Ethics and Social philosophy

What is Ethics?
Ethics is derived from the Greek word "ethos" which means "way of living", ethics is a
branch of philosophy that is concerned with human conduct, more specifically the behaviour of
individuals in society. Ethics examines the rational justification for our moral judgments: it
studies what is morally right or wrong, just or unjust.
In a broader sense, ethics reflects on human beings and their interaction with nature and
with other humans, on freedom, on responsibility and on justice. It can be said that in general,
ethics is concerned with human independence when if focuses on the relationship that exists
between humans and the world. This independence is the primary condition in ethical decision-
making and in any objective analysis of the facts. Individuals demonstrate independence when,
in a decision-making process, they choose to free themselves as much as possible from their
conditioning. Insofar as this operation assumes a degree of lucidity that allows us to judge
objectively and to decide what direction to take, it will be understood that making ethical
decisions is difficult.

What is Social Philosophy?

Social philosophy examines questions about the foundations of social institutions, social
behavior, and interpretations of society in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations.
Social philosophers emphasize understanding the social contexts for political, legal, moral and
cultural questions, and the development of novel theoretical frameworks, from social ontology to
care ethics to cosmopolitan theories of democracy, natural law, human rights, gender equity and
global justice.
Social philosophy is the study of social interactions and behavior between two or more
people. Such philosophical studies are usually conducted on humans, but have also been used to
look at social systems in other animals such as dolphins and great apes. Social philosophy
examines group dynamics and organization, group identity and the role of individual feelings
within them.
Any discussion of and any theory about social issues could be considered an element of
social philosophy. There are many overlapping disciplines with the philosophy of society. For
example, it overlaps with other philosophical disciplines such as ethics, language philosophy,
political philosophy and social epistemology. It also combines and merges with non-
philosophical disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and psychology.
The two main elements of social philosophy are the society and the individual.
Emmanuel Kant believed that the fundamental element of a good society is freedom. By this, he
means the freedom to be an individual, but individuals also have a contract with society that
naturally limits any such freedom. According to Kant, therefore, society is about a balance
between rights and responsibilities.

Ethics and Social philosophy

Many of the questions social philosophers are concerned with are intertwined with ethics.
Part of living in a society requires an ethical code of conduct that ensures everything functions
smoothly.
Thomas Hobbes' social contract theory spells out the connection between a society and
ethics. Hobbes believed that instead of ethics being something that existed naturally, a code of
ethics and morality would arise when a group of free, self-interested, and rational people lived
together in a society. Ethics would arise because people would find that better things could come
from working together and trusting each other than would arise from doing everything on their
own.
Today, much of how we act is determined by the societies we live in. The kinds of
clothes we wear, the media we interact with, and how we talk to each other change depending on
the norms of our society. This can complicate ethics: should we change our ethical code when
we move to a different society with different norms? For example, one culture may say that it's
morally acceptable to eat meat, while a different culture may not. Should a person have to
change the way they act moving from the meat-eating culture to the non-meat-eating culture?
Moral relativists would say it is possible for both cultures to be morally right, and that we should
act accordingly depending on which culture we are interacting with.
A significant reason that social philosophy is still such a nebulous field is that everyone
has different life experiences and interacts with society differently. Additionally, different people
feel like they owe different levels of commitment to the people around them. Ultimately, it's a
serious challenge for philosophers to come up with social theories that resonate with everyone
the theory is supposed to include.