ETHICS
Imagine a 15 year old student in philosophy class. After discussing why should you or shouldn't you judge other societies, and getting in depth with ethics, the teacher decides to tell a story to the class. She says"..there is a tribe in the Amazon(Brazil) were they show love and respect by cutting body parts.It would be a good sign if your father cuts a finger of a son...." she then asked the class ".... if you end up in the Amazon, would you stop a father cutting a sons finger because in your society is wrong? Can you imagine how disappointed would the family be if this happens?
Is that ethics?. Before getting into the conclusion, lets first understand what the word ethics means.
By definition from the Webster's third new international dictionary, unabridged
1 ethics plural but usually singular in construction : the discipline dealing with what is good and bad or right and wrong or with moral duty and obligation
2 a : a group of moral principles or set of values b : a particular theory or system of moral values c ethics plural but singular or plural in construction : the principles of conduct governing an individual or a profession : standards of behavior
This discussion about what is good or bad, right or wrong, has gone for thousand of years. One of the great philosophers , Socrates(469-399 BC), already questioned this with the result of being trailed and sentenced to death.
"Looking back on the early history of philosophy, later philosophers traced to Socrates a major turn in its development. As Cicero puts it: 'Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens... and compel it to ask questions about life and morality' (Tusculan Disputations V 10-11). Pr ...