Abstract

A title like this is a controversial starting point. It alludes to the belief that ethics are not timeless, that they do not exist independently of the particular circumstances of place and time, and, furthermore, that ethics are not innate in human beings, not part of their inalienable being, but rather that they emerge from external, and particularly, social pressures. In other words, the implication is that ethics do not emerge from the individual, but rather from the external environment.