Epilogo

We have finally reached the last pages of this book. It has been interesting and I have enjoyed it from begining to end. I feel that its aim was accomplished, it has made me realize that ethics is not about knowing and doing what is right or wrong because in fact nobody can dictate that, but reflecting on what is convenient for me if I want to live a good life. Each person has its own ethics, its own point of view, and should reflect on the implications of his or her decisions individually, but always respecting his own freedom and the freedom of the ones around him. We should always bear in mind that as humans, we are always influenced by others and at the same time we influence other people,becoming "complete" humans by means of socialization, but we are free to chose what to do with our lives and how to live.

Savater, Etica para Amador
Epilogo

Chapter 9

Politics

Although democratic countries are governed by elected representatives of the people, I believe that politicians do not actually take into account the people’s needs. Perhaps they do so because they live in their very own worlds and never take the time to take a look around and see other realities. That's way many of them seem to not even know that the word ethics exists, taking decisions that do not fit the necessities of the people but their own personal interests. Justice seems so distant when those who are in charge of the destiny of one Nation act as if either all people were like them or otherwise they did not exist. Maybe they feel that since poverty and health and education problems do not reach them, they do not exist. Maybe they believe that such problems are just ideas we have in our minds, or that such a reality belongs only to a bunch of people who deserve being in the situation they are immersed in, and that poverty exists everywhere so it would be impossible to eradicate it from society even if they tried, so they prefer to overlook reality instead of make an attempt to change it.Anyway,it doesn't really matters to me which they reasons mey be,neglecting those who depend on them is to me a complete lack of ethics.

Savater, Etica para Amador

Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Immoral?

What do we mean when we talk about something being immoral? The dictionary offers two definitions, the first one says: not following accepted standards of sexual behaviour.The other definition refers to people and their behaviour and means: not considered to be good or honest by most people. When we talk about immoral acts, most of the time we think about the former.Generally, the first thing that comes to the mind of a person when we name the word "immoral" is sex, and not even something related to using sex to hurt people.It just seems to be the immoral issue par excellence. According to Freud, every human fact that has to do with the psicological or social life of a person has a sexual significance and its meaning comes from our sexual drives and the transformations that the ego and the culture continuously demand.That's why sexuality is present in all human manifestations, namely those related to our behaviour, health, pathology, education,children upbringing, morality, religion, cultural productions and social phenomena. Since represion emerges when we are children, sexuality will always be regarded as being disgunting and offensive. At social level this represion is expressed in the innumerable taboos that revolve around sexuality, and we will never be able to treat dispassionately any matter that refers to it.

Savater, Etica para Amador

Chapter 8

Chapter 7

I accept responsability.

One of the characteristic of human beings is our capacity to imitate other people. Most of our behavior and likes probably derive from what we have observed in other people. Each person is unique and have its personal way of seeing things, but we follow other people's example. As social beings we can't help being influenced and at the same time influencing others. That's why it's important to set an example to children and society in general. Small children have plenty of examples to follow, but surely they aren't all good examples. To treat people with respect, consideration,and most fo all as humans is a nice way of setting the example and it is also more likely that we will receive a similar treatment in response. On the other hand, if we treat people like dirt then we shouldn't be surprised to receive the same kind of treatment.

Savater, Etica para Amador

Chapter 7

Chapter 6

A matter of individual conscience

The conscience is the part of your mind that tells you whether your actions are right or wrong. Sometimes we call it the voice of conscience. We are not born with a highly developed sense of conscience that alows us to know what is the right thing to do in a given situation. Some people may be better at it than others, but generally we have to criticaly analize what we do or what we are about to do if we want to live a good life and not feel guilty about what we do or omit to do. One of the many things that we should bear in mind is the matter of egoism. An egoist is a person who thinks that he is better than other people and who thinks and cares too much about himself or herself. Being a little bit egoist is a good thing as long as it involves taking care of ourselves and our needs, but generally the word egoism shows disapproval. Egoism prevents the egoist person from really loving anyone but himself and as a consequence will surely prevent others from loving him as well.

"Todos, cuando favorecen a otros se favorecen a si mismos" (Séneca, Cartas a Lucilio)

Savater, Etica para Amador

Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Wake up baby!

Living a good life doesn't imply doing what we want at the moment. That may please us for the time being, but what about the future? Life is complex and there are lot of things to consider when we make decisions and therefore living a good life is not simple. It is clear that we all want live a good life, but what does it mean anyway? Having things we want, money to buy them and power sounds good, but they cannot buy friendship or somebody's love. So, living a good life doesn't consist of having things and influence over people. We are all humans because we belong to the same specie, but we as humans can humanize each other. So, lots of things and millons of Euros aren't enough to live a good life...because things are necessary but only people can make us humans. Ethics is about reflecting over this issue...to try to understand why behaving in a certain way is more convenient for us than behaving in another way, and what can make life good for us.

"...es que ayer estaba viendo la television, estaba viendo un debate sobre lo del 11-M y estaba viendo los politicos que no se ponen nunca de acuerdo, nunca se ponen de acuerdo. Y habia una señora que habia estado en ese tren y era la mas sensata de todos los que estaban en ese programa. Yo quisiera dedicarle, sin que sirva para nada, solo dedicarle esta cancion:

Y no me importa que me digan que yo soy un viva la vida porque vivo sin compromiso. No me da verguenza ninguna, vida tengo na ma' que una aunque crea en el paraiso. Para mi es mucho mas carota el que me acusa de pasota con la baba llena de whisky. Soy lo que tu quieras pero sinverguenza no soy. Cuando veo en esta puerca humanidad tanto crimenes sin nombre, de sinverguenza ni hablar. Me da verguenza de ser un hombre. Yo prefiero seguir buscando los defectos y los encantos de una dama golfa y valiente, verdadera como la guerra, despeinada como la tierra y canalla como la gente. Yo prefiero una compañera perfumada con la madera, con el cuero y con la palabra, hembra. Una mujer para mi debe ser mucho mas que una hembra. Que desprecie los dineros y el chanel, la corbata y la mentira, y solo por esa mujer valdra mi muerte mas que mi vida "

Alejandro Sanz en Concierto.Tour No Es Lo Mismo. Las Ventas, Madrid, España.

Savater, Etica para Amador
Chapter 5