Kontakt 2010, 12(1):83-90 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2010.010

Chivalrous ethics (notes to the historical development of professional ethics)Health and Social Sciences

Jan Vitoň

Jihočeská univerzita v Českých Budějovicích, Zdravotně sociální fakulta, katedra filozofie a etiky v pomáhajících profesích

In the course of the historical development of the human society, its moral principles and conditions are necessarily varied in association with the social position and resulting participation of individuals and groups in the power. At the beginning, the intuitively perceived need of the mutual positive ethical interaction resulting from the self-preservation instinct was finding its reflection in annals, chronicles, medieval knightly epic and lyric poetry and romances in the developing European feudal society, which were supposed to form a more or less viable sample worthy of following; in later periods, the most different requirements, of course with pragmatic implication and ideological reasoning, were concentrated in the form of ethical principles in most different, particularly professional codes. Considerably structured social groups in Christian west Europe, better still estates or orders, included knights who enjoyed the right to legally carry and use arms as members of the war formation of the society in contrast to other social circles. Thus, ethical requirements were imposed onto this class, which was being intensively formed from the 3rd to the 15th - 16th centuries, which stepwise became a part of a myth in association with later economic, political or cultural changes in the European society and, due to this, departure of knights from the historical scene. However, this does not alter the fact that the personality and motivation of the behaviour of a medieval knight, as shown in literary and dramatic forms ("fearless and shameless") can be not only amusing but also enlightening at the present time.

Keywords: chivalrous ethics; miles; Christian knight; crusades; sarmatism; chivalrous epic and lyric poetry

Published: March 31, 2010  Show citation