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Author: Anbalsilfer

Feb 25th 2013 at 12:49:50 PM

I understand your distinction, but I don't see it as such that that semantic difference lies in the term "code". Rather, it lies in "commandment" or "law" as opposed to "virtue". A virtue is by definition a trait worth striving towards for its own intrinsic value rather than a pattern to be simply emulated. If the distinction between emulation and true ideals lay in the term "codification", then "codification of virtue" would be a contradiction. I don't see that this is the case.

I think you are reading too much into the word "code". ''Any'' ethical system is a "code of ethics", really. This includes systems that have nothing to do with laws, rules or commandments, like for example utilitarianism, or Kant's golden rule.

Compare with "classifications" and "establishment". I see "codification" as basically a mean between these two, where "classifications" emphasizes the components in the system, and "establishment" emphasizes the product that is the whole, the system. "Codification", in my view has about equal emphasis on the components of the systems (that are identified and "codified", which basically means symbolism is attached to them), and the system itself, the "code".

Classification is something you do with animals and plants because your aim is not to arrange them in such a way as to form a whole, a system. Not so with codification, where the aim is precisely that: to create a system, interpreted as a complex of components that are carefully selected to form a coherent whole, like a puzzle.