Defining_Ethics

Ethics April 23, 2011 Defining ethics is almost impossible. As you read the history of the world you see the ethics of man has changed over time. This change makes it almost impossible to lay a concrete definition on ethics. You find ethics change as you travel from one culture to another. This created the theory of ethical relativism. This theory states that something can be morally wrong in one culture, but morally right in another culture, it is all based on the practices of society. Ethics change based on religions. It is unthinkable to most people of today’s society that killing, under any umbrella, is morally right, but look at the radical Muslims. And don’t get too pious Christians, because there have been rivers of bloodshed under the blanket of Jesus Christ. This all makes defining ethics a very difficult task. You can say that following one’s religious beliefs is ethical but how about when religious beliefs lead to acts that are socially and lawfully unethical. It is just as impossible to define ethics by society because society changes on the whims of individuals. The Nazis believed they were the perfect race and all other races were substandard. If social ethics were used to define ethics then it would be okay to slaughter millions of Jews as long as they were a Nazi. Despite these challenges many have still have labored greatly to define ethics and determine what is ethical and what is unethical. So what do ethics mean to me' If I had to define ethics I would say it is right or wrong based on whatever go-no-gauge you decide to use. Since ethics is difficult to define deciding whether something is ethical or not takes incredible focus and thought. Critical thinking is used to make this difficult task manageable. I compare critical thinking to a toolbox. Tradesmen use a toolbox full of tools to make a difficult job easier. How difficult would it be to build a set of cabinets with only a chisel' This is the same with determining if something is ethical. This would prove to be almost impossible without critical thinking or the tools inside this tool box. When you open the tool box of critical thinking you will find two incredibly important tools used to determine ethical decisions. The first two tools you will grab is clarity and precision. This tool will allow you to clearly determine what the ethical question is without fallacy or red herrings. Many times people will cloud the situation or offer up irrelevant facts, know as a red herring argument, to confuse people. The clarity and precision tool will allow you to clarify the points and sub points of the ethical question eliminating possible confusion. The next tool you will find in the critical thinking tool box is consistency. This tool is important because it allows you to set a standard and maintain that standard in each situation. It is possible to take each situation use the correct tool and determine the ethical decision. There are many different beliefs about ethical living. Many believe that without God and religion there would be no ethics. This is called theological voluntarism. There is the belief that reason and emotions determine ethics. You also have the belief that ethics is determined by feelings, or a sense of duty. Every one of these beliefs has points that make sense but they also have several flaws. I really do not think any of these are the sole bases for ethics but that it is a combination of several or all of them. I have made several ethical decisions and I have never used one sole mindset to make any of them but rather a combination of society, religion, critical thinking, and life experiences. Reason, intuition, and emotion all come into play when making an ethical decision and often time these three will conflict. A college professor has a student that is working to pay their way and their work load has recently been increased. This increase has caused the students grades to suffer. The professor noticed the student will have a D average and knows that a D average will cause the student to lose their tuition assistance. Does the teacher fudge the student’s grades because he knows the student is not slacking but is over worked or do they give the correct grade and the student loses their tuition assistance. If you use emotion to determine this you will fudge the student’s grades because you would feel like the student deserved the grades despite the level of work. If you used reason you would give the student a grade that reflected their work because you would know it would not be fair to the other students that completed the work. If you used intuition you would do whatever your life experiences had taught you. Every situation you have been through would come into play when it came time to make the decision. When making an ethical decision you will find that reason, emotion, and intuition will often time conflict. That is why you need your tool box. Remember, you don’t build cabinets with just a chisel and you don’t make ethical decisions without a good set of tools.