Subject: GS 4
Syllabus: Ethics and Human Interface
Questions
- Can ethics be taught in educational institutions? Does the awareness of ethical reasoning make a person more ethical? (150 words, 10 Marks)
- Do private ethics have a bearing on public life? Can private ethical behaviour be separated from public ethics without consequences? (150 words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
- Can ethics be taught in educational institutions? Does the awareness of ethical reasoning make a person more ethical?
(150 words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction
- As Theodore Roosevelt noted, to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Main Body
It is highly desirable to have ethics as a discipline in educational institutions, and it can impact students in the following ways:
- Studying ethics can make students less dogmatic and more tolerant.
- It will expose students to various alternative lines of reasoning about day-to-day scenarios.
- It will give an opportunity to think and become clearer about their own value commitments.
- Classes give students a safe place to talk about moral disagreements. They provide students with the language and social license to discuss topics they would not have otherwise felt comfortable bringing up, such as their moral concerns with shady practices they have observed.
- Teaching morality is not about inculcating substantive positions. The purpose isn’t necessarily to answer questions, but to raise them, and at the same time to provide students with a method (rules, or boundaries) in accordance with which the questions must be discussed.
- While there may never be consensus on the ‘right answer’ in ethics, ethics courses will help in improving the reasoning and reflecting on our intuitions, principles and values by challenging students to provide reasons for their views, and to counter the reasons of others without invoking flawed arguments or fallacies.
Conclusion
- Many scholars have raised questions on the efficacy of ethics courses being taught. They contend that it merely makes them aware of various kinds of ethical reasoning, but does not make a person more ethical. However, by equipping the people with ethical reasoning, it reduces unethical actions caused due to ignorance. When more and more individuals are ethically aware, it increases the propensity for ethical behaviour.
- Do private ethics have a bearing on public life? Can private ethical behaviour be separated from public ethics without consequences?
(150 words, 10 Marks)
Model Structure
Introduction
- Human beings are complex creatures, and hence, we can find people who are good in their personal lives but are unethical in their professional lives, and vice versa. However, integrity requires consistency in the sense that our moral standards, actions, and values should not be contradictory, irrespective of situation or time or place.
Main Body
Private ethics has an effect on public life, and a few examples discussed below show the impact:
- A moral transgression on the part of Bill Clinton by having an affair with Monica Lewinsky led to the loss of reputation and impeachment proceedings initiated against him.
- A government employee is liable to be placed under suspension if he remains in custody for more than 48 hours.
- The suspension will come into effect, even if the government employee is arrested because of wrongdoing in their personal life. Public servants are supposed to be on duty 24X7, and hence any ethical violation, even in personal life, is taken seriously.
- People are an integral whole, and hence, it is very difficult to maintain a clear and precise distinction between public ethics and private ethics.
- No individual behaviour is without social implications. No social situation or problem is without individual repercussions.
- For instance, it is difficult to imagine that a person who genuinely respects women's rights, but indulges in sexual harassment at the office.
- However, we can find many hypocritical men who espouse equality for women, even when they don’t believe in it. They might deceive the outside world, but deep inside, it is difficult to be an ethical person in one theatre, but not in the other.
Conclusion
- Thus, private and public cannot be separated, and being ethical implies consistency in all spheres of life.
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