Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
25 lines (14 loc) · 2.83 KB

ethics.md

File metadata and controls

25 lines (14 loc) · 2.83 KB

About Ethics:

The re(search) on what is good or bad for the healthy development of human society is a key issue in all cultures, focused on building common ethics. In old Greece the word ETHOS had two different meanings/concepts:

  • éthos: was referring the way of living, the good or bad in people's Actions, and the solution was to set up laws or norms to filter the actions as being good or bad. That's the Doing realm of Facts. The concept here is how to change behaviour.

  • êthos: was instead referring the way of being, the good or bad of people's Attitudes not related to the actions or doing but related to the Being realm. What Heidegger called [Da-sein]

The second acception was progressively lost and many subsequent moral systems both religious and secular focused mostly on regarding the Actions, easier to be ruled by Laws, but omit to consider the Attitudes or the Being.

The use of two terms makes us understood the importance given to working on the Attitudes in ancient Greece, where acts depend on them, while the ruling of Actions was given a secondary role, as an off-chance just in case anything else fails.

Furtherly, even if with some different shades amongst authors, ancient greeks' concept of the Attitudes separated two points of view or Attitude types: The Quantitative looking and the Qualitative looking.

  • The Quantitative point of view prioritizes quantity, to Have or to Achieve, to win and dominate. It's motivated by the Interest and ambition is the outcome produced, the 'others' became competitors and the main goal is Success.

  • The Qualitative point of view prioritizes quality, to Be or to Learn, to give and receive. It's motivated by Values and generates high aspirations , the 'others' became fellow travellers and the main goal is a Ideal life.

These authors observed that when the Success is functional to Values (quality over quantity), then the attitude is good for the whole society development (both actions and success benefit many others). While when the qualitative looking is functional to quantitative looking (the Success over the Values), both attitude and acts (selfish) render decadency and involution in the society.

The best attitude is therefore when the priority is given to Values and the quantity or success is a helpful secondary goal. Values cannot be taught to others, they are just rubbed off (caught by, 'infected') when interacting with humans and spaces committed to clear Values.

The Attitude of quality over quantity based on Values is what produces Commitment; committed people tend to carry out tasks with dedication. Instead, in the actual neoliberal individualized decadent society, the good or bad is most referred to actions ruled by law, and the Attitude becomes Accomplishing (Fulfilling).