more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Whereas the moral will understands the good to be something which it can recognise or determine by itself, the ethical will acknowledges the good to be something actual which it encounters in the world about it.
Gist of Idea
The moral will is self-determining, but the ethical will is met in society
Source
Stephen Houlgate (An Introduction to Hegel [1991], 08 'Freedom')
Book Ref
Houlgate,Stephen: 'An Introduction to Hegel' [Blackwell 2005], p.195
A Reaction
I think these two terms have become blurred - or at least I have thoroughly lost track of them. I'm not sure whether it is good to have distinct terms for (Kantian) personal choice and for social expectations. Ethics is what Nietzsche attacks.
Related Idea
Idea 21790 Moral individuals become ethical when they see the social aspect of a matter [Hegel, by Houlgate]
| 2141 | I suggest that we forget about trying to define goodness itself for the time being [Plato] |
| 19582 | Morality and philosophy are mutually dependent [Novalis] |
| 14784 | Ethics is the science of aims [Peirce] |
| 7136 | Morality is a system of values which accompanies a being's life [Nietzsche] |
| 8039 | Moore tries to show that 'good' is indefinable, but doesn't understand what a definition is [MacIntyre on Moore,GE] |
| 2943 | Ethics cannot be put into words [Wittgenstein] |
| 6968 | Some people think there are ethical facts, but of a 'queer' sort [Ayer] |
| 6972 | A right attitude is just an attitude one is prepared to stand by [Ayer] |
| 22445 | Morality shows murder is wrong, but not what counts as a murder [Foot] |
| 7419 | Ethics is the conscious practice of freedom [Foucault] |
| 5319 | Avoid punishment, then get rewards, avoid rejection, avoid guilt, accept contracts, follow conscience [Kohlberg, by Wilson,EO] |
| 4003 | Selfhood and moral values are inextricably intertwined [Taylor,C] |
| 20289 | Ethics is universalisable - it must involve an impartial and universal view of things [Singer] |
| 18665 | Moral problems are responsibility conflicts, needing contextual and narrative attention to relationships [Gilligan] |
| 21788 | The moral will is self-determining, but the ethical will is met in society [Houlgate] |