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20230716155002707 1 - Upsc notes
political science hons
Creighton University
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Unit 1: Ethics and Human Interface 1. Essence, Determinants and Consequences of Ethics in - Human Actions; 2. Dimensions of Ethics; 3. Ethics - in Private and Public Relationships. 4. Human Values - Lessons from the Lives and Teachings of Great Leaders, Reformers and Administrators; 5. Role of Family Society and Educational Institutions in Inculcating Values. Introduction about Ethics: ‘Do not do unto others as you would not be done by’ (Atmani Pratikulani paresham na samachary), is the principle given in ‘Mahabharat’. The definition of Ethics is well concretized in this maxim. The same principle is repeated in Christianity-‘Do unto others as you would, they would do unto you.’ Thus we should behave with others in the same manner as we expect them to behave with us. We can say Ethics are a code of conduct that we expect of others and so logically from ourselves also. Ethics is human conduct in the light of moral principles, which may be viewed as the individual’s standard of conduct or as a body of social obligations and duties. Etymologically the term “ethics” correspond to the Greek word “ethos” which means character, habit, customs, ways of behaviour, etc. Ethics is also called “moral philosophy”. The word “moral” comes from Latin word “mores” which signifies customs, character, behaviour, etc. Thus ethics may be defined as the systematic study of human actions from the point of view of their rightfulness or wrongfulness, as means for the attainment of the ultimate happiness. In simple words ethics refers to what is good and the way to get it, and what is bad and how to avoid it. It refers to what ought to be done to achieve what is good and what not to be done to avoid what is evil. Ethics is not merely a set of ‘codes’. Ethics certainly deals with moral codes yet one cannot identify ethics to moral codes. Ethics is not primarily to restrict one’s behaviour, rather to help one to find what is good and how to get it. Ethics is also theoretical and practical. It is theoretical in as much as it provides the fundamental principles on the basis of which moral judgements are arrived at. It is practical in as much as it is concerned about an end to be gained, and the means of attaining it. Ethics deals with voluntary actions. We can distinguish between human actions and actions of human: human actions are those actions that are done by human consciously, deliberately and in view of an end. Actions of human may not be wilfully, voluntarily, consciously and deliberately done but all the same they are done by human (e. sleeping, walking, etc.). It is the intention which makes the difference between human action and action of human. In ethics we deal only with human actions. Humans as an ethical being! Each one of us is born to be ethical. Just as humans are hard-wired with the potential to breathe and see and hear and walk and talk and think, we arrive with the potential to take into consideration how our actions impact people and world around us. Socio-biologists say that people are born with the capacity to care for others because that is necessary for the survival of our species. Thus, ethics is an innate quality. We are born with the potential of becoming moral being.
To think ethically, a person must understand that he or she is capable of causing harm to other people, animals and the environment. Most people develop a full understanding of this slowly over a long lifetime, but by the time children are three or four years old, they begin to understand that they can hurt others – sometimes with bites or slaps to illustrate their understanding! That’s when cultures and families begin to hold them responsible for not causing harm. The understanding that we can and should not cause harm to others is based on the human analogy Determinants and consequences of ethics in human actions: - Informal norms and formal codes Such norms and codes create a background of expectations that can distort, obscure, or oversimplify the moral considerations present in a situation. - Self-serving bias People tend to look for information that will confirm their pre-existing views, to interpret information in ways that support their own view, and to selectively remember the information that supports their view - Poor moral awareness Poor moral awareness can either result in a failure to perceive the problem as being an ethical problem at all (in which case, one does not go through the steps of good ethical decision- making), or can present the agent with a distorted or insufficient picture of the problem to be resolved. - Failure to gather relevant facts Good practical decisions require that we know important facts relevant to the decision, such as those that help us determine the likely impact of the action on stakeholders. - Slippery slope People are willing to do unethical things because they have already done smaller, less extreme acts that make the bigger choice appear less (or not at all) unethical - Common biases and their influences Common biases can unconsciously influence our decision-making process and result in unintentionally unethical conclusions Biases about the world 1. We tend to miscalculate the negative consequences of our behaviour and the risk involved. 2. We create inaccurate judgments about causal perceptions. 3. We ignore low-probability events altogether. 4. We deny uncertainty. 5. We discount the future, giving disproportionally more weight to present consequences than anticipated future consequences. Biases about other people 1. Through ethnocentrism and stereotyping, we inaccurately believe that our values and beliefs are superior to those of a different group. 2. We can be misguided by our trust in an ‘authority heuristic’ — we often trust in the wisdom, expertise, and experience of authority figures, but occasionally this trust is misplaced and the heuristic becomes a harmful bias.
Importance of Ethics: Today, more than ever, the importance of ethics is felt at every sphere of human living. The situation in the present world is characterised by an increasing rate in crime. Besides, the power of traditional religions to inspire moral conduct continues to decline. Terrorism, civil wars, industrial pollution, planned obsolescence, misleading advertising, deceptive labelling etc throngs our life where the need of ethics is felt to minimise the effect. 1. The study of moral philosophy or ethics can deepen our reflection on the ultimate questions of life. It helps a person to look critically at the most important questions concerning our existence here on earth. It seeks to enhance our lives, to help us to live better lives. 2. The study of ethics helps a person to look at his own life critically and to evaluate his actions/choices/decisions. It assists a person in knowing what he/she really is and what is best for him/her and what he/she has to do in order to attain it. 3. The study of Ethics can help us to think better about morality. It can help us to clarify our moral positions when we make judgments. Ethics teaches an individual to adopt the just means of earning. It discourages corruption. 4. Ethics can help us to sharpen our general thinking processes. It trains our mind to think logically and reasonably and to handle moral issues with greater clarity. 5. In every human person there is a deep desire for good. Human being by nature tend to good – summum bonum. Each man/woman desires what is best for himself/herself. The ethical principles and moral practices help one to attain what is best. It helps a person to perfect himself/herself as a moral being 6. Thus, ethical problems confront everybody. Nobody can really get through life without ethics, even if one may not be aware of the ethical principles. Consciously or unconsciously all of us are every day making moral decisions. Whether we are aware of it or not, the fact is that we do have ethical attitudes and are taking moral stances every day of our lives. 7. For the functioning of any society we need certain rules and regulations. The conditions of a satisfactory human life for people living in groups could hardly obtain otherwise (neither a “state of nature” nor a “totalitarian state”). The institutions which are designed to make life easier and better for humankind, cannot function without certain moral principles. Thus ethics helps in achieving social stability through social harmony 8. Only through ethics man is acting as a sensible human. Otherwise it would lead to chaos and problems and will destroy the social fabric. By following ethics in life a person becomes more trustable and thus brings more people in relationship with this person thus building social capital. Thus ethics promotes social wellbeing and act as tool to guide human behaviour and enhances social harmony. 9. Also, the need to instigate ethical codes in Civil Service is not only to bring good work culture but also for the betterment of the civil servants themselves and for the furtherance of the society. Scholastic philosophy outlines a distinction between Actus Hominis and Actus Humanus i. ‘Acts of Man/Human’ and ‘Human Acts’ respectively. Not every act that a human being does is a typically human act. Human activities, like the circulation of blood, heartbeat, over which normal people in general have no control are not classified as human acts. Such acts which are beyond the control of humans and those which they share in common with animals are called as ‘Acts of humans’.
Acts of humans, then, are involuntary and therefore, not morally responsible for them. On the other hand a ‘Human Act’ is one which proceeds from knowledge and from consent of free will. Or in other words it is an act which emanates from the will with a knowledge of the end or goal to which the act leads. The Human act is to be distinguished from acts of humans which are performed without intervention of intellect and free will. An act is termed as distinctively a human act which is voluntary in character, that is, the human person under consideration could have done it differently if s/he had so willed or chosen. It is an act which is in some way under the control or direction of the will, which is proper to humans. Such an act is performed by a person deliberately and intentionally in order to realize some foreseen end/s. Thus one can rightly assert that a voluntary act proceeds from the will with the apprehension of the end sought, or, in other words, is put forth by the will solicited by the goodness of the object as presented to it by the intellect. Such acts, moreover, proceed from the will's own determination, without necessitation, intrinsic or extrinsic. Dimensions of Ethics: There are four main branches of ethics as Descriptive Ethics, Normative ethics, Meta-ethics and Applied ethics. 1. Descriptive Ethics: It deals with what people actually believes to be right or wrong. It evaluates human actions on the basis of law and customs. The societies have structured their moral principles which are not forever. They change from time to time and expect people to behave accordingly. Descriptive Ethics may also be called as comparative ethics, because it compares the ethics of past and present 2. Normative Ethics: It deals with norms that how one should act and behave in society. It also called as prescriptive Ethics. The ultimate principles of ‘Normative Ethics’s doing to other as we want them to do to us. As like Aristotle ‘Virtue ethics’, Kant’s ‘Deontological ethics’, Mill’s ‘Consequenlialism’ and Bhagwadgita’s ‘Nishkam’s Karmayoga’ are all the typical examples of Normative ethics. 3. Meta Ethics: It doesn’t propound any moral principles or goal for action. It has been primarily interested in classification and philosophical understanding rather than in normative ethics. Meta-ethics asks the following questions? What is meaning, nature, function of ethical terms like right, wrong, good and bad? Secondly, how moral usage of terms is to be distinguished from non-moral one? What is the analysis of terms like action, conscience, free will, intention, promise excuse, motive, reason, responsibility etc? Thus in above questions, meta-ethics doesn’t consider, whether an action is good or bad, rather it questions what good and badness of morality itself is? It is an abstract way of thinking about ethics. 4. Applied Ethics: It is concerned with the analysis of particular moral issues in private and public life. It deals with the more concrete subjects like, the family, profession, state and politics etc. in real life situations and ethical principles which be applied in it for securing a good life. There are six domains of applied ethics viz-Decision ethics, Professional Ethics, Clinical Ethics, Business Ethics, Organizational Ethics and Social. Ethics which primarily deal with rightness of social, economical, cultural, religious aspects like child labour, abortion euthanasia, cloning, surrogacy etc.
be wrong irrespective of what we do and how we do. Morally wrong action is unacceptable. You are a cheater if you are cheating on your partner irrespective of the fact that you can save your marriage, if you lie. You are a cheater as well as a liar. What matters most is whether you are acting according to law or not, whether you are following the rules or not. Your action would only be right when it aligns with the moral theory (moral norms). For instance, you are broke and you are starving. You cannot buy lunch for yourself. But on the road you see a man who is pretty reckless about his money. You know that if you steal money from him you can buy yourself lunch and you won’t be starving anymore. Deontological Ethics would say that because it’s wrong to steal you should not steal, even if you die because of hunger. Different deontological theories are categorical imperative, moral absolutism, divine command theory etc. The most famous deontology theory is Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative 2. Consequential and Teleological Ethics: It says that morality of an action is contingent with the outcome of that action. So morally right action would produce good outcome while, morally wrong action would produce bad outcome. Consequentialists thus determine the worth of any action by seeing its consequences. The larger good of any act is analyzed keeping in mind the consequences or the result of that action. For instance, if you have been committing infidelity on your partner and the moment he/she gets suspicious you lie about it, because you did not want to hurt him/her. From Consequentialist point, this can be termed good as the consequence of telling the lie is that the partner is not hurt by the act of infidelity. Based on outcome, there are several theories such as utilitarianism (Right action leads to maximum happiness of greatest number of people). Hedonism (anything that maximizes pleasure is right), Egoism (anything that maximizes the good for self is right). Asceticism (abstinence from egoistic pleasures to achieve spiritual goal is right action). Altruism (to live for others not caring for self is right action). The core idea of consequentialism is that “ends justify the means”. An action that might not be right in the light of moral absolutism may be right action under teleology. 3. Virtue Ethics: Virtue Ethics acts as a ‘tool’ in the contemporary world which can be used to understand the ‘wrongness’ in human conduct/ behaviour. This is a philosophical branch developed by Aristotle and Other Ancient Greeks. This philosophy looks for a ‘Virtue based Ethics’, i., we acquire virtue through practice. Virtue stands for a perfect trait or character which one possesses. Most of the philosophers of Virtue Ethics agree in perceiving ‘virtue’ as the highest and practical wisdom essential in order to obtain it, though they do differ in how they do conjunction (combination) of them.
20230716155002707 1 - Upsc notes
Course: political science hons
University: Creighton University
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