UPSC (GS-IV): Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions- I

Essence of Ethics in human actions:

• Ethics is a benchmark of human behaviour. It is a set of established standards the society places on the member to guide the behaviour.
  • It helps choosing and differentiating between right or wrong, tell us about our moral duties and obligations and aims to achieve Sommum Bonum (the highest good).
• Ethics is stemmed from the Greek word ‘ethos’ which means custom, habit, character or disposition.
• It deals with the Human character and conduct, using established standard based on moral principle.
  • Judging whether character and conduct is right or wrong,
  • Improving character and conduct, and
  • Building character.
• There is not one set of established standard rather there are a set of standards. It doesn’t mean subjectivity and ambiguity rather it shows dynamic nature of human character, conduct and established standard.
  • Broadly, there are two established standard:
    • Deontology: emphasize on human conduct itself- as moral duty.
    • Teleology: Judges action on the basis of outcome of action.
• Ethics tries to investigate questions like:
  • What actions are right or wrong in particular circumstances? Or How people ought to act?
  • What are our rights and responsibilities?
  • What is the best way for people to live? Or How to live a good life?
• Ethics is required by an individual for leading a satisfactory life and ensuring that its conduct is right, truthful and just.
• Some key habits of ethical behaviour: sincerity, honesty, integrity, uprightness, truthfulness, respect for self and others, respect for time, respect for work, respect for our environment, regularity and punctuality, maintaining cordial relations with colleagues and clients, willingness to learn and take on new responsibilities etc.
• To clearly understand what ethics mean, it is necessary to know what ethics are not.
  • Ethics are not feeling:
    • Ethics are not feeling that tell about something is right or wrong. Feelings frequently deviate from what is ethical. Often our feelings will tell us that it is uncomfortable to the right thing if it is hard.
  • Ethics are not same as religion:
    • Most religions, of course, advocate high ethical standards. Yet if ethics were confined to religion, then ethics would apply only to religious people. But ethics applies as much to the behavior of the atheist as to that of the devout religious person.
    • Ethics cannot be confined to religion nor is it the same as religion.
  • Being ethical is also not the same as following the law of the land.
    • The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is ethical.
    • Our own pre-Civil War slavery laws and the old apartheid laws of present-day South Africa are grotesquely obvious examples of laws that deviate from what is ethical.
  • Being ethical is not the same as doing “whatever society accepts.” In any society, most people accept standards that are, in fact, ethical. But standards of behavior in society can deviate from what is ethical.
    • An entire society can become ethically corrupt. Nazi Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society.
    • Further, the lack of social consensus on many issues makes it impossible to equate ethics with whatever society accepts. Some people accept abortion but many others do not.
  • Ethics is not science:
    • Social and natural science can provide important data to help us make better ethical choices. While science alone does not tell us what we ought to do, it may provide an explanation for what humans are like. But ethics provide reasons for how humans ought to act.
    • Furthermore, just bcause something is scientifically or technologically possible, it is not always ethical to do so.
• In a nutshell, Ethics refers to two things:
  • First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.
    • Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud.
    • Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty.
    • And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy.
    • Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.
  • Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one’s ethical standards.
    • As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one’s standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded.
    • Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.
• It is not only about: finding solution to the problem, establishing standards, and determining about right or wrong. It is also about understanding the situation on the basis of critical thinking.
  • The critical thinking is base of ethics and is must for the progress of society.
• At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone other than ourselves, our own desires and self-interest. Ethics is concerned with other people’s interests, with the interests of society, with the ‘ultimate good’.
• The scope of ethics includes only voluntary human actions. This means the actions done by human consciously, deliberately and in view of an end. It is concerned about that part of human conduct for which human has some personal responsibility.
• It endeavours to analyse and evaluate the principles embodied in various alternatives for conduct and social order.