We can distinguish between six stages that moral philosophy in the West went through, and each stage had its context and characteristics, and its impact on the subsequent stages, namely:
- Stage of Greek philosophy.
- Medieval stage.
- Renaissance period.
- Stage of the industrial revolution.
- Stage of the modern era.
- Postmodern era.
The general line of these stages was marked by an emphasis on the importance of morals in human life, within several philosophical trends that move between religion and reason and questioning religion and morals.
Since I started this series with the aim of introducing the declared war on morals in the late decades and enhancing understanding and awareness of the deliberate changes that are going on around us, we will pass quickly through these six stages, to stand on the philosophical roots of them, the general contexts that accompanied them, and the conditions that affected them.
In general, the morals of societies are required by religious beliefs, the economic situation, the political system, the history of society, and the circumstances that surround it, according to the vision of Dr. "Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Marhaba" in his book "The Reference in the History of Ethics". The more these societies develop, ethics evolved. Ethics is part of the socio-cultural reality.
Ancient morals remained part of religion until the early beginnings of the pre-Socratic era among the Greeks, Pharaonic Egypt, India and Persia, then became part of Greek philosophy, then relapsed in the dying ages of the Greek mentality, then its first biography returned to be part of the religion and mysticism of Plato. Then it reunited with religion in the Middle Ages, until the Renaissance, when morals returned to philosophy and metaphysics (beyond nature), and then, in the late decades, it reached the stage of removing morals from metaphysics and religion, so that morals became without morals, he said.
Ethics of the Greek philosophers
Socrates' dialogues with his students, led by Plato, about politics, religion, love, virtue, and knowledge affected the foundation and enrichment of Greek philosophy.
Socrates (470-399 BC), the founder of Western philosophy, did not leave books on philosophy and ethics, but his dialogues with his students, headed by Plato (424-348 BC) on politics, religion, love, virtue and knowledge, affected the establishment and enrichment of Greek philosophy, so they began in the study of ethics as a branch of philosophy, the meaning of which is extended to refer to habit, character, way of thinking, or temperament.
As for his student, Plato, he dealt with ethics from different perspectives and contexts and conducted several dialogues on ethics, including virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, crime and punishment, and justice. He holds that the "good" is the supreme form that exists in some way even "beyond existence." In his book "The Republic" he spoke of individual morality as the justice of the soul.
Then his student Aristotle (384-322 BC) came after him and wrote many treatises on ethics, which he considered a practical study, not a theory, aimed at becoming a good person and doing good.
For Aristotle, virtue has to do with the proper function of an object, for the eye is only as good as it can see because the proper function of the eye is sight. Aristotle also held that human beings should have a function of their own and that the optimal activity of the soul as the goal of every intentional human action, is generally translated as "happiness" or sometimes "well-being". as a moral or ethical virtue or privilege.
For Aristotle, the achievement of a virtuous and happy character requires a first stage of possession of wealth to which one has to be accustomed not intentionally, leading to a later stage in which one consciously chooses to do the best things. He asserted that all natural beings tend to perform their own functions, trying to fully realize their potential, and that good consists in the fulfilment of those functions. He also holds that freely chosen actions can be moral, while obligatory actions are not moral.
After Aristotle, Epicurus (340-270 BC) put forward the doctrine of pleasure and pain. For him, pleasure is the supreme good, and pain is the supreme evil. Despite his recognition of sensual pleasure, he clarifies his intent with pleasure, the pleasure of liberation from pain, resulting from the practice of virtue.
Ethics in the Middle Ages
Greek philosophy had a great influence on Europe after the birth of Christ, peace be upon him, and it also influenced the emergence of Islamic philosophy, especially in the era of the Abbasid state. Greek philosophy was soon mixed with Christian religious thought, after Europe entered Christianity, to witness great philosophical activity in the Middle Ages extending from the Fifth century AD, following the collapse of the Roman Empire until the beginning of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
These Middle Ages witnessed a lot of internal turmoil and unrest from ethnic and religious groups such as the Slavs, Russians, and pagans, and a few external ones, most notably the Mongol war, the expansion of the Seljuk state, the Crusades, and the spread of plague.
Ethics remained linked to religion throughout this period, which witnessed a strong alliance between the authorities of the European kingdoms and the Catholic Church, this alliance contributed to strengthening the authority of religion in Western societies, in return for the contribution of this authority to strengthening the political authority and its military, economic, social and intellectual systems.
Hence, religious thought prevailed over the works of the philosophers of this era, ethics remained linked to the Church and the Catholic religion, and the concept prevailed that the ultimate goal of human actions is to obtain goodness, happiness and love, which he gains from the Bible, and the eagerness to please God and the aspiration to see him after death.
Among the most prominent philosophers of this era was Saint Augustine (345-430 AD), who developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, absorbing a variety of styles and points of view, believing that the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, and contributed to the development of just war theory. As the Western Roman Empire began to disintegrate, Augustine imagined the church as a spiritual city of God, distinct from the physical, earthly city. He wrote in his confessions after his conversion to Christianity, addressing the Lord:
Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being,
were they not in you.
As for St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 A.D.), morality depends on the concept of “first principles of action.” All acts of virtue are described in natural law, but through investigation of the mind, humans found that they help a decent life.
The basic virtues of Aquinas four, and are binding on everyone (wisdom, moderation, justice, and steadfastness), and there are three religious virtues: (faith, hope, and love), and according to him, the perfect virtue is what is with love. For Thomas Aquinas, greed is a sin against God, like all mortal sins. He also distinguished between four types of laws that govern human life: (eternal, natural, human, and divine).
In general, the thinkers of this era combined Christian religious doctrine with some elements of classical philosophy, stressing that the ultimate goal of human actions is to obtain good, for (man) to be happy, and that the ultimate goal of human behaviour is love, which can only be achieved if one lives with the gospel.
Among the philosophers, thinkers, and scholars of this era who had contributed to the science of ethics were the Bishop Anselm of Canterbury, who believed that faith must precede knowledge, and the French philosopher Peter Abelard, who is considered a flame that ignited the mind of Europe in the twelfth century AD, and the English monk William of Ockham, and the poet Italian Dante.