ETHICS AND HUMAN INTERFACE

Themes Mapping

After reading this chapter you will learn

1.MEANING OF ETHICS AND ITS SCOPE.

2.ESSENCE
a.Essence and its meaning.
b.Differences and conflicts between Ethics and Morals
c.Differences b/w Ethics and Values
d.Differences between Ethics and laws,Ethics and Religion.
f. Differences between Ethical management& Management of ethics.

3. DETERMINANTS OR SOURCES OF ETHICS.

4. CONSEQUENCES OF ETHICS
a. Functions of ethics
c. Importance of ethics in civil service
d. Consequences of loss of ethics
e. Causes of deterioation of ethics.

5.DIMENSIONS OF ETHICS
a.Various branches or dimensions of Ethics like Meta
ethics,descriptive ethics.
b.Normatimve ethics like deontological,teleological,virtue ethics.
c.Approaches to ethics like
* Consequentialism(Utilitarian approach) and deontological
* Rights approach
* Justice approach
* Common good approach
* Virtue approach
d.Applied ethics
* Environmental ethics
 * Cyber ethics
* Media and journalistic ethics
* Bio ethics
* Ethics in technology and artificial intelligence.
* Administrative ethics
* Business and corporate ethics

6.ETHICS IN PUBLIC & PVT RELATIONSHIPS

a.Meaning and differences between public and private relationship.
b.Effect of public relationships on private relationships& vice versa.
c.importance of ethical with being professionally competent.

7.HUMAN VALUES
a.lessons from thelives of administrators- Verghese Kurien, M. S.
Swaminathan, Sam Pitroda, E. Sreedharan, V.P, Menon, T. N Sheshan.

b.lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders like Mahatma
Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Nielson Mandela,
Nehru, etc.

c.lessons from the lives and teachings of great reformers like

Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Ram mohan Roy, Kabir, Vivekananda,Dr Bhim
Rao Ambedkar,Kabir,Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar.

d.Values and its types like terminal and instrumental values,universal

or relative values,Intrinsic and Extrinsic values.
e.Importance of value and the process of value inculcation.
f.Role of family,society and education in value inculcation

ETHICS AND HUMAN INTERFACE

Ethics
The term Ethics comes from Greek word “Ethos” which means
Custom or Habit.Simply it’s “A set of principles or standards that
society adopts for itself and which guides us what to do and what not
to do the way acceptable to the society.”Hence, Ethics, defined as
Systematic study of human actions from the point of view of their
rightfulness or wrongfulness.
Or
Ethics are standards[,custom or habit,character,conduct ] formed by
society on the basis of which one can decide what is right or wrong.
These are external frameworks and reasonable restrictions to
regulate human behaviour and avoid social evils. Eg. doctor has
medical ethics which says that doctor has to treat a person whether
he is a terrorist or Soldier and his action will be ethical.

What is ethical action?

What is ethical action?
There are few elements that need to be present in an action, to be
qualify to became ethical or unethical. For example, a child without
any knowledge feed poisonous food to a cat, and cat died. Does the
action of that child is unethical? May be not. 3 condition, that need to
be satisfied in order to decide if it is ethical or unethical action.

1.Free Will-If a person has multiple choices, and freedom to pick one
within those choices, only then we can debate it on ethical ground.
2.Knowledge-A child without any knowledge feed poisonous food to
a cat and cat died, then it’s without any knowledge, hence we cannot
decide its ethicality.
3.Voluntary Action-If someone puts a gun on your head or straps a
bomb on your waist and then orders you to commit a crime, then ‘it’s
an involuntary action’ by you, hence we can’t judge it on ethical
grounds

Essence of ethics
Essence of ethics
Essence is the intrinsic quality of something that determines its
character.Essence of ethics stands for its features, significance,
benefits and so on.

1.Ethics cannot be shaped and sustained in isolation. A person’s

environment interacts with his/her genotype to influence behavioral
outcome. Both nature and nurture impact ethics of a person.

2.Man is not only the product but also the producer of his culture.
A person not only learns from his culture but may also lead to change
in ethical system of his society.Eg- Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Mahatma
Gandhi, Martin, Nelson Mandela.

3. Ethics depends upon the context in which they are operating.

They vary in the meaning & intensity according to time, place and
person (determinants of ethics).For eg sati once was unethical but not
now.Similarly homosexuality may be ethical ethical in one society but
unethical in other society.

4. Ethics operates at different level like individual, organisation,

socio-cultural, political and international. Ethics at each level affect
each other.

5. Ethics are abstract and subjective in nature i.e., they are affected
by individual’s emotion and perception.For instance, some people
emphasize upon following the right means whereas others
emphasize upon pursuing the right ends.

6. Ethics are interrelated to each other. Eg – honesty, truthfulness,

integrity; values of equality&justice cannot exist without tolerance etc

7. Ethics originate from the sense of justice prevailing in a

particular society.

8. Ethical behavior also comes into play when human interacts

with non-human world.eg artificial intelligence.

9. Ethics are maintained and sustained by sense of responsibility

and not mere accountability to some external agency.

10. Ethical standards may transcend the narrow stipulations of law

and code of regulations

11.Ethics only deals with voluntary human action. It only deals

with actions when the person acts with free will without any coercion.
For instance, if a person is made to do something unethical at
gunpoint, he/she cannot be called ethical/unethical as he/she did not
act on his own.
12.Ethics preach a certain kind of behaviour to us. It tells us how
should people behave.

What ethics is not about?

 Ethics is not morality

 Ethics is not religion.

 Ethics is not following the law

 Ethics is not following culturally accepted norms

 Ethics is not likes and dislikes

 Ethics is not beliefs

Morals
Morals are principles of right and wrong held by an individual.
Unlike ethics, morals are standards of behaviour pertaining to an
individual and not social conduct. Morals arise from personal
experience, character, conscience and so on. For example,
homosexuality might be unethical in a society but it might be seen as
moral by an individual.

Ethics and Morals

Both relate to "right" and "wrong" conduct.

❖ Ethics- are series of standards provided by external source e.g.-
profession,organization, religion etc.Morality is Individuals own
principles regarding right or wrong .

❖ If the contexts(space or time )are different then the ethics could

be different, hence there is some degree of flexibility in
ethics.Change in Morality depends on the change in the beliefs of
an individual which is hard to change
❖ Ethics are followed because society has decided that it is the
right course of action.Morality is followed because a person
believes that it is the right course of action.

❖ A person who follows the ethical principles need not necessarily

have strong moral values, in fact, there are even possibilities that
he may not have any morals. There could be situations where
ethics are violated by a moral person to maintain to uphold his moral
values.

❖ Not following ethics may lead to social disapproval and not

acting according to morals may lead to the feelings of discomfort
or cognitive dissonance.

Ethics and morals-conflicts

Mostly, there is congruence between both ethics and morals as
morality of an individual is developed within environment of ethics
prevailing in the society. But in some cases, ethics and morals are
contradictory which creates conflict between them

Historical example
❖ Kakori robbery case where the revolutionaries looted the train for
the mother nation,the action was Morally Right but Ethically wrong
because Stealing is Wrong in itself.

❖ During WWII at Tripuri Session the Congress got Split due to

difference in opinion and viewpoints of Gandhi and Bose-Bose
wanted to immediately Start CDM as it was an Opportune moment to
free the country from a Despotic Regime, he is Morally Correct as he
wanted to free Mother nation From Chains, but according to gandhi
this is Ethically Wrong as it is not correct to benefit from someone's
troubled time.
❖ The Bible gives many examples. Like Jesus was killed for
blasphemy for violating ethics,while doing nothing morally
wrong.

❖ When Draupdi asked Yudhisthara why be moral after they were

banished to jungle and duryodhana was made the king, Yudhisthrara
said that Being moral is important for stability and harmony in society,
to ensure dharma.He said that I am moral because that’s the way I am.

❖ Raja Ram Mohan Roy went against sati and lead the fight for sati
abolition as sati practice was against his morals

Administrative cum current example

❖ A lawyer’s morals may tell her that murder is reprehensible and
that murderers should be punished, but her ethics as a professional
lawyer, require her to defend her client to the best of her abilities,
even if she knows that the client is guilty.

❖ Euthanasia-Killing is morally wrong, but putting someone out of

their misery and ending their suffering is ethically right.

❖ What is moral for one may be unethical for the society as a whole
and vice- versa. eg.Homosexuality, polygamy, etc.Stem cell
research offers hope that could save millions of lives, but it requires
the destruction of human embryos.

Quote.
❖ “The ethical man knows what is right; the moral man does what is
right.” – Anonymous

Ethics and values

Values refer to enduring beliefs , based on which an individual make
judgements in life. These are the ‘preferences’ which describe
what is important in someone’s life.
We are more likely to make choices that support our value system
eg if bureaucrats value anonymity he will prefer remaining behind
the curtain.

The differences
❖ Ethics refers to guidelines for conduct while values determine
what is important for us or our preferences.
❖ Ethics are consistent, whereas values are different for different
persons, i.e. what is important for one person, may not be important
for another person.

❖ All ethics ae values but only those values which help in

determining what is right or wrong are ethics i.e. only moral
values are ethics. Bravery is a value but not ethics. People who are
not brave cannot be considered as unethical. Punctuality is a value
but also ethics in some countries like Japan

❖ Ethics determines, to what extent our options are right or wrong.

As opposed to values, which defines our priorities for life.Ethics is
evaluation of values (Mahabharata) i.e. values are scrutinized on
the basis of ethical standards.

❖ Ethics helps us in deciding what is morally correct or incorrect

in a given situation while values tell us what we want to achieve in
life. example - a person has value of achievement and success.
knowing this value we would expect him to be goal oriented but
whether he will cheat to get there later a. is the matter of ethics.

Ethics and laws

 Determinants of Ethics

Determinants of ethics are factors that shape the ethical standards

and behaviour of people. These determinants are the basis on which
people decide what is right and wrong.

1.Time: Ethics keep changing with time and hence, time also
determines ethical standards. Sati, purdah, untouchability etc.
were considered ethical in 18th century India but not anymore.

2. Experience: Life experiences shape our attitude towards ethics

and morality. After some experiences, we might adhere to ethical
standards strongly. For example, Ashoka’s experience in Kalinga
war changed his ethical standards of kingship. After witnessing road
accidents, we tend to drive more carefully and adhere to traffic rules.

3. Cost-benefit analysis: Comparison of positive and negative

consequences of actions is often used to judge their ethicality.
Philosophy of utilitarianism calls for ‘greatest good of the
greatest number’. For example, construction of big dams causes
displacement of many people but government justifies it based on the
greater number of people benefitted by drinking water, irrigation,
electricity etc.

4. Inspiration: Examples of personalities or events often shape

ethical standards of people as they impact mind and emotions. For
example, student leaders in India often justify their cause and
protests by giving example of Bhagat Singh who was also a radical
socialist.

5. Power: Political, economic or social power often lays down

ethical norms for a society. Governments create public policies and
laws which themselves declare what people should and should not
do. Wealthy individuals like celebrities and social leaders like
Sadhguru influence people and affect ethical standards.

6. Education: Education policy affects what people know and what

people think. Norms that are praised by the education system
become values for the people. For instance, dictators like Hitler
designed the educational curriculum in such a way so as to shape
the people’s ethical standards in favour of authoritarianism and
nationalism.

7. Governance: The government frames certain laws and policies

through which it incentivizes a particular behaviour and
disincentivizes another type of behaviour. Such incentive structure
shapes ethical standards of people as well as its adherence. William
Gladstone said, “It is the duty of government to make it difficult for
people to do wrong, easy to do right.” For example, Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan has affected ethical standards of people in favour of
cleanliness and sanitation.

8. Tradition and culture: Prevailing practices in a society are

accepted as the norm by people and shape the ethical standards.
This happens due to the mechanism of social influence and as
everyone wishes to be accepted by society. For example, gender
inequality is considered ethical in Saudi Arabia due to its peculiar
culture and tradition

9.Human conscience- inner voice guides what is right or wrong.

10.God and religion- all religion teach us compassion, selfless

service, love for humanity etc.( we know what is good or bad the
basis of religion).

Consequences of Ethics
Ethics are like electricity.It is not Apparent to naked eye but can
be felt in specific condition and visible when power is switched
on. similarly ethics play an implicit but important role inhuman life .

a. Satisfying basic human needs- In every human person there is a

deep desire for good. The ethical principles and moral practices help
a person to perfect himself/herself as a moral being. it motivate
people towards higher goal of life like self esteem and self
realisation.Eg-Lord Rama did not care for lower order needs like
kingship, power, wealth etc. and rather focused on virtues of courage,
responsibility etc.

b. Creating credibility -it creates credibility and trust among

organisation and people. Eg Tata group

c. Improving Decision Making- A man’s destiny is the sum total of

all the decisions that he/she takes in course of life. It helps us to
arrive at decision more quickly. For example, civil servants have
Code of Ethics to guide their decision making.

d. Securing the Society- Often ethics succeeds law in safeguarding

the society. Technology, for example is growing at such a fast pace
that the by the time law
comes up with a regulation we have a newer technology with new
threats.

e. Solace, Harmony, Satisfaction - Brings harmony at social level

and enhances social capital. Keeps control over regionalism,
casteism, intolerance. Help in the progress of society as it
propagates values of equality, tolerance, justice etc and people think
of social interest before private interest.

f. Safeguarding environment - Clean environment can only be

achieved by environmental ethics

2nd ARC in its fourth report ethics in governance, has said the
there is a need for ethics in every profession, voluntary
organisation and civil service as these are vitally involved in
process of governance at administrative level. societies based on
strong ethical value can sustain for a long period of time.

Consequences of loss of Ethics

Bureaucratic Level - Corruption, Nepotism, Loss of trust in
administration, Rise of inequalities, Demotivated Honest
officers,decrease in efficiency,, destruction of work culture.
International Level - Violating Ceasefires, Tax havens, Not
accepting displaced migrants, Loss of legitimacy of International
Institutions, Nuclear weapons

Environmental ethics -Loss of flora and fauna, ignoring climate

change, ignoring Polluter Pays Principle, developed countries not
following CBDR, promotion of untested GM crops,priority of growth
over development

Law and Order- Fake Police Encounters, AFSPA, arresting/beating

peaceful protesters
Bio ethics - issues like Abortion, Animal rights, cloning, Stem cell
research, Suicide, euthanasia

Political level - Criminalization of politics, Power Concentration,

Hung Assemblies, Rise of coalitions, Communalistic Politics, Dynastic
politics, corruption, Arab Spring, disruption in Parliament .

Social Level - Acceptance of corruption, Increased commoditization

of women, Rise of violence, Rise of materialism, Gender specific
crimes, crime against women increase, decresing elders respect,
breaking joint family, high drug addiction and loss of ethics lead to
new set of ethics like capital punishment.

Individual level- Rise of materialism, Increased use of abusive

language, Loss of Integrity, Loss of empathy, Lack of harmony,
Individualism, domestic violence, crime iagainst aged, splitting on
road.

Media Ethics- Breaking News, paid News, corporate,

Judge-jury-prosecutor, TRP

Cyber Ethics- Issue of Net neutrality, role of Artificial Intelligence in

human life, Cyber warfare.

Today the consequences of loss of ethics are powerful enough to

shape the Destiny of anindividual or an organisation.

various branches &dimensions of Ethics

To be continued