At the end of the lesson,the students are expected to;

1. describe the different imperative of ethics,

2. compare on the different imperative of ethics,
3. Analyze and internalyze the different imperatives of ethics.

THE IMPERATIVES OF ETHICS

Ethics presupposes some imperatives or SINE QUA NON, those without ethics would not be
possible.

These imperatives are;

1. The existence of God or a Supreme Being;

Without the existence of God or a Supreme Being; Ethics would make no sense. There
is no reason for man to deny himself evil but pleasurable acts if there were no final judge to
dispense justice. When one speaks of morality or the goodness or badness of human acts, one
idea is presupposed: retribution. Retribution means that good acts deserve reward; bad acts
deserve punishment. Reward and punishment are presupposed by morality.
Who metes our reward or punishment? It must be a Law-giver or an Arbiter of Morality,
one who dispenses retributive justice. Without this being, the whole structure of ethics will
collapse.
The Indians do not accept the existence of a personal God but they nevertheless accept
the existence of a supreme being called Brahman which is the totality of reality. Owing to their
ancient culture, the Indians, many centuries prior to the birth of Christ, had already conceived of
a supreme being that encompasses all, or includes everything, past, present, and future in itself.
The Indian concept is pantheistic according to which everything is Brahman, and Brahman is
everything.
The Indians conceive of Morality and of the idea ensuing therefrom, namely, retribution
through their belief in the existence of a general law, that oversees all things in the universe and
sees to it that everything is brought ineluctably to its end. A special law under which governs
man exclusively is called Karma.
According to the law of Karma, everything that man does has a built-in reward or
punishment. This means that if man performs good acts, reward will follow sooner or later. If
men perform evil deeds, punishment will surely follow. In case retribution is not done in this life,
the Indians believe that in the next life, one is reborn to enjoy reward or to suffer punishment as
the case may be.
Chinese also do not believe in a personal deity. They believe in some kind of law or
order, or nature which they call “tao”, literally means “way”. Chinese admits that every act
implies its own retribution. That consequent upon good actions is health and the good life, and
upon bad actions, sickness and bad luck.
Christians believe that there is only one life, they believe in the Natural Moral Law which,
if followed, would ensure happiness in this life and salvation or eternal happiness in the next.

2. The existence of human freedom

 No ethics is likewise possible without human freedom. Responsibility which is an
indispensable factor in Ethics, would be meaningless if men were not free. If men were like
robots who followed the commands of their master, they would not be responsible for their
actions. If men were programmed to follow the good all the time and be repelled always by the
evil, they would not deserve reward and punishment. Retribution is deserved only if men had
the choice to do or not to do, to follow or not to follow. Children who have no notion of what they
are doing, have no responsibility over their actions. This is the same with persons who suffer
from mental diseases, they are likewise not responsible for their acts. Ethics is the science of
the morality of human acts which presupposes responsibility, which in turn is base on freedom
to do or not to do.

3. The existence of an afterlife, i.e. life beyond the grave, or the immortality of the
soul

That the soul is immortal, or that the soul will outlive the body, is a postulate in ethics. If
there were no life beyond the grave, i.e. if man’s life were to end absolutely in death, there
would be no point in discussing justice. A man could murder and steal and perform all evil
deeds in this life, knowing hat upon death, all these evils would be erased.
In the Christian religion, man is believed to have but one life. After he dies, he either
goes to heaven or hell or purgatory. If he lived a really bad life, he is plunged into hell and if he
still has unrepented evil deeds but is not dastardly enough to deserve hell, he goes to purgatory
where he is purged of all dross, after which he goes to heaven. The good person goes to
heaven without passing through purgatory.
The Indians do not accept the existence of a hell or of eternal damnation. They believe
that life on earth is hell, and the punishment for evil deeds is rebirth, which means that one
comes back to earth again and again. Once proper compensation is made for evil deeds, one
gets to Nirvana, the counter-part of the Christian Heaven, and one is never to be reborn. The
purpose therefore is reincarnation or the proper compensation of good or evil deeds.
The Chinese are a this-world people and their philosophy is focused on life on earth
rather than on the afterlife. They believe that every act carries its own punishment or
compensation depending on whether one conforms to the law of heaven which is nature to
them.