Schools of Ethics, Conflicts, and Social Work: An Analysis

This essay delves into the core principles of ethics as they apply to social work, exploring the major schools of thought including Greek, Christian, Natural Law, and Kantian ethics. The essay examines the conflicts that arise when applying these ethical frameworks in practical settings, particularly the clash between 'Ideal Morality' and 'Practical Morality.' It uses examples, such as polygamy, to illustrate how ethical norms can vary across time and situations, highlighting the challenges of applying universal ethical principles in a complex world. The essay also provides references to support the analysis and arguments presented.

Schools of Ethics and e conflicts of the ethics in Social works and setups
Ethics are the primary set of norms that are necessary for the evolution and conductance of any
given society. Under its present form, the major ethics prevailing in the societies of the 21st
century can be divided into five schools.
1. Greek School of Ethics: Promoted by philosophers like Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, this
school originated primary theories dealing with human well-being and the role of humans
in the creation of the social goods and individual goods (Hall, 2019).
2. Christian ethics: Developed under the patronage of the Bible and other religious
scriptures, these set of ethics promotes tolerance and compassion with human beings as
the main qualities (Proios, 2014).
3. Natural Law ethics and Kantian ethics: Evolved from the Greek school of ethics, the
focus of both these schools is more on the pleasures gained by an individual during the
course of life and his duties towards the society while securing his own ends. Concepts
like utilitarianism are an output of these two schools of thought (Hursthouse, 2016).
Conflicts associated with the implementation of ethics during social service and the
creation of social goods
Broadly it is caused because of the difference between “Ideal Morality” and “Practical Morality.”
A clash of interest appears when an individual looks at his or her personal actions from the lens
view of the consequentialism. The social acceptance of an act can be termed as positive morality.
The conflict arises when an individual finds that his positive morality is not coinciding with the
social norms of the positive morality set by the society (Rogers, 1937).

We can understand it with the help of the example of polygamy, once upon time polygamy was
an accepted norm in the society. However, under the present conditions, it is a wrong practice.
The bottom line says that the definition of ethics may change from situation to situation because
very few general ethics can be used with a complete precision while dealing with the practical
world which is full of vices, ironies, and follies.
References
Hall, E. (2019). Aristotle’s Pursuit of Happiness. The Wall Street Journal , (Online) (Available at )
https://www.wsj.com/articles/aristotles-pursuit-of-happiness-11548950094. Accessed 24-12-19
Hursthouse, R. (2016). Virtue Ethics . Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , (Online) (Available at )
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/. Accessed 24-12-19
Hursthouse, R. (2016). Virtue Ethics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Online) (Available
at ) https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/. Accessed 24-12-19
Rogers, R. (1937). A Brief Summary of the History of the Ethics. Mac Milan Books, (Online)
(Available at )http://www.realtechsupport.org/UB/WBR/texts/markups/brief_summary_ethics.
Accessed 24-12-19