Ethics and Human Interface
1
Ethics and Human Interface
Introduction
The protagonist in the epic film, Judgment at Nuremberg, Chief Judge Dan Haywood was faced with a strange predicament. He presided over a tribunal that was going into the trial of four judges of Germany. The charge was that these four had used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies. But, the Cold War was heating up and no one wanted any more trials in Germany. Moreover, there were arguments that since judges and civil servants do not make laws, but only carry out the laws of their country, they should not be punished. So it was being expected that the tribunal would free the judges without sentencing them to imprisonment. However, the dilemma that the tribunal faced was whether it was right to forget the past and let it be. This was a question that the tribunal and particularly Chief Judge Dan Haywood had to decide.
Similar must have been the predicament of Benjamin Esposito in El Secreto de Sus Ojos. Having seen a man unlawfully confine a criminal who had brutally raped and murdered his wife and got away far too easily through the aid of his political masters, what was Esposito supposed to do. Does he report to the authorities that he knows to be corrupt and have the man charged for wrongfully confining the criminal or does he let it go unreported because justice is being served, albeit in a different way?
Coming closer home to our own Hindi cinema, we get the case of a certain Vikram Malhotra in the critically acclaimed Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. He comes to know that his bete noire Siddharth Tyabji is in trouble. He reluctantly goes to help him and instead lands in much bigger trouble, which leaves him paralyzed. Should he have taken the pains to help the person he disliked or instead rejoiced over the fact that the thorn in the flesh to his goals and motives will be gone soon?
These instances from World as well as Hindi cinema have been cited to stress the fact that ethical dilemmas are essentially faced by people all across the world. While their form and content may differ from place to place and time to time, they are as relevant for a civil servant and a judge in India as they are for a stock broker and a doctor in Canada.
Ethics and Human Interface
Ethics, or morality, is a system of principles that helps us tell right from wrong, good from bad. But, this definition, by itself, tells us nothing about the standard by which we establish or measure right and wrong. Though there have been many different approaches to ethics; none seem to be satisfactory. The terms 'ethics', and even more so, 'morality' carries heavy emotional baggage. Traditional approaches to morality are mostly confused and contradictory. While supposedly telling us what is 'right' or 'good' for us, they variously imply sacrificing our lives to some greater good, restrict beneficial individualistic conduct, oppose our legitimate desire for personal happiness or offer supposedly ideal, but impractical solutions.
These views of ethics and morals are more like distortions of what they really have to offer - giving a rational approach. Ethics should and can give real and practical guidance to our lives - our best rational interests - without sacrificing others. It can serve as a personal guide to acquiring virtues that promote optimal living, both for the individual as well as the society.
The most basic need for ethics lies in the fact that we do not automatically know what will benefit our lives, and what will be detrimental. We constantly face choices that affect the length and quality of our lives. We must choose our values: where to live, how to spend our time, whom to associate with, whom to believe. We must choose what to think about, and how to go about achieving our goals. Which character traits to acquire, and which to eliminate. Which of our emotional responses are beneficial, and which detrimental. By what criteria to judge others, and on what basis to interact with them. We must pro-actively think about these issues and deliberately direct our lives. To the extent that we default on this, we are at the mercy of social and emotional factors that may be far from optimal.
We can say that ethics is about the choices that we make - or fail to make. We are aware of our conscious thoughts and of our ability to make informed, intelligent choices - that is what we call free will. We are aware that the choices that we make have consequences, both for ourselves and for others. We are aware of the responsibility that we have for our actions. But, we do not have reliable inherent knowledge or instincts that will automatically promote our survival and flourishing. We may have an inherent emotional desire to survive and avoid pain, but we do not have innate knowledge about how to achieve those objectives. A rational, non- contradictory ethic can help us make better choices regarding our lives as well as social well-being.
Essence, Determinants and Consequences of Ethics
A useful way to deal with ethics is seeing it as an active process of design, an ongoing process that occurs whenever circumstances force us to deal with conflict, tension, uncertainty and risk. As individuals define the boundaries and content of their responsibility in resolving specific ethical dilemmas both great and small, we create for ourselves an ethical identity and form character traits. Often this is done without consistent, intentional and systematic reflection, but that need not always be the case.
Skill in addressing ethical issues can be learned and cultivated if we recognize the importance of doing so. The requirement is that we view our treatment of ethical problems as an ongoing process of designing the best courses of action for specific situations we face. This demands that we are able to establish a framework for understanding ethics in dynamic rather than static terms.
Essence of Ethics
In this section we will study the problem of defining an abstract concept like ethics, its difference with morality, how it is related to values and laws as well as role and responsibility. We also analyze the different approaches to study ethics.
How can we define the concept of Ethics?
Ethics has been defined in various ways, some more technical and precise than others. Few definitions of ethics are as follows:
The attempt to state and evaluate principles by which ethical problems may be solved
The normative standards of conduct derived from the philosophical and religious traditions of society
The task of careful reflection several steps removed from the actual conduct of men
Concerned about what is right, fair, just or good; about what we ought to do, not just about what is the case or what is most acceptable or expedient
Moral philosophy, which includes four main goals or interests: clarification of moral concepts; critical evaluation of moral claims focused on “testing their truth, justification and adequacy”; constructing an inclusive perspective by elucidating the interconnections among moral ideas and values; and providing moral guidance through improving practical judgment.
As an active enterprise, ethics seek to clarify the logic and adequacy of the values that shape the world; it assesses the moral possibilities which are projected and betrayed in the social give-and-take. Anyone engaged in ethical reflection takes on the task of analyzing and evaluating the principles embodied in various alternatives for conduct and social order.
The study of moral conduct and moral status
Is there any difference between the concepts of Ethics and Morality
Though ethics and morality are often used interchangeably, but here we make a subtle distinction between them. Morality assumes some accepted modes of behaviour that are given by a religious tradition, a culture (including an organizational culture), a social class, a community, or a family. It involves expected courses of conduct that are rooted in both formal rules and informal norms. It is expressed through such precepts as “decent young people do not engage in premarital sex”, “family comes first”, “one should not conspicuously
display one’s wealth”, “guests in one’s home must always be treated with respect”, “never drive under influence”, “a day’s pay requires a day’s work”, “follow the orders of those above you in the organization” and similar expectations. Sometimes these expectations are written out in codes of conduct or rules, but at other times they are assumed and taken for granted. Typically they are asserted by a tradition, culture, religion, community, organization, or family as simply what is right.
Ethics, on the other hand, is one step removed from action. It involves the examination and analysis of the logic, values, beliefs and principles that are used to justify morality in its various forms. It considers what is meant by principles such as justice, veracity, or the public interest; their implications for conduct in particular situations; and how one might argue for one principle over another as determinative in a particular decision. Ethics takes what is given or prescribed and asks what is meant and why. So ethics as related to conduct is critical reflection on morality toward grounding moral conduct in systemic reflection. Ethical reflection also involves an effective element because it often evokes emotive response of comfort or discomfort, resolution or quandary, and affirmation or antagonism.
Ethics also deals with the moral status of entities such as families, organizations, communities and societies. Here ethical reasoning is focused on how the characteristics associated with the good family, the good organization, or the good society are grounded in certain principles, values, beliefs and logical argument. Ethics weighs the adequacy of these attributes and analyzes how they are justified.
1
Ethics and Human Interface
Introduction
The protagonist in the epic film, Judgment at Nuremberg, Chief Judge Dan Haywood was faced with a strange predicament. He presided over a tribunal that was going into the trial of four judges of Germany. The charge was that these four had used their offices to conduct Nazi sterilization and cleansing policies. But, the Cold War was heating up and no one wanted any more trials in Germany. Moreover, there were arguments that since judges and civil servants do not make laws, but only carry out the laws of their country, they should not be punished. So it was being expected that the tribunal would free the judges without sentencing them to imprisonment. However, the dilemma that the tribunal faced was whether it was right to forget the past and let it be. This was a question that the tribunal and particularly Chief Judge Dan Haywood had to decide.
Similar must have been the predicament of Benjamin Esposito in El Secreto de Sus Ojos. Having seen a man unlawfully confine a criminal who had brutally raped and murdered his wife and got away far too easily through the aid of his political masters, what was Esposito supposed to do. Does he report to the authorities that he knows to be corrupt and have the man charged for wrongfully confining the criminal or does he let it go unreported because justice is being served, albeit in a different way?
Coming closer home to our own Hindi cinema, we get the case of a certain Vikram Malhotra in the critically acclaimed Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. He comes to know that his bete noire Siddharth Tyabji is in trouble. He reluctantly goes to help him and instead lands in much bigger trouble, which leaves him paralyzed. Should he have taken the pains to help the person he disliked or instead rejoiced over the fact that the thorn in the flesh to his goals and motives will be gone soon?
These instances from World as well as Hindi cinema have been cited to stress the fact that ethical dilemmas are essentially faced by people all across the world. While their form and content may differ from place to place and time to time, they are as relevant for a civil servant and a judge in India as they are for a stock broker and a doctor in Canada.
Ethics and Human Interface
Ethics, or morality, is a system of principles that helps us tell right from wrong, good from bad. But, this definition, by itself, tells us nothing about the standard by which we establish or measure right and wrong. Though there have been many different approaches to ethics; none seem to be satisfactory. The terms 'ethics', and even more so, 'morality' carries heavy emotional baggage. Traditional approaches to morality are mostly confused and contradictory. While supposedly telling us what is 'right' or 'good' for us, they variously imply sacrificing our lives to some greater good, restrict beneficial individualistic conduct, oppose our legitimate desire for personal happiness or offer supposedly ideal, but impractical solutions.
These views of ethics and morals are more like distortions of what they really have to offer - giving a rational approach. Ethics should and can give real and practical guidance to our lives - our best rational interests - without sacrificing others. It can serve as a personal guide to acquiring virtues that promote optimal living, both for the individual as well as the society.
The most basic need for ethics lies in the fact that we do not automatically know what will benefit our lives, and what will be detrimental. We constantly face choices that affect the length and quality of our lives. We must choose our values: where to live, how to spend our time, whom to associate with, whom to believe. We must choose what to think about, and how to go about achieving our goals. Which character traits to acquire, and which to eliminate. Which of our emotional responses are beneficial, and which detrimental. By what criteria to judge others, and on what basis to interact with them. We must pro-actively think about these issues and deliberately direct our lives. To the extent that we default on this, we are at the mercy of social and emotional factors that may be far from optimal.
We can say that ethics is about the choices that we make - or fail to make. We are aware of our conscious thoughts and of our ability to make informed, intelligent choices - that is what we call free will. We are aware that the choices that we make have consequences, both for ourselves and for others. We are aware of the responsibility that we have for our actions. But, we do not have reliable inherent knowledge or instincts that will automatically promote our survival and flourishing. We may have an inherent emotional desire to survive and avoid pain, but we do not have innate knowledge about how to achieve those objectives. A rational, non- contradictory ethic can help us make better choices regarding our lives as well as social well-being.
Essence, Determinants and Consequences of Ethics
A useful way to deal with ethics is seeing it as an active process of design, an ongoing process that occurs whenever circumstances force us to deal with conflict, tension, uncertainty and risk. As individuals define the boundaries and content of their responsibility in resolving specific ethical dilemmas both great and small, we create for ourselves an ethical identity and form character traits. Often this is done without consistent, intentional and systematic reflection, but that need not always be the case.
Skill in addressing ethical issues can be learned and cultivated if we recognize the importance of doing so. The requirement is that we view our treatment of ethical problems as an ongoing process of designing the best courses of action for specific situations we face. This demands that we are able to establish a framework for understanding ethics in dynamic rather than static terms.
Essence of Ethics
In this section we will study the problem of defining an abstract concept like ethics, its difference with morality, how it is related to values and laws as well as role and responsibility. We also analyze the different approaches to study ethics.
How can we define the concept of Ethics?
Ethics has been defined in various ways, some more technical and precise than others. Few definitions of ethics are as follows:
The attempt to state and evaluate principles by which ethical problems may be solved
The normative standards of conduct derived from the philosophical and religious traditions of society
The task of careful reflection several steps removed from the actual conduct of men
Concerned about what is right, fair, just or good; about what we ought to do, not just about what is the case or what is most acceptable or expedient
Moral philosophy, which includes four main goals or interests: clarification of moral concepts; critical evaluation of moral claims focused on “testing their truth, justification and adequacy”; constructing an inclusive perspective by elucidating the interconnections among moral ideas and values; and providing moral guidance through improving practical judgment.
As an active enterprise, ethics seek to clarify the logic and adequacy of the values that shape the world; it assesses the moral possibilities which are projected and betrayed in the social give-and-take. Anyone engaged in ethical reflection takes on the task of analyzing and evaluating the principles embodied in various alternatives for conduct and social order.
The study of moral conduct and moral status
Is there any difference between the concepts of Ethics and Morality
Though ethics and morality are often used interchangeably, but here we make a subtle distinction between them. Morality assumes some accepted modes of behaviour that are given by a religious tradition, a culture (including an organizational culture), a social class, a community, or a family. It involves expected courses of conduct that are rooted in both formal rules and informal norms. It is expressed through such precepts as “decent young people do not engage in premarital sex”, “family comes first”, “one should not conspicuously
display one’s wealth”, “guests in one’s home must always be treated with respect”, “never drive under influence”, “a day’s pay requires a day’s work”, “follow the orders of those above you in the organization” and similar expectations. Sometimes these expectations are written out in codes of conduct or rules, but at other times they are assumed and taken for granted. Typically they are asserted by a tradition, culture, religion, community, organization, or family as simply what is right.
Ethics, on the other hand, is one step removed from action. It involves the examination and analysis of the logic, values, beliefs and principles that are used to justify morality in its various forms. It considers what is meant by principles such as justice, veracity, or the public interest; their implications for conduct in particular situations; and how one might argue for one principle over another as determinative in a particular decision. Ethics takes what is given or prescribed and asks what is meant and why. So ethics as related to conduct is critical reflection on morality toward grounding moral conduct in systemic reflection. Ethical reflection also involves an effective element because it often evokes emotive response of comfort or discomfort, resolution or quandary, and affirmation or antagonism.
Ethics also deals with the moral status of entities such as families, organizations, communities and societies. Here ethical reasoning is focused on how the characteristics associated with the good family, the good organization, or the good society are grounded in certain principles, values, beliefs and logical argument. Ethics weighs the adequacy of these attributes and analyzes how they are justified.
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