P.A._ETH-TALK__IS_IT_ETHICAL_

P.A. ETH-TALK: IS IT ETHICAL' Abstract The study and discussion of ethics in public administration can be dysfunctional and even harmful without a sophisticated understanding of the field and ethics. This article stresses that those engaged in discussing ethics should understand epistemology, focus on the practical, and be very circumspect about imposing a particular ethical prescriptive on others. Introduction P.A. eth-talk (the study and discussion of Public Administration ethics) can be dysfunctional, and it is harmful to public administration practice and thinking-ethics properly being at the heart of the p.a. discipline-not to identify the criteria that can distinguish healthy from dysfunctional eth-talk. This paper illustrates these two claims by discussing three among the minimal criteria that healthy P.A. eth-talk should meet. Most of this material was published earlier (e.g., Farmer, 1995, 1999). The first criterion is that healthy P.A. eth-talk should be realistic in its recognition of the epistemological nature of the ethical, and that ethics that are unrealistic are dysfunctional. Second, healthy eth-talk should be comprehensively practical, avoiding a constricted view of practicality. Third, healthy eth-talk should incorporate a hesitant posture toward imposing ethical prescriptions on others. A practical implication of this paper is that, wonderful as ethics, ethical, pa, eth-talk, justice, about, should, certainty, public, others, dysfunctional, core, values, turn, healthy, grounding, st, social, skepticism, reason, philosophy, because, value, society, shift, paper, own, human, first, claims, augustine, administration, whether, view