POLS 4212 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Political Ethics
3 Apr 2019
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The word political comes form the word politica (things to do with the polis) Politics is the art of governance, where decisions are made for a group of people. These public decisions are enforced through power or coercion. Ethics comes from the greeks, ethos means a custom or a habit. Broadly speaking, ethics is a set of moral principles, helps shapes decisions, tells us what we ought to do. Political ethics is a set of moral principles that help shape the decisions required for the art of governance. On the surface, this appears straightforward but historically its anything but unproblematic. Politics must be constrained by some type of ethics. A state that follows the moral principle thou shall not kill could find itself at a disadvantage if it goes to war. Sometimes you have to go to war. It might not be possible to apply to the ethics of ordinary life.
