Summary
In this chapter we learn about what is Ethics and how it applies to our everyday lives.
Ethics is "the manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of "right" or "wrong" behavior - in both how we think and behave toward others and how we would like them to think and behave towards us" (Ghillyer,2012)
Essentially its is knowing what is right from wrong, good from bad. The issue arises when the line becomes blurred and we must chose what is right for us or the greater good in certain situations.
Understanding what is right and wrong can defined by many different sources that have huge influence on our lives. These sources can be friends, family, ethnic background, religion, school, the media – TV, radio newspapers, magazines, the internet,
personal role models and mentors .Your personal morals (morality) is a collection of all these influences as they are built up over your lifetime.
Types of Values that we have are:
Intrinsic Value - by which a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything good comes from that pursuit or not. (Ghillyer, 2012)
Instrumental Value - by which the pursuit of one value is a good way to reach another value. (Ghillyer,2012)
Value conflicts occur when your are presented with a situation that places your values in direct conflict with an action, such as How lying is bad, but what if you were lying to protect your friends or family? This is a grey area in ethics when the decision of right and wrong isn't as easily defined.
As a children we are taught the Golden Rule "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you" or simply put Treat others as you would like to be treated (Ghillyer,2012). Many other religions have adopted this thinking such as Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. The dangers of abiding by this rule is that every person will not follow the same rules that you do, so to live believing that everyone will act the same way as you would be naive.
Ethical theories can be divided into three categories: Virtue Ethics, Ethics for the greater good (Utilitarianism) and Universal Ethics.
Virtue Ethics is the belief of individual character and integrity established a concept of living your life according to a commitment to the achievement of a clear idea (Ghillyer,2012). The textbook gave an excellent example using the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In the Greek society at the time of Aristotle, they valued wisdom, courage and justice. While the Christian societies believed in faith, hope and charity. The downfall of this ethical theory is that if your values aren't reflected in other societies there is a high chance of value conflict.
Ethics for the greater good or Utilitarianism is more focused on the outcome of your actions rather than the apparent virtue of the actions themselves- that is, a focus on the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Ghillyer,2012). An issue that can arise from using this ethical theory is that if all you focus on is the greatest good for the greatest number of people, than no one is held accountable for the measures that they take to achieve the end goal. The textbook example supplied for this ethical theory was Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party launched a genocide to eradicate Jewish and "defective" people on the grounds of restoring the Aryan race. He believed this was for the greater good, but the means did not justify the ends.
Universal Ethics argues that there are certain and universal principles that should apply to all ethical judgements. Actions are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal rather than based on the needs of the situation (Ghillyer,2012). This ethical theory is problematic because if you focus on abiding by these principals, than no one is held accountable for the actions it took to ensure the principles were followed. The example provided by the textbook was about the current debate over Stem Cell research. The use of stem cells can be used in finding a cure for Parkinson's disease, the issue arises in peoples of opinions on the value of human life since the cells are harvested from human embryos. So the question lies if you recognized the value of human life above all else as a universal ethical principle, how do you justify the use of a human embryo in the harvesting of stem cells? Does the potential of curing so many life threatening diseases such as cancer, kidney disease and heart disease justify the research? (Ghillyer,2012)
Ethical Dilemmas are when your ethical theories are put to the test in your everyday life, when you are faced to use your morality and ethical principles to resolve an issue where there is no obvious right or wrong. When attempting to resolve ethical dilemmas we often use ethical reasoning -"looking at the information available to us in resolving an ethical , and drawing conclusions based on that information in relation to our own ethical standards"(Ghillyer,2012)-. According to Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of ethical reasoning people operate at 3 stages of reasoning: preconventional, conventional and postconventional.
Preconventional- This is the lowest possible stage of moral development where individuals perception of right and wrong is directly correlated to the punishment or reward they will gain or endure from their reasoning.
Conventional- This is typically where people operate their reasoning from. At this stage individuals continue to become more aware of broader influences outside of their family and morality.
Postconventional- Most people will never operate from this level. At this highest stage of ethical reasoning, an individual makes a clear and precises choice based on their moral values and principles that reflect an individual value system rather than reflecting a group position.
Ethics is "the manner by which we try to live our lives according to a standard of "right" or "wrong" behavior - in both how we think and behave toward others and how we would like them to think and behave towards us" (Ghillyer,2012)
Essentially its is knowing what is right from wrong, good from bad. The issue arises when the line becomes blurred and we must chose what is right for us or the greater good in certain situations.
Understanding what is right and wrong can defined by many different sources that have huge influence on our lives. These sources can be friends, family, ethnic background, religion, school, the media – TV, radio newspapers, magazines, the internet,
personal role models and mentors .Your personal morals (morality) is a collection of all these influences as they are built up over your lifetime.
Types of Values that we have are:
Intrinsic Value - by which a value is a good thing in itself and is pursued for its own sake, whether anything good comes from that pursuit or not. (Ghillyer, 2012)
Instrumental Value - by which the pursuit of one value is a good way to reach another value. (Ghillyer,2012)
Value conflicts occur when your are presented with a situation that places your values in direct conflict with an action, such as How lying is bad, but what if you were lying to protect your friends or family? This is a grey area in ethics when the decision of right and wrong isn't as easily defined.
As a children we are taught the Golden Rule "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you" or simply put Treat others as you would like to be treated (Ghillyer,2012). Many other religions have adopted this thinking such as Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism. The dangers of abiding by this rule is that every person will not follow the same rules that you do, so to live believing that everyone will act the same way as you would be naive.
Ethical theories can be divided into three categories: Virtue Ethics, Ethics for the greater good (Utilitarianism) and Universal Ethics.
Virtue Ethics is the belief of individual character and integrity established a concept of living your life according to a commitment to the achievement of a clear idea (Ghillyer,2012). The textbook gave an excellent example using the Greek philosopher Aristotle. In the Greek society at the time of Aristotle, they valued wisdom, courage and justice. While the Christian societies believed in faith, hope and charity. The downfall of this ethical theory is that if your values aren't reflected in other societies there is a high chance of value conflict.
Ethics for the greater good or Utilitarianism is more focused on the outcome of your actions rather than the apparent virtue of the actions themselves- that is, a focus on the greatest good for the greatest number of people (Ghillyer,2012). An issue that can arise from using this ethical theory is that if all you focus on is the greatest good for the greatest number of people, than no one is held accountable for the measures that they take to achieve the end goal. The textbook example supplied for this ethical theory was Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party launched a genocide to eradicate Jewish and "defective" people on the grounds of restoring the Aryan race. He believed this was for the greater good, but the means did not justify the ends.
Universal Ethics argues that there are certain and universal principles that should apply to all ethical judgements. Actions are taken out of duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal rather than based on the needs of the situation (Ghillyer,2012). This ethical theory is problematic because if you focus on abiding by these principals, than no one is held accountable for the actions it took to ensure the principles were followed. The example provided by the textbook was about the current debate over Stem Cell research. The use of stem cells can be used in finding a cure for Parkinson's disease, the issue arises in peoples of opinions on the value of human life since the cells are harvested from human embryos. So the question lies if you recognized the value of human life above all else as a universal ethical principle, how do you justify the use of a human embryo in the harvesting of stem cells? Does the potential of curing so many life threatening diseases such as cancer, kidney disease and heart disease justify the research? (Ghillyer,2012)
Ethical Dilemmas are when your ethical theories are put to the test in your everyday life, when you are faced to use your morality and ethical principles to resolve an issue where there is no obvious right or wrong. When attempting to resolve ethical dilemmas we often use ethical reasoning -"looking at the information available to us in resolving an ethical , and drawing conclusions based on that information in relation to our own ethical standards"(Ghillyer,2012)-. According to Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of ethical reasoning people operate at 3 stages of reasoning: preconventional, conventional and postconventional.
Preconventional- This is the lowest possible stage of moral development where individuals perception of right and wrong is directly correlated to the punishment or reward they will gain or endure from their reasoning.
Conventional- This is typically where people operate their reasoning from. At this stage individuals continue to become more aware of broader influences outside of their family and morality.
Postconventional- Most people will never operate from this level. At this highest stage of ethical reasoning, an individual makes a clear and precises choice based on their moral values and principles that reflect an individual value system rather than reflecting a group position.