Physical law

A physical law or scientific law, according to the Oxford English dictionary, "is a
theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of
phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if
certain conditions be present." Physical laws are typically conclusions based on repeated
scientific experiments and observations over many years and which have become accepted
universally within the scientific community. The production of a summary description of our
environment in the form of such laws is a fundamental aim of science. These terms are not used
the same way by all authors. The distinction between natural law in the political-legal sense and
law of nature or physical law in the scientific sense is a modern one, both concepts being equally
derived from physics, the Greek word for nature.

Ethical relativism
the doctrine that there are no absolute truths in ethics and that what is morally right or
wrong varies from person to person or from society to society.
Herodotus, the Greek historian of the 5th century BC, advanced this view when he
observed that different societies have different customs and that each person thinks his own
society’s customs are best. But no set of social customs, Herodotus said, is really better or worse
than any other. Some contemporary sociologists and anthropologists have argued along similar
lines that morality, because it is a social product, develops differently within different cultures.
Each society develops standards that are used by people within it to distinguish acceptable from
unacceptable behavior, and every judgment of right and wrong presupposes one or another of
these standards. Thus, according to these researchers, if practices such as polygamy or
infanticide are considered right within a society, then they are right “for that society”; and if the
same practices are considered wrong within a different society, then those practices are wrong
for that society. There is no such thing as what is “really” right, apart from these social codes, for
there is no culture-neutral standard to which we can appeal to determine which society’s view is
correct. The different social codes are all that exist.

Ethical absolutism
Ethical absolutism is the concept that ethical rules are the same everywhere. As an
example of ethical absolutism, consider that the United Nations unanimously passed the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, from which some of those rights are:

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
• No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Any system of ethical thought that focuses strongly on one’s rights and duties is likely founded
upon the concept of ethical absolutism. Many religions promulgate a set of “thou shalt not” rules
that do not allow for varying interpretations under any circumstances - these rules are all based
on ethical absolutism.

Ethical absolutism is also known as moral absolutism.

A brief treatment of absolutism follows. For full treatment, see European History and
Culture: Absolutism.

The most commonly studied form of absolutism is absolute monarchy, which originated
in early modern Europe and was based on the strong individual leaders of the new nation-states
that were created at the breakup of the medieval order. The power of these states was closely
associated with the power of their rulers; to strengthen both, it was necessary to curtail the
restraints on centralized government that had been exercised by the church, feudal lords, and
medieval customary law. By claiming the absolute authority of the state against such former
restraints, the monarch as head of state claimed his own absolute authority.

By the 16th century monarchical absolutism prevailed in much of western Europe, and it
was widespread in the 17th and 18th centuries. Besides France, whose absolutism was
epitomized by Louis XIV, absolutism existed in a variety of other European countries, including
Spain, Prussia, and Austria.

Ethical Egoism
Ethical egoism is a normative theory. As previously indicated, it recommends, favors,
praises a certain type of action or motivation, and decries another type of motivation. It has two
versions: individual ethical egoism and universal ethical egoism. In the first version one ought to
look out for one's own interests. I ought to be concerned about others only to the extent that this
also contributes to my own interests. In the second version, everybody ought to act in their own
best interest, and they ought to be concerned about others only to the extent that this also
contributes to their own interests.

Ethical altruism
 is the philosophical doctrine of living for others rather than for oneself? In its most
extreme form, altruism calls for self-destruction for the sake of others, but most altruists adhere
to Auguste Comte's moderate beliefs. Ethical altruism is more extreme than "normal" or layman's
altruism because it does not value the self except as a way of helping others. In common
language, altruism is simply any act that helps others out of generosity rather than for one's own
interests.

John Stuart’s Mill Utilitarianism

The ethical theory of John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is most extensively articulated in his
classical text Utilitarianism  (1861). Its goal is to justify the utilitarian principle as the foundation
of morals. This principle says actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote overall
human happiness. So, Mill focuses on consequences of actions and not on rights nor ethical
sentiments.
This article primarily examines the central ideas of his text Utilitarianism, but the article’s last
two sections are devoted to Mill’s views on the freedom of the will and the justification of
punishment, which are found in System of Logic  (1843) and Examination of Sir William
Hamilton’s Philosophy (1865), respectively.
Educated by his father James Mill who was a close friend to Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill
came in contact with utilitarian thought at a very early stage of his life. In his Autobiography he
claims to have introduced the word “utilitarian” into the English language when he was sixteen.
Mill remained a utilitarian throughout his life. Beginning in the 1830s he became increasingly
critical of what he calls Bentham’s “theory of human nature”. The two articles “Remarks on
Bentham’s Philosophy” (1833) and “Bentham” (1838) are his first important contributions to the
development of utilitarian thought. Mill rejects Bentham’s view that humans are unrelentingly
driven by narrow self-interest. He believed that a “desire of perfection” and sympathy for fellow
human beings belong to human nature. One of the central tenets of Mill’s political outlook is
that, not only the rules of society, but also people themselves are capable of improvement.

Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative

Towards the end of his most influential work, Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), Kant
argues that all philosophy ultimately aims at answering these three questions: “What can I know?
What should I do? What may I hope?” The book appeared at the beginning of the most
productive period of his career, and by the end of his life Kant had worked out systematic,
revolutionary, and often profound answers to these questions.
At the foundation of Kant’s system is the doctrine of “transcendental idealism,” which
emphasizes a distinction between what we can experience (the natural, observable world) and
what we cannot (“supersensible” objects such as God and the soul). Kant argued that we can
only have knowledge of things we can experience. Accordingly, in answer to the question,
“What can I know?” Kant replies that we can know the natural, observable world, but we cannot,
however, have answers to many of the deepest questions of metaphysics.

in the ethics of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, founder of critical
philosophy, a moral law that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of
which does not depend on any ulterior motive or end. “Thou shalt not steal,” for example, is
categorical as distinct from the hypothetical imperatives associated with desire, such as “Do not
steal if you want to be popular.” For Kant there was only one such categorical imperative, which
he formulated in various ways. “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same
time will that it should become a universal law” is a purely formal or logical statement and
expresses the condition of the rationality of conduct rather than that of its morality, which is
expressed in another Kantian formula: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person
or in another, always as an end, and never as only a means.”

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics

Nicomachean Ethics is a philosophical inquiry into the nature of the good life for a
human being. Aristotle begins the work by positing that there exists some ultimate good toward
which, in the final analysis, all human actions ultimately aim. The necessary characteristics of
the ultimate good are that it is complete, final, self-sufficient and continuous. This good toward
which all human actions implicitly or explicitly aim is happiness in Greek, "eudaimonia," which
can also be translated as blessedness or living well, and which is not a static state of being but a
type of activity.

To discover the nature of human happiness it is necessary to determine what the function
of a human being is, for a person's happiness will consist in fulfilling the natural function toward
which his being is directed. This natural function must be something which is specific to human
beings, which is essential to being human. A person is primarily his intellect. While the spirited
and desiring parts of the soul are also important, the rational part of the soul is what one can most
properly consider a person's identity. The activity which only human beings can perform is
intellectual; it is activity of the highest part of the soul (the rational part) according to reason.
Human happiness, therefore, consists in activity of the soul according to reason. In practical
terms, this activity is expressed through ethical virtue, when a person directs his actions
according to reason. The very highest human life, however, consists in contemplation of the
greatest goods. More will be said later on this topic, which is the culmination of the Ethics.