ISBN: 978-80-7422-893-3 | ISBN online: 978-80-7422-893-3 | DOI: 10.32725/zsf.2023.74228933

O morálce a o stavu morálky v Čechách

Jiří Šimek

While planning and writing the book, the author was aware of two problems of contemporary ethics. The world has changed in recent decades, and due to the development of technology the life of a modern person is safer and more comfortable than it has been for the entire history of humankind. Therefore, the traditional rules of human coexistence are not currently applicable in the way people developed them centuries ago. The second problem is the experience of a long-term absence of the topic of morality among the Czech public.
The opening chapters explain what morality is, how it works in human society, and why it is so important.
To make it clear that morality is not only a matter of philosophical and theological analysis, the primary elements of morality are described at the beginning of the book, which can be found in, e.g., macaques. The results of research into chimpanzee communities by American ethologists are described in detail. They show how evolution has prepared the “basic building blocks of morality” for humans. Furthermore, they explain how humans fundamentally differ from all lower creatures and why they need to work out the rules of their coexistence.
The following chapters explain the role of morality in the life of individuals and the functioning of human society. The chapter on the psychology of morality begins with empirical evidence of how the moral rule functions in individual human actions. The following chapters show the results of Erik Erikson’s research. They show how social morality is built into one’s primary feelings, ideas, and reactions. The book presents Erich Fromm’s concept of productive and unproductive personality to shed light on the psychological side of morality. The role of morality in society is described in historical contexts. The book explains the moral consensus and shows how moral agreement in society affects human behaviour more than laws.
The book also contains the philosophical foundations of morality. It explains the basic philosophical concepts of ethics and gives considerable attention to the work of Ernst Tugendhat, which is based on his broad and deep knowledge of moral philosophy, and his own philosophy is built on the universalistic concepts of Immanuel Kant. Special attention is paid to virtue ethics, which the author bases on Aristotele’s Nicomachean Ethics and its later interpreters.
The book mentions several elements of religious morality. It also deals with the relationship between morality and laws in a separate chapter, explaining how moral agreement in society works and how it fundamentally influences people's actions. Laws are necessary to define basic rules and their enforcement. However, interpersonal relationships are very complex. Therefore, less strict rules, based on local peculiarities and agreements, must function within the rules of the law.
The chapters ‘Moral Deliberation’ and ‘Moral Decision-Making’ cover how every decent person thinks about their morality in some way and subsequently makes a decision based on their reasoning. These chapters show what it is possible to base a personal opinion of morality on – and explain principlism as one of the possible methods. Moral principles are a good basis but they are not always in harmony. Therefore, it is impossible to follow them blindly, and it is necessary to learn to resolve conflicts between recognised principles. If moral harmony is an important part of morality, it is also necessary to think about how a person can contribute to good moral harmony – individually or in a community.
Morality is a necessary basis for the good functioning of professional activities. A scientist should be honest in their scientific endeavours, or we cannot trust the results of their work. The business field has shown that dishonesty and non-compliance with agreements hinder the economy and the development of individual enterprises, reducing the earnings of their owners. We can also make moral demands on employees; careless and low-quality work harms the employer and is, therefore, immoral. This is why so many organizations are developing their own codes of ethics, i.e., moral rules of conduct within their profession.
The last chapter deals with the most neglected topic in the Czech Republic: ethics in politics. Although we already have experience of how a lack of basic moral attitudes in politics, such as truthfulness, willingness to listen, and actions aimed at agreement and respect for those with different opinions, leads to the fragmentation of the political sphere, inconsistent legislation, and the disintegration of society into hostile groups. The chapter briefly describes the history of political ethics and asks what demands citizens should make on their politicians. The end of the last chapter offers a politician's code of ethics as a summary of the basic moral rules of political endeavour.
Keywords: Evolutionary foundations of morality; Morality; Philosophy of morality; Political morality; Professional ethics; Psychology of morality; Religious morality; The relationship between ethics and laws

1.. edition, Published: 2023/Q2, online: 2023/Q2, publisher: NLN, s. r. o., Praha