Good, Justice and Ethics: Bridging Ancient Greek Philosophy and Contemporary Moral Dilemmas | Chapter 9 | Current Progress in Arts and Social Studies Research Vol. 8

This work addresses one of the most significant timeless issues in ethical and political theory; the question of whether the principles of right and justice can be determined independently of the teleologically defined concepts of the good, the good life and personal and social eudaimonia. It also explores whether right and justice, as fairness, precedes good, or whether the good has priority over right and justice. On the basis of a historical and philosophical review, this work argues that, in comparison to the ancient Greek “paradigm” – which, among other principles and ideas, establishes the Socratic-Platonic and Aristotelian approach to virtue ethics, prioritizing the good over the right, and, thus, defines the good independently of the right – modern and post-modern thought presents a different concept. In this context, and based on a more or less conceptual inversion of the priority of these two terms, modern and post-modern thought argue that the right has priority over the good. This assertion, which “proves to be a central feature of justice as fairness”, claims that justice, as fairness, can be defined independently of the concept of good and that the principles of justice have priority over the good. This issue will be critically discussed primarily with reference to Rawls’ Theory of Justice – though less so to Kantian ethics and Hume’s aretology due to ambiguities in their treatment of the issue. Finally, this work will make a brief reference to the potential repercussions of the here-mentioned modern and post-modern inversion of the priority of good over right, particularly concerning science and technoscientific development. In contrast to ancient Greek ethical theory, which is teleologically and ontologically based on the concepts of good and virtue, primarily seeking the good of the ancient Greek city-state (polis), modern and post-modern ethical theory cannot effectively promote the common good, and face the contemporary ethical challenges in general, since it is more or less based on superficially considered individualism, rightness and unfounded utilitarian aspects.

 

Author (s) Details

 

Joannis N. Markopoulos
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.

 

Please see the book here:- https://doi.org/10.9734/bpi/cpassr/v8/3892