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Ethical Thinking and Philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Santiago Sia
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Abstract

Ethics has captured the attention of many today—for a variety of reasons. However, different conceptions and expectations of what is involved in addressing the ethical challenge have also arisen. Clarifying the nature of the ethical task, this essay argues for the need to think through the judgments we make and the decisions we take on ethical situations and to investigate more critically the basis of such judgments and decisions. Furthermore, it claims that in ethics, as well as in other areas of life, it is important to have an overall vision that should ground, inform and support any judgment or decision we make. Maintaining that ethics is a rational activity undertaken by rational agents, it shows how ethical thinking, particularly when it draws on philosophy, can help one to develop a moral sense and enable one to take a moral stance.

Keywords

Ethicsethical thinkingphilosophymoral sensemoral stance
Type
Original Articles
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 91 , Issue 1033 , May 2010 , pp. 242 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © The author 2009. Journal compilation © The Dominican Council/Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2009

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Footnotes

1

This essay is an excerpt from the Introduction and Concluding Comments of a forthcoming book titled “Ethical Contexts and Theoretical Issues: Essays in Ethical Thinking”.

References

2 There has been much talk of recovering the moral status of a country in the recent American presidential elections.

3 In Philosophy in Context (Bangalore: Dharmaram Publications, 2006)Google Scholar, I develop and illustrate this point.

4 Cf. Sia, S., “Science and Ethics: Some Fundamental Considerations,” New Blackfriars, Vol. 87, No. 1009 (May 2006), pp. 273–275CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 In “Education, the Business Model and the Bologna Process: a Philosophical Response,” a plenary address given at the International Conference on Faith and Reason in the 21st Century, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania (October 10, 2008) I discuss this comment more fully.

6 Cf. Sia, S., “Ethics and Religion,” New Blackfriars, Vol. 89, Issue 1024 (November 2008),pp, 702–709CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 The contexts cited here are those discussed in the essays in Part I of the book. They are not meant to be exhaustive.

8 The selection of philosophers here represents the thinkers whose insights are discussed in the essays in Part II of the book. The dominant ethical theories of Immanuel Kant and JS Mill have been omitted since the discussion of the philosophical theories is meant to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.

9 There is a close association of “moral sense” with “conscience”, but I am distinguishing the two because certain connotations associated with one would not necessarily apply to the other.

10 In the light of the worsening economic situation in the world, Christopher Jamison in “Might of Metaphysics” laments the lack of any clear moral compass and argues for the return to classical virtues. Cf. his article in The Tablet, 15 November 2008, pp. 9–10.

11 This where ethical theories—and the study of them—can have a role to play. Cf. Sia, S., “Teaching Ethics in a Core Curriculum: Some Observations,” Teaching Ethics (Fall 2001), pp. 69–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Absolutist ethics errs in not taking the specificity of the ethical situation seriously. While a case can be made for absolute principles, our knowledge of such principles is not absolute.

13 This is not of course true with every ethical theory, e.g. Aquinas' natural law theory, insofar as his ethical theory starts with a more metaphysical vision.