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Article: The foundation of Law, Ethics, and Politics. 6-16-2005
The foundation of Law, Ethics, and Politics.
The foundation of Law and Politics is ethics. What is ethics? It is the branch of philosophy
that answers the question, what should I do and how should I behave.
There are 4 main branches of philosophy.
- Metaphysics answers the question, where am I?
- Epistemology answers the question, how do I know it?
- Ethics answers the question, what should I do or how should I behave?
- Politics answers the question, what should I do, or how should I behave, in
a community of people.
So, politics is a branch of Ethics. It is the branch of ethics that deals with how people
should act and behave in a community.
Why do people gather together to form a community or city?
Or more generally, why do people assemble
I can think of 2 reasons:
1) People may travel far distances to gather together at a single place to buy
and sell goods and services. Such a place is called a market place.
2) People may gather together for mutual protection...to form an "army" so to speak.
When a group of people gather together and remain together, a community is formed.
The Law "Written on the Heart"
Before written laws came into existence, when people gathered together in a market place
or for mutual protection, each person had only their own conscience to be their guide
when dealing and interacting with other people.
Their conscience, or heart, told them whether or not what they were doing is right or
wrong.
What IS a conscience?
Webster's online dictionary defines
conscience as: "the sense or consciousness of the moral goodness or blameworthiness of
one's own conduct, intentions, or character together with a feeling of obligation to
do right or be good"
consciousness is defined as:
"the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself"
So a conscience is an inward knowing, or sense, about what is right or wrong.
In fact, your consciense is the ONLY way for you to have knowledge about what
is right and wrong. No amount of experience or scientific insight can ever provide this.
The clearest explanation for why this is, comes from Nobel Prize winning physicist
Richard Feynman, who is best known for his contributions to the development of the
atomic bomb.
Ethics, as stated above, is the branch of philosophy that answers the question,
'What should I do?', or 'how should I behave?', or 'Should I do this?'
In Feynman's words: "The common human problem, the big question is 'Should I do this?'
It is a question of action. What should I do? Should I do this?"
This problem can be broken down into 2 parts, or 2 more fundamental problems:
The first part asks, "If I do this, what will happen?"
The second part asks, "Do I want that to happen".
The first part can be answered by science or experience. The solution is to "Try it
and see what happens".
However, the answer to the second question CANNOT be answered by science or experience.
Just knowing what the result of an action will be DOES NOT tell you whether or not
you should take that course of action. Knowing what the result of an action or decision
will be does not answer the question of Ethics, "Should I do this?".
What IS law?
"a binding custom or practice of a community : a rule of conduct or action prescribed or
formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority"
This unwritten law, that is not created by people but guides all people, is known
as Natural Law.
This law, which is written onto our consciences, is the foundation, the bedrock, of
all morality, all moral actions, and all ethical behavior. Without it, moraility
and moral behavior are impossible.
This is a simple fact.
Richard Feynmann, the nobel prize winning physicist who played a key role in the
development of the first atomic bomb, had this to say about knowledge of right
and wrong:
"...Science cannot tell you how to make a decision...science cannot tell you
whether or not something is Right or Wrong...and NO AMOUNT OF EXPERIENCE
EVER CAN...here's why:"
At the end of World War II, Nazi leaders were taken to trial. These trials were
called the Nuremberg trials...
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