ethics for esoterics? nah ethics for everybody.

Zander Widjaja
Jul 24, 2017 · 3 min read

wait what

Isn’t ethics really atas and part of knowledge inquiry in Jc,
how is that even going to be relevant to me?

Firstly to answer this question,
2 parts:

Yes it is part of junior college curriculum,
and no its not really that atas ( as long as you have google beside you to occasionally search up unfamiliar terms )

but wait why should i even care about it ?

2 reasons as well ( ooh im on a roll) (-..-)

1. increased self understanding (ooh )
2. increased understanding for others (ahh)

*these two are like superpowers when it comes to navigating the world we live in today, be it in a corporate setting or even in a social setting*

Ethics are generally split into three categories :

Meta ethics > where did morality (definition of morality:principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour.) come from.

Normative ethics > how we should conduct out human behaviour and the questions the arise when studying morality.

Applied ethics > moral standards applied to controversial situations.

As you can see ethics has a large amount of overlap with philosophy as well as it deals with how we can as humans be leading our lives and the truth to how we make our moral decisions.

How it helps us

Increased self understanding
Many of us are in the dark about how we developed into the person that we currently are.

The hidden childhood dependencies, the unnoticed social pressure ,the conforming to standards of society in order to fit in and generally distinguishing why we find certain actions right and others wrong.
And maybe understanding the maybe value(reward) of the value(mindset/character trait) that your parents are trying to instill in you.

so what?

so you can understand yourself, duhh
given that a 100% of the time you are always with yourself wouldn’t it be nice to at least understand the core beliefs that we have leading us to make descions ?

This increased awareness in our lives could allow us to change our mindset and use perspectives which are much more expedient to attaining the things that we actually want in life.

uhuh

so ethics is like a super awareness power and coupled with meditation ( increases self awareness ) is like the magic formula to leading a better life.

orrrhh

To elaborate further it allows us to understand the underlying reasons to the ways that we act

okay

and possibly also allow us to find some sense in the madness which is our hectic Singaporean lifestyle.

Now to address how it helps others

Increased understanding for others

Because ethics shows us the arguments that are made to justify certain moral behaviour ( normative ethics ), studying it will allows us to gain a broader perspective on peoples’ behaviour and we tend to be more accepting towards others. So this tends to make us increasingly aware of how the moral standards which exist and manifest in their actions.

for example
Lecka likes to party but daniel likes to study and hates partying and also hates lecka.

Daniel plus ethics :D
= Lecka likes to party but Daniel likes to study but hates partying but understands why Lecka likes to party due to her finding value in making new friends and empathising with people.

Now just apply this to a more moral situation that requires slightly stronger moral preferences.

So now we become less douchey as people

yayy

wait when were you ever so supportive

idk.

how do we start ?

talk on ethics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY&list=PLD69712B84F998857

nice little infographic show on meta ethics : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOoffXFpAlU

playlist of videos for philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNgK6MZucdYldNkMybYIHKR

Zander Widjaja

Written by

a curious kid trying to break down life into pieces so he can figure out how it works.

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