I have been considering Ethics and Morals today after reading an interesting article on facebook. I believe i have come to some answer at least personally that makes sense to me in regards to what is ethical or unethical. If we take a common hot topic on ethics such as the eating of meat versus veganism or anything else that is similar we can boil it down to something very simple. That is of course what is right and what is wrong, what is good or what is bad. This seems to the age old question since the dawn of civilization itself. In society have we a sense of what is generally considered appropriate ethical conduct such as non killing and what is general considered taboo such as stealing from another, these actions are further enforced by a set of laws by Government that are voted upon and then enforced appropriately. If we trace the roots of Law back to its beginning i think in the west we will find it going back to abrahamic Law or the ten commandments that Moses received from God. It is interesting to note that in both causes whether in the law giving of Government or by God we have an authority figure. I think this is part of the problem when it comes to Ethics because if we consider that what was Ethical in the middle ages would not be considered ethical today and what is consider ethical today will unlikely based on progression of history be ethical in hundred years time, we have this conflict between what is socially ethical versus what we consider to be ethical as an individual.
The only real sense of ethics in my opinion is what we consider to be right or wrong as an individual rather than as a society. Each person has a different belief in what is right or wrong based on different experiences throughout ones life. However this is often rejected in favor of going with social conduct in order not to be seen as an outcast or a black sheep. This type of behavior probably goes back to our animal pack like mentally not wanting to leave the group as it provides protection, thus we are willing to suppress our individual ethical or moral beliefs in order to conform to societies beliefs so that we do not become taboo, out cased or simply alone. I think that's the root fear of what i am saying, the feeling of being alone or separate. We would rather have an authority take responsibility for our morals than take responsibility and development of our own ethical beliefs. If we take a theoretical example of a period of time when no laws are in action, i wonder how many people would start to commit would what have been considered crime? I think the logically outcome of this would be that individuals will seek out people who have similar ethical standards or beliefs as themselves in order to create a pack , tribe , group or even society in order to feel protection from those who no longer have such ethics. Thus you would have different groups of people with different ethical or moral conduct eventually leading to whoever has the strongest will or largest following becoming the new authority and the cycle starts over again. Order out of chaos.
Another point to consider is the possibility of a collective unconscious set of universal morals that we are born with and learn to develop within our selves. In this case we can see the moral teachings been provided by the archetypes of the mother and the father to the child. I tend to like this line of thinking because it suggests that deep down we all agree and share a collection unity of emotional ethical conduct that we learn from what is generally considered to universal archetypal forces of consciousness. In this case the ethics only become distorted in so far as the conscious mind or society is willing to switch off or ignore that which is unconsciously active and true. Yet perhaps the most interesting of all views on such an discussion would be the conception of polarity. If ethics boil down to what is right or wrong, good or bad. We have an inherent duality ,each needing the other in order to manifest, just like the story of the Garden of Eden when Adam eats from the tree of good and evil but in doing so learns what is good or evil. The duality is then two sides of the same coin, a unified completeness only seen by the distorted perceptions of indvidual consciousness as separate. It is in the separation that learning is possible and the conscious develop of ones own morals or ethics would be then of key important in the discovery of who one really is.