Ethics A way of life

Prepared by: Reo Paolo M. Uri

It may happen that some of those in the teaching of ethics or morality may regard it as a purely academic endeavor. There is always the temptation, at least for some teachers, to just present the ethical theories and concepts as if they are end-all and be-all of the subject.

There may be also other, whose manner of installing ethics and morality to students is through fear and intimidation, even though it has been long proven that it just doesn’t work. Today’s young generations are practically brought up to question and challenge a most everything, particularly on how one ought to behave morally.

It is a major tragedy, we dare say, to confine ethics to a purely intellectual exercise, just like mathematics or any other theoretical and abstract disciplines. Ethical theories and principles may, if taught correctly and truthfully. Uplift the students mentally, but may not transform them concretely into better persons or human beings, in the truest and finest sense of the term.

Ethics, we earnestly believe, should be taken not just as an academic study, but as fundamentally, a “way of life.” Ethics “should be shown as a discipline which has an intimate connection with daily lives of man….. To be vital, the teaching must be something more than the presentation of exacting moral theories….. There [should be] a proper interaction between knowledge and practice. Knowledge serves practice, for each new truth learned is a new reason for a better life” (Baldemea et al. 1984:85).

“Knowing what is might without actually changing the way we behave morally is nothing but useless knowledge. One must be so convicted of the correctness of one’s thinking that it leads to a real and concrete transformation in one’s daily attitude and behavior, or it become, at the very least, the most basic and fundamental motive behind one’s day to day conduct” (http:/en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Christian_ethics).

While ethics is a subject that can be approached only academically, the learner may be tempted to students it simply for the take of obtaining a high grade. One may become so adept at the various and principles concerning morality without one ever becoming moral. One may have a thorough grasp and mastery of ethical principles, yet, still at a loss as to their relevance and value to the living of the good life itself (Ethics being the study of the Good Life). “Such a study would be rather like learning the recipes in a cook book without eating the food, so to speak. Reality would elude [the person]. [One] would not to know the thing [one] knows? [One] would only know about it” (Baldemea et al. ibid).

End…….