Summary of Ethics/Philosophy Course: What Does it Mean to be Good??

Hi fellow Steemers.

Some know I have been posting lectures from my course last year on Ethics in my blog. We explored the foundation of Western Ethics in the ancient Greek world. We also explored the rise of Catholicism in Europe in the wake of the failing Roman Empire, and the affect those changes had on "traditional" ethical/moral views. We also explored how the rise of "science" turned Catholic "morality" on its head, and how the Existentialists ran with this idea all the way to the "Abyss of Being".

We then looked at the major ethical theories in the West, including Kant and Deontology, Mill and Utilitarianism, Aristotle and Virtue Theory, as well as the late development of Care Theory and the influence of Feminism on the discussion. We saw how any given act, such as lying, can be held as both immoral AND moral at the same time. But then we discussed how that is a HUGE problem, at least if one desires a "monism" or some other universal/absolutest view of ethics. We even attempted to divorce the universal from the absolute, only to discover how that forces us to choose between an ontology of monism vs that of pluralism.

This is a brief summary of this movement. It does not come close to discussing all the issues/views we explored in the course, but it does attempt to provide a foundation from which to continue the conversation.

That said, I am moving onto posting about my travels, as I am on Sabbatical and will be exploring the Southwest, Mexico, and Southeast over the next few months. Fun vids and such pending! Enjoy!