Imposition

The main reason for ethics is to help people to get along. We accomplish the most when in unity. Ethical behavior also brings peace; both inner and with those around us. We all want the ability to accomplish what we have passion for while staying at peace with each other; this is called "the common weal". The more a people are ethical, the less they need laws. In the rational part of all of us we already recognize the existence of a "governing authority"as Aristotle put it.

Rather than imposing rules on what we shouldn't do, ethics shows us what we should chase. It is a study of observations rather than spirituality. The spiritualist approaches are diverse and are numerous but this approach looks simply at passions and actions; things we all can see as obvious no matter what our beliefs are. Individuals reach their highest potential when we are ruled by the governing authority. It contains justice, kindness; all the things that point us to what is noble and right. For us to need a third party, be it government or religious, to keep us on the right path is second best since neither knows the particulars of each persons life. Rules are based in generalities but we are beings with particulars and are better equipped to recognize what is best for our own selves. Lets move on and study the concept of self love a bit more.

We touched on self love earlier but it is important enough to deserve further study. We looked earlier at being a benefactor or a giver and that the more it costs someone of his own stuff, the more a person loves what he is giving to. This sort of giving isn't always reciprocated but to show love gives us satisfaction. One school of thought is that to love oneself is something to be ashamed of. The only way to be satisfied is to sacrifice oneself for others and live a life that way. They say that wickedness is based in selfishness and that to be good we need only sacrifice our own interests to help our friends. But this has contradictions.

Our friends are an extension of ourselves and so it would follow that we would have to be good at taking care of ourselves in order to have inner resources and the capability to love someone else. Anything else would make us dependent on them for our own well being with little to give. A person really needs to be his own best friend in order to be friendly. But this is in contrast to what we mentioned above and so we are in need of particulars to sort this all out. That will be in the next post..