Ethical behaviour refers to actions which can be interpreted as either right or wrong, or to put it another way, actions which are based upon morality. To behave ethically therefore, would mean to behave in a morally correct way, by doing things which we commonly recognise as being 'good'. The opposite of ethical behaviour is unethical behaviour, which consists of doing morally wrong, or 'bad' acts. Throughout human history, thinkers in the form of philosophers, religious leaders, politicians etc. Considered what counts as ethical behaviour, and indeed, whether such a concept can truly be claimed to exist. Most religious believers would define ethical behaviour as that which is consistent with the teachings of their own faith. For instance, a Christian would define following the teachings of Jesus during your life as being the key to living in an ethical way. Equally, a Buddhist would say that we cannot live ethically until we have taken into consideration the suffering of all life in existence. How ethical behaviour is defined is inevitably dependent upon your beliefs about what is right and wrong, and as a result, upon whatever you choose to base your ideas of right and wrong on. Thus, because of differences in opinions, beliefs, and perspectives on the world, it seems difficult, if not impossible to define ethical behaviour as any one thing. Because of this, many philosophers in particular have looked at the issue and considered whether or not ethical behaviour, or the morality which it requires, can even be said to meaningfully exist at all. A particular branch of Philosophy is now seen as focusing on the subject of ethical behaviour, and is known simply as Ethics. However, questions over how people ought to act have been discussed and considered by philosophers for the whole development of Western intellectual thought, beginning over two thousand years ago in Ancient Greece, arguably in the figure of Socrates as he is presented in the Dialogues of one of his disciples, Plato. To Socrates, thought of by many as the father of Western Philosophy, the most important thing for a man to dedicate his life to was the pursuit of knowledge. Only by knowing every possible fact which is relevant to his existence may a man know himself, and from that know what is right and wrong. And since he also argued that knowing yourself will make you virtuous, for you will know what is right and wrong, and that virtue is the source of happiness, he believed that a wise man will do good and behave in what we would call an ethical way. Meanwhile only an ignorant man will commit wrong, and behave in a non ethically acceptable way. Continuing from the thought of Socrates, Aristotle took his predecessor's beliefs about the virtue of knowing yourself one step further by suggesting that realizing one's fullest potential is the true aim of human life - and indeed what makes us human- and consequentially the source of happiness and goodness. He divided human nature into three aspects and argued that in order to properly develop each it is important to stress the value of moderation. When discussing the case of what constitutes an ethical mode of behaviour, one must use moderation and find a path between the options available to him, for example courage can be seen as the path between recklessness and cowardice. Following these individual thinkers, Ancient Greek and subsequently Ancient Philosophy in general, came to be split between two interpretations of ethical behaviour. The first and earlier was known as Epicureanism, named after its original creator, Epicurus, and emphasised the importance of living life in such a way so as to limit discomfort and pain and instead focus upon pleasure. He pointed out that too much of a pleasure, be it wine, food sex etc. Would lead to negative results such as ill health. Living was seen as good and so should be prolonged and enjoyed as much as possible. Characteristic of this was Epicurus' belief that fear should be removed, hence why he argued that fear of death ought to be avoided since there was either nothing after death and so by definition nothing to worry about, or else there were Gods and a paradise waiting for us after death. Either way there was no point undermining the pleasure of life by concerning ourselves over it. His idea of ethical behaviour was thus to try and ensure the greatest good for the greatest number. This idea would later be reborn under the concept of Utilitarianism created by Jeremy Bentham, which argued that the only way of defining an action as moral or immoral - ethical or unethical - was to measure its positive and negative impact on the number of people it affected. That which created pleasure for the majority would be termed ethical and good, that which caused pain to the majority would be seen as unethical and bad. In opposition to Epicureanism was Stoicism which sought peace of mind above all else, and could only be found by mastering ones physical and psychological desires. To behave ethically was to control one's actions and reach a point of peace within yourself. In more recent times Ethics has been sub categorised into the field of meta ethics which follows on from the ideas of thinkers like Hume who questioned whether the whole concept of ethics can have any meaning, since we can't experience or prove ethical terms such as good and bad empirically - that is through the experiences of our five senses. The logical positivists of the early twentieth century went as far as saying that any statement which was not wither true by definition or else verifiable through experience was meaningless. Since we can never physically prove ethical behaviour, and an action is not ethical by definition, they'd lead us to the conclusion that ethical behaviour doesn't exist. We can say then that ethical behaviour means any action which we decide to subjectively interpret as 'good'.
