Is ethics influenced by society? If ethics is defined to be as what’s right or wrong, and if ethics is a personal, individual concept, then does the society that we live in have impact? Can or does ethics exist without society?
Individual concepts or ideas are influenced by the world we live in. Social pressure and conformity makes us adapt to the common norms because we want to fit in. This takes place everywhere, whether it’s a simple question of “what do you think” or a decision to vote for a certain candidate as the next president because he seems to be so popular. Our individual concepts are, in a sense, not individual. It would make more sense to call them individually influenced concepts instead, since the basis of our ideas came from our thoughts, but were formed and framed by society.
So if ethics is personal, then it would have been influenced by the people around us. The majority of people state that cannibalism is “wrong”, but there are still places in the Amazon jungle where tribes commit cannibalism as their society states that it’s “right.” There are still some people who practice cannibalism because they don’t think it’s “wrong”. But can we really say that any idea is “right” or “wrong”? That’s another idea.
So if ethics is influenced by society, will it exist without a society? If every thought of ours is somehow influenced by the person next to us, who is influenced by the people around him, where the people around him are influenced by other people around them, then will a solid definition of ethics live without these people to hold it up?
It’s strange, because people can still have ethical standings even if they live in total isolation. Living in the middle of a forest all alone doesn’t mean you abandon your ethical beliefs. Maybe it’s because as humans, we have an inner need to follow a set guideline; laws to follow. We’re such social people, that we almost need rules. So maybe ethics can exist without a society. Even when a person is trapped in a dark room all alone, that person will still have his set ideas of what’s right and wrong.
Theory of Knowledge 