A Passing Thought: A Need for Ethics?

Without ethics, life may look very much like Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, "nasty, short and brutish" (The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, 2009). Ethics serve as the framework for which behaviors are based. Ethics could perhaps be defined as a habit or disposition-guiding humankind's actions (Beckner, 2004). This framework allows for the collaboration and the functioning of societies as a whole. Without an ethical platform from which actions and behaviors can be coordinated a virtual "war against all" (The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, 2009) may ensue. No mechanism would exist to regulate interpersonal misunderstandings and human engagement.

The unseen benefit of not having a binding ethos from which societies operate is that it would allow for unbridled creativity and divergent viewpoints to emerge. Viewpoints, which are often suppressed, as they do not conform to the prevailing modes of thought. Where do you stand on the issue?

 

Reference:

Beckner, W. (2004). Ethics for educational leaders. New York: Allyn & Bacon.

The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes( 2009). Retrieved July 12, 2009 from http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html