Integral Person-Based Ethics

Ethics is related to the human experience of morality and its object is providing a systematic on good and bad. Rational and systematic reflection on morality began in ancient Greece, although earlier religions and wisdom traditions have already been given ethical precepts and encouraged virtues. The ancient philosophers were especially attentive to the notion of the good, and to the virtues generated by good actions, which in turn give rise to eudaimonia: human excellence or plenitude, with the resulting inner happiness. The virtues are also important in the Christian tradition, based on following Jesus Christ and the supreme precept of love (agapē) of God and neighbor. In the Middle Ages, people continued to consider ethics with a focus on virtues emphasizing their connection with the natural moral law discovered by reason and enhanced by faith. From the Enlightenment onward, and even earlier, there was a significant turn in which the virtues were more and more marginalized. Ethical reflection was targeted to the evaluation of actions, taking rational, ethical norms or principles as a reference point, or else, in another current of thought, centered on moral sentiments. In the final third of the twentieth century, virtue ethics, especially along Aristotelian lines, was reintroduced and found growing acceptance. Today, several ethical theories exist side by side, with a fragmented vision of morality, limiting themselves to virtues, duties, consequences, values, and moral sentiments. Here it is proposed Integral Person-based Ethics, as a conceptual approach oriented to the human growth of each person and to all persons, which includes goods (ethical values), norms for right conduct (including generic principles), and virtues (the inner strength to conduct oneself well). These three elements are mutually related. Basic human goods presented by practical reason (reinforced by the virtue of practical wisdom) entail a normative imperative to act in accordance with them. Virtues are acquired through the intentional performance of good actions, and once possessed, facilitate seeking out and doing the good. Because the centrality of virtues, this approach could be ternmed Personalist Virtue Ethics. It is argued that seeking the good requires recognizing each objective identity around one and treating them with goodwill in a manner consistent with the intrinsic value of each reality; that means rational benevolence, reinforced with practical wisdom. Ethical behavior based on wise benevolence includes recognition, goodwill toward all, and love of benevolence with personal beings with certain bond. An appropriate treatment with people requires considering human dignity and human flourishing, as well as social conditions favoring such flourishing (4.4.1). In dealing with non-human living beings, ethical behavior requires consideration to each identity, beyond mere utility. Openness to reality leads one to acknowledge transcendent and giving to God a proper treatment. Wise benevolence entails virtues which directly or indirectly help one to treat others rightly. Virtues can be grouped into three categories: (1) Practical wisdom and related virtues, as driver of other virtues, (2) relational virtues, directly oriented to deal with other identities, and (3) virtues of self-mastery, as fortitude (courage, patience, among others) and self-moderation, which favor one to act with benevolence. Integral Person-based Ethics includes principles related to goods and virtues, including the Personalist Principle, presented here, and the Principle of the Common Good, which will be presented in another chapter ( 6.2.3 ), and virtues. A basic benevolence-based virtue in dealing with people is justice, by giving to each one what is due. Other virtues, such as mercy, care, and friendly service, mainly refer to people closest to oneself, in an ordered fashion, with various degrees of intensity, according to the judgments of practical wisdom.