That was the stoics; and it was more "do justice though the heavens fall.
It seems to me that the "moral" part becomes basically irrelevant then, since it is superseded by the "ethical" part, but not vice versa.
Not at all. The moral part always has priority. One only ethically breaches a moral principle when one reasonably suspects a greater moral principle will be breached if the lesser isn't.
I suspect society wouldn't function if everyone told the truth
Society, in a sense, doesn't function. It has a background relation of truth (people in normal day to day life) which gives it some stability. But the systematic campaign of lies from politicians through to advertising is constantly threatening this stability.
It also leads to be both sociopathologies and cultural impoverishment, but that's another matter...
Re: Kant and Ethics
"do good though the heavens fall"
That was the stoics; and it was more "do justice though the heavens fall.
It seems to me that the "moral" part becomes basically irrelevant then, since it is superseded by the "ethical" part, but not vice versa.
Not at all. The moral part always has priority. One only ethically breaches a moral principle when one reasonably suspects a greater moral principle will be breached if the lesser isn't.
I suspect society wouldn't function if everyone told the truth
Society, in a sense, doesn't function. It has a background relation of truth (people in normal day to day life) which gives it some stability. But the systematic campaign of lies from politicians through to advertising is constantly threatening this stability.
It also leads to be both sociopathologies and cultural impoverishment, but that's another matter...