The Importance of Ethics in Our Everyday Lives

The unexamined life is not worth living – Socrates

Ethics is all about creating a set of rules to set up a consistent standard of what is right and what is wrong. It is all based upon rational thinking done in a systematic approach, one that a person can argue and defend, or change according to the facts and arguments at hand. Such a thing arises because everyday, we are subjected to different situations and/or ethical dilemmas which require us to mull over and not just dismiss as a simple black and white decision. It can be as simple as giving alms to the poor, or as complex as the choice of life (e.g. suicide and abortion). I personally would argue that we go through all of this because (1) as humans, we try to emulate the actions that we feel strongly about and fight for the convictions that we believe in, and (2) we want to be treated the same way we treat others: to be treated kindly and just. Because of situations and reasons like such, the call for ethics becomes strongly relevant.
Now, as I’ve mentioned, Ethics is based upon rational thinking, which is important because it grounds the arguments in facts and logic. Whereas if it were based on feelings, the whole system for determining right and wrong would be arbitrary and inconsistent as feelings change over time. However, to say that it is devoid of any feelings would be inaccurate. Using reason also calls a person to have empathy and sympathy when dealing with other people or beings. This helps take into account outside factors with which reason sometimes fail to recognize. One example is euthanasia. On one hand, we can say that it is rational to think all forms of murder or killing another person is unethical and would never be right under any circumstances. In this case, however, the dying person in question is suffering from his/her illness that is sure to kill him/her in time. Would it be right to just let him/her go through all that pain just to prolong his/her life knowing that he/she will die eventually, or would it be better to end the suffering now and resort to mercy killing? Such questions rally for the significance of moral thinking in our life. It could not be answered properly and humanely if moral thinking is not involved in our day to day decisions.
I’ve also mentioned (and even personally argued) that we go through all of this process because it is what makes us human. The Human self is essentially constructed around moral values. There are no value-neutral human beings who have no preferences about anything. To be human is to be value driven. Moral values help us construct the self. It might be akin to virtue ethics to say that our moral leaning/approach to moral dilemmas have an influence over our personality and who we are as a person, but such is the truth. We constantly experience moral demands in our lives that seek to be recognized which builds on the Self we experience and the ideal self. In addition to this argument, I think that there is a need to be moral because besides being moral agents, we are also social beings, one that is founded in a social setting (e.g. a community). Interaction with other people is inevitable, making said moral situations a common occurrence. As such, acting in a way that is acceptable is encouraged so as to stay longer in that community. We have to build in impulses inside of us about good and evil so as to consistently discern and establish what is wrong and what is right.