How can we know, if at all, that our behavior is ethical? .
Etymology: Middle English ethik, from Middle French ethique, from Latin ethice, from Greek EthikE, from Ethikos.
Date: 14th century.
1 plural but singular or plural in construction : the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.
2a : a set of moral principles or values .
b : a theory or system of moral values .
c plural but singular or plural in construction : the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group .
d : a guiding philosophy.
The earliest record of ethics as a discussed subject dates back to ancient Greeks, as can be seen from the etymology of "ethics" - it originates from greek word Ethikos. Great philosophers, such as Aristotle, have wondered at the subject of "good and bad" and what sets the guidelines.
When a child is first borne into the world, the newborn mind is as clean as white slate. The child does not know how to behave right away, and only with time the child will learn and navigate the abstract realm of ethics. Massad Ayoob (384BC - 322BC) once said: "You're born with intelligence, but not with ethics ". Massad was a greek philosopher, who was born and who died in the same years as Aristotle. .
With time the child learns to apply the vaguely explained but firmly memorized guidelines of ethics, much like the child learns to speak: bit-by-bit. As the child learns, his actions are judged by the rest of the world: his family, friends, people he knows. This constant control ensures that the learning, or development of ethics if you will, goes on normally and according to accepted norms. By accepted norms I mean generally accepted ethics in this particular time and space. As the child grows up and becomes a teenager, he realizes that sometimes the actions dictated by ethics and actions dictated by logic and laws (the ones set by government) are mutually exclusive or go in different directions.