Ethical categories. Social Ethics as an Institutional Ethics /part 2/
What is structural evil?
There is an evil of a structural nature arising from social structures. To eradicate such an evil, personal help is not enough, but social structures need to be changed. For example, in the situation - a supervisor and a prisoner - the cruelty of the warden - it is a structural evil that results from the situation. Cases of police violence on detainees in detention facilities are a structural malfunction resulting from (albeit not only) the structure of the situation - the dependence of the arrested by the police officer. K. Marx is the first researcher of structural evil, and it is his great merit. To this evil he treats ideology and religion as tortuous forms of consciousness. According to Marx, personal evil is a product of structural (social) evil. Moreover, individual members of the public are not personally responsible for the evil resulting from the social and social structures in which they participate.
One is a prisoner of social processes and social structures. If they are not humane, then the being of all engaged in such a society is subjectively inhumane, even if subjectively, in the personal ethical sphere, it seeks to be humane and moral. The subjects themselves can not respond to the evil created in public structures. In this way, Marx denies the personal evil and reduces all the evil in the world to the "structural" evil. There is a great deal of truth in Marx's concept. One is inseparable from the institutes and structures of society and the evil created in the world must also be sought in the functions of the public structures. The Marxist concept of the nature of social evil is largely correct, but it shows an unreliable way to fight evil. The task of social ethics is to design a structure of social institutes to promote solidarity between people and to influence all elements of their existence.
Major issues of social ethics are:
- What should social institutions be?
- What are their goals?
What are the main theoretical sources of social ethics? The theory of Plato's state, the policy of Aristotle and Machiavelli are the basis of political ethics. I. Kant's ethic theory, A. Smith's public wealth theory, John Rolls Social Theory of Social Justice serve as the foundation of true social ethics. How do individual and social morality relate to? Social morality - this is morality. Self-morality has an individual character and arises with the emergence of personality. The social dimension of morality - this is morality. To be moral means to fulfill customs, traditions, prohibitions, being "like everyone".
How do individual and social ethics relate? Traditional ethics, apart from Plato's and Aristotle's ethics, have an individual character. Social ethics speaks of values as a systemic product of social interaction. It is usually considered that morality is embodied in social institutes, they ignore the role of individual morality. Marx, in particular, is making this mistake. Such views are wrong, which is evident in political ethics, where it is difficult to deny the individual moral of politicians. Along with this, good policy is based not only on the virtues of politicians but also on the moral qualities of citizens. The same goes for business, where individual and social morals complement each other. Social ethics is an important mechanism of social integration of modern society.
Only the wealthy can afford to be immoral.