There are three main contexts in which ethics can be applied to our lives. These are as follows:
1. PERSONAL
This relates to the principles of an individual and the way they behave in their everyday life. These are formed by; family values, religion and conscience. It occurred to me that this could also relate to the argument of nature vs. nurture as we could debate the degree of what ethical standards we are born with and what is influenced by our surrounding and upbringing. If a parent has the view that stealing is wrong and has told the child this throughout their life and the child has never witnessed the parent stealing then is it in the capability of that child to grow up and be a thief? Is it instilled in them from day one no matter what morals they are brought up with or does it have to be triggered by something in their life? Have they seen a friend steal and learnt it from there or was it an inevitable outcome?
I believe that our personal ethics are heavily influenced by our family and upbringing. When I am having a dilemma or problem I always think...’what would my mum do?!’ This is because I feel my parents have formed my personal ethics and what I would consider to be the right thing to do, hence the reason I always seek advice from them. However, some people I know are completely different to their parents and have rebelled against the ethical codes they were brought up with. Perhaps this is because they were too strongly enforced on them when they were younger so they feel the need to break away. I think that something has to trigger this and you can’t be born a criminal.
2. PROFESSIONAL
Professional ethics have evolved from the ways of particular professions such as the medical profession. I have come across many different sets of professional ethics in my career so far and these are often expressed as a code of conduct. I have come across the professional ethics of a dance teacher which were set out in a written contract and were in aid of benefiting the children and the reputation of the company. I also use my personal ethics in a professional situation and I think I have always acted appropriately in the professional environment. I have also come across the professional ethics of a cheerleader working under a big name and advertising a massive company. For this there is also a written code of conduct stating the way to behave, look and dress. It is forbidden to wear clothes branded with any other make to arrive or leave and in order to keep the job I have to adhere to the code of conduct and use my common sense as well when interacting with people at the matches. As a fitness instructor teaching group exercise classes in gyms I have also come across professional ethic here. These have mainly centred on reliability and the smooth running of the class timetable. Members turn up for a class and if you are not there, the class cannot run and the club have to extensively apologise to their members and refund some of their months membership. So to be blunt you have to be there, if you are ill you have to find cover, if there is no one to cover you have to go anyway otherwise there will be 30 members waiting for an hour in a studio and a very unhappy employer.
3. ORGANISATIONAL
This refers to the established ‘ethos’ of an organisation. This is linked to professional ethics but more of a general understanding of the way things work in one particular establishment. As a self employed dance teacher and fitness instructor I don’t have just one employer, I am employed by various organisations, be it dancing schools or fitness clubs to go and do classes. So I do no more than a couple of hours per week in each place and I literally go in, do my class, sign the folder, and leave an hour later. This means that I am not a major part of one establishment. This is the way with all fitness instructors and it is a good way to get experience of lots of different organisations. However, even from spending such a small amount of time in each place it is clear to me that each establishment does things in a different way even if they are a different branch of the same major chain (I’m not sure what the rules are with regard to mentioning big companies and how they operate so i’m going to play safe!). Each different place wants invoices in on a different day of the month, one wants them e mailed, another wants them hand delivered, the folders are different, the members are different etc etc.
The common factor with these three ethical contexts (personal, professional and organisational) is that the purpose of them all is to promote social good. This links to religion as religion was created to keep order when there was no official law. Religion used to be essential to promote a civilised way of life as they were able to establish simple laws (i.e. the Ten Commandments) which the community would abide by as they now had religion to believe in. It was the first law like structure and has been developed through time to give us the system we have today. However, the aim of promoting social good is still the same.
Theoretical approaches to ethics
1. CONSEQUENTIALISM
This refers to a theory of moral obligation developed by JS Mill (1861) and suggests that the best way to make a decision is to choose the option that produces the greatest good for the greatest number. Therefore, an action which may usually be considered wrong i.e. lying could be justified by circumstance if the outcome was to benefit a larger amount of people.
2. DEONTOLOGY
Immanuel Kant (1779) believed in a rule based theory that an action is either right or wrong no matter what the circumstances are. Everything is black and white and there is no grey area and no exceptions.
In my professional practice I have found that this is not always as simple as it seems. On first thought I would have said that I think most things should be either right or wrong but since working with children I have realised this is hard to abide by. Sometimes when I tell a child that something they have done is good, it may not actually be the truth. Obviously I try and give praise where it is deserved but if at the end of a class I haven’t given one of the children a single bit of praise and they are looking disheartened then I will say good to them the last time we do the dance. Theoretically this is sometimes a white lie as they may not be particularly good but can that be classed as morally wrong? Surely not? They are only 6 and if it helps encourage the child to come back the next week and feel they have achieved then I think it is justified.
3. VIRTUE ETHICS
This relates to the character of the person rather than the actions they take. Therefore more importance is placed on being than doing (Plato and Aristotle).
When researching the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle who were mentioned in the reader, I came across another Greek philosopher with a different theory. Socrates (469BC-399BC) was a Greek philosopher who believed that people always do naturally what is right and bad or evil actions are simply a result of ignorance. Therefore, if someone has committed a crime they have done it because they weren’t aware that it was wrong or to them it was not wrong. He believed that if the person had known or thought it was wrong they would not have done it. This interested me because I strongly disagree. When someone has done something wrong I am sure that they know it is wrong, hence the reason why people lie about their actions. They would not need to lie of they thought they were right. This also made me think of the children I teach. Even children as young as 5 know when they have been naughty. If they have done something in my class e.g. been messing around then they know this is wrong because they try to lie about it first and then they say sorry. Maybe some criminals who carry out bad actions on a daily basis genuinely don’t think they are doing anything wrong as it is a way of life for them and is a habit so they would do it without even thinking. Can you convince yourself that something is right? Even if you do, deep down do you actually believe it?
The case study with the photograph taken by Kevin Carter is an interesting example of a professional ethical dilema. Should he abide by the criteria of his job description or break the guidelines and help the impoverished girl? While this is an interesting dilemma I don’t think it is as simple as that. There must have been other factors in the dilemma such as the fact that the girl probably didn’t die purely as a result of Carter not helping her towards the water. She may have still died at the same time even if she had some water due to the fact that she was probably already ill, diseased, malnourished and dehydrated. Also, do we know that he committed suicide as a direct result from this incident? I feel like this incident may be edited information. He must have seen many disturbing things in his life being a photographer so maybe this contributed to his suicide as well?
There are many ethical issues and dilemmas which we are exposed to everyday and since studying this topic I have become aware of how many times a day I consult my personal ethics and beliefs to work out what to do. There are always things on the news where people have differing views on a topic because they have different morals and values. For example there are different beliefs regarding arranged marriages and homosexuality. I think that your personal beliefs are determined by your religion, upbringing and personal experience. There was recently a case in the media about a Christian couple who owned a bed and bed breakfast hotel and wanted to ban gay couples from staying there as they didn’t believe in homosexuality. This caused a lot of controversy as some felt they were justified to abide by their religion and others felt it was discriminating.
I personally don’t think we should use the term ‘I don’t believe in....’. To me it doesn’t make sense. You can’t not believe in homosexuality because it exists and it happens. The term infers that you refuse to think that is exists. I think that just because you don’t engage in something yourself it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist or shouldn’t exist for that matter. I am Jewish and have come across anti Semitism in my life. I have experienced people making anti Semitic jokes and remarks. One of these people was a child aged about 10. A child of this age can’t make something like that up from nowhere; they must have heard it from an adult. It turned out that the parents of the child didn’t believe in Jewish people and said they shouldn’t live in this country!!! The parents successfully passed this view on to the child who went around shouting out the jokes he heard from his parents.
Processes of moral philosophy
1. METAETHICS
This involves analysing and working out the meaning and nature of moral terms, judgements and arguments.
2. THEORETICAL NORMATIVE ETHICS
This involves making judgements and developing theories. It includes three elements; Moral axiology (good and evil), Virtue ethics (moral excellence in character) and Theory of moral obligation (types of actions which are morally permissible)
3. APPLIED ETHICS
This involves resolving moral problems or issues.
References:
Course reader 5, Professional ethics, Midllesex University
Internet encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010, Ancient Greek Philosophy, published by IEP. Available from http://www.iep.utm.edu/greekphi/(accessed 22/03/2011)
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