Ethics and Moral Philosophy Studies in Turkish Thought: The Example of Hilmi Ziya Ülken

Abstract

It is accepted that it is necessary for people to live together, regardless of the reason or reasons. As a result of this obligation, many questions and problems have arisen. Moral philosophy is among the most important philosophical disciplines that deal with these questions and problems. Different ideas have been put forward at every stage of the history of thought regarding moral philosophy, which examines the concept of morality from a philosophical perspective. Moral philosophy, which is particularly interested in the practical dimension of philosophy, is related to problems in daily life. Moral philosophy arises from everyday life. Everyone who uses their minds and encounters some troublesome situations in daily life must somehow deal with these questions and problems. According to this idea, every person wants to organize his life in society. Accordingly, he interacts with other people and performs actions as a result of this interaction. People show different attitudes towards the difficulties they encounter in life. For example, they may accept them or try to fix them. These attitudes of people determine their theories about moral philosophy. The thinkers of the Republican period naturally had to deal with morality and moral philosophy. Here, Hilmi Ziya Ülken's name comes to the fore. Hilmi Ziya Ülken is a thinker whose passion is philosophy and who has almost single-handedly completed fifty years of the intellectual life of our Republic's history. The Ethics of Love that he developed has become a teaching in which he recommends the steps that an individual should follow both in his own life and in social life.