By A. Salces Cajes, PhD
The focus of this article is the sub-field of Ethics called normative ethics (the other fields are metaethics and applied ethics). The objective is to answer the question: How can we use Ethics to ensure that we are doing the right thing?
Broadly speaking, we can describe Ethics as the art and science of correct doing. It is an art because we can practice or apply it in our daily lives. It is a science since it has a specific body of knowledge and principles that can guide human decisions.
Normative ethics helps us in making a decision about what is right and what is wrong. There are three strategies to do this: one, through duty theories; two, through consequentialist theories, and three, through virtue theories or virtue ethics. This article is about the third strategy.
Some Notes on Duty and Consequentialist Theories
Duty theories, among others, require us to practice The Golden Rule: do to others what you require others to do to you. The negative formulation of this rule states that you should not do to others what you do not want others to do to you. These norms are embodied in two ethical principles: beneficence (do good or be merciful and charitable) and nonmaleficence (avoid evil or do no harm). The references for these principles are human rights, laws, customs, as well as categorical imperatives or obligations, such as justice and fidelity.
Consequentialist theories involve a cost-benefit analysis of the effects of our decisions. Thus a good decision implies that the consequence of a decision is more beneficial compared to the cost or the negative effect. The consequentialist theories cover ethical egoism, ethical altruism, and utilitarianism.
On Virtue Ethics
Virtue refers to attitude and behavior that is consistent with high moral standards. Thus a virtuous person thinks, feels and acts in accordance to the standards of excellence and morality. The natural or four cardinal virtues are prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice. The Christian theological virtues are faith, hope, and love. In Buddhism, virtue refers to the right view. In Islam, it means righteousness.
One way to become a virtuous person is to practice what Aristotle calls as habits to control human emotions. This can be done by cultivating phronesis —moral or practical wisdom, which aims for the good of society by uncompromisingly pursuing excellence. Thus a phronetic leader is like the Gita’s Perspective of Hinduism, and the sage king of Confucianism who combines wisdom, virtue and authority. Or the King Solomon of the Old Testament who was wise and ethical.
Practical wisdom is a fundamental virtue. It is also known as common sense. Barry Schwartz describes it as doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
How can we cultivate practical wisdom? The good news is that our DNA and RNA enable the transfer of information from one generation to the next. So one way to develop common sense is by introspection or reflection. The other ways include interacting with other people, by working together, by sharing contexts and stories through conversation, by reading books about history and the humanities, etc.
The art of practicing virtue ethics is not an easy task. To use the words of Dag Hammarskjold, it involves the longest journey, which is the journey inwards. As Socrates reminded us: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”
The Filipino concept of "loob" can help us in this journey. By listening to, and getting in sync with, our "loob" or will (other translations include inner self, spirit, consciousness), we can be grounded with our core values that can illuminate our process of decision making.
References
Hursthouse, Rosalind and Glen Pettigrove, "Virtue Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2018/entries/ethics-virtue/>.
“Ethics,” by James Fieser, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ISSN 2161-0002, https://www.iep.utm.edu/, today’s date.
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