People generally tend to have 2 ethical systems they follow either explicitly or implicitly without even knowing:
- Small scale like personal, immediate family and small community ethics.
- Large scale like direction of government or large community ethics.
There are many ethical schools of though and here’s a quick brief (very simplified):
Small scale ethics:
- Virtue ethics - cultivate good character, be just, honest, wise etc.
- Care ethics - all about close community and relationship building, your people first
- Deontological ethics - focus on rules and duties, never lie etc
- Egoism - me me me, I only have one life and that’s the most important thing.
- Existencialism - take full responsibility of your choices and persona, create your own meaning as it’s fit now.
And for large scale:
- Utilitarianism - the most common position. Greatest good for greatest amount of people. Save as many as you can by pulling the trolley switch
- Contractualism - society must be organized around rules we all agree on without knowing our place in it. i.e. poor and king have to agree without knowing who they are yet.
- Deontological Priority - free speech, bodily autonomy etc. All fundamental rights must be protected even when inconvenient.
- Communitarianism - focus on community, tradition over individual rights and freedoms
- Libertarianism - maximize individual liberty
- Marxist - prioritize equality and collective ownership
- Environmental - prioritize protecting our surroundings and all life even non human. Challenge human-centered ethics.
Most commonly people fall virtue or deontological at small scale and utilitarian or deontological at large scale without even knowing much about ethics. What about you?
I think it’s hypocritical for people to absolve themselves of responsibilities they believe they are owed from larger organisations such as corporations or governments.
If you think climate change is bad you should put as much effort into reducing your personal impact as you think corporations should. If you think the housing crisis is bad you shouldn’t own investment properties. If you think political revolution is the only way to to bring about change you should be actively not following the law and revolting against your government. If you think Israel should be embargoed you should not be paying for any Israeli goods or services. I promise if you look through the list of isreali corporations or corporations that participate in their society, you will have a lot to change.
I feel a lot of people become aware of issues and care passionately about change being brought about but don’t consider themselves responsible. If you’re not interested in bettering yourself and changing your impact, I think less of you as a person.
I agree with you here and this common take in virtue ethics!
Though I think there are some bad actors at play here that heavily benefit from society that is defeatist. I’m reading the new Steven Pinker’s book on Common Knowledge and there’s one brilliant point there: common knowledge becomes a huge motivator and empowers people to take action. His context is protests and resistance but I think it can extend to your point as well - if we all agreed that taking personal responsibility is important and it was common knowledge society would be empowered to solve these problems directly instead of looking for scapegoats.