Ethics and Moral Philosophy

How Should I Live?

Ethics or "moral philosophy", is concerned primarily with the question of the best way to live, and secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be answered. People have been striving to answer, "How Should I Live?", otherwise known as the Socratic question of ethics literally for thousands of years. From Socrates, to Plate to Aristotle to the philosophers of today, many people have searched and seemed to have found their own answers to this question, as well as disputed that there is no answer at all. Every religion has its own answer. Some people say there's no answer, that the answer doesn't matter, that the answer is impossible for us to know, or that the answer is purely a matter of personal choice. The worst answer of all though is what most people do, which is to ignore the question entirely.

Prior to developing my own response to this question, it was important for me to understand the numerous answers that were reached by the many philosophers before my time. It is only right to start at the beginning, with Socrates, as we have come to know him. As Socrates did not write philosophical texts, the knowledge of the man, his life, and his philosophy is entirely based on writings by his students and contemporaries, foremost among them is Plato. Plato's Meno is a Socratic dialogue in which the two main speakers, Socrates and Meno discuss human virtue: whether or not it can be taught, and what it is. Socrates answers the first question of whether virtue can be taught or learned with the idea that nobody knows what virtue really is. Meno argues that virtue is different for different people, that what is virtuous for a man is to conduct himself in the city so that he helps his friends, injures his enemies, and takes care of all while no harm comes to him. Virtue is also different for a woman, in that she is supposed to manage the household and listen to her husband. He says that children have their own proper virtue, and so do old men. Socrates argues this in saying that there must be some virtue common to all human beings. (Plato 71e) After the discussion in which Meno attempts to define virtue in numerous ways, Socrates shoots down the idea of individual virtues claiming there must be a commonality between them, thus coming to no definite conclusion.

It is then proposed by Socrates that it is possible to learn what virtue is because the soul is actually immortal and therefore all knowledge is technically recollection of memory. He uses a conversation with Meno's slave, who is supposed to be of lesser intelligence then the normal men. He then teaches the slave a simple geometric mathematic principle, thus showing that the slave is capable of learning a geometrical truth, because "he already has the knowledge in his soul." In this way, Socrates shows Meno that learning is possible through recollection, and that the learner's paradox is false. In the end, he comes to the conclusion that by a process of questioning, the soul can be brought to remember the ideas in their pure form, thus bringing wisdom.

Also attempting to answer the question of "How should I live?" would be Aristotle, one of Plato's students. His answer to this question revolved around the idea of happiness being the main goal of a person during the course of their life. Aristotle came up with this answer because he found that happiness was the only potential goal of life that could be considered an end in itself rather than a means to another end. Aristotle was interested in finding a right way to live, if such a thing could be said to exist. His answer of using happiness as the main goal of life involves the two important ideals of virtuous action and contemplation. The means to discover the virtues was to look at people who seemed to live virtuously and takes note of how they lived. These people would usually behave with some degree of numerous "virtuous" traits that are normally attributed to these kinds of people. In analyzing the life of another person, one can see what traits are actually considered to be virtuous and can be followed in order to live the best life. To Aristotle, and those who follow his word as law, it is not the individual decision or choice that a person makes that matter, but the life as a whole that needs to be examined.

Aristotelian ethics describes numerous standards for virtues that one must possess in order to live the greatest life. Whether it be in terms of happiness, moral virtues, or virtues of character, Aristotle has laid out a guideline that is too be followed so that one has the potential to examine the life of another and judge whether or not the person in question lived up to the standards set forth. Through examining the life of a person, as a whole and not as individual moments outside of time, you are able to tell if they lived a life of the highest order. They would have to have showed through the course of their life that they had a very strong and constant good character. They must be able to make deliberate choices and commit truly virtuous acts for the sole purpose of happiness. In terms of moral virtues, they must exemplify many of the virtues that Aristotle considers to be essential. Whether it is in the form of courage, generosity, magnanimity, gentleness, or through friendship, the person should have developed strong virtues through habitually proving he has enough willpower to tend away from the extremes and reach a mean for each one.

Immanual Kant began his work in the field of ethics in 1785 through his writing of the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. His main ideology revolves around the notion that good will is the one and only thing that is intrinsically good and cannot be understood as being anything else. From the good will comes the concept of duty. A duty is the act or series of acts that must be committed in order to reach the end set forth by ones own good will, without distraction or interference from any personal encumbrance that could potentially distract from the ultimate end. (Kant 52) From the prior concepts of good will and the duties implied from it, Kant sets out on his main purpose in writing the groundwork, which is to search out and establish a supreme principle of morality, which will guide anyone to the proper way to live in his opinion. In regards to this supreme principle that is being searched for, there are three formulations. In the order that they were proposed they are: any rational being should only act in a manner such that their actions would be acceptable as universal laws for all others to abide by (Kant 57), One must always act in a manner so that he uses all humanity always as an end and never merely as a means (Kant 80), and act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that