The Role of Action in the Development of Ethical Certainties :: Psychology Psychological Essays

The Role of Action in the Development of Ethical Certainties In any conscient human action it is always given a motive which leads us to act with one orientation instead of another. This is what, in a certain sense, allows us to say that we choose what we want or what fulfils our expectations in terms of the limits of the given circumstances. There is always the search for a benefit related to what we consider preferable, and this is so called delimited by what it signifies for us. In the end, it has an origin that supports our elections, and give the basis to have reasons for justifying these elections. This line of reflection has to be of use not only to understand the meaning of our actions in order to satisfy our current necessities, but it can also help to clarify the scope and content of the ethical discourse. That is, we orient our behavior on the basis of certain convictions we take for granted, which, in principle, we cannot ignore if maybe we want to make decisions showing our ethical preferences. An exhaustive analysis of our behavior will have as a result a final point beyond which we cannot go. In a certain sense, we can give reasons for any of our acts, that is, we can justify why we act that way instead of another; we can explain the motives which, from the ethical point of view, lead us to orient our decisions in one sense or another. Nevertheless, if the analysis is rigorous enough, we will reach some propositions the justification of which will not be possible; rather, they are the foundations for any justification. To justify a decision means that one has reasons to specify why he/she did so. Why he/she preferred doing this instead of any other possibility. The end we reach in the analysis of our behavior is a sort of rocky floor beyond which it is senseless going on. This rocky floor is the basic certainties on which our conduct is structured and grounded. Then, we could ask ourselves about why we call them certainties. It is obvious that to act we need to assume — or take for granted — something to depart from. Their central character resides precisely in that we cannot negate such certainties we assume, given the peculiar relation of them with the rest of our behavior.