Understanding of ethics and ethical understanding of life event or Essay

Understanding of ethics and ethical understanding of life event or life stage and of the ceremony that celebrates it - Essay Example This article highlights the concept of ethics in its simplest possible form. Many people tend to equate ethics with feelings. They believe that being ethical is like following one's feelings. This is however clearly not true because feelings frequently deviate from what is right. On the other hand ethics should not even be identified with religion. It is true that most religions do preach ethics in the purest form. Many believe in supernaturalism i.e good is what god has ordained. However, we must understand that ethics and observation of moral codes of behaviour are as much a duty of a religious person as that of an atheist or someone who is not that religious for that matter. Therefore ethics is clearly not a factor of religion. Ethics is also not the same as following the law. It is true that more often than not laws regulate ethical conduct in a society. However, laws like feelings can deviate from being right. Lastly, ethics is not about doing whatever the society accepts. Accor ding to the theory of cultural relativism good is equivalent to what is acceptable in the society. Cultural relativism exhorts that ethics is not about objectivity and that they vary from place to place and culture to culture. This is partly correct. However; socially approved is not always good for the following reasons. Standards of behaviour in societies frequently deviate from what the right thing to do is. ... Although it was by no means an ethical thing to dowhen we look at it logically through the eyes of reason. Even though cultural relativists may not agree with this statement and argue that female infanticide was the right thing to do in the context of the Arab culture. It was the accepted norm in the society and few dared to challenge it. In addition to this the lack of social consensus on many issues prevents societal acceptability to become an ethical standard. Therefore it is futile to assume that any of the above mentioned sources of ethics can dictate ethical standards. Another approach to determining ethical standards is that of consequentialism. This theory asserts that an action is good or bad because its results are good or bad. Thereby the morality of a certain behaviour or conduct is determined by its results. More simply put the ends justify the means. Consequentialists would consider Robin Hood to be ethical because he was stealing for a good cause. However, there is a catch in this theory. It completely disregards means. Although I believe that means are as important as the ends. If you are collecting money through unfair means and giving it for charity, you are by no means being ethical because your means are wrong. Ethical behaviour should comprise both the right means and the right ends. Only then can conduct be classified as truly ethical and right.( Gensler.H, 1998) Other than this many believe that intuition is the perfect judge of right and wrong. Most moral judgements can be made by relying on one's intuition and that there are certain objective moral truths which are universally acceptable. The basic moral truths are thereby though to be evident to