Ethics are norms that systematize the functions and standards for self-control.
These norms are relative systems, not absolute or universal systems.
They change depending on conditions such as peacetime and wartime, emergencies, individual and group actions, as well as the era, political system, religion, environment, and objectives.
Ethics also vary by profession. Doctors have their own ethics.
Educators have their own ethics. Grocers have their own ethics.
Monks have their own ethics. Soldiers have their own ethics.
You can’t tell a soldier not to kill. However, soldiers are also human beings and are expected to adhere to human ethics outside the battlefield.
Ethics are norms that systematize the functions and standards for self-control.
They are not codified.
Ethics are not given in a complete form from the beginning. They are formed by imprinting from caregivers and physical and physiological desires, and are refined through experience.
Humans assume that only humans can have ethics.
Wild animals are considered to be beasts without reason.
People say “pearls before swine” and “gold coins to cats,” but pigs do not deceive their companions for pearls.
Cats do not kill their companions for gold coins.
So, who truly understands the value of pearls and gold coins, humans or pigs and cats?
Even viruses, birds, plants, and forests cannot exist without self-sufficiency.
In other words, those who cannot control themselves cannot exist.
That is the rule. It is not only humans who practice self-control.
Even monkeys and birds that form groups control their groups.
If ethics are considered to be something only humans can have, then animals cannot control themselves. Humans arbitrarily say that animals are beasts without ethics.
However, wild animals strictly control their actions more than humans do.
Otherwise, they cannot survive in nature.
Therefore, animals have their own ethics.
Wolves have wolf ethics.
Monkeys have monkey ethics.
Even in terms of food, animals have predetermined diets.
It is humans who are omnivorous and gluttonous.
In terms of sexual desire, humans are the only ones who are in heat all year round. Considering this, it cannot be said that only humans have ethics. In fact, wild animals have much stricter rules.
Moreover, ethics are not absolute or universal.
So, what maintains the consistency of ethics?
Ethics are governed by one’s own will.
It is the subjectivity of the self.
It is the function of subjectivity. It is living.
Maintaining oneself physically and mentally.
That is subjectivity. If subjectivity cannot be maintained, personality collapses, or splits, and mental abnormalities occur.
The unity of ethics is maintained by oneself.
The function of the subject.
Even if one adapts to the environment or others, if the self is not established, the subjectivity of the self is impaired.
Descartes should have delved deeper.
The need for ethics is to maintain oneself.
The purpose of ethics is nothing other than to maintain oneself physically and mentally.
The key is how to maintain identity.
Where to maintain the unity of being human, it lies in the dignity of the self. The guarantee of the dignity of the self depends on an absolute existence that transcends the self. The existence that transcends the self and guarantees the dignity of the self is called God.
You can’t tell soldiers or samurai not to kill on the battlefield.
On the other hand, after the war, they are expected to be human.
On the battlefield, they are heroes.
In peacetime, they are murderers.
This becomes a matter of sin and punishment.
Should the ethics of a soldier be prioritized, or should the ethics of a human be prioritized?
It is a troubling issue.
There is a temptation to discard ethics.
That is why devils are born .
That is why God is salvation.