Notes on Ethics

These notes are derived from "Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics" by Simon Blackburn.
They are brief concepts from studies of ethics.

Freedom from Bad (Makes you "good")

• "Almost any positive good can be described in terms of freedom from something."
• For example, a "good" person might be free of sin, or free of greed, selfish nature, anger, or jealousy.
• "...What to be avoided... what can be achieved..."
• So to be good, you just have to avoid the bad.

Reasonreason
Is it possible to classify an action as "good or bad" without knowing and fully understanding the reasoning or significant reason behind it?
Can motive justify misaction or character flaws? (She wants to kill an educator- that is secretly a dictator forcing souls out of a society.) Can it taint a good deed? (She saved the lives of the innocent- to improve her reputation, she couldn't give a crap about those innocents.)

//
Is the motive for goodness 'seeking happiness?' Because happiness is equivalent with pleasure, and self-satisfaction.
Pleasure in its most basic, simplistic form is sex.
Sex, we find, is equivalent to death of a person.
Sex is the obligation or dependence upon another human being for pleasure, and if a person has not found satisfaction in life before finding sex, then they have a dead soul- they sort of "cheated" with the whole "seeking true happiness" concept.
AN ETHICS EQUATION: Good//happiness//pleasure=sex=death (of ethics in a soul)


The Bible is a reference for ethics. However, many statements that were to be taken literally when The Bible was written are NOT to be taken literally today- in fact, not only would some of these be illegal, but well-educated Christians would not be able to approve or condone many actions that The Bible suggests. It is merely context and is relative to the perspective of the reader. But if it was morally just to do something at one time, why should it be less moral now? I believe that, as many Christians do, many suggestions of The Bible relevant to its time period are wrong. Slavery, treatment of women, sacrifices- were these ever morally just, or did society just mature?


And three words that sum up all of ethics, and put a focus on perspective and good and bad and all that...



It's all relative.