" of the "facts"
  • Produces "hypothesis" which are 'provisional models' that explain the causes of the "facts"
  • Validated hypotheses become theories
• Absence of proof is not proof of absence
• To believe that science covers ALL of reality is not really scientific, because we have to deny other forms of human experience, even our own deepest feelings of identity
• No science proper has rejected the belief in the soul, in higher spheres, in transcendental realities, as many well educated people believe, but scientism
• Lenin (1870 - 1924): 'A lie told often enough becomes the truth'
• Science


  Certain and verifiable knowledge of reality by its causes
• Scientific evidence


  • Derived secondary or scientific evidence
  • Things cannot be otherwise
• Classification of science


  • Formal sciences
  • Empirical or experimental sciences
  • Human sciences; social sciences
  • Philosophical sciences
• Formal sciences


  • Study our logical way to refer to reality; the rational instruments we use
  • Their objects are mental; they only exist in our mind
  • They are the prerequisite of our knowledge
  • The evidence in which they are based is internal and is called logical or formal evidence
• Empirical or experimental sciences


  • Rely on direct external sensorial observation
  • Usually rely greatly on the mathematical method to explain the facts they analyse
  • Anything that cannot be "seen, touched, smelled, heard, tasted" is not a reality for this type of science, and therefore it is ignored as "not scientific"
  • This is a reduction of the scope of science, and of the scientific method
  • It leads to a loss of perspective in human and social affairs that reduces human beings to the level of rocks, trees or animals
• Empirical sciences


  • Physical sciences which study inert realities; physics; chemistry, geology, astronomy
  • Living sciences, like biology, ecology, ethology, genetics, etc.
• Human sciences; social sciences


  • Study human beings who are different from all the rest of creatures and so require special methods
  • Freedom is an exclusive property of human beings that makes our actions creative and therefore hardly predictable
  • Start observing human behaviour in their external manifestations
  • May use the empirical and mathematical methods proper of the empirical sciences
  • When trying to explain the causes of these behaviours they have to refer to the testimonies of the persons involved because only human beings can understand and explain free actions
  • It is not scientific, not possible, to explain something which is higher in nature, from something which is lesser
• Examples of human sciences


  • History
  • Literature
  • Language Studies
  • Psychology
  • Economics
  • Sociology
  • Political Science
• Philosophical sciences


  • Apply the scientific method unrestrictedly to all reality
  • Study the ultimate explanations or the final causes of all reality
  • Take into account what experience, traditions, practice and all other sciences discover, because what they say of reality is true
  • Put together all their findings and looks for the hidden reasons behind all those facts, and their meaning for us
• Classification of sciences


  • Theoretical sciences
  • Practical sciences
• Theoretical sciences


  Interested in "knowing" reality
• Practical sciences


  • Interested in applying knowledge for the benefit of mankind
  • Use the findings of the theoretical sciences and study the best ways to apply this knowledge to different situations in the real world
• Examples of theoretical sciences


  • Physics
  • Biology
  • Sociology
  • Anthropology
• Examples of practical sciences


  • Medicine
  • Agriculture
  • Political science
  • Ethics
• Descriptive sciences


  Just describe accurately the things they study
• Prescriptive or normative sciences


  Tell you what to do
• Moral experience


  • Freedom
  • Conscience
  • Remorse
  • Praise
• Moral experiences are universal, happen to all men, and exclusive of men, other creatures do not have them</b>