Ethics- At the Edge of Morality

Judging between good and bad is nothing short of imperative. The thread that weaves a fabric of moral being and evident conscience is an ever binding tapestry of personal and collective proportion. A culmination of philosophical and theological inquiry, the brain-child of the sage and the immemorial principles at the nucleus of 'the greater good' forms the crux of this universal institution. One that through myriad conjectures and hypotheses, rapidly established a profound instalment to the intellectual repertoire and the age of reason. Enlightening and probing, provocative and stimulating; ethics is a modality of, by and for humanity; an analytical insight into the means and the ends, the codifying of acts into a methodic algorithm of reason and seeking the finer rudiments of their colour and nature. Traditionally, the cradle of ethics has remained confined to the philosophical territory of the dual schools of consequentialism and deontology in conjunction with the groundbreaking postulations submitted by logicians such as Kant and Confucius. Consequentialism remains synonymous with the justification of the means with the end, the premise that the outcome of the action or acts justifies their degree of morality and ethical virtue. On the other hand, deontology asserts that outcomes are unimportant and that the individual's intentions are paramount, justifying their degree of morality and ethical virtue. What we may deduce is a classic instance of rivalling schools and opposing, often controversial outcomes. Let's envision a thief in search of a key to a vault, in Kantian deontology, one would ethically be inclined to serve as a service to his fellow man and assist the thief in finding the key. But the thief stealing the loot of the vault as a result of your assistance has no ethical wrongdoing as the freewill of a fellow man is not your responsibility. However, consequentialism assaults this conception of ethics and asserts that your acts assisted the thief in the theft and holds the ends as a justification of the means. Ethics is both theoretical and pragmatic, the most abstract of philosophical abstractions and the practical approach to life forms the crux of this algorithm of reason, the discernment between that of the good and that of the bad. But beyond the dual schools of consequentialism and deontology, there is the intrinsic essence of ethics and morality that remains the defining definition of humanity. A common denominator, a common moral infrastructure that is the transcendence of all ethics and all morality. The humble yet binding conscience. For as long as men can breathe of eyes may see, conscience remains the immanent hub of all ethics, one that neither Kant nor the remainder of the enlightenment have conquered to the fullest of play and a tenet of being that teases the most scholarly of figures and prodigious of minds. Ethics may well and truly prove to be the next final frontier, a philosophical odyssey bound by a methodic algorithm of reason, inquiry and inquisition..