1.5 ETHICS AND ETHOS
Ethics is a vast field of study that really addresses only one question: How should we live our lives? The question of human well-being ultimately focuses on how we should live. But while this may seem a simple question, it is perhaps the most fundamental question any human can ask. We can begin to answer it by reflecting on the nature of philosophical ethics. Within the Western tradition philosophical ethics is often traced to the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates. There is perhaps no better characterization of ethics than Socrates' statement that it "deals with no small thing, but with how we ought to live." Like all cultures, the Greeks had a set of beliefs, attitudes, and values that guided their lives. The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning "customary" or "con¬ventional." Most Greeks would have answered Socrates by claiming that we ought to live an ethical life. Like most people in other cultures, an ethical life for the Greeks would have been a life lived according to the beliefs, attitudes, and values that were customary in their own culture. Often, these customary values are connected to a culture s religious worldview. To be ethical, in the sense of ethos, is to conform to what is typically done, to obey the conventions and rules of one's society and religion. In this sense, ethics would be identical to ethos.