Morality and Virtue

May a beautiful life be yours with all its beauties. May your sorrows end and your joys be endless. May the moments of this short life always be filled with happiness. I have tried to tell you about the effects of studying philosophy on human life and what it adds to us at every stage of life, as much as my tongue turns and my pen writes. I have told you about many philosophers and philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Aristotales, Marcus Aurelius, Ibn Khaldun, Ghazali, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd from these pages. 

Life is an adventure, and we are the actors whose roles have been assigned in it. Each of us in our own lives are like artists who do not know when the curtain will close and we will leave the stage. When we look at the facts of our lives, we see that the values that make us who we are are morality and virtue. Now I would like to discuss the values that make a person human, the philosophical and sociological interactions, and the link between religions.

Ethics (Moral Philosophy), which is a sub-branch of philosophy, is the most important field that shows us that an understanding of morality and virtue can be developed outside the religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Plato and Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosophers who lived hundreds of years before Christianity and Islam and were outside the sphere of influence of Judaism, are among the most important examples of this field. These philosophers thought that the purpose of life was to develop and carry a good soul. According to them, carrying a good soul is only possible by being virtuous. Among the main virtues, they listed virtues such as justice, courage, friendship and temperance. Plato argued that the essence of these virtues could be grasped through reason alone, while Aristotle argued that they could be grasped through both reason and experience. David Hume, the Scottish philosopher and pioneer of the utilitarianism movement, emphasized that morality and virtue are not the monopoly of religion, that there are emotions underlying morality and certain virtues, that a common morality and virtue based on conscience, generosity, benevolence and justice can be developed through an intersection of emotions, which he described as empathy, and that education and environmental influences play a very important role in the emergence of this potential.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant argued that a person who acts according to a universal principle, regardless of the consequences of our actions, regardless of whether they will bring happiness, pleasure or benefit, can be moral and virtuous, and that people of reason understand this. 

There is no necessary connection between morality and virtue and religion. In the history of philosophy, there are many philosophers, religious or not, who have developed an understanding of morality and virtue. Religion is not necessary to be moral and virtuous. Philosophy is the field that teaches us this best. The development of humanity and civilization is possible not by constructing the idea of God, but by being moral and virtuous. 

The first and primary condition is to be moral and virtuous. It is to be a good human being. Once this is achieved, the way forward for the further development of humanity and civilization is to make progress in philosophy, science, art and politics. In monolithic societal structures where there is no free thought, religion, philosophy, science, art and politics do not develop; they serve religion. As man gets closer to the fiction of God, he becomes alienated from humanity, the world and life. 

As the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, to view life and the worldly through other-worldliness, religion, faith and the fiction of God is a sign of nothingness, a sign of decadence and degeneration. Living and embracing life with all its pains and pleasures, happiness and unhappiness, being a free spirit that creates its own values rather than being a part of the herd mentality, paves the way for human development.

Nearly 8 billion people live in our world today. All of these people have religious beliefs and, accordingly, many sects and cults. If you ask them all, everyone's religion is the most correct and the sect they follow is the best. However, the God we all believe in (or perhaps do not believe in) is one and only one. But morality and virtue are the world's common values. Despite the myriad of differences and rituals, all religions emphasize the importance of morality and virtue in human beings.

In other words, it is very misleading to think that every religious person is moral and virtuous, and every atheist is immoral and virtuous. Someone who pretends to be religious can sometimes hit you, but you can entrust everything to someone who does not believe in your God. Morality and virtue require, above all, a human endeavor. Those who make this effort, those who manage to be moral and virtuous even in pitch darkness, become men like men, good citizens. In short, everything starts and ends with the human being.

Stay with respectful love.