Reflections on Ethics

Reflections on Ethics
As we come to an end I look back at the past several weeks and I conclude that this was a very enjoyable class. It was better that MMC 540, because by now I got a grip of some of the gadgets needed to navigate the class. (Thanks to that previous class, I must confess)
It is interesting to study Ethics from a different standpoint than the traditional perspective of the Greeks or the Ethical Relativism, for example. In todays’ globalized business world it makes sense to attempt to find a general rule where everyone can agree in order to manage ethics in the workplace. Although I agree that this system may help to guide employees in the quest for ethical behavior, back in my mind I still have that tiny voice arguing that it is in the individual self where the roots of ethics really laid. We can set all the possible rules to help to establish an ethical structure, but ultimately it is the individual the one who chooses to follow or not those rules. There is where the true ethics rest.
Several days ago I was watching an exciting basketball game between Bellevue University and another college. One of the other team players used his shoulder to push really hard one of the B.U. players. I stand up very upset and screamed “that’s wrong, you pushed him” The referees caught the foul and the game continued its course. Later on during the game I noticed one of our players pushing a player of the other team. The referees missed that one. Did I stand up and screamed “foul?” What do you think? Why not? It would have been the ethical thing to do, right? Bellevue University won that game and of course I was happy. But after I walked out I started to analyze myself. I thought how did I let myself get so upset about it? And why can I be blind to our own team wrong doing but I will rush to point out the other team errors?
Sometimes it seems like we justify ourselves by assuming that everyone also do the same. Does something become acceptable just because everybody does it? Then the Holocaust was o.k.? After all the Germany Nazi thought it was O.K. to “purify” their race. They thought that the Jews were taking over their country, over their jobs, over their lives. They justified their crimes by assuming that they were superior, and that the Jews and other races were inferior. They did enacted laws to protect their citizens’ rights, laws that violated Jews essential human rights.
Was then the Apartheid an ethical behavior? A minority that felt threatened by a majority decided that was o.k. to keep a separation line between blacks and whites and they dictated laws to insure that separation. Their laws kept Nelson Mandela lock for most of his life for fear of his leadership.
Was Slavism a right thing to do? After all there was laws on place that say it was legal for one human been to be owned by another human been!
I found an interesting article that highlights these points.
“Being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one's feelings… following his or her feelings may recoil from doing what is right…..Nor should one identify ethics with religion…Being ethical is also not the same as following the law…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. Finally, being ethical is not the same as doing "whatever society accepts." society can become ethically corrupt. Nazi Germany is a good example of a morally corrupt society.”
The authors continue their essay answering the question about what is the Ethics. They argue that Ethics is two things…”a well-founded standards about what is correct and what is not... that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.” Their second definition concerns to "the study and development of one's ethical standards… 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".
From this perspective, learning ethics it is a way to been ethical. We have gotten several good tools in this class that will prove to be very helpful not only in the work-place but also in our daily living.
I’ll add to those previous definitions that been ethical is also spreading the word. Teaching our children the tools to be ethical, it is also a way to practice ethics. Hopefully they can build a better society. It has been a pleasure to interact with all of you sharing and learning from each other’s experiences. See you next semester. To read more about the article cited go to the link below.
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html