BalcCon_2013: Ethics - what it (actually) is and why is it important

This is a talk on Ethics given to audience on BalcCon 2013 held on 2013/09/07 in Master Center on Novi Sad Fair.

http://balccon.org

While trying not to be too philosophical, this slide deck gives some overview on emerging of ethics and morale and its evolution and tries to bring common language to some hard line things with key philosophical figures of classical Greek, German and contemporary.

Packed with links from Wikipedia, it gives reader opportunity to read about matter first hand and even to dig deeper by reaching Stanford philosophy Encyclopedia.

If you wish to discuss matters with me you may wait for another live presentation or catch me somewhere online, I'm easy to find and always in a good mood for a discussion on any matter.

Transcript

1. Ethics: what it (actually) is and why is it important 07. 09. 2013. by Mladen Đurić
2. MLADEN ĐURIĆ mladen@bluefish.rs http://about.me/macmladen http://rs.linkedin.com/in/macmladen/ @macmladen • Apple • Web Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs
3. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs OVERVIEW • Philosophy • Ethics • Morale • Virtue • Moral acting • Moral thinking • Moral values • Being social • Being responsible • Do what is right • Moral Judgement
4. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs ANTIQUE GREEKS
5. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs The School of Athens by Raphael
6. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs HOMER ~ 850 BC In the Western classical tradition, Homer (Ὅμηρος) is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.
7. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs SOCRATES 469 BC – 399 BC Socrates (Σωκράτης) was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.
8. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs PLATO 428 BC – 348 BC Plato (Πλάτων) was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. The Republic, written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning the definition of justice and the order and character of the just city-state and the just man.
9. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs ARISTOTLE 384 BC – 322 BC Aristotle (Ἀριστοτέλης) was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing ethics, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics.
10. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs NICOMACHEAN ETHICS The Nicomachean Ethics (Ἠθικὰ Νικομάχεια) is the name normally given to Aristotle's best known work on ethics. The work, which plays a pre-eminent role in defining Aristotelian ethics, consists of ten books, originally separate scrolls, and is understood to be based on notes from his lectures at the Lyceum, which were either edited by or dedicated to Aristotle's son, Nicomachus.
11. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs METAPHYSICS by Aristotle Book I 1 ALL men by nature desire to know.
12. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs ARISTOTLE POLITICS BOOK 1 PART II BEING A HUMAN 1. Knows to speak 2. Knows to live socially 3. Knows right from wrong
13. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs GERMAN IDEALISM German idealism was a speculative philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It reacted against Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and was closely linked with both romanticism and the revolutionary politics of the Enlightenment. The best-known thinkers in the movement were Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Friedrich Schelling, and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
14. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs IMMANUEL KANT 1724 – 1804 Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher who is widely considered to be a central figure of modern philosophy. He argued that human concepts and categories structure our view of the world and its laws, and that reason is the source of morality. His thought continues to hold a major influence in contemporary thought. Key works are Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment.
15. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs MODERN TIMES
16. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs KARL MARX 1818 - 1883 Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Marx's work in economics laid the basis for the current understanding of labour and its relation to capital, and has influenced much of subsequent economic thought. He published numerous books during his lifetime, the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1867–1894).
17. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs DAS KAPITAL The only way for someone to get rich is at the expense of someone else getting poor.
18. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs MICHAEL SANDEL 1953 - Michael J. Sandel (born March 5, 1953) is an American political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for the Harvard course 'Justice', which is available to view online, and for his critique of John Rawls' A Theory of Justice in his first book, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice (1982). He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.
19. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs THE RIGHT THING TO DO http://justiceharvard.org/
20. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs URGE vs REASON Every living being is driven by urges. That is natural. There are two fundamental urges: •The urge of survival •The urge or reproduction The thing is that we are supposed to suppress that by reason. Morality therefore is based on reason. That is why animals, children, mentally ill and anyone (anything) lacking reason cannot be held legally viable (responsible) if they are not capable of differenting right from wrong.
21. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs RETRIBUTION Around Homer time, retribution was the form of justice. If any Athens (or any other city-state) citizen should be harmed or killed, they would rise, went to the city of offender, rob it, burn it to the ground and kill anyone (maybe enslave) there. The policy where stronger can pick the form of justice at will is still present today.
22. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs RECIPROCITY Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth... Bible, Exodus 21 An eye for an eye is the principle that a person who has injured another person is penalized to a similar degree, or according to other interpretations the victim receives the value of the injury in compensation. According to Jewish interpretations the victim in criminal law gets financial compensation based on the law of human equality eschewing mutilation and lex talionis. The English word talion means a retaliation authorized by law, in which the punishment corresponds in kind and degree to the injury, from the Latin talio. The reasoning where one should suffer the same as the other is still present today.
23. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs GOLDEN RULE The Golden Rule or ethic of reciprocity is a maxim, ethical code or morality that essentially states either of the following: • (Positive form of Golden Rule): One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself. • (Negative form of Golden Rule): One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (also known as the Silver Rule). This concept describes a "reciprocal", or "two-way", relationship between one's self and others that involves both sides equally, and in a mutual fashion. The empathy, where one tries to put oneself into the others shoes, is still not fully understood nor respected today.
24. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE IMMANUEL KANT'S 1785 GROUNDWORK FOR THE METAPHYSICS OF MORALS It is the central philosophical concept in the deontological moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. It may be defined as a way of evaluating motivations for action. A categorical imperative denotes an absolute, unconditional requirement that asserts its authority in all circumstances, both required and justified as an end in itself. Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law. The principle where one does not seek any cause, interest or motivation outside one’s self to act is still far from being adopted today.
25. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs CONCLUSION • Every reference to the question of morale thru out the human history always tight it with the (free) will to do so but always base it on reason. • However philosophy may seem incomprehensible, maybe even beyond reach everyday men — it is not. It is as simple as it has always been, you are born capable of thinking and you have always been thinking. It is just that you have to reflect your thinking (metaphysics) and use your will to apply it to any aspect of your life. That will make you a moral being. • Stay hungry, keep learning. The professional in you needs that, the human in you needs that and even your brain (physically) needs that. Your future will thank you. • Think. Reflect. Question. Act. Never take anything for granted.
26. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs REFERENCES • This document is full of links referring to various articles on philosophy found on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.com/. Being not so highly philosophical, it is actually more accessible and therefore usable. • The reference material on philosophy, regarded as relevant by Academics: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/ • Try devoting some time to watch Justice with Michael Sandel, it will twist your mind with simple moral dilemmas and yet give you opportunity to learn from high authority http://justiceharvard.org/ • A with any question you may have, Google is your friend. • Try using your own reason by more reflecting your actions, question your perception and your motives for acting. • Be good. It is much easier than it seems.
27. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs QUESTIONS?
28. Blue Fish d.o.o. • Novi Sad • Srbija • http://bluefish.rs • office@bluefish.rs THANKS!