The Effect of Ethics from the Classical World on our current Western Culture.

Hundreds of years ago, classic civilizations shaped the path for our modern world in terms of ethics through culture, mythology, science, philosophy, religion, and prosperity in economics, and politics.

Ethics and morality are pretty much the same thing, and ethics are equivalent to moral philosophy. This is the philosophical study of moral values & rules such as the golden mean, virtue, right versus wrong, and other fundamental issues of practical decision making. Ethics are a set of principles governing morality and acceptable behaviour like personal behaviour, corporate behaviour, behaviour towards society, and behaviour towards the environment.
Moral philosophy (ethics) is used to determine what values we hold, or "what behaviour is “ethical”?". It is used around the world because it is, and has always been, part of our human history. Ethics is determined by everyday life through the choices we make as people and it originated when humans started to reflect on best way to live.

We see ethics through myths that are still vital in some societies and cultures today. Myths help humans examine how man copes with the physical, social, religious, and political environment. Just like characters from a book, we can learn important lessons and values in order to best live our life. We see these in stories like Narcissus & Echo, Midas, Daedlus & Icarus, Pandora, and The Bacchae. Myths provide mankind with gallery of models (positive & negative) and revealed eternal truths about the nature of man and our personal life quests. For example, we can see this from the Mycenaean’s who valued leadership and Heroism.

For the Minoans, Religion a big part of culture and they Gave women advanced rights and political power. During the Archaic period, with the beginning of the Phalanx formation, we see that there is a sense of community even in their military. From this we see that community had a profound impact on how the people functioned together in their society and what their culture truly valued. Alexander the Great “created” cultural exchange by a vast empire and the Romans valued women, who had prominent role in society (seen in their art).

Through science, our culture and technological improvements can all be the effect of the ancient worlds' society and advancements. Gaelin, the philosopher and doctor, “founded” physiotherapy, discovered nervous system, was skilled with modern surgical practices & tools, and introduced cosmetic surgery. Pythagoras investigated causes and reasons of nature, and believed that “Imbalance affected health and character”. Aristotle linked medicine with biology, botany, anatomy, and founded logic, physics, political sci, economics, psychology, meta-physics, and meteorology. It is because of people from the classical world like this that we have technological advancements that bring ethics into question.

Philosophers sought rational explanations of phenomena for the world. Socrates is and example or a moral philosopher. He asked questions like “How shall we live?”, “What is good?”, “What is truth?”, “What is just?”; and the answeres to these questions bring happiness in life. He was the first cosmopolitan. Aristotle is said to have created ethics by asking things like “What is existence?” and “What does it mean?”. The cynic, Diogenes said that “all that matters are true vs bad values” whereas skeptics don’t believe in truth. The believed that “persuasion, not truth, is better”. At the time, Athens centre of intellectual world and from this, the ideas of thinking spread to other parts of the world. Academic and philosophical conflict lead to the birth of debate (examples: Heraclitus & Paramenides, Zeno).

Political ethics involve dike/justice which provide a certain climate for citizens to abide by. This formation allowed for the ideals of justice to be put in practice, which in turn layed the groundwork for individualism and democracy. This began the “first among equals” concept. An example of debate regarding this was the war between the Greeks and the Persians (5th cent.). This war was a war of ideas such as freedom vs slavery. These are some ideals that rule our lives today. Going along with this, Salan worked with Athens’ existing laws and created new ones to benefit the people of the society (Reforms).

Overall, it can be said that classic civilizations shaped path for our modern world. However, I have to say that this is truly a personal opinion.

"In a sense, civilization as a way of life is still in the experimental phase. We do not know whether it will be as successful in the long run as the hunting and gathering existence that sustained our ancestors for most of human history." - The Ancient Mediterranean World (Pg 3)

Sources:
- Classic Civilizations notes & resources from class
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Holborn, Hajo. History and the Humanities. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972. Print.
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