RELS 2610 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ethics In Religion, Normative Science
17 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
Probably been some form of morality as long as there have been humans. Written evidence of morals: hebrew bible. The word ethics first appeared in greece about 2500 years ago. Ethics derives from the greek word ethos: meaning character. Character describes the guiding norms that characterize a community and its members. To the greeks, ethics was the science/study of character. Since socrates, philosophers and religious thinkers have approached the question of human morality from the standpoint of the discipline of ethics: asked more questions about what constitutes a sound basis for our actions. They have tried to discover principles that help us understand how to make good moral decisions. Ethicists ha(cid:448)e(cid:374)"t al(cid:449)ays agreed: not even on the basics, disagreed about what is most important, how to account for moral knowledge, the reasons why something is right/wrong. We will explore how we actually make decisions both individually and collectively. Decision-making can be easy or complex: depends on person and situation.
