Dear Pedro, I find your statement, that Robinson Crusoe did not need any ethics in his solitary island, very intellectually stimulating.
I actually take the opposite view of ethics. I believe that the ethical individual is one who has INTEGRITY. Integrity means completeness. An individual's completeness is tested most by their capacity to be alone. If an individual can be alone, indeed prefers to be alone, then they are complete. This will mean that they have no need to use another person, steal from them, exploit them, and generally have an existence that is parasitic on another person. A complete individual, one with integrity, can enter society without the need to use others, exploit them, etc. I argue therefore that, paradoxically, ethics towards others actually begins with the capacity for aloneness. The unethical individual is empty - and strives always to maintain that emptiness, by avoiding internal growth, inward examination and self-understanding. This constant flight from self sends them continually in search for others upon whom they are entirely dependent. They have no identity other than what they can steal from others. It is the relation that an individual has to themselves, when alone, that determines their relation to others. By the way, Pedro, thank you so much for creating such an interesting debate on ethics. best Michael _______________________________________________ fis mailing list [email protected] http://webmail.unizar.es/mailman/listinfo/fis
