Ethics

Much like religion, philosophy has given way before science as a way to explain the world and as a body of explanatory knowledge.

Before there was science, there was “natural philosophy.” It was not clearly distinguished from other types of knowledge like religion and ethics. For many of the earliest philosophers, the dividing line between knowledge of the material world, knowledge of the divine, and knowledge of the right way to live was sketchy at best.

Starting in the 17th century, in the Western world, science began to displace other systems of thought because in theory, logical and mathematical analysis of direct observations could create true, sound, unimpeachable knowledge. Eventually, religion and philosophy mostly gave up trying to explain the material world–that was for science to do–and focused on what was left: the immaterial, unknowable, and debatable.

For many those areas of thought and knowledge not subject to scientific investigation began to seem unimportant–not worth studying. The ancient philosophers (like most Westerners I know mostly about the Greeks) did not think that religious ideas, ethical values, and the purpose of life were not worth discussing. It would have surprised them to know that many people today do not think it is possible to reach firm conclusions about right behavior and how to lead a good life using logic, reason, and wisdom gained through experience.

Today science advances at a mighty pace as nations and organizations devote many resources and much effort to research.

Meanwhile, the spiritual, the divine, and the ethical are taught as they always have been, by leaders, scholars, and authority figures, through family stories about ancestors and their values, and through studying the same books that have been studied for centuries if not millennia.

Could we learn more about right action, how to be happy, and how to lead a good life if we put more effort into it?