What is Ethics?

What is Ethics?
Simply stated, ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on.
It is helpful to identify what ethics is NOT:

• Ethics is not the same as feelings. Feelings provide important information for our ethical choices. Some people have highly developed habits that make them feel bad when they do something wrong, but many people feel good even though they are doing something wrong. And often our feelings will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right thing if it is hard.
• Ethics is not religion. Many people are not religious, but ethics applies to everyone. Most religions do advocate high ethical standards but sometimes do not address all the types of problems we face.
• Ethics is not following the law. A good system of law does incorporate many ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical. Law can become ethically corrupt, as some totalitarian regimes have made it. Law can be a function of power alone and designed to serve the interests of narrow groups. Law may have a difficult time designing or enforcing standards in some important areas, and may be slow to address new problems.
• Ethics is not following culturally accepted norms. Some cultures are quite ethical, but others become corrupt -or blind to certain ethical concerns (as the United States was to slavery before the Civil War). "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is not a satisfactory ethical standard.
• Ethics is not science. Social and natural science can provide important data to help us make better ethical choices. But science alone does not tell us what we ought to do. Science may provide an explanation for what humans are like. But ethics provides reasons for how humans ought to act. And just because something is scientifically or technologically possible, it may not be ethical to do it.

Source: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html

Pursuit of Higher Cognition (Avoiding Maslow)

I think educated, higher thought presents a different level of cognition, which provides a person with alternate means of handling self or the mind.  For example inedia, a catholic-based fasting, or breatharianism, fasting in Hindi tradition, are both unproven and an aspect of belief.  The point: in these and other religions, people claim an ability to not eat for long periods of time to meditate (among other reasons).  In recent decades, the Dalai Lama has been a proponent of mixing science and Buddhism.

Enhanced Gamma waves are present in Tibetan monks brains when they meditate; this “suggests that ‘mental training can bring the brain to a greater level of consciousness’” (Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning, 2005, para. 5).  For example, “Activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the seat of positive emotions such as happiness) swamped activity in the right prefrontal (site of negative emotions and anxiety), something never before seen from purely mental activity” (para. 6).  Some people take issue with the combination of science and spirituality but personally, I think there is necessity for both.

Obviously, air or breathing is necessary, sleep heals the body and mind, and other basic needs represent human requirements to live.  Still, I think that people overcome various physical deficits to preserve a sense of mind despite Maslow’s assertion of a specific universal order of needs.  I still believe the power of the mind remains mostly untapped and humans have the power to train the mind and spirit more than most choose to acknowledge.  “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”-- Albert Einstein

Scans of Monks' Brains Show Meditation Alters Structure, Functioning. (2005). Yoga Studies, 21. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Viktor Frankl

Existential thought is a very motivating force and Deckers (2010) suggests this is a driving force behind many psychological needs (be it through death of loved one which often causes humans to contemplate their own death, or concerns for isolation, identity, freedom, and meaning versus fate in life).  Viktor Frankl is a proponent of logotherapy which suggests the motivational force driving humans is to find meaning in life; he is a psychotherapist, survivor of the Holocaust, and philosopher.  In the book, Man’s Search for Meaning (1959; 1992), he not only tells his personal story of surviving the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, but also devises his theory of logotherapy in part two of his book:

In the concentration camp every circumstance conspires to make the prisoner lose his hold. All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is “the last of human freedoms”—the ability to “choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances”… Logotherapy focuses…on the future, that is to say, on the meanings to be fulfilled by the patient in his future. At the same time, logotherapy defocuses all the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms which play such a great role in the development of neuroses. Thus, the typical self-centeredness of the neurotic is broken up instead of being continually fostered and reinforced. (Preface, p. 104)

It does seem odd that although there are times when physiological needs are unmet (e.g. starving in a concentration camp), psychological needs persist (to find meaning in life as motivation to live).  Of course, Frankl explains this so much more succinctly: “Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a "secondary rationalization" of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled by him alone; only then does it achieve a significance which will satisfy his own will to meaning” (p. 105).  This is probably one of my favorite theories of motivation to ponder…

Deckers, L. (2010). Motivation: Biological, psychological, and environmental (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon.

Frankl, V. (1959, 1992 reprint). Man’s Search for Meaning (4^th ed). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Creative Thinking - Edward DeBono

Edward DeBono has a relevant perspective on creative thinking: 

An understanding of philosophy

philosophy

From The Oxford English Dictionary

Pronunciation:/fɪˈlɒsəfi/

noun

1 [mass noun] the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.  

·       [count noun] a particular system of philosophical thought: the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle

·       the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience: the philosophy of science

2 a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behaviour: don’t expect anything and you won’t be disappointed, that’s my philosophy

Origin: Middle English: from Old French philosophie, via Latin from Greek philosophia 'love of wisdom'

The Instinct for Philosophy