What did Socrates know anyway?

October 1996

Since the crash of the stockmarket in 1987 brought an abrupt end to the carefree attitudes of the nineteen eighties, there has been an increased focus in the world on ethics and how one ought to live. Many books have been written about the subject, politicians and other public figures have been more outspoken, businesses have been making efforts to clean up their act and discussion in the media has been more prevalent. But from an individual perspective, how do you live ethically in this world of ours ? Is it something that one can actually do, or is it merely an esoteric domain ?

The first thing that needs to be defined is ethics itself. Despite all of the media hype mentioned above and the liberal use of the phrases ‘that’s totally unethical’ and ‘you’re morally bankrupt’ around the dinner table, there has been little discussion on what ethics really is. To the average man in the street, it’s all a bunch of hoo-ha designed to confuse the issue. Surely most people know what’s right an…