Sandy Mayer - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Sandy Mayer

Journal of Ecumenical Studies

Human beings are persons, that is, beings who can know endlessly, choose freely, and love. Hence,... more Human beings are persons, that is, beings who can know endlessly, choose freely, and love. Hence, when we speak of ethics we are talking about the principles of behavior of free beings, of humans. We do not speak of our animal pets having ethics, or complain that trees do not follow their ethics-because only we humans have freedom; only we can choose whether or not to act in a certain way, and as a consequence are responsible. This is what we mean when we talk about ethics: The principles by which free beings, humans, choose to act one way or another. A clarifying word here about the use of the terms "ethics" and "morals": "Ethics" comes from the Greek term ethos and means "custom"; "morals comes from the Latin term moris and likewise means "custom." Some writers project separate meanings for the two terms. However, they are simply synonyms, and can be used interchangeability. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to use the term "morality" when speaking of sexual and private matters and the term "ethics" when speaking of business and public behavior. When we speak of knowing something we are talking about our cognitive faculties. Their purpose is to "unite" us with reality about us in a variety of ways. For example, through the cognitive faculty of sight, we are united with myriad objects via light waves, whereas we are united with certain other realities via sound waves, or through the sense of smell, taste, touch. We humans also have related appetitive faculties whereby we also desire and move to become "united" with various realities. For example, we want to be one with ice cream by eating, one with Mozart's music by listening to it, one with our friend by being physically near, writing, telephoning…. These are the fundamental ways that we encounter the world and ourselves. When we speak of ethics/morals, then, we intend to say that certain actions are good or its opposite, bad-or right or wrong. What precisely is meant by the term "good"?

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies

Human beings are persons, that is, beings who can know endlessly, choose freely, and love. Hence,... more Human beings are persons, that is, beings who can know endlessly, choose freely, and love. Hence, when we speak of ethics we are talking about the principles of behavior of free beings, of humans. We do not speak of our animal pets having ethics, or complain that trees do not follow their ethics-because only we humans have freedom; only we can choose whether or not to act in a certain way, and as a consequence are responsible. This is what we mean when we talk about ethics: The principles by which free beings, humans, choose to act one way or another. A clarifying word here about the use of the terms "ethics" and "morals": "Ethics" comes from the Greek term ethos and means "custom"; "morals comes from the Latin term moris and likewise means "custom." Some writers project separate meanings for the two terms. However, they are simply synonyms, and can be used interchangeability. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to use the term "morality" when speaking of sexual and private matters and the term "ethics" when speaking of business and public behavior. When we speak of knowing something we are talking about our cognitive faculties. Their purpose is to "unite" us with reality about us in a variety of ways. For example, through the cognitive faculty of sight, we are united with myriad objects via light waves, whereas we are united with certain other realities via sound waves, or through the sense of smell, taste, touch. We humans also have related appetitive faculties whereby we also desire and move to become "united" with various realities. For example, we want to be one with ice cream by eating, one with Mozart's music by listening to it, one with our friend by being physically near, writing, telephoning…. These are the fundamental ways that we encounter the world and ourselves. When we speak of ethics/morals, then, we intend to say that certain actions are good or its opposite, bad-or right or wrong. What precisely is meant by the term "good"?

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.