My Theory of Ethics:   “we are discussing no small matter but how we ought to live “- Socrates

Ethics in Architecture

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the whole domain of morality and moral philosophy. It is therefore the philosophical or theoretical reflection on morality and so tries to understand moral concepts and justify moral principles and theory. I would consider myself to be an ethicist, as with knowledge, understanding and reason it is my aim to obtain, learn and justify the moral principles that exist. My aim is to look at the concepts of good, right and virtue, right, obligation, justice, responsibility, love, equality, knowledge understanding and reasoning, but most to look at the domain of character and motives.
“We want to know how we should live”
Morality is concerned with social practices defining what is right and wrong, where as ethics is about what we ought to be, not what is. It should look at the traits, values that make a good character. So the focus should be on what morally ought to be the case and so how entails how we ought to be morally.
Ethical principles must be the ground rules for our moral decision making. It should provide guidelines for justification of right or wrong actions when settling human conflict.
No one moral philosophy is accepted by everyone. What one person sees as morally correct will be different for another person. These are based upon which philosophy the other person subscribes to and each person’s individual values and beliefs.
“We are discussing no small matter but how we ought to live “- Socrates
My theory is to discuss how we should live and will look at what are the right principles of right behaviour that may serve as action guides for individuals or groups. My theory of ethics should “investigate which values and virtues are paramount to a worthwhile life or society.”
Morality nowadays is based on the acts and consequences and so has “a distinct action guiding, aspect, which it shares with other institutions, such as religion, law and etiquette.”
“Moral behaviour, as defined by a given religion, is usually believed essential to that religion’s practice. Neither the practices nor percepts of morality, however,   should be identified by with religion.”
‘Since religion is founded not on reason but revelation, you cannot use to convince someone of another religion or belief that your view is the right one.” Religion should therefore, not be the main motivation in morality and does not need to be revelation and divine authority and so looks at the ethical assessments of act and consequence. Though religion uses reason to compliment revelation it still is grounded on revelation or divine authority. Religion is derived from a superficial revelation or guidance which encompasses right conduct and good life but is based upon acts and consequences and therefore it out of fear of the consequences which motivates the person to obtain a good character.
"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages"-Richard Lederer

"Religion is a symptom of irrational belief and groundless hope" ~ Dr.House
“No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter … than you and I; and all religion … is simply evolved out of chicanery, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.”– Edgar Allan Poe
Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.– Oliver Wendell Holmes
These are quotes which I have encountered while studying ethics. I personally have chosen not to follow any Religion but to develop myself and my virtue and so pursue happiness. Religion from my experiences tends to divide. They are multiple religions across the world; each saying it is the only and preeminent religion while bringing down the other religion, but the question is which one to follow? If I chose to follow anyone, I would be a part of the division. Religion is based on faith and hope, but from a young age up until now I have mostly and always tried to do what is right despite the consequences stated by religion. I am not against religion, as it can be reasoned to have a good motive in developing a good character, but it focuses on the consequences and the end justifying the mean, whereas my theory is to focus on the character and the motive which should be of a good nature.
The life of a Tree
There is a big oak tree that stands in a garden.
It is a tree of tolerance.
It tolerates all the whimsical men that dance around it.
It is a tree of happiness.
It has no mind.
It is a tree that does not suffer.
Because it does not seek.
It is a tree without Religion
It bows to no-one and asks for nothing.
Do you think for a minute if you did the same you would be forsaken?
From the poem this is what I have derived, that it can relate to a person obtaining good traits and virtue without Religion and so was not influenced by the consequences to obtain these good traits.


I live my life by being and doing good, without expecting, and so assumes that life will unexpectedly return good upon you. That’s my religion. Instead of defining ethics by rules that ought to govern our conduct, it is better to promote the learning and development of character habits. Therefore, the focus should not be on the consequence and the act but based on the motive and the character of a person, their virtue.
The truly wise man will know what is right, do what is good, and therefore be happy.- Socrates
Laws are “instituted to in order to promote well-being resolve conflict of interests and promote social harmony,” though they are many laws which are immoral though considered valid laws.  Some aspects of morality are not covered by law such as honesty where it is morally wrong to tell a lie. There is no law against it. “Law differs from morality in that there are physical and financial sanctions enforcing the law but only the sanction of conscience and reputation enforcing morality”
The practice of morality should not be motivated by religion, law, etiquette as each has its limitations. Ethics and morality cover topics that are the essence of our social existence. It differs from religion, law and etiquette by seeking reasons to justify principles, by focusing on the consequence in determining moral rightness and wrongness.
“The central purpose of moral philosophy is to secure valid principles of conduct and values that can guide human actions and produce good character. As such it is the most important activity we know, for it concerns how we are to live.”
Morality covers the domains of act, consequence, character and motive. My theory’s aim is to focus on the domains of character and motive and so will cover the theories of Virtue ethics, Situation Ethics, various Perspectives of the Greek Philosophers, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato and also Epicurus and will discuss topics of Ethical relativism, Equality, Natural Law, and Humans and their relationship with the Earth. These will also be supported by quotes and images that I have encountered while studying ethics and which can prove to be of relevance. My theory is to focus on what is the purpose of life? What are ought to be? Who are we to be as individuals and as human beings.
The domain of Character emphasizes virtue and according to Aristotle “it is most important to develop a virtuous character, for if and only if we have good people we can ensure habitual right action. It is vital to promote the character to do and be good as most theories consider virtues to be important. With the domain of motive, this can be considered to be also very important as “for a full assessment of any action, taking the agent’s intention into account is important” the motive of the character is to me considered as for “A full moral description of any act will take motive into account as a relevant factor.”
“Each of us is meant to have a character all our own, to be what no other can exactly be, and do what no other can exactly do.”– William Ellery Channing

In Relation to the Greek philosophers, Socrates spoke to the individual and on turning their attention from the outside world to the condition of man.
His supposed paradoxes state that :
•	No one Desires evil
•	No one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly
•	Virtue – all virtue- is knowledge
•	Virtue is sufficient for happiness
Obtaining knowledge is the most important, as self-knowledge was considered necessary for success and inherently an essential good. “Ignorance is Bliss,” and so believed the being or doing bad was based on ignorance, and based on not knowing any better.
To Socrates, a person must become aware of every fact, and so the world, relevant to his existence, if he wishes to obtain self-knowledge. According to Socrates, people will naturally do what is good, if they know what is right and because of ignorance will do bad, and so noted the difference between ideal knowledge and human ignorance.
“To find yourself, think for yourself.” — Socrates
Socrates believed the best way for people to live was to focus on self-development and gaining self-knowledge and so is saying that self-development is essential to virtue and so equated virtue with happiness.
The truly wise man will know what is right, do what is good and therefore be happy.
The idea that humans possessed certain virtues was common in Socrates’ teachings and that these virtues represented the most important qualities for a person to have. Knowledge is a matter of recollection, and not of learning, observation, or study and so each human can attain knowledge. Socrates emphasized “virtue was the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life was spent in search of the Good. Truth lies beneath the shadows of existence, and it is the job of the philosopher to show the rest how little they really know.” This quote can be in relation to the allegory of the cave.

Socrates states that self development is the best way to live and so self-love was an idea that was linked with happiness.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.  Voltaire

Socrates stressed that ‘virtue’ was the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life is in the search of Good. Therefore, understanding and reason can be obtained by all humans and so is associated with knowledge. “Ignorance is Bliss” and so “people are quick to assassinate, judge and criticize what they don’t understand.” This is the downfall of most people as they lacked understanding of the world a people as a whole. Therefore knowledge is essential for understanding and reason.
“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere”- Voltaire
VIRTUE
My religion is virtue
What is the right thing to do?
What traits make a person, Good? These are Virtues
Virtue ethics states that morality is comprised of virtue, which has to do with a person’s character and the types of actions that emanate from that character. Virtue is a character trait or quality valued as being always good in and of itself. Virtue consist of the character traits that exemplify the better nature of human beings and so are needed for humans to conduct themselves well and so be good. Once these virtues are obtained one would then act virtuous, that is, act in the right way and be good.
Plato focused of the Four Cardinal Virtues: temperance justice courage and wisdom. These are all virtuous characteristics which we should all practice.
Aristotle and the Golden mean
With this concept, Aristotle chose to focus on temperance. He stated that a person of moral maturity, one who has learned the habits of good character and subsequently gained the acuity of moral reasoning, would seek the action that would further excellent moral character.  This action which lies between the extremes of excess and the deficiency.
The process of reasoning would lead to the moral mean which is dependent on the individual and on the circumstance. The golden mean would identify the extremes and then seek balance between the two.  The moral mean can only discovered by the application of both learned theory and personal perception, that is, the practical application of our natural senses/ conscience to a situation.
Golden mean compromise is the best solution to many situation and problems. It gives a way to come to the best solution by selecting the middle ground. Though it is not easy to choose the middle ground, once virtuous the option will end in the better good for all. It is the result of character, moral maturity and the ability to perceive a situation accurately as it pertains to the individual involved.
Any person of moral maturity with understanding what is right and what is wrong would view the situation through the lens of personal experience and naturally choose the moral mean. The moral mean is ideal as it can solve situations by looking at ones character and so making it better,
It is then concluded that there are virtues such as courage, generosity, honesty, loyalty.
Virtue ethics provides proper moral motivation as it is about the building of good character which is needed by all and so a bad character can be easily identified. And so can bring consistency to “situations”
Virtuous traits would be integrity, truthfulness, courage, loyalty,  courteousness and conscientiousness which are acquired and developed throughout our life experiences
We know of good character through knowledge and from life experiences. We all know the good traits what we ought to do; Be honest, loyal, trustworthy  and we know bad traits do not steal, do not kill, but we then are guided by the theological point of view of what is right and wrong and therefore we define these by consequences. We therefore should not do bad things because of the consequence.  This should not the case, we should look at the intrinsic value of being good for the sake of being good.
our name is our virtue....
Plato and the Good
Plato’s concept of the good focused on the concept of being good as the ultimate idea.  The idea of good is the ultimate object of knowledge, and from the good things that are just gain their usefulness and value. Humans are compelled to pursue good, but no one can obtain it without philosophical reasoning as knowledge is conversant.  Plato suggests that justice truth quality beauty and others ultimately derive form the form of the good.
"If you judge people, you have no time to love them" ~Mother Teresa
“The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, sexual orientation nor political parties either, but through every human heart"
"The only difference is bad and good, not colour of your skin, size of your eyes, or your religion."
My theory therefore is to look at the person’s intention, situation, and of most importance, the person’s character. We are quick to judge without knowing oneself and without looking at the individual’s situation. The individual is therefore to develop oneself by obtaining knowledge ans so be virtuous and good throughout one’s life.
But other than being virtuous as an individual and to others, what makes the individual happy?
Aristotle and Happiness
According to Aristotle a happy life is a good life, and so happiness is good. Happiness is the state of human well-being which leaves nothing more to be desired, and so happiness, can be said to be the supreme good, the ultimate good.
A happy life is a life made perfect by possessing all good things such as health, wealth, friendship, knowledge and virtue; all which as constituent parts of happiness. Happiness is something that one seeks for its own sake, whereas you seek all the other goods for the sake of happiness. Pleasure, reason and every virtue is chosen for themselves but all for the sake of happiness. Happiness is the only good which is true and so is final and self- sufficient.
According to Aristotle, the pursuit of happiness takes a whole lifetime, and that happiness is the quality of human life. From this, in my opinion, the purpose of life is to be happy and so the purpose of life is to be on the pursuit of happiness. Aristotle tells us that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is a good moral character, which is said to be the complete virtue. A human should not only be virtuous but act according to virtue, and so emphasizes the importance of Virtue to My Theory of Ethics.
He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life.
Therefore, as happiness, consists of all the goods, that are essential to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life,  we should then make good choices everyday and carry out or choices in good actions.
And so we see that having a good character consists in nothing more than well being willing to suffer some immediate pains of being willing to give up some immediate pleasures for the sake of obtaining a greater good later on.  In going through life, Aristotle says we must keep our eye on the future, and so should lead a good life not only for the present  but for the days to come. And so from this, in my opinion, it is actually being good which makes a happy life.
EPICURUS AND PLEASURE
“There is a place in this world which no one else but you can fill.” — Jigsha Desai
According to Epicurus, the only thing that is intrinsically valuable is one’s own pleasure; anything else that has value is valuable merely as a means of to securing pleasure itself.  He recommended a virtuous, moderately ascetic life as the best means to securing pleasure. He agrees with Aristotle that happiness is the highest good, but identifies with happiness with pleasure. He states that pleasure is the only thing that people do, and values for its own sake. Everything we do for the sake of ultimately gaining pleasure for ourselves. I agree with this not looking at it from the Egoist point of view but by looking at it from the point of view that being virtuous, being of good moral character and promoting human flourishing amongst others are of intrinsic value to oneself.
I tend to agree that pleasure makes one happy but I believe this is only temporary, as one may find pleasure in food, music and even sex, which he identifies as moving pleasures, which occur when one is in the process of satisfying a pleasure.   These are physical pleasures which are temporary and concern only the present where as mental pleasures encompass the past (fond memories and the future ( confidence of what will occur) which i agree with and identify as the ultimate pleasures.
The greatest destroyer of happiness is anxiety about the future, especially fear of God and fear of death. If one can banish fear of the future, and face the future with confidence that one’s desires will be satisfied, then one will attain tranquillity, the most exalted state.
FUTURE© For Us The Ultimate Reality Exists. This is a concept which I created and gone by throughout my life, and so I am pleased that this course has helped in identifying and proving this concept, and that the ultimate reality is that of happiness.

Many people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don’t find themselves at all.
– Rollo May, Man’s Search for Himself
Therefore, in life it is important to know oneself and so obtain good virtues and so be happy.
We are born in this word alone and we die alone and so it can be said that life is experienced by the individual themselves. My Theory of Ethics is to focus on the individual and look at what makes the individual, their needs and wants and views on life.
An individual grows up with others; parents, siblings, schoolmates, teachers and so will gain and learn different moral obtain different believes and have their own unique virtue. My theory is that the individual should focus on themselves and get to know themselves and know the world around them.People are quick to judge and focus on others when the focus should be on who you are as a person, what makes u good, what makes you bad and eliminate those bad traits. Self-happiness is essential to achieving the overall happiness in life.
"The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for."- Oscar Wilde
The individual should be happy with himself and love himself first, and so be good moral maturity and so be virtuous. The individual will then look for love.
Love is not established in the constituents of happiness according to Aristotle or so I assumed, but with my theory the idea of Love, is quite essential. With my theory, the idea of love is what contributes to one’s happiness. Love is something we all want and wish to posses.  There is love for oneself, love for another intimately, love for parent and love from friends. So we all want to be like and cared about and so in the end we all want to be loved, but as stated self-love is also essential.
"The most crucial ingredient in any relationship is not what you say or do; it's who you are!"
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
– Buddha
Love is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one’s own self.– Erich Fromm
It is of importance to love oneself before one can love another. The focus is on what makes the person good? Their virtue and what makes the individual happy. Happiness can be achieved through pleasures and stated above, such as, music, sports working out as it varies across the different types of individuals. But what we all have in common is that we love something. And so love overrules all. Love makes us happy and so should be applied to every situation.

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
"There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved."~George Sand


SITUATION ETHICS
Situation Ethics stares that decision making should be based on the circumstance of the particular situation and not fixed law.
“There’s a difference between what is right, and what feels right.”— Deb Caletti
The intrinsic value of situation is associated with love. The ‘Agape’, love which is the universal love for all people and so all human beings.  Situation ethics is concerned with the outcome or consequence of an action (the end) and so as love is the intention, the end justifies the means. And so it is never right to go against a principle unless there is proportionate reason which would justify it. (Hoose, 1987)
Four principles of Situational Ethics:
Pragmatism- the course of action must be practical and work
Relativism- all situations are always relative, but situational ethicists try to avoid words such as “never” and “always”
Positivism- situational ethics entirely relies on the fact that the person freely chooses to believe in agape love.
Personalism – believes that lawas are benefit of the people
Only one thing is intrinsically good; namely love, nothing else at all (Fletcher, 1963). Therfore the idea of love overrides all decisions and situations.  For example homosexuality can be said to be guided by love and therefore the idea of love makes it right.  According to Fletcher only the end justifies the means, nothing else and that Love’s decisions are made situationally, not prescriptively.
Situational ethics therefore looks at the intention and motive of a character where it concerns varying situations, but the focus is on love.
There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life – John Lennon


Natural law
Natural law focuses on the human part of ethics. Who we are as humans? The theory of Natural law states that religious justification is not needed to establish the validity of moral principles. Natural law states that morality is a function of human nature, meaning reason can discover morality by looking at the nature of humanity and society.
This theory states that there is a common law founded by nature. The associated this law with the ability of reason inherent in the human mind,.
The Greek Stoics believed that human beings have a divine spark that enables them to discover the essential laws needed for individual happiness and social harmony.
According to Aristotle human beings, like any other natural object, have a specific purpose and function, which for humans is the to live the life of reason, since reason is the true self of every human, as it is the supreme and better part.
“We all should always do good and avoid evil” we understand that these values are good since they aid in human flourishing and we also understand that that we must pursue those values in order to be a good person.  Based on the values we discover by examining human nature, there are key moral principles that have been developed, which are associated with human life. Human life is a foundational value and so we should use this value in developing our core moral principles and guidelines to help in decision making in situations
It is wrong to take an innocent human life
We should do what we can to help ourselves and others survive
These are core moral principles established based on the value of human life, though they are others such as:
Do not kill innocent people
Do nit cause unnessary pain or suffering
Do not steal or cheat
Keep your Promises and honour your contracts
Do not deprive another person of their freedom
Tell the truth, at least, don’t lie
Do justice, treating equals as equals and unequals as unequals
Reciprocate. Show gratitude for services rendered
Help others especially the cost to oneself is minimal
Obey just laws.
These are examples of the core morality, principles which are necessary  for the good life within a flourishing human society and does not differ from culture to culture. Since there is a common human nature these principles are applicable to all humanity.
The personalist approach to Natural Law is the one that my theory should follow as this aspect looks at situation by the intentions and motives rather than the physical aspects of human nature.  We can intervene to direct the physical nature order in a way to proportionate human development.

Cultural Relativism

'i think everybody should like everybody' - Andy Warhol
Cultural Relativism claims good and bad differs from culture to culture. It states that there is nothing such as universal truth in ethics, which is incorrect as there are characteristics that people should all obtain and that will make society better. There are still basic moral principles that all societies will have in common, because those rules are necessary for society to exist.
The world is a diverse and sometimes confusing place as culture varies across the world. We all will learn what is right and wrong and also learn what is good and what is bad. The world can be governed by general natural laws and moral which most persons will obtain. It can be stated that cultures differ and that we ought to be conscious of condemning what we don’t understand, but this still does not mean that they are not core moral principles that can be applied to each individual and across the world.

If we replace fear with knowledge and love, this will allow for reasoning and understanding. Equality amongst all humans is a concept that should be applies, we are all human beings and so we should have respect and understanding of each other.  Ethics has to do with the good and human flourishing and I believe, with animal flourishing as well. And this flourishing involves the amelioration of suffering, the resolution of conflicts of interest and the promotion of happiness.

There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.” ~ Paul Newman



This is an example of the view of homosexuality on a whole. We focus not on the character and motive of the individuals but the act and consequences that occur. Though this topic has it negatives, it is as humans to look our fellow individuals and gain knowledge and understanding of the world and life.
What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature. Voltaire
What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking. Voltaire

My theory of ethics is to look at my view of the world as a Jamaican. Our motto is  “out of many one people” and also another term popular with our culture is “Jamaica : No problem “ with knowledge and understanding, i have learned to live by these statements which most Jmaican are far from doing.
Our country is that spot to which our heart is bound. - Voltaire

Reason can discover the correct and core moral principles that we ought to all have as individuals and as human beings, and it is in our interest to promote them and so spread knowledge.
Who’s to judge what’s right and wrong?”
“We are – every rational being on Earth.” And we are to judge on the basis of the best reasoning we can bring forth, in dialogue with another, and with sympathy and understanding. It is therefore essential to obtain knowledge, reasoning and understanding and so ne of good moral character and maturity, and so be virtuous as an individual and to others.


Though this image is focused on the two different parties of the American society, the Left and the Blue can be said to be the better society for us as human beings.
My theory will affect my life as it will be my outlook on life and whatever the future holds. With the lens of architecture, ethics has given me a purpose of being a better architect and so make the world a better place. As an Architect it will guide me in carry out my work as its intention is to make the world a better place and so help us all as human beings.