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).
When Should Ethical Behavior Defer to Habits or Customs?
The tension between reflective ethical judgment and entrenched habit raises an important question: when, if ever, should ethical behavior defer to habits or customs? The following analysis of Shakespeare's Othello offers a literary case study for exploring this question.
Racial Prejudice and Social Customs in Othello
According to Mohamad, Shakespeare's Othello represents the tale of a tragic hero. Othello is a character attempting to fit into a racist European society, and Shakespeare endeavors to reveal the importance given to color and racial identity by engaging with several sensitive concerns. Europeans' suspicion of what they labeled "alien cultures" was not a new phenomenon in 1604. Their attitude is captured in words such as "alien, barbaric, and demonic" — applied to the Turk, who stood "in contrast to the Christian's civil and moral rightness." This Eastern Other sparked fear and hatred, common themes that haunted the Western Christian world. The reaction of Venetian society to the "turbaned Turk's" elopement with the fair Desdemona is a telling example of the racism prevalent in that era.
The hero of the tale is introduced through stereotypical and racial remarks from Iago, who refers to him as a "Barbary horse" and "old black ram." The tale ends with further racial slurs, including Emilia's cry of "ignorant and dirt." Throughout the story, the dominant theme is the perceived abnormality of a marriage between a black Moor and a white Venetian lady. Shakespeare depicts Othello in a manner that corresponds to Elizabethans' racial and stereotypical views concerning Moors. The opening scenes abound in racist attitudes and prejudices: Roderigo calls Othello "thick-lips," while Iago's words to Brabantio emphasize the link between bestial sexuality and blackness. Although nearly all of Venice commends Othello for his courage and nobility, Desdemona is considered out of his league given their unequal social statuses (Mohamad).
Conclusion: When Custom Overrides Ethics
Clearly, in the case of Othello, ethical conduct has deferred to customs and habits. Judging others on grounds of their race or appearance is ethically incorrect, yet the Venetian customs and culture endorse exactly such judgment. In other words, judging an individual or an entire group as untrustworthy reflects an aspect of the people making that judgment — their overall ideals, how they relate to others, the relative importance they accord to self-protection versus openness in relationships, and an evaluation of those they judge (Porter). The wrongdoing depicted in Othello demonstrates that social customs and habits are often more powerful in practice than abstract ethical principles, and that genuine ethical conduct requires the kind of sustained reflective effort that entrenched habit works continuously to suppress.
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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