Ethical Behavior, Habits, and Customs in Othello
This paper examines the relationship between ethics, habits, and customs, drawing on Elizabeth Anderson's reading of Dewey's moral philosophy to define ethical conduct as reflective, deliberate action. It then uses Shakespeare's Othello as a literary case study to show how socially ingrained customs — particularly racial prejudice and gendered distrust — can override ethical judgment. Through analysis of Othello's tragic downfall, the paper argues that his moral failure stems not from pure villainy but from deeply held cultural biases and misplaced trust, illustrating a broader point: that prevailing customs and habits frequently take precedence over genuinely ethical behavior.
- Introduction: Understanding Ethics, Habits, and Customs: Defines ethics, habits, and their social transmission
- When Should Ethical Behavior Defer to Habits or Customs?: Poses central question guiding the analysis
- Racial Prejudice and Social Customs in Othello: Examines racism and stereotyping in Venetian society
- Moral Mistakes, Misplaced Trust, and Tragic Consequences: Analyzes Othello's gendered distrust and fatal error
- Conclusion: When Custom Overrides Ethics: Argues custom prevails over ethical conduct
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds an abstract philosophical concept — the relationship between ethics and habit — in a concrete, well-known literary text, making the argument accessible and illustrative.
- It draws on a credible philosophical source (Anderson's reading of Dewey) to define terms precisely before applying them, giving the analysis a firm theoretical foundation.
- It treats the literary analysis as evidence rather than decoration, consistently looping back to the central argument that customs override ethical conduct.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a literary case study as applied ethical analysis — a technique common in philosophy and humanities courses. By mapping Dewey's concept of habit onto Othello's behavior, it demonstrates how abstract moral frameworks can be tested against narrative examples. This approach shows students how to use secondary sources not merely for summary but as analytical lenses.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a theoretical definition of ethics and habits drawn from Anderson/Dewey. It then introduces Othello as a case study, moving through three analytical layers: racial prejudice in Venetian society, Othello's gendered distrust of women, and his moral culpability in Desdemona's murder. A brief conclusion ties the literary analysis back to the opening philosophical framework, completing the argument.
Introduction: Understanding Ethics, Habits, and Customs
In order to behave ethically, one must first understand ethics — what the concept signifies and entails. Broadly, ethics is the practice of distinguishing right from wrong, and ethical conduct is acting in keeping with that distinction. According to Anderson, ethical conduct involves applying reflective intelligence to revise one's judgments and consider the ramifications of one's actions. Dewey's moral philosophy, as interpreted by Anderson, provides a useful framework for understanding how habits shape and sometimes obstruct this reflective process.
Habits, meanwhile, refer to socially influenced inclinations toward specific ways of reacting to a given context or toward specific kinds of activity. Habits direct impulses along specified pathways, toward particular goals, by engraining the application of specific means and prescribing particular behavior in particular situations. Although we all have our own unique habits, the customs or habits we share as a community or population are the most socially salient. These customs are transmitted from one generation to the next through socialization, and they result from accumulated activity.
Although habits encompass socially significant notions and purposes, they operate beneath an individual's consciousness. Habits recede from our awareness, thereby conserving our reflective resources, rendering fluidity to our actions, and allowing us to dependably produce particular anticipated outcomes — provided the context does not change. Hence, our habits symbolize our character, and are typically self-preserving and hard to alter, as we grow attached to them. When habits are disrupted, people express annoyance, apprehension, unhappiness, and even rage. Prevailing ideologies depict existing customs as correct and unbreakable, and this poses a significant barrier to intended social transformations (Anderson).
Works Cited
Anderson, Elizabeth. "Dewey's Moral Philosophy." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 20 January 2014, plato.stanford.edu/entries/dewey-moral/. Accessed 12 September 2016.
Mohamad, Ahmad J. "Shakespeare's Others." July 2011. University of Amsterdam, dare.uva.nl/cgi/arno/show.cgi?fid=352550. Accessed 12 September 2016.
Porter, Jean. "Moral Mistakes, Virtue and Sin: The Case of Othello." Studies in Christian Ethics, vol. 18, no. 2, 2005, pp. 23–44.
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