What I’ve learned in Ethics
When I first heard the words “How should one live”, I thought to myself, these are the rules and regulations of how one should live their life. I then thought that there would be vast determinants of how one should live their life. These are like, in terms of religion, in terms of tradition, in terms of choice, nationality, social grouping or class and in terms of being born into a certain life. Moreover, the rules and regulations could be ethical or unethical. The question of how we should live can also be added upon several other questions like, what one should live for, what one should term as right and what is wrong. The question of how one should live has tried to be answered for a very long time, since the time of the Greeks.
The first attempt to answer the question was done by a famous philosopher, Socrates. He believed in offering justification for what one claimed to know. He believed in respecting the law and he believed in fairness and equality. Another person who attempted to describe how people should live was Aristotle. He believed in the happiness of a human being and human flourishing or in other words fulfillment. A shared vision about how people should live their lives is where a human life is placed in the context of present, past and projected future. This vision has changed most of what I thought of as the true path that a person should take through life (Pojman, 2004).
I now see life as an evolved force that is far much greater than my personal existence. However, when I think of how I am supposed to live or how a person is supposed to live, I think that a person should have a full life. By saying a full life, I mean that a person should enjoy life and all the experiences pertaining to it. Moreover, a person should help others and accept help. A person should also be faithful to his or her calling to work or their talent. A person should seek to advance in knowledge and help others grow. Growth here means that the continual strife to upgrade ones most important assets like their consciousness, their intelligence, their knowledge of right and wrong and their physical energy.
In order to help others build up in their growth, one should develop their communication skills. I also believe that the following virtues are necessary in the living of life. These are truth, love, honesty, compassion, courage, valor and spirituality. Truth is necessary in maintaining good relationships with others. This is because nobody likes a liar and truth is crucial in the maintenance of most human relationships. Love is the bond that is created when two or more people have a strong connection by either blood or the moments and time they have spent together. Honesty is the virtue where a person can be truthful and has no mischief in their dealings. It is also crucial in the maintenance of good relationships with other people. Compassion is the excessive caring for human beings, regardless of their relationship to you. This is closely related to service above self in the dedication to the human race. It is important in life since one is required to give back to the society (Crisp, 1998).
Courage is the absence of fear. This is important in life to enable a person stand up for themselves and make them not be mistreated or abused by another person. Valor is similar to courage or bravery. Spirituality is the state of having love, belief in a Supreme Deity and having truth in ones being. Spirituality is the most important part of life since it gives one a purpose to live and it enables one answer certain questions about life. Divinity, which is similar to spirituality also makes one understand aspects of life that might not be understood by a person who is not in touch with this part of their being. In life, one also has to have the ability to accept the end of it, which is death. This is also a part of life since it marks the closing of a chapter in ones life and the mystery that follows since people do not know where they go. This is how I believe life should be lived and what I have learned from my ethics class.
References
Crisp, R. (1998). How Should One Live?: Essays on the Virtues. Oxford, London. Oxford University Press.
Pojman, L. P. (2004). How Should We Live?: An Introduction to Ethics. New York, NY: Thomson/Wadsworth.
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