Ethics

Etymology

Ethics derives from the Greek êthos, which means “custom, disposition, character.”¹

Ancient Greece

For the ancient Greeks, ethics was primarily a matter of managing one’s desires and appetites and keeping them under control, of training oneself to exhibit virtues such as the canonical justice, temperance, courage, and piety — and of acting virtuously because one had the proper motivations, desires, and dispositions.²

The ancient Greek system of [[virtue ethics]] believed that the soul could be managed through the proper arrangement of desires, proclivities, passions, and habits — chiefly through education. Due to the tight relationship between ethics and politics, ancient political thought focuses on defining these virtues and connecting them to political life, broadly speaking.

⚡️ Spark note: This note is preliminary and will likely be expanded later.