Aristotle's philosophy of voluntary action and moral responsibility

voluntary action-ARISTOTLE

The action made by an individual has some definite impact on the society, the generated impact can be observed instantly, or it may become evident with the passage of time. Before getting into the understanding of what impact can an action generate on the society, the question persists what causes an individual to commit that action. Looking into our society, can we our justify for the ongoing scientific evolution taking place, is it our requirement, or is it a kind of service being offered by selected group of people. Sometimes actions are made without any intentions or plans, in these cases the consequences are unexpected. However the planned actions definitely have some motives and the consequences can be productive, non-productive and destructive depending upon the circumstances.

For centuries, philosophers and scientists have been contributing towards offering physical and mental benefits to the society, though in some cases the return was expected, however most of those actions were on voluntarily grounds that can be termed as revolutionary. Such actions are mainly targeted, and are sequential. It was the invention of earlier communication devices that led to the advent of Internet, similarly it was the presence of economic activities that evolved new economic laws and policies, and it was the social disorder ness and social non-homogeneity which brought up philosophers for revolutionary thoughts. The philosophers have then been signifying the importance of social and moral responsibilities for the social welfare, the society gets adapted to such responsibilities with reluctance but it's the impact then observed which turn the society committed towards those values in haste.

For every action there has to be some purpose, whether it's individual or social welfare. But however there are some cases when actions are purposeless, these actions are mainly committed unintentionally and are situation dependent. These actions are hardly appreciated because the general observation suggests that these actions are subjected to high criticism and high level of scrutiny. Because the actions are made without any clear motives, therefore the consequences aren't productive, forever exceptions are always there.

Every activity has an objective associated with itself, in case of committing yourself for any action, the objective has to be decided, and such an objective should withstand the moral responsibility and should comply by the social ethics. Moral responsibility is the broad term that incorporates the element of happiness, care, concern and perseverance of emotional feelings. The important of all is providing sense of happiness, and in race of achieving and providing it, sense of responsibility has to be shielded by moral values.

PHILOSPHY OF ARISTOTLE

Aristotle emphasizes over the importance of ethical behavior, which is viewed as fundamental towards the social progress of the society, he also discusses the ability of an individual to recognize the possible and most appropriate course of action towards the enhancement of society, keeping in mind the adherence to moral responsibility. Aristotle claims that every independent action must to be a source of happiness for society, rather than for self. Committing action for the sake of self-happiness reflects the introvert characteristic of an individual, and Aristotle highlights the need for compromising over the self for achieving happiness for others. Aristotle's ethics is often called 'teleological or goal-directed'(Wikipedia). The goal of the Ethics is to determine how best to achieve happiness, and the conduct itself the major criterion towards achieving it.

Sense of happiness is itself variable, it depends much on the living in accordance with proper virtues, and it is these virtues which shape the actions of an individual. Virtue itself isn't an action, and it encourages an individual to behave in the right ways and for right reasons, and feel pleasure in doing so. The actions therefore committed are predominantly the function of virtuous characteristic of an individual. The classified actions; i.e. voluntary actions and involuntary actions are expected outcome of virtuous behavior, another category of actions i.e. Non-voluntary is independent of virtues.

Virtuous character is although self-motivated, but society also influences its grooming affluently. Virtuous character is partially self-motivated, and involves attributes of honesty, sincerity, commitment, and devotion.

DISCUSSION

After the incident of 11th Sept i.e. Terrorist attack on World Trade Center, the American people volunteered and donated all their livings and utilities for the victims and wounded. Such an act was purely voluntary, the government did not formally request the aid, and Americans themselves took the bold initiative and volunteered. The people aided and supported, and worked together for the removal of debris, care of patients, gathering information about dislocated individuals. The services of Americans was itself an obligation, what they did was their social responsibility, and it was the virtuous character that made them realize their moral responsibility and these volunteer acted swiftly to fulfill responsibility and achieve national harmony.

Another example of such voluntary action is the approach with which the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) works, they work voluntary without any greed, and such organizations realize their moral responsibility towards the society and public. Such NGOs are supported by innumerable donors throughout the world, and it's the realization of the mental and social responsibilities on their part which brings immense monetary funds to the NGOs, that are later imparted among the needy.

There have been instances where individual volunteered, but it was lack of complete information that made their voluntary move subjected to strong criticism and scrutiny. It was reported in the newspaper (Ohio News), that an individual in State of Ohio was an individual was reported to have provided accommodation to one of the suspected terrorist, the individual insisted that he provided accommodation to that suspect on the grounds that he required space for living, the individual admitted that he was partly unfamiliar with the suspect, and without any interrogation he decided to offer that suspect a supporting hand. The individual, who considered his action to be voluntary, because of slight negligence of social responsibility, and ignorance, now under goes trail in the state court. The individual is being accused for that entire he was much unaware about, and rather it would be right to say that he is being charged for his ignorance. His self-thought voluntary move is now considered terrorist support.

There was a local reported incident in the past where individual was forced to commit a crime only because he was being pressurized or forced to do so. It was reported within my neighborhood that the reputed banker was forced by his boss to indulge in the malpractice, and commit an intentional folly of manipulation of accounts. The banker was being blackmail by his boss; the boss was creating hindrance for his subordinate, and kept continuously delaying the release of employee-loan. The employee had no option left but to follow his boss instruction. All went ahead smoothly, until the fraud was detected by the auditors during their annual inspection.

REFERENCE

Hye-Kyung Kim, Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle with an Introduction. Translated by F.H. Peters in Oxford, 1893. (Barnes & Noble, 2004)

Terence Irwin, Nicomachean Ethics. 2nd Ed. (Hackett Publishing Co.)

Wikipedia, Nicomachean Ethics referred at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicomachean_Ethics