It is my opinion that there are so many ethical theories because people most often create theories based on their abilities failing to consider their inablities. There is a theory that if you are good all year long Santa will bring you gifts. It is common knowledge that no child has ever actually seen Santa Claus. Parents tell their children that it is because Santa has so many children to visit that he stops time to get it all done in one night. What they are afraid to tell their children is that Santa is not comming to their house because the children have been rotten. This is probably why my parents just decided to not let us even believe in Santa. If the paddle was any idication, I had no chance of Santa ever leaving anything for me except a piece of brimstone. I have seen some rotten children that believe Santa brings them things every year. I am curious as to what ethical theory they follow.
Egoism is by definition the most self serving theory out there. It also seems to be prevelent among young children. Consider that they are happiest when you give them everything they want and most miserable at the utterance of "no." As they become older they learn a bit of Untilitarianism as they learn to share. Some of them even claim to be happy because they shared and made other children happy. I suppose that if they failed to give a cookie to the bully as well, they would have something to look forward to in the school yard which is when they learn of Consequentialism. They soon learn that egoism may get them pummled later on. Children often grow up and begin looking to ask out the opposite sex. Rejection becomes a way of life for many children and those that follow consequentialism may lead a very lonely life fearing the consequence of rejection. I believe it is quite apparent that misery does not have to be a way of life but there is no avoiding that it be a part of life.
Deontological ethics throws pain and pleasure out the window and bases goodness on doing your duty. Your duty tends to be whatever you percieve it to be or whatever others tell you it is. They have a duty to do their homework and recieve good grades. They have a duty to be hired at a low paying job to earn money. It is now that their duty to follow their parents order that comes into question. Reason plays a big role in this theory. It is very easy to say doing your duty is good but very hard to say what that duty should be. It is also questionable to say that doing your duty of washing the dishes while seething inside is actually doing good.
As we near adulthood, duty becomes something of the past and our will begins to take over. We act not because others tell us too but because we know what we are to do and desire to do it. Our reason continues to mature as we experience more things in life. After several years of watching Cops and the news we learn many things from the follies and glories of others. We also recognize that sometimes the right does not always bring happiness. When we accidently crash our parent's car we know the right thing to do is to tell them but happiness will find someone else. The time it takes to tell the parents depends on the goodness of the will and the distance to the nearest phone.
When we become adults we hope to be virtuous people who have learned from life what it means to be truly virtuous. We understand that our sight is limited and sometimes when we do not get what we think is good for us we later learn that it would not have been good for us. As Garth Brooks once sang; "...sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers." We discover that sometimes the consequences of our actions are nothing like we intended. The bb gun you gave Johnny may end up putting his eye out. We sometimes follow our duty only to end up pointing a gun at a small child demanding to take him home.
Aristotle, I believe, was best at defining a moral person with the idea that to be moral one must know they are acting moraly, willingly be moral and be consistant. To know what is moral one must know the difference between good and evil. I do not think we will ever beable to articulate what the good is any better than we can articulate the taste of a food. It may make morality seem subjective but I do not believe it actually is. It just requires one use reason properly to know the good for one's self as no one can tell you what it is. I believe most people spend their lives waiting for good things to be handed to them believeing they are good people because they use their logic and reason for justifying evil rather than for discovering the good.
Egoism is by definition the most self serving theory out there. It also seems to be prevelent among young children. Consider that they are happiest when you give them everything they want and most miserable at the utterance of "no." As they become older they learn a bit of Untilitarianism as they learn to share. Some of them even claim to be happy because they shared and made other children happy. I suppose that if they failed to give a cookie to the bully as well, they would have something to look forward to in the school yard which is when they learn of Consequentialism. They soon learn that egoism may get them pummled later on. Children often grow up and begin looking to ask out the opposite sex. Rejection becomes a way of life for many children and those that follow consequentialism may lead a very lonely life fearing the consequence of rejection. I believe it is quite apparent that misery does not have to be a way of life but there is no avoiding that it be a part of life.
Deontological ethics throws pain and pleasure out the window and bases goodness on doing your duty. Your duty tends to be whatever you percieve it to be or whatever others tell you it is. They have a duty to do their homework and recieve good grades. They have a duty to be hired at a low paying job to earn money. It is now that their duty to follow their parents order that comes into question. Reason plays a big role in this theory. It is very easy to say doing your duty is good but very hard to say what that duty should be. It is also questionable to say that doing your duty of washing the dishes while seething inside is actually doing good.
As we near adulthood, duty becomes something of the past and our will begins to take over. We act not because others tell us too but because we know what we are to do and desire to do it. Our reason continues to mature as we experience more things in life. After several years of watching Cops and the news we learn many things from the follies and glories of others. We also recognize that sometimes the right does not always bring happiness. When we accidently crash our parent's car we know the right thing to do is to tell them but happiness will find someone else. The time it takes to tell the parents depends on the goodness of the will and the distance to the nearest phone.
When we become adults we hope to be virtuous people who have learned from life what it means to be truly virtuous. We understand that our sight is limited and sometimes when we do not get what we think is good for us we later learn that it would not have been good for us. As Garth Brooks once sang; "...sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers." We discover that sometimes the consequences of our actions are nothing like we intended. The bb gun you gave Johnny may end up putting his eye out. We sometimes follow our duty only to end up pointing a gun at a small child demanding to take him home.
Aristotle, I believe, was best at defining a moral person with the idea that to be moral one must know they are acting moraly, willingly be moral and be consistant. To know what is moral one must know the difference between good and evil. I do not think we will ever beable to articulate what the good is any better than we can articulate the taste of a food. It may make morality seem subjective but I do not believe it actually is. It just requires one use reason properly to know the good for one's self as no one can tell you what it is. I believe most people spend their lives waiting for good things to be handed to them believeing they are good people because they use their logic and reason for justifying evil rather than for discovering the good.