In this essay, we refer with a somewhat superficial approach to an individual ethicbasic or elementary, that is, relative to the ego (the self) in its relationship with "the others" in its specific environment. Consequently, a very great distance is maintained, in complexity of content and scope, with a general or social ethic. On the other hand, we have deemed it methodologically viable, since it is about the ego and its relationship with others, taking as a starting point and guiding thread of the development of the subject, the consideration of self-perception and our perception of others and of the world: how We perceive ourselves, how we feel about ourselves, and how we feel in relation to our personal environment, where the aspect of expectations in both senses stands out. However, it should be noted that this essay is not intended to be an ethical treatise;it is only a set of "considerations" that approximate an understanding of ethics at the individual level.
Self perception and personal history
In each one of us humans, according to our opinion, life as personal history, is perceived as a flow of experiences or experiences that, together with the sensations associated with facts or events, is intertwined in a sequence that appears to us as a "line of continuity" engraved in our minds through the years. With this story, we identify ourselves, we feel that it belongs to us, even when it is related or linked to other parallel stories or that have points of connection with ours. Every day, we recognize ourselves, sometimes consciously and almost always unconsciously, as someone who is “more than familiar” to us, who “lives” in our own body, whom we also perceive as something that belongs to us and forms a together with our personal history, and that both are thrown forward in time and must “manage” not only to survive,but to achieve the meaning of life: what justifies the effort and the opportunity to live.
We are a cumulative process, self-contained and at the same time open to the world and to others: that it has been evolving from previous phases, from childhood, and that it has a north, an orientation towards the indefinite, a diffuse north that we call “future”, something about which a set of expectations are born and develop in us; That future is becoming, every day, in small doses, into a living present, current, sometimes pleasant and encouraging, other times repetitive, routine, frustrating or disappointing. We also feel that there is something ahead of that future, which from a faith perspective, would be eternity, something completely diffuse. We discover in ourselves someone who, from that internal force that launches us forward, challenges us, claims, demands and propels us to action and reverie. In the latter, the imagination, as a lifeline, takes a place in our being like a long-range radar that tries to explore possibilities in today for the future.
The self, the relationship with others and the role of faith
We live in a continuous connection with others and with their personal stories, sometimes parallel, other times intermingled or superficially intertwined with ours. We also live between concepts or ideas about things, between individual and social behavior guides, as well as realities or facts that invite us or launch us to act in a certain or "obligatory" direction. Sometimes we feel pulled, other times pushed or compelled to respond, react or act freely, before the influence exerted on us by those around us or ordinary, exceptional or unexpected events. Life, then, sometimes becomes forced reactions or responses and, other times, it presents us with an opportunity to display our aspiration to be, to feel or to live "in our own way", doing or expressing what we want to do or express.
What we want to become, what we aspire to achieve or what we want to find, is for us our “preferred road map”, from which people around us or the force of events, duty, homework. Faith, understood as the driving force of our convictions, as our “self-directed intuition”, exerts a decisive, healthy influence on us, as the special resource that connects us with good possibilities. Faith inspires us, guides us in the midst of life's events, helps us to choose between alternative paths, to select between options, to make decisions, to “dare” and face the challenges that the world or life impose on us. Without faith,we would live life pushed by the inertia of "the need to do or get" or dragged by the force of events.
The self before life: the right to be and live
That self that inhabits our body, that connects with life, with the world and the other beings that have expectations about us, is a being driven by hope., pulled by necessity or events, or influenced by both. Sometimes, we have to put aside that hope or inspiring goal, to submit to the routine of obligation or the demands of subsisting. We are beings of interactions and exchanges, whether they are guided according to our “preferred route map”, or other times according to the plan of others. But, that being with a dignity and nobility of origin, due to its spiritual transcendence, wishes and claims to enjoy its rights, at the same time to fulfill its duties, because that being (our own self) deserves our own special attention, to facilitate reaching to be and to live, what you want to be and live.
God has created us out of love, and he has created the world for us, to live in harmonious community with others. And although life unfolds in a dialectical dynamic of enjoyment and pain, of obligations and rights, each of us has the faculty and privilege, which is conquered with effort and dedication, to choose between options with healthy autonomy, to procure the space and favorable conditions for a happy accomplishment.
Sometimes we feel that life is out of our hands, that we live more for the fulfillment of duty than for the achievement of possible happiness. In this sense, assertiveness is conceived as the right to claim and fight for a life of well-being and enjoyment, within the framework of respect for the rights of others, practicing generosity without neglecting one's own self, who deserves like others to live a dignified life and achieve, to the extent feasible, possible happiness. It is not by chance that the commandment of love declares: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The “myself” thus acquires, in the sacred realm, a respectable quality of reference for love, as a measure of what we give to others and what we give ourselves.
Still, from a perspective of faith, the continuity of life in eternity and the hope of finding a happy fulfillment in it, according to the merits achieved in earthly life, does not mean that it is only sensible to emphasize the fulfillment of duties, disdaining the search for happy moments associated with the enjoyment of "what is clearly human", because the same presence in the world of so many conditions generating enjoyment achievable by the basic senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell) indicate that God Himself He has wanted, in his design of the world and life, that such conditions be usable and enjoyed by humans, within a scheme of fair balance with the right of others to also enjoy such conditions.
The self, its personal history and ethics: various paths and vocations
Observation of reality and consideration of history seems to indicate that, in human beings, individual personal inclinations, be they preferences, talents, vocation or tendencies, lead us to each one through different paths of personal fulfillment: some more towards the purely human and others towards spiritual transcendence.
Apparently, the individual personal stories would be guided, in addition to the type of personality (the genetic, the hormonal or electrochemical), by the spiritual characterization of each one, being then some more oriented to the sublime and transcendent, and others more to the earthly and concrete. Some honorable beings, dedicated to ascetic life or spiritual elevation, who focus and develop their lives around the transcendent and eternal, disdaining "the purely human" or earthly as meaningless, without a doubt, deserve our special respect and admiration, in recognition of their belonging to that select group of people who have established a very noble and commendable commitment to surrender to God, "beyond all limits." However, his example, although inspiring of great ideas, as well as his spiritual significance,it cannot be claimed to be a viable proposition for other people, who possess a less elevated spiritual characterization and a more earthly life project.
Just as the spiritual and transcendent is human, in its highest dimension, the earthly or secular is also human, and it can also be commendable whenever it responds to a just and socially acceptable pattern of behavior. Consequently, the type of life chosen by those who are more linked to the earthly should not be discredited, the majority, because not all of us are called to integrate the tribe of Levi, the priestly caste of Israel. It is not, within a simplistic approach or assessment, that some choose for themselves the sublime and transcendent, and others choose the vulgar, mediocre or ordinary, but that the Creator himself has put in us a great diversity of personal gifts and inclinations, because so much is required of those who dedicate themselves to the noble service of the altar,as of the rough man who wields the plow to open the furrows necessary for sowing.
All ethos (code of ethics) must be consistent and viable. This means that, in addition to inspiring the achievement of an efficient, fair and harmonious society, it must be applicable on a day-to-day basis. For this, it must also be “healthy”, which implies facilitating the enjoyment, by each and every one, according to their own personal characterization and individual interest, of the conditions that generate well-being and happiness. Personal life, in the purely terrestrial, unfolds between two extremes: selfishness (love of self) and generosity (love of others); But, there is no intermediate point or "fair balance" that is applicable to everyone equally; the appropriate point would be found by each one, according to his own conscience and in line with his "specific situational picture" (where he is in time-space, with whom and his relationship with them),and with its own “road map” (chosen type of life; duties and rights of state).
Relativism: a serious current problem
Although relativism is a subject that exerts a more decisive or direct influence on a supposedly general or social ethic, we deal with it in these "considerations" on elementary personal ethics, as to what may illuminate our conscience on the legitimacy of the various life choices and our individual decisions. It should be noted that relativism has nothing to do with relativity present in the physical world and the consequent theory developed by Einstein.
Relativism is not a philosophical theory, it is an attitude towards life and the world based on the thesis of the relative or conditioned character of morality or knowledge, derived, in part, from the Kantian barrier (still under discussion by recognized philosophers) to the possibility of obtaining knowledge about what cannot be observed: if it is not possible to arrive at a reliable knowledge of the truth (for example, about ethics), then anything can be valid. "Everything is relative" is a trivial phrase, which is used very lightly, and with it it is intended to justify anything. Relativism has been exerting a pernicious influence on the legal (justification or justification of laws) and the sociocultural (justification of social behavior or facts,such as abortion and many other things previously socially unacceptable). Above relativism, as a thesis put forward to justify one or the other thing, there is and must prevail a set of noble concepts, which in this sense have historically acquired the character of institutionality in the legal sphere, derived from our life experience, especially in the community, and the conscious observation of the cosmos. Such concepts, derived from human-empirical notions, are: order, harmony, balance, justice, diversity-differentiation, complementarity, among others.derived from our experiential experience of life, especially in the community, and the conscious observation of the cosmos. Such concepts, derived from human-empirical notions, are: order, harmony, balance, justice, diversity-differentiation, complementarity, among others.derived from our experiential experience of life, especially in the community, and the conscious observation of the cosmos. Such concepts, derived from human-empirical notions, are: order, harmony, balance, justice, diversity-differentiation, complementarity, among others.
An underlying supra order or superior structure?
When we consider the concepts of order, balance, love and justice, when faced with their opposites (disorder, imbalance, hatred and injustice), a clear differentiating element appears between the two groups: the value or valuation that humans assign to them. Value arises as a result of experiencing in our lives the meaning of each pair of concepts, as well as (at a theoretical level) by defining each concept "contrary". For example, when defining “disorder”, reference to order is inevitably made (disorder: lack of order), and when compared, their meaning impacts us in a positive or negative sense. How it impacts us translates into value, not only of the concept, but of its concretion in our lives. This suggests, the notion of "supra order or underlying superior structure" of the universe, "oriented in a positive sense".This notion is reinforced by ourhuman evaluative capacity, which is why it is not difficult to achieve consensus or the support of people, whether from one culture or another, in terms of favoring conditions associated with the concepts of order, balance, justice and love.
