Introduction
Human beings are constantly judging their own actions and those of others. Good and evil, moral and amoral, and conscienceless are the respective judgments whereby we implicitly assume that “one” knows the basic difference between good and evil. Moral conduct is thus always attributed to the individual, who is regarded as being responsible for their actions and held accountable for such, i.e., the individual must answer to themselves, their own conscience, or an external authority or institution. Moral behavior therefore presupposes the concept of voluntariness and freedom. Conscience, freedom, and responsibility are central concepts of moral behavior and ethics as the philosophical doctrine of morally relevant behavior (Moral Philosophy).
Ethics as a philosophical discipline dates back to Aristotle, who also pursued the earlier approaches of Plato and Socrates. The term ethics is derived from the Ancient Greek “ethikos,” meaning custom, habit, or tradition. Although the...
Bibliography
Anzenbacher, A. (1992a). Einführung in die Ethik. Düsseldorf: Patmos.
Anzenbacher, A. (1992b). Einführung in die Philosophie. Wien: Herder und Co.
Apel, K.-O. (1988). Diskurs und Verantwortung: Das Problem des Übergangs zur postkonventionellen Moral. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Aristoteles. (1991). Die Nikomachische Ethik. München: DTV.
Cooper, J. M., & Hutchinson, D. S. (Eds.). (1997). Plato: Complete works. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Drewermann, E. (1982). Psychoanalyse und Moraltheologie. Band 1: Angst und Schuld. Mainz: Mathias-Grünwald-Verlag.
Freud, S. (1999). Das Unbehagen in der Kultur. Werke aus den Jahren 1925–1931. Gesammelte Werke Band XIV. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer.
Garz, D. (2006). Sozialpsychologische Entwicklungstheorien. Von Mead, Piaget und Kohlberg bis zur Gegenwart. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Psychological theory and women’s development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Habermas, J. (1968). Erkenntnis und Interesse. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Habermas, J. (1983). Moralbewusstsein und kommunikatives Handeln. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Höffe, O. (1999). Lesebuch zur Ethik. Philosophische Texte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. München: Beck.
Höffe, O. (2002). Lexikon der Ethik. München: Beck.
Jung, C. G. (1995). Zivilisation im Übergang. Gesammelte Werke Band 10. Solothurn/Düsseldorf: Walter.
Kant, I. (1995a). Werke 2: Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Werke in sechs Bänden. Köln: Könemann.
Kant, I. (1995b). Werke 3: Kritik der praktischen Vernunft und andere kritische Schriften. Werke in sechs Bänden. Köln: Könemann.
Kohlberg, L. (1981). The philosophy of moral development. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
Lang, P. C. (1992). Lebendige Philosophie: Debatten und Kontroversen der siebziger und achtziger Jahre. In C. Helferich (Ed.), Geschichte der Philosophie. Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Stuttgart: Metzler.
Marquard, O. (1981). Abschied vom Prinzipiellen. Stuttgart: Philosophische Studien.
Marquard, O. (2007). Skepsis in der Moderne. Philosphische Studien. Stuttgart: Reclam.
Piaget, J. (1997). The moral judgement of the child. New York: Free Press.
Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (2000). The psychology of the child. New York: Basic Books.
Pieper, A. (2007). Einführung in die Ethik. Basel/Tübingen: Francke.
Scheler, M. (2000). Grammatik der Gefühle. Das Emotionale als Grundlage der Ethik. München: DTV.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Nagel, C. (2019). Ethics and Ethical Behavior. In: Leeming, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_216-4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27771-9_216-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27771-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27771-9
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences