Ethics and Human Interface: Components, Values, and Morals # |
To prepare for ETHICS for any competitive exam, aspirants have to know about the Ethics and Human Interface. It gives an idea of all the important topics for the IAS Exam and the Economy syllabus (GS-IV). Ethics and Human Interface terms are important from Ethical perspectives in the UPSC exam. IAS aspirants should thoroughly understand their meaning and application, as questions can be asked from this static portion of the IAS Syllabus in both the UPSC Prelims and the UPSC Mains exams. Even these topics are also highly linked with current affairs. Almost every question asked from them is related to current events. So, apart from standard textbooks, you should rely on newspapers and news analyses as well for these sections.
- Since time immemorial Ethics was practised by several personalities across ancient India such as Buddha’s Ashtanga Marga and Ashoka’s realisation after the Kalinga war.
- But Ethics became more relevant after the Industrial Revolution started when man became greedy and started exploiting nature, colonisation, imperialism and rich becoming richer, poor becoming poorer, crime and discrimination started every nook and corner of the society.
- As a civil servant, he has to go through various critical circumstances in his service. Therefore, it’s important to study Ethics and inculcate those values into administration. It is not only helping him in decision making but also gives him an opportunity to uplift the weaker sections of the society.
- Why Ethics?
- To satisfy basic need
- Create credibility
- Improve decision making
- Self realisation
Ethics in Society #
Etymologically the term “Ethics” corresponds to the Greek word “Ethos” which means Character, Habit, Customs or Way of behaviour, etc. Hence, Ethics, defined as Systematic study of human actions from the point of view of their rightfulness or wrongfulness. Simply it’s “A set of principles which guides us what to do and what not to do in a way acceptable to the society.”
But what is acceptable to society and what is not acceptable to society?
What is right and what is wrong?
What is good conduct and what is bad conduct?
Misconceptions About Ethics
- 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
Multifaceted Nature of Ethics #
Essence is the intrinsic quality of something that determines its character.
- Ethics originate from the sense of justice prevailing in a particular society.
- Ethics operates at different levels like individual, organisation, socio-cultural, political and international. Ethics at each level affect each other.
- Ethics are interrelated to each other. E.g. – honesty, truthfulness, integrity; values of equality and justice cannot exist without tolerance etc
- Ethical behaviour leads to various benefits for an individual as well as the society at large. Ethics leads to peace, harmony, respect, justice etc.
- Ethics preach a certain kind of behaviour to us. It tells us how people should behave.
- Ethics are abstract and subjective in nature i.e., they are affected by an individual’s emotion and perception.
- Ethics are determined in a social setting at a given point of ti A society’s history, culture, values etc. determine ethical standards which may vary from society to society.
- Ethics is not an objective universal concept. Its understanding varies from time to time, person to person, society to society.
- Ethical standards may transcend the narrow stipulations of law and code of regulations.
COMPONENTS OF ESSENCE OF ETHICS #
The basic components of essence of ethics are:
- Choices – Certain preferences and priorities make us decide what we want. Such choices which we made reflects in our actions
- Actions – Choices in turn shown through our actions physically.
- Behaviour – It is the way we act or conduct ourselves. The behaviour in which we exhibit is influenced by choices we made and acts we did.If it’s ethical, it is called ethical behaviour for example, treating others with respect or no respect.
Ethics: Imperatives for Societal Harmony and Progress #
- To regulate social relationships
- Ethical values help in Growth and Development overall
- For self-satisfaction
- To live a happy life and meaningful
- Making a good citizen
- Man, as a social animal by nature, is so selfish and exploit others for his own benefit and satisfaction, therefore to achieve greater good ethics are required.
Ethics: Influential Outcomes on Individuals and Society #
| Consequences for individual | Consequences for society |
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Ethics in India: Insights into Sources and Influences #
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Source |
Ethics |
| Historic Texts |
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| Ramayana & Mahabharata | Ideal governance, consequences of bad intentions, Nishkam karma |
| Gandhi Ethics | Non-Violence, Self-sustenance, swaraj, satyagraha, Courage of conviction, sustainable development |
| Constitution | Liberty, Equality and fraternity, secularism, justice etc. |
| Buddhist Ethics | Four Noble truths, middle path, non-violence |
| Jain Ethics | Not harm to anyone including small creatures |
| Sikh Ethics | Langar, brotherhood |
| Islamic Ethics | Collectivism, code of conduct |
| Laws | Laws lay down the basic framework for ethical action, and indicate the
guidelines for such action. |
| Society | It plays a crucial role in laying down the norms for acceptable community behaviour. |
| Conscience | Our inner conscience perhaps serves as the final point, where the actual decision-making about what is ethical, and what is not, are eventually made. |
| Human values | The determinants of ethics are often regarded as the universal human values such as truthfulness, honesty, integrity, etc. |
- Ethics in India
- Historic Texts
- Ramaya and Mahabharth
- Gandhi Ethics
- Constitutional values
- Buddhist Ethics
- Jain Ethics
- Sikh Ethics
- Islamic Ethics
Determinants of Ethics: Understanding Influential Factors on Ethical Behavior #
- Person: Depends on the mental make-up of the individual. It depends upon how the person has internalised personal attitudes and values regarding ethical behaviour.
- Place: It refers to the external environment which includes family, school, etc. For example, as kids we were told by our parents and teachers not to steal things. As we grow up we tend to carry such knowledge and apply it to the real world. Similarly, the workplace teaches us ethics of teamwork, punctuality, responsibility, etc.
- Time: Different individuals, societies and cultures have different sets of moral codes at different times. It was once considered ethical to own a slave. But today such a practice is unethical.
- Object: It is unethical to lie despite any circumstances, purpose or intention. Telling a truth to intentionally harm a person is also unethical as the intention of telling a truth is not pure.
- Circumstances: Stealing is unethical. But a poor person stealing to feed her children reduces the act. Such situation ethics bring subjectivity as it often makes morality subjective.
- End purpose: To give a donation to a poor person is good but if such donation is to lure poor person to do something for you, then it becomes immoral.
- Culture: Culture has a profound effect on shaping individual values. As western culture surrounds individualistic and Indian culture based on universalism.
- Role Models/Celebrities/Famous Personalities: The leadership or role models and celebrities of a society or an organization or nation also helps to determine the conduct of their followers or admirers is ethical.
- Constitution: The Constitution of various countries also is a way to establish moral disposition of their society.
- God & Religion: Every religion and god advocate universal peace and ethical practices. Religious textbooks teach how one should behave in a society and how the society should be.
- Conscience & Intuition: A person who follows his conscience & Intuition feels that what is good is good because it is good and what is bad is bad because it is bad. Intuition doesn’t need any justification while following its actions. But conscience is justified based on his actions because of its moral nature and it has reasoning and justification.
- Family: Family is the first interaction where a child’s personality develops since his birth. Today’s Children are tomorrow’s citizens. Therefore, it’s of utmost importance that Family environment teaches what is ethically correct.
Ethical Management and Management of Ethics #
Ethics, Values, and Morals: Distinguishing Components of Human Behavior
| Ethics | Values | Morals |
| Ethics are standards of human conduct that society adopts for itself. Ethics are a set of dos and don’ts that govern human conduct in a social setting. | Values can be defined as qualities that are instrumental to us. Values are benchmarks or standards on which the desirability of an action can be measured. Values act as an internal compass which help a person evaluate different choices of conduct and behaviour. E.g. honesty, integrity, empathy, courage, dedication, compassion etc. | 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 instance, Homosexuality might be moral from an individual’s perspective. But it might be unethical from a society’s point of view. |
Belief: Exploring the Cognitive Component of Human Experience #
- A belief is the most common term used to explain the behavioural component of a person. It is an internal feeling that something is true, even though that belief may be unproven and irrational.
- g. My belief is that God plays an important role in success and achievements in life.
- g. Gandhiji believed that swaraj can be attained within one year of launching a non-cooperation movement.
- Belief can be peripheral (weak) and core (strong). Beliefs which are formed by direct interaction are generally strong.
- Belief is also referred to as cognition.
Essence of Ethics in Human Actions
- Essence of ethics in human actions refers to the influence of ethical values in human conduct. Ethics is a set of standards that society places on itself and which helps guide behaviour, choices and actions.
- What kind of conduct a person follows reflects in his actions. Either he wants to follow good ones which will make him a good human being or he wants to follow the bad ones that will cause only harm to him as well as to society.
- But standards alone don’t ensure ethical behaviour which requires a robust culture of integrity. The crux of ethical behaviour does not lie only in standards, but in their adoption in action and in sanctions against their violations.
- Deciding between Good and Bad is not easy. Our Course of action decides which is good and bad. Because good is not always pleasurable but bad always attracts us which is by nature an easy thing to do.
Examples of Ethics in Human Actions #
- Habituating to smoking is easy but Quitting smoke is very much hard to achieve. By smoking, we get pleasure but quitting smoking requires self-determination.
- Therefore, our Course of action decides our Ethical conduct. The underlying principles to decide whether it is ethical or not are decided by factors like larger public good, conservation and sustainable development.
Consequences of Ethics in Actions: Impact on Individuals, Organizations, and Society
Consequences of Ethics means consequences of human actions which are guided by ethical practices. This means, if there is an action then definitely there is a reaction so being ethical will bring you good consequences like awards, rewards, appreciation etc but it will also bring bad consequences like transfers at work place, societal stigma, fear of harm to family members etc.
| Examples: |
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Consequential Ethics – where an act can be considered as good if it’s able to produce positive results.
| At Individual level | At Individual level it will build self-confidence, courage of conviction, trust and credibility.
Examples:
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| At organisational Level | At organisational Level, its brand quality improves, creating trust among people. But whistleblowers may face life threat for leaking mischief happening in the organisation
Examples:
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| At societal level | At societal level, it creates social capital, communal harmony, absence of greed, distributive justice.
Examples:
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Ethics in Individuals, Organizations, and Society: Consequences of Ethical Erosion #
Ethics plays an instrumental role in human life and society. Ethics helps in arriving at decisions more quickly as it assists making choices. It reveals the value dimension of a decision that would otherwise seem value free. However, loss of ethics could cause following consequences:
| Dimension | Consequences |
| Individual level | Petty crimes, domestic violence, urinating and spitting on public spaces, abusive and filthy language, crime against aged, jumping red light. |
| Social level | Corruption, Rise in crime rate, acknowledging goons and mafias, joint family, parent’s respect, drug addiction, regionalism, castes. |
| Organisational level | Nepotism, Corruption, rise in inequalities, loss of trust, decrease in efficiency, economy and effectiveness, destruction of work culture, loss of trust in the administration, lawlessness. |
| Political level | Hung parliament, corruption, criminalisation of politics, Coalition govt. |
| International level | Trust deficit, frictions, disputes, unhealthy competition, damage to the environment and unsustainable development, disregard to international conventions and laws. |
| Bioethical level | Abortion, animal rights, cloning, artificial intelligence, consent, confidentiality, GM organisms, Suicide. |
| Environmental level | Loss of flora and fauna, unsustainable development, polluter shall pay principle is diminishing, increase in pollution levels, disregard to Common But Differentiated Responsibility (CBDR) |
Ethics in Value Systems: Understanding the Impact of Values on Human Behavior
- Since human born, he will undergo several stages of personality development. The basic pillar on which his Behaviour depends on the Values he adopted in his life cycle.
- A strong value system defines character and character allows him to follow a specific code of conduct. Such conduct finally turns into Behaviour. Therefore, a strong value system makes a person stronger whether they are good values or bad values.
“Values are defined as a set of standards of Human Conduct which are important for humans based on human preferences, beliefs & Knowledge “
| Core Values |
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| Peripheral values |
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“All Ethics Are Values. All Values Are Not Ethics”
Example:
| Bad Values | Good Values |
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Personal Values vs. Social Values #
| Personal Values | Social Values |
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A positive and fulfilling life requires a coordinated and balanced pursuit of both self-serving and other serving values.
Different Types of Values:
We are having different types of value systems based on where they are applicable according to time and space.
| Strong Values: | No change in his value system . Not subjected to others influence |
| Weak Values: | Frequent change and subject to influence by others |
| Universal Values: | Does not changes Time& Space they are Universal in nature |
| Time specific Values: | Changes according to time & Space |
| Individual Values: | Follow according to his conscience |
| Social Values: | Untouchability, Child Marriage, Gender equality, Social Justice etc |
| Economic Values: | Fair in Trade, Economic Justice, Adulteration, Crony capitalism etc |
| Ethical Values: | Honesty, Truthful, Integrity etc |
| Political Values: | Public Service, Democracy, Rights etc |
| Indian values |
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| Western Values |
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| Universal Values |
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Values: Rooted in Nature and Spiritual Wisdom #
- Universal Values derived from Primary laws that is Nature
- Vedas and other religious scriptures Talk about primary laws which are always universal.
- Example: Selflessness
Knowledge and wealth are always beneficial to the people so if we hit a tree with stone it will give fruits instead of hitting us back. Universal values are primary, unconditional & self-lessness. Service based on complete Compassion and Love.
Relative Values #
- Depends on time and space
- Secondary values
- Subject to change
Examples of Relative Values #
- Untouchability & Slavery was considered as upper-class value but its abolished over a period of time
- Child marriages was banned which were considered earlier customary practice
- Dowry system
- Sea voyage was a sin to Hindus but its misconception was removed by Raja Rammohan Roy after travelling to England through sea route.
Classification of Values: #
- Terminal Values: related to an ultimate goal or end of a person
- Instrumental Values: related to means of achieving the desired outcome or an end
| Terminal Values | Instrumental Values |
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Ethics vs Values: Distinguishing Between What Is Right and What Is Important
| ETHICS | VALUES |
| Set of principles which are accepted by the society | Values are nothing but Choices of Individuals |
| Macro in Nature | Micro in Nature |
| Basically, at societal level | Individual level |
| It can be only good choices made by individuals | It can be either good or bad |
Ethics: Attitudes #
- Attitudes are views, beliefs, or evaluations of people about something (the object). The attitude object can be a person, place, thing, ideology, or an event. Attitudes can be positive or negative.
- g.: I hate men with long hair. In this example, the person is having a negative attitude towards men who grow long hair.
- Both Attitudes and Values are the beliefs (views)of a person. However, attitude is the belief (views) of a person towards ‘something’. Examples: I hate snakes, I don’t like big cars.
- Thus you can see that attitude is all about whether you like or dislike something.
- Value is also a belief (about what is important), but it’s not towards anything.
- Value can exist in itself.
- Then how is attitude connected with value? Attitude is the view of a person regarding a value.
Attitudes vs. Values #
| Attitudes | Values |
| What do you like / dislike? | What is important for you? |
| Derives from Beliefs | Derives from Beliefs |
| E.g. They like honest people | E.g. They value honesty |
Morals: Understanding the Essence of Personal, Public, and Political Ethics #
- Ethics, Morals and Values often use interchange. Morals are part ethics based on the concept of goodness.
- Here Bad part of ethics is excluded. Morality is the standard of individuals for right and wrong. Derived from the Latin word ‘Moralitus’ which means character.
- Examples: Being Honest, Transparency, Fair choice to everyone in recruitment exam etc
| Private Morality | Public Morality | Political Morality |
| This is called Inter personal Morality | Inter group Morality | Morality among rulers |
| Obligations to our children, spouse, parents, teachers and relatives | Harmony between different religious-philosophical groups generated by the exercise of self-restraint | Political morality specifying what rulers and the ruled owe one another and also subjects owe obedience to their king. But the ruler too owed something to his subjects to ensure the good of all |
| Here Morality is guided by unarticulated emotions among members of family | As there are no personal attachments, Individual goals and self-interest guides morality. There is no commonly held ethic either. | Values such as political freedom, solidarity, shared traditions and cultural heritage guides morality as citizens are subjects of political state. |
| We have a duty towards those under our special care, including the aged, ‘servants’, animals and, occasionally, strangers. | Neither hate speech nor speech glorifying oneself was acceptable as part of public morality | The core of political morality is a commitment to justice, to impartiality. |
| We can’t completely escape from being impartial because obligation towards our personal relationships | Some degree of partiality exists | We have to overcome our loyalty to blood relations, not pursue only our private interests, and commit instead to using power grounded in shared principles and complete impartiality and no discrimination |
| One’s private life automatically guarantees high moral stature in political life. | Public morality transforms to elect morally correct leaders | Political morality need not be shown private morality after assuming the power |
Constitutional Morality: Upholding Ethics Ideals in Governance #
- Constitutional morality is the substantive content of the constitution in the form of Ethical Ideas that underlines formal provisions.
- Justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, can be taken as elements of modern constitutional morality.
- According to Ambedkar, the constitution could at best provide a legal framework, a necessary but not sufficient condition for such a transformation.
- To be effective, constitutional laws have to rest upon substratum of Constitutional morality. It is not a natural sentiment but has to be cultivated.
- Constitutional morality:
- Enhances values like liberty, equality and fraternity
- Secularism i.e., respect for plurality
- Political, social and economic justice
- Open culture of dissent and constructive criticism
- Tolerance, restraint and mutual accommodation in public life
- Respect for formally prescribed rules and procedures
- Constitutional morality is the basis for which any statutory acts should be made.
Voice of Conscience: Guiding Ethics Decision-Making and Moral Reflection #
- It’s part of the subconscious state that instructs us to act in a particular way. Power to think about decisions about the value system. Here Ends have given more importance than means.
- Voice of Conscience Is our ability to make a practical decision in light of ethical values and principles.
- Voice of Conscience Is a person’s moral compass of right and wrong as well as the consciousness of one’s actions. It is the small voice from inside and also the voice of god. But usually, we don’t pay heed to such voices so we end up making wrong decisions.
- Man loses his state of mind and for a moment he will act and later realization happens with punishment. Lot of criminal cases happen when a person loses his state of mind and doesn’t listen to his Voice of Conscience.
Ethics: Examples Highlighting the Influence of Conscience #
- When we have to choose between family or organisation in a case involving your family, it is the conscience that guides you what decision you have to take.
- When appointing Vivekananda as chief disciple of Ramakrishna paramahamsa he asked to steal rice from home with the condition of nobody watching but Vivekananda replied that, “his inner conscience is always watching himself”.
- Famous business woman and her husband Indrani Mukherjee killed her own daughter. In this world only snakes kill their own babies where their inner conscience becomes blind.
Ethics: Demonstrating Courage of Conviction through Historical Examples #
It means you will do what you believe and have that courage to accept what you believe. If you have the courage of your convictions, you have the confidence to do what you believe is right, even though other people may not agree or approve.
Examples:
- Gandhiji fought against discrimination happened to Indians and blacks in South Africa
- Raja Rammohan Roy fought against sati abolition
- Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar fought against child marriages and supported widow remarriage
Ethics: Navigating the Crisis of Conscience with Historical Insight #
- It is a situation in which it is very difficult to decide what is the right thing to do. It’s one of the ethical dilemmas but in a strong sense.
- Example: To withdraw Non-cooperation movement Gandhiji underwent such a situation. If withdraws the movement he will face backlash from fellow leaders and if it is not withdrawn it will lead to a more violent nature. But he followed what he believed and subsequently withdrew.
Ethics vs Morals: Distinguishing Standards of Conduct and Personal Principles #
| ETHICS | MORALS |
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| Relationship | Values | Examples |
| Ethical & Moral | Selflessness & Integrity | Helping to downtrodden section of people or any act which is in consistency between moral and ethics |
| Ethical but not moral | Neo-liberal values like freedom and liberty | Live-in relationships are moral to youngsters but not acceptable to older generations. Another example is Home sexuality |
| Moral but not ethical | Selfishness, cultural values | War |
Ethics vs Law: Delineating Standards of Conduct and Legal Regulations #
| ETHICS | LAW |
| Ethics means the science of a standard human conduct. | The law is defined as the systematic body of rules that governs the whole society and the actions of its individual members |
| Ethics comprises guidelines and principles that inform people about how to live or how to behave in a particular situation. | The law consists of a set of rules and regulations |
| Ethics are governed by an individual, legal or professional norm, i.e., workplace ethics, environmental ethics and so on. | The law is created by the Government, which may be local, regional, national or international |
| It cannot be found in written form. | The law is expressed in the constitution in a written form or statute books |
| It is internal – Intrinsic | It is externally driven – Extrinsic |
| Breach or violation may not result in immediate punishment. | The breach of law may result in punishment or penalty, or both |
| Ethically acceptable can also be acceptable to the law | Legally acceptable need not be Ethical |
| Ethics has no such binding on the people | Legally binding |
| Ethics is the code of conduct that helps a person to decide what is right or wrong and how to act. | The objective of the law is to maintain social order and peace within the nation and protection to all the citizens. |
Approaches to Ethics: Analyzing Moral Issues through Different Perspectives #
- Every day we come across several ethical and moral dilemmas in our daily life. Dealing with these moral issues is often perplexing. How should we think through an ethical issue?
- What questions should we ask? What factors should we consider? Therefore, to solve an ethical dilemma the first step in analyzing moral issues is to get the facts.
- But having the facts is not enough. Facts by themselves only tell us what is; they do not tell us what ought to be. In addition to getting the facts, resolving an ethical issue also requires an appeal to values. Philosophers have developed five different approaches to values to deal with moral issues. They are:
- Utilitarian approach
- Rights approach
- Justice approach
- Common good approach
- Virtue approach
Utilitarian Approach to Ethics: Maximizing Utility for the Greatest Good #
- Utilitarianism was conceived in the 19th century by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill to help legislators determine which laws were morally best. Both Bentham and Mill suggested that ethical actions are those that provide the greatest balance of good over evil. To analyze an issue using the utilitarian approach,
- First identify the various courses of action available to us.
- Second, we ask who will be affected by each action and what benefits or harms will be derived from each.
- Third, we choose the action that will produce the greatest benefits to the greatest no of peoples with the least harm.
“The ethical action is the one that provides the greatest good for the greatest number.”
Rights Approach to Ethics: Upholding Individual Dignity and Rights #
- Proposed by Immanuel Kant and similar thoughts of philosophers, who focused on the individual’s right to choose for herself or himself. According to this school of philosophers, what makes “human beings different from mere things is that people have dignity based on their ability to choose freely what they will do with their lives, and they have a fundamental moral right to have these choices respected”.
- In deciding whether an action is moral or immoral using this approach:
- Does the action respect the moral rights of everyone?
- Actions are wrong to the extent that they violate the rights of individuals
- The more serious the violation, the more wrongful the action.
People are not objects to be manipulated. It is a violation of human dignity to use people in ways they do not freely choose. Some of the examples of individual rights are the right to privacy, right to truthfulness, right to not be harmed by anyone.
Fairness or Justice Approach to Ethics: Ensuring Equitable Treatment for All #
- The fairness or justice approach to ethics has its roots in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, who said that “equals should be treated equally and unequal unequally.”
- The basic moral question in this approach is:
- How fair is an action?
- Does it treat everyone in the same way, or does it show favouritism and discrimination?
- Favouritism gives benefits to some people without a justifiable reason for singling them out; discrimination imposes burdens on people who are no different from those on whom burdens are not imposed. Both favouritism and discrimination are unjust and wrong.
Common-Good Approach to Ethics: Advancing the Well-being of Society as a Whole #
- This approach to ethics assumes a society comprising individuals whose own good is linked to the good of the community. Community members are bound by the pursuit of common values and goals.
- The common good is a notion that originated more than 2,000 years ago in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. More recently, contemporary ethicist John Rawls defined the “common good as certain general conditions that are equally to everyone’s advantage.” In this approach, we focus on ensuring that the social policies, social systems, institutions, and environments on which we depend are beneficial to all.
- Examples of goods common to all include affordable health care, effective public safety, peace among nations, a just legal system, and an unpolluted environment.
Virtue Approach to Ethics: Cultivating Character and Human Potential #
- There is another kind of approach apart from above four, The virtue approach. In this approach, certain ideals strive towards full development of our humanity. These ideals are discovered through thoughtful reflection on what kind of people we have the potential to become.
- Virtues are attitudes or character traits that enable us to be and to act in ways that develop our highest potential.
- They enable us to pursue the ideals we have adopted.
- Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues.
- Virtues are like habits – that is, once acquired, they become characteristic of a person.
- Moreover, a person who has developed virtues will be naturally disposed to act in ways consistent with moral principles. The virtuous person is the ethical person.
- In dealing with an ethical problem using the virtue approach, we might ask:
- What kind of person should I be?
- What will promote the development of character within myself and my community?
Ethics: Integrating Approaches for Comprehensive Problem-Solving #
- Using the above five approaches, once we have ascertained the facts, we should ask ourselves five questions when trying to resolve a moral issue:
- What benefits and what harms will each course of action produce, and which alternative will lead to the best overall consequences?
- What moral rights do the affected parties have, and which course of action best respects those rights?
- Which course of action treats everyone the same, except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to, and does not show favouritism or discrimination?
- Which course of action advances the common good?
- Which course of action develops moral virtues?
- This method, of course, does not provide an automatic solution to moral problems. It is not meant to. The method is merely meant to help identify most of the important ethical considerations. In the end, we must deliberate on moral issues for ourselves, keeping a careful eye on both the facts and on the ethical considerations involved.
Challenges to Ethics in Public Service: Navigating Contemporary Issues #
Although value conflicts occur in manifold areas and at all levels of the public service, there are specific challenges to current public service values which are considered here. They arise in the context of:
- New modes of governance
- Market-based reforms
- Politicization
- Agencification
- Decentralization/relocation
- Changes in HRM and recruitment
- Information and Communication Technology
- Red Tapism
Branches of Ethics: Exploring the Diverse Dimensions of Ethical Inquiry
| Branch of Ethics | Description |
| Meta Ethics |
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| Normative (Prescriptive) Ethics |
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| Descriptive Ethics |
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| Applied Ethics |
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Consequentialism Ethics: Evaluating Actions Based on their Outcomes #
Consequentialism is based on result-based ethics. It gives us this guidance when faced with a moral dilemma. It is based on two principles:
- Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act
- The more good it produces, it treated as a good act
Different forms of consequentialism are:
- Utilitarianism states that people should maximise human welfare or well-being (which they used to call ‘utility’ – hence the name).
- Hedonism States that people should maximize human pleasure.
- Other forms of consequentialism take a more subtle approach- for example stating that people should maximize the satisfaction of their fully informed and rational preferences.
Dimensions and Types of Ethics: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives
Ethics can be classified into different categories based on its Nature and area of application.
- Depends on its Nature (Theoretical Dimensions):
- Deontological Ethics – Both Means & End important
- Teleological Ethics – End is the only Important means are not important
- Depends of Area of Application (Applied Dimension):
- Personal Ethics –Kind, Truthful, Donations from his earnings etc.
- Societal Ethics – Respect to each weaker sections, Social service, Social Responsibility etc
- Administrative Ethics – Honesty, Integrity, Transparent, Attitude and Aptitude etc
- Media Ethics
- Ethics Of Journalism
- Corporate Ethics – trusteeship etc.
- Business Ethics
- Bio-Ethics
- Environmental Ethics – Sustainable development, Conservation, Resource efficiency etc.
- Medical Ethics – Treat every patient without discrimination, Service to Humanity etc.
- Professional Ethics – Business Ethics, Corporate governance, Safe workplace for women, Equal opportunities in the Organisation etc.
Deontological Ethics: Emphasizing the Importance of Means and Ends #
- Derived from the word “Deont” means duty. The MEANS or instruments adopted to achieve outcome is very much important along with the desired END. Both MEANS and END both should be good.
- Thinkers like Gandhiji, Vivekananda, Kant, Nehru come under this category.
- Example: Gandhiji’s recalling of Non-cooperation movement is an example of Deontological Ethics. After the Chauri chaura incident he called off the movement before it got more violent. Gandhiji always believed in Non-Violence.
Teleological Ethics: Focusing on the Goodness of Ends or Goals #
- Derived from Greek philosophy. Telos means Ends/Goals. According to this school of thought if the outcome is good then the actions followed to reach that goal or objectives or ends are also considered as good actions.
- Thinkers like Epicurus, Thomas Aquinas, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, JS Mill and Bentham’s Utilitarian principle, Karl Marx etc who consider ends are more important than means.
- Example: Robin Hood – He Plunders the food and distributes it to the poor.
Environmental Ethics: Respecting Nature’s Rights and Ensuring Sustainable Development #
- Since Ancient times Indians started living with Nature. We respect the rights of the animal species and plant species. But after the Industrial revolution and LPG era India entered into POLLUTERS CLUB having members include USA, China, EU.
- Emergence of the New concept “Anthropocentrism”, is the belief that HUMAN BEING is the most important entity of this Universe. Then humans started exploiting nature and disturbing the Natural cycle.
- We are heading towards SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION. India took several Initiatives to protect our Environment like enacting acts like Wild life Protection Act, Environmental Protection Act etc, setup National Green Tribunal (NGT), to protect endangered species took initiatives like Project Tiger, Project Elephant, ZSI Red data book etc. Even the Judiciary too time to time interfering where the Environment is at stake.
- Examples: Uttarakhand High Court declared River Ganga as a living entity where it has equal rights along with Human beings.
Some of the noted Initiatives across the Globe are India’s pledge towards going green with Renewable Energy, Friday for Future, EU net zero carbon emissions by 2050 etc. Therefore, Sustainable Development and Environmental Justice is the way forward.
Thomas Aquinas: If there is a Conflict between Primary laws (Natural Laws) and Secondary laws (Manmade), We shall always prioritize Primary laws.
Environmental Ethics
- Anthropocentric
- Consequentialism
- Deontologic
- Chritsian stewardship
- Nature Management
- Kentensian
- Rawlesian
- Non-Anthropocentric
- Consequentialism
- Deontologic
- Animal Protection
- Biocentric individualism
- Animal rights
- Biocentric Holism
Approaches to Environmental Ethics #
To solve ethical problems in solving environmental ethics we should adopt a liberal, conservative and ecological approach which means we should promote development while conserving the other species and not harm ecological balance.
Economic Development Vs Environmental Conservation #
Hence, Ethical values help in Growth and Development overall. But the question here is, whether we should limit to just Economic Growth or Overall Sustainable Development? Growth is important for a country like India but without sustainable development that growth can never be an Inclusive growth. While giving more importance to Ethics & social values but at the same time we give equal importance to economic values. Capitalism is not bad but never let crony capitalism rule the country.
- Liberal
- Ecological balance
- Conservation
- Environmental Ethics
Medical Ethics: Pillars and Principles in Healthcare Service #
Pillars and Principles to be followed in Medical Ethics:
- Autonomy
- Beneficence, act of charity, mercy and Kindness
- Confidentiality
- Non – Maleficence/ Do no harm
- Equity/Justice
- Dignity
- Service oriented
- Examples: Padma Shri Award 2019 winner Dr. Ravindra and his wife Dr. Smita who dedicated their entire life to serving the rural people who don’t have access to medical facilities and there is no proper infrastructure. With minimum equipment they learnt basic surgeries.
Bioethics: Genetics and Clinical Trials Ethical Implications #
Bioethics is commonly understood to refer to the ethical implications and applications of the health-related life sciences. Components of bioethics are:
- Genetics:
- Much of medicine today is about genetics, whether for disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, or reproductive decision-making.
- Emerging genetic technologies and knowledge generate numerous value conflicts. Consequently, bioethicists ask what is ethically appropriate if individuals have a mutation for a serious and now untreatable genetic disorder.
- Ethics in Clinical trials:
- Clinical trials are research studies performed in people that are aimed at evaluating a medical, surgical or behavioural intervention. Patients who are involved in clinical trials are not used as a means to an end.
- Clinical ethics is a practical discipline that aims to resolve ethical questions or disagreements that emerge in the practice of health care. Clinical ethicists work to identify, analyse, and resolve value conflicts that arise when providers, patients, families, surrogates, and other stakeholders disagree or are uncertain about the ethically best course of action.
- For example, patients or their surrogates may refuse recommended treatments or demand non-beneficial treatments, which puts their requests at odds with providers’ medical judgment.
- Clinical ethicists help to identify and clarify ethical questions, find ethically acceptable courses of action, encourage honest and respectful communication between all parties, and recommend ethically acceptable solutions for the case at hand.
- Clinical ethics also works to improve institutional responses to ethical dilemmas through education and policy formation.
Ethical Issues in Clinical Trials #
- Protection of Trial subjects
- Prior informed consent
- Quality of data
- Regulation and Monitoring the trail
- Compliance with Trial protocol
- Professional Competence
- Accountability and Transparency
- Privacy & Confidentiality
- It should be voluntary
- Useful for advancement of society but not for profits
Rights Of Participants: #
- Right to prior consent
- Access to information
- Privacy
- Post trial access to remedy
- Compensation for side effects if trail fails
Contemporary Ethical Issues Involved In Bioethics: #
- Privacy and Confidentiality
- Cyber-attacks against medical devices
- Bio hackers
- With growing level of technology treating, one’s own disease with the help of internet and machines
- Accessibility of quality treatment
- Bio terrorism
- Sexuality becoming technological where physical relations at stake
Examples:
- COVID-19 vaccine volunteer sued 100cr against serum institute, Pune for making him ill in the trail
- A scientist in China is using CRISPER technologies to edit baby human genomes for desired characters.
| Growth | Sustainable Development |
| Value Neutral | Value Centric |
| Quantitative | Qualitative |
| Either Positive or Negative | Always Positive |
| Social Attitude and Behaviour plays very minimum role | Social Behaviour plays an important role |
| E.g.: GDP growth or Indian per capita increase etc | E.g.: Open Defecation free by 2022 and Success of Swachh Bharat Mission. |
Ethics in Religion #
- Ethics are part of every religion but can a person be ethical without religion? This is a long-standing debate. Central aspect of ethics is “good life”. Greeks called it happiness. The ancient Greeks believed happiness was brought about by living one’s life in accordance with virtue– positive traits of character.
- Virtue in the highest sense, in an adult who has been brought up well, will not just involve good personal habits such as courage and temperance, but also friendship and justice and intellectual virtue. The essence of virtue is in the wholeness of the person brought about by
God as a basic requirement of ETHICS – Immanuel Kant
If religion has a role in moral decision-making, then what should be that role?
- For many individuals, their religion is a centrally defining characteristic of who they are, such that they would be nearly incapable of making ethical decisions independently of their religious beliefs.
- Further, some of our most basic moral sentiments are directly connected to religious ideology.
- Examples:
- Most people agree that things like murder and adultery are always wrong, regardless of circumstances. Most major world religions echo these sentiments
- In some of the catholic countries it is illegal to abortion
- The link between religion and morality is best illustrated by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would wish them to do unto you”. In other words, we should treat others the way we would want to be treated. This is the basic ethic that guides all religions. If we do so, happiness will ensue.
Ethics in Technology and Innovation: Challenges and Considerations #
- Ethics in Technology and Innovation becomes an important area of study due to advancement in science and technology. With the growing innovations like automation, data management, artificial innovations, gene editing etc poses huge challenges to the ethical practices.
- Some of the recent incidents where technology misused are:
- Cambridge Analytica – Voters social media profiles scanned to observe their voting behaviour
- Tech giants Google & Facebook – Pro govt sand elected hate speech content removal
- Automation and artificial intelligence able to control humans in future
- Gene editing technologies
Ethics in AI: Addressing Bias and Accountability #
- Humans have something called “a moral compass”. It is an area of our cognition (mental processes of gaining knowledge and understanding) which tells right from wrong. When you see an injustice, your brain tells you something is not right.
- The standards of your moral compass strongly depend on your upbringing and environment. This ‘moral compass’ and environment is also what companies build their ethics on, i.e., to decide what is right and what is wrong.
- AI is a technology that could affect public values, human rights or public decision-making and hence there is a strong need for ethics here. In the same way that parents raise a child, companies must teach and test their AI systems to learn, communicate, make unbiased decisions and comply with norms and regulations. Artificial Intelligence is a very vast field, and today most of the AI code developed across the world falls under the bucket of Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). There should not be any pre-existing bias in the data that is collected from the real-world.
Examples:
- Gender bias – when you search for ‘Doctor’ on a search website, the results for Doctor images might mostly come up as ‘male’. Whereas for ‘Nurse’ most results would be ‘female’. This shows inherent bias in the search results.
- AI model for face recognition identifies a person as a criminal incorrectly – this will lead to a loss of that person’s reputation and false criminal charges against the person
Pillars of Ethical AI: Ensuring Fairness, Security, and Privacy #
- AI Systems should be built such that they are fair and inclusive for all. Impartial behavior of AI models without any discrimination should be our goal. Unfair models can create improper outcomes, for example, the AI model for face recognition identifies a person as a criminal incorrectly – this will lead to a loss of that person’s reputation and false criminal charges against the person. Unfair models can injure people, damage reputations and become legal liabilities. The consequences of biased AI systems could be an injustice at a large scale.
- AI models are highly susceptible to all sorts of attacks, including many based on adversarial AI methods. In these methods, adversaries exploit AI models for potential gain, in most cases, by predicting the decisions machine learning models will make and then manipulating subsequent sets of data to produce the attacker’s desired outcomes—rather than the correct decisions.
- When AI systems are to be built using sensitive data, we need to consider the privacy implications in using it. Legal & regulatory requirements, social norms and individual expectations should be obeyed. If AI models remember or can reveal the sensitive data that they have used, rules should be put in place to ensure that the data is safe. The possibility that AI models reveal data can be decreased by applying various techniques.
Recommended Actions for Ensuring Ethics in AI Implementation #
- Chalk out exact goals for ensuring fairness and inclusion so there is no pre-existing bias
- Representative datasets should be used
- Analyze performance – Real-world scenarios
- Identify Potential threats to system and find solutions to face cyber attacks
- Learn and stay updated
- Handle data responsibly
- Limit usage of sensitive data as much as possible.
- Obey the laws, standards, privacy principles etc. Provide users with clear notice and give them any necessary controls over data use. Follow best practices such as encryption (the process of converting information or data into a code, mainly to prevent unauthorized access).
- Masking, Anonymizing and/or aggregating the data (i.e., the process of hiding original data with modified data, i.e., characters or other data) using some techniques (data scrubbing, etc.). E.g., consider removing personally identifiable information (PII) like Date of Birth etc
- Implement the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in European Union (EU) law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the EU and the European Economic Area (EEA). It requires companies to protect the privacy of their EU customers. Hence the appropriate measures must be put in place to prevent privacy breaches
There is no one size fits all approach to privacy protection. In real-world, we must iterate to find an approach that balances privacy and utility for the task we need to work on to make use of the maximum benefits from AI for the progress of Humankind.
Navigating Ethics in Media: Balancing Influence and Integrity #
- Media refers to communication channels through which we disseminate news, music, movies, education, promotional messages and other data. Media from the value development point of view, they are the most important medium through which we get influenced by our biases. The role of the mass media in influencing the values is becoming increasingly very high.
- Examples:
- The recent TRP scam case one of television media resorted to fake TRP ratings by bribing subscribers
- Journalist crime investigation in the actress suicide case.
These are all few examples where values and ethics degrade in media houses and journalism.
| Media’s Positive role in shaping our values | Negative role |
|
|
Ethics: The Vital Role of Media in Combating Corruption #
- A free media has a crucial role in the prevention, monitoring and control of corruption. Such media can inform and educate the public on corruption, expose corruption in government, private sector and civil society organizations and help monitor codes of conduct while policing itself against corruption. Investigative reporting by the media or reporting of instances of corruption as they occur can be a significant source of information on corruption.
- Daily reporting of instances of corruption as they occur is another type of contribution. Timely action should be taken by the authorities to immediately respond to such reports and to take steps to bring the culprits to book and to keep the press and the public informed from time to time of the progress of such action.
- It has been observed that sometimes under pressure of competition, the media does not verify allegations and information before putting them in the public domain. Occasionally, such allegations/complaints are motivated. It is necessary to evolve norms and practices that all allegations/complaints would be duly screened, and the person against whom such allegations are made is given a fair chance to put forth his version.
- Therefore, the second ARC opined that since the electronic media plays a role as important as the one played by the print media, there is a need to have a code for the electronic media covering different aspects of its functioning.
Ethics: Recommendations for Upholding Integrity in Media’s Fight Against Corruption #
- It is necessary to evolve norms and practices requiring proper screening of all allegations/complaints by the media, and taking action to put them in the public domain
- The electronic media should evolve a Code of Conduct and a self-regulating mechanism in order to adhere to a Code of Conduct as a safeguard against malafide action.
- Government agencies can help the media in the fight against corruption by disclosing details about corruption cases regularly
The media has played an important role in positive developments like the fight against racism, gender bias, unemployment, poverty and spreading awareness about the need for world peace. That’s why the media called it the fourth pillar of democracy.
Ethics in Journalism: Upholding Integrity in News Gathering and Dissemination #
- Journalistic ethics are basically a set of principles, standards, guidelines and code of conduct prepared for professional journalists. It deals with conduct, character and behaviour of a journalist and how s/he works before, during and after the news gathering and dissemination.
- Since the days of ‘Yellow Journalism’ many leading newspapers were partisan, biased, sensational, intrusive, propagandists, manipulating and distorting the facts, passing off rumours as news. Since the quality of information directly reflects the health of a democracy.
- Examples: Vernacular press act during British Raj to suppress Indian newspapers who supported national independence
- Such biased, partisan, manipulated media, slowly a concerted campaign started to bring in ethics and principles with a set of guidelines and code of conduct for news media and journalists. In the US, for the first time, in 1922, the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) adopted a set of ethical principles. It proposed six key principle:
- Responsibility
- Freedom of the Press
- Independence
- Truth and Accuracy
- Impartiality and Fair Play.
- Another landmark intervention came in the 1940s when Hutchins Commission in the US articulated in its report the principle of Social Responsibility of the Press. The Commission reiterated that while the freedom of press is paramount, it also has a moral obligation to consider the well-being of the general public when making its decisions and choices.
Importance of ethics in Journalism #
- Journalism plays a crucial role in keeping the citizens informed about the issues and ideas of public interest.
- Journalism must be socially responsible, serve the people with devotion, and educate them while avoiding sensationalism, distortion and manipulation of facts.
- As the fourth estate of democracy, free and vibrant news media is treated as a key parameter for the success of a democracy.
- Journalism with such so much influence and power comes with great responsibility. Therefore, news media must follow the principles and norms of journalism and be transparent and accountable.
Principles of Journalist Ethics #
- Should be unbiased and non-Sensationalization
- It is expected from the news media outlets and its professional journalists to not only strictly follow these principles and norms but to also self-regulate in alignment with them.
- There should be a code of conduct for journalists. Though its voluntary in nature but it should be followed with utmost respect
- Do not get influenced by powerful corporate lobby to influence govt decisions against public interest
- There is always public good as first motto
- To become the voice to voiceless
- Ideas like objectivity, fairness, truth, accuracy, impartiality and independence.
- In a democracy everyone is accountable to the people, and so is the media. The Indian media must develop a sense of responsibility and maturity.
In India, the Press Council of India (PCI), a statutory and quasi-judicial body functions as a “watchdog of the press, for the press and by the press. Similarly, NGO the News Broadcasting Standard Authority (NBSA) oversees the news channels.
Case Study: Ethics Breach and the Fall of Media Mogul #
Not long ago even the incredibly influential Media Mogul, Rupert Murdoch, was forced to shut the publication of his 168-year-old tabloid, ‘News of the World’, in the UK after it was found regularly indulging in gross violation of ethical norms and standards and even breaching the law.
Therefore, there is a need for serious introspection from news media outlets and the journalists’ community to take steps to minimize the flouting of ethical norms, and to improve the quality and standards of the news media in India. In this context, professional bodies like the Editors Guild of India, NBA, PCI etc. can take the lead and initiate debate and discussion and propose remedial measures.
Navigating Business Ethics and Corporate Governance #
Business Ethics is defined as “the application of ethical values to business behaviour”.
What is Ethical & Unethical in Business:
- Profit is ethical but sole motive of profit is unethical
- Capitalism is ethical but crony capitalism is unethical
- Going against public good is unethical
- Organisations can be compliant to internal processes and fulfill all statutory laws yet be unethical.
- Promoting alcohol consumption is banned on national television. If a company advertises an alternative product with the same brand name, it is indirectly trying to increase brand recall to the intended product. Legally, the company is not flouting any law. However, the practice is clearly unethical.
- Harmful cosmetics without providing harmful chemicals in it.
- Advertising about fairness creams that promotes colourism
- Threat to conservation is unethical
Establishing an Ethical Framework for Corporates #
A strong ethics framework is required to drive the culture of ethics across the board. The elements for such a framework include:
- Ethics programme with the continued support of middle and lower-level teams.
- An ongoing dialogue across levels to address tough questions that may arise during the business ethics journey.
- A two-way communication process, cutting across levels, to foster an environment of openness and trust.
Ethics in Corporate Governance: Upholding Transparency and Integrity #
- Fair & transparent business
- Corporate governance framework should protect and facilitate the exercise of shareholders’ rights and ensure the equitable treatment of all shareholders, including minority and foreign shareholders.
- Ensure that timely and accurate disclosure is made on all material matters
- Integrity should be a fundamental requirement in choosing corporate officers and board members.
- Protection to Corporate whistle-blowers
Ethics: Establishing a Code of Conduct for Business Integrity #
- It specifies the general principles of behaviour which employees and other stakeholders are expected to follow.
- It is a mix of rules to be adhered and aspirations towards which the organisation seeks to evolve.
- Top leadership acts as role models, senior managers should practise principles of ethics in their day-to-day dealings.
- To deal with ethical dilemmas an effective training programme should be organised on how to deal ethical dilemmas
- Integrity at two levels: the hiring process and every performance appraisal cycle.
- Building a team of Ethics Counselors is often seen as a good practice.
- Unethical behaviour demands prompt action. Gifts and Hospitality While it may be customary to exchange gifts/ offer hospitality as part of cultural practices, such exchanges sometimes mask the act of bribery or corruption. Hence organization must delve into deciding the nature of gifts.
- Employees and stakeholders must be encouraged to speak up against any suspected or known situations or persons where the Code has been compromised and report the dilemmas faced.
Administrative Ethics: Upholding Integrity and Good Governance #
Administrative ethics are “The values and morals should be followed by a bureaucrat during his public duty”. We will study about Administrative ethics in detail in various chapters. In brief they are:
- Integrity
- Honesty
- Strict adherence to code of conduct
- Respecting rules and regulations
- Showing empathy and compassion towards downtrodden people
- Non-discrimination
- Ensuring good governance
Navigating the Distinction: Personal Ethics vs. Professional Ethics
| Professional Ethics | Personal Ethics |
| It is a Code of Conduct imposed by an organisation on its employees to expect some kind of desired behaviour. | It is a Code conduct and personal values which governs one’s individual personal life |
| Learns relatively later in life when she joins any work force | Learns from Childhood through Family, Society, Education system and Religion |
| Acts according to the Laws or rules or customs of an Organisation where she works | Acts according to her own Conscience |
| Duty Bounded and Very strict Code of conduct at workplace. | Value Bounded and Freedom to do what she believes. |
| Examples: Integrity, Punctuality, Time Management, Accountability, Transparency, Confidentiality, Loyal to the organisation etc. | Examples: Kindness, Truthful, Honesty, Empathy, Service oriented etc |
Ethics in Private and Public Relationships: Navigating Boundaries and Expectations #
Ethical values have a wide-ranging impact on individuals. But it varies from situation to situation with time and space and it is also different from public to private relationships.
| Private Relationships | Public Relationships |
| It is between the people we personally connected | It is between the people that we externally connected out of personal space like community, Colleagues at office, govt-citizen |
| Relationships build in a closed space called Family, friends, spouse. | Builds at the office, society, community. |
| Based on personal values, morality and family values | Based on societal and personal norms |
| Not codified generally | Generally Codified |
| Violation generally goes unpunished but can have social consequence e.g. Loss of reputation in society | Legal, social, professional and such implications if norms are violated |
| Relations here permanent in nature | Temporary in nature in the form of transfers, moving different company |
| There is no limit to expressing our emotions here. For example, we can get anger on between family members | There should be a desirable way of expressing emotion. Example, there is a limit to express our anger on subordinates |
| There are expectations between closely connected people | There won’t be any expectations between members of the public life |
| Regulated by emotional bonding | Regulated by rules, regulations, laws |
| Get punished by parents if we hurt others or apology in words | Penal provisions there for wrong doings |
| Partiality between members can be shown | No partiality and no discrimination unless specifically made by law. |
| Ethics For Private Relationship: Love and care, Confidentiality, Truthfulness, Responsibility, Perseverance | Ethics For Public Relationship: Openness, Honesty and integrity, Respect, Rule of law, Equality and uniformity, Accountability. |
Rationale for Separation: Distinct Boundaries Between Public and Private Realms #
- Although all citizens are subject to the laws of the land, in the case of public servants there must be standards of behaviour more stringent than those for an ordinary citizen.
- Personal emotions are always a mix of emotions. Such mixed emotions brings undesirable consequences in the administration
- There should be a conflict between public action and private interest.
- High Emotional intelligence required for those who serve in public life.
- Keeping public and private relationships separate helps in preventing conflicts of interest.
- Society tends to judge people separately in their public and private sphere, and hence it’s better to keep them separate.
Common Ethics in Public and Private Relationships: Anchored in Honesty, Interpersonal Skills, Accountability, and Compassion #
- Honesty: Both kinds of relationships expect truthful behaviour without which there is loss of trust and confidence.
- Interpersonal factors: Both relationships are not mechanical but involve interpersonal behaviour. Therefore, both require individuals to have basic sensitivity, empathy, care etc. so that both parties understand each other better.
- Accountability: We are held responsible for our behaviour in both relationships. We must answer and account for our actions to maintain trust and confidence.
- Compassion: Helping others is a good deed which is desirable in both public and private relationships.
Ethics In Private Life & Public Life #
Ethics in Private Life: Nurturing Personal Bonds and Self-Morality #
- Private life integrated with family members, life partners, friends, colleagues etc. These kinds of relationships are based on emotional attachments, personal bonding with them rather than simply a formal mechanism. Our habits, our lifestyle, our behaviour in society all gets influenced by the people we are personally attached to.
- Epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata a classic example of ethics in private relationships. Either they are good side or bad side they will reflect in our actions. Here Ethics in private life lays the foundation for ethics in public life.
- Self-Morality – Ethics in private life starts with self-morality. Just merely having good values is not enough they should put into practice before you preach.
Examples of Ethics in Private Life #
- Once an old lady brought his son to Gandhiji to preach him to stop eating sugar. But didn’t say anything at that moment and asked that lady to come back after one month. In this gap Gandhi practiced to stop eating sugar because he has the same habit. After one month he told that young boy not to eat sugar.
- Satya Harischandra always speaks truth
The Role of Family in Ethical Development #
- Family is the first foundation where ethical values seeds into one’s own mind. Interaction with parents and the instruments adopted by them shapes children’s behaviour. If a family encourages and supports you in times of crisis then you can take any hard decision which is ethically correct.
- A person’s ethical orientation towards others is determined to a large extent by his/her spouse.
- Also, a parent is the first friend and guide to a child. They teach him not to be greedy, kind towards others, and to be empathetic. It will be helpful in shaping a child’s intellectual ability and cognitive skills.
The Role of Friends in Ethical Development #
- Role of friends plays in molding one’s personality. One famous quote says “Our friend circle tells our character “
Illustration: Ethical Dilemma in the Mahabharata #
Though Karna is individually Ethical and having greater war skills than Arjuna but his decision to fight along with Kauravas’s side makes him unpopular which led to his death in Kurukshetra. It’s just because he promised his friend Duryodhana to help in the war.
Ethics in Public Life: Navigating Moral Values in Society #
Public life also refers to collection of a person’s relationships, interactions and dealings with the society at large. Every Individual’s interaction with his/her surrounding environment. He should adhere to certain moral values while behaving in society.
- Though he has freedom to roam and live anywhere but on certain conditions like health his freedom of expression may be curtailed
- Social responsibility
- Help towards others as a Good samaritan
Importance of Ethics in Public life #
- Ethics in public life are the ends to achieve any ethical principles such as responsibility and accountability.
- In democracy, every holder of public office is accountable to the people. Such accountability is enforced through a system of laws and rules. Ethics in public life provides the basis for the creation of such laws and rules.
- It is the moral ideas of people that give rise to and shape the character of laws and rules.
- It strengthens the trusteeship relationship between the public and the officials.
Dimensions of Ethics in Public life #
- The role of ethics in public life has many dimensions. At one end is the expression of high moral values and at the other end, a public functionary can be held legally accountable for his actions while performing duty.
- Any framework of ethical behaviour must include the following elements:
- Codifying ethical norms and practices.
- Disclosing personal interest to avoid conflict between public interest and personal gain.
- Creating a mechanism for enforcing the relevant codes.
- Suitable mechanism for incentivizing ethical behaviour.
- Providing norms for qualifying and disqualifying a public functionary from office.
- Accountability mechanism in place.
A system of laws and rules, however elaborate, cannot provide for all situations. It is highly desirable to govern the conduct of those who occupy positions in the lower hierarchy where they don’t have any discretion. But the higher officials in public service, the greater is the ambit of discretion. And it is difficult to provide for a system of laws and rules that can comprehensively cover and regulate the exercise of discretion in high places.
Ethics: Upholding Values in Public Relationships #
One of the most comprehensive statements of what constitutes ethical standards for holders of public office came from the Committee on Standards in Public Life in the United Kingdom, popularly known as the Nolan Committee, which outlined the following seven principles of public life:
- Selflessness: Holders of public office should take decisions solely in terms of public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family or their friends.
- Integrity: Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organizations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.
- Objectivity: In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.
- Accountability: Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.
- Openness: Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.
- Honesty: Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.
- Leadership: Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership.
These principles of public life are of general applicability in every democracy. Arising out of such ethical principles a set of guidelines of public behaviour in the nature of a code of conduct becomes essential for public functionaries. Indeed, any person who is privileged to guide the destiny of the people must not only be ethical but must be seen to practice these ethical values.
Establishing Codes of Conduct and Ethics in Public Life #
Although all citizens are subject to the laws of the land, in the case of public servants there must be standards of behaviour more stringent than those for an ordinary citizen. It is at the interface of public action and private interest that the need arises for establishing not just a code of ethics but a code of conduct.
- A code of ethics would cover broad guiding principles of good behaviour and governance
- Code of conduct should, in a precise and unambiguous manner, stipulate a list of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and action.
Everyday Examples of Ethical Behavior in Public Life #
- Following social distance and wearing mask during covid-19 pandemic. As a responsible citizen to not get infected and wastage of national resources.
- Flushing after toilet in public toilets
- Throwing dust only in dustbin
- If you face an incidence of someone who met with an accident and joining in a hospital
- Social awareness
- Patriotism and service to the nation in times of need
| Ethics in Private life | Ethics in Public life |
| More about welfare of family members and friends | Welfare of society |
| Guided by personal morality | Guided by social values |
| There should be partiality shown towards members of private life | Non-discrimination and impartiality |
| Ethics in private life laid foundation for ethics in public life | Private life ethics will be first step towards achieving ethics in public life |
| Can be enforceable informally | Can be enforceable legally |
Principles of Ethics in Public Administration #
Currently, the concept of ethics has extended itself to involve all major areas of human existence. There are certain prominent aspects of ethics in public administration. These are summarized as following maxims:
- Maxim of Legality and Rationality: An administrator will follow the law and rules that are framed to govern and guide various categories of policies and decisions.
- Maxim of Responsibility and Accountability: An administrator would not hesitate to accept responsibility for his decision and actions. He would hold himself morally responsible for his actions and for the use of his discretion while making decisions.
- Maxim of Work Commitment: An administrator would be committed to his duties and perform his work with involvement, intelligence and dexterity.
- Maxim of Excellence: A bureaucrat would ensure the highest standards of quality in administrative decisions and action and would not compromise with standards because of convenience or complacency.
- Maxim of Fusion: An administrator would reasonably bring about a combination of individual, organisational and social goals to help evolve agreement of ideals and imbibe in his behaviour a commitment to such a fusion.
- Maxim of Responsiveness and Resilience: An administrator would respond successfully to the demands and challenges from the external as well as internal environment. He would adapt to environmental transformation and yet sustain the ethical norms of conduct.
- Maxim of Utilitarianism: While devising and implementing policies and decisions, an administrator will certify that these lead to the greatest good (happiness, benefits) of the greatest number.
- Maxim of Compassion: An administrator, without violating the prescribed laws and rules, would establish compassion for the poor, the disabled and the weak while using his discretion in making decisions.
- Maxim of National Interest: Though universalistic in orientation and liberal in outlook, a civil servant, while performing his duties, would keep in view the impact of his action on his nation’s strength and prestige.
- Maxim of Justice: Executives who are responsible for formulation and execution of policies and decisions of governance would ensure that respect is shown to the principles of equality, equity, fairness, impartiality and objectivity and no special favours are given on the criteria of status, position, power, gender, class, caste or wealth.
- Maxim of Transparency: An administrator will make decisions and implement them in a transparent manner so that those affected by the decisions and those who wish to evaluate their rationale, will be able to understand the reasons behind such decisions and the sources of information on which these decisions were made.
- Maxim of Integrity: An administrator would accept an administrative action on the basis of honesty and not use his power, position and discretion to serve his personal interest and the illegitimate interests of other individuals or groups.
Human Values Exemplified by Great Leaders, Administrators & Reformers #
- Leader – leadership is the exercise of high-level conceptual skills and decisiveness. It is envisioning a mission, developing strategy, inspiring people, and changing culture.
- Reformer – A reformer is a person who wants to improve the prevailing conditions in society by bringing about reforms in any area of human activity. e.g. politics, social customs and religion. E.g. Social reformer, religious reformer, political reformer.
- Administrator is one who is responsible for carrying out administration – a process of working with and through others to accomplish the agreed goals efficiently.
Common Values: Leader, Administrator and Reformer #
- Attitude to serve the people,
- Uplifting the downtrodden,
- Impartiality and integrity,
- Benevolence and compassion
- Tolerance
| Lessons from the Lives of Great Administrators | Lessons from the Lives of Great Leaders | Lessons from the lives of Great Reformers |
| Verghese Kurien, M. S. Swaminathan, Sam Pitroda, E. Sreedharan, V.P, Menon, T. N Seshan, etc. | Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Nehru, etc. | Mahatma Gandhi, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Kabir, Vivekananda etc. |
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Let’s have a quick look at the lessons from the lives of eminent persons. We shall deal with each of them in detail in the coming chapter:
| Personalities | What they Valued |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Simplicity, Minimalism, Satyagraha, Sarvodaya, Secularism, Ahimsa, Non-Violence, Truth, Forgiveness, Self-Sufficiency, Dignity of labour etc. |
| Jawaharlal Nehru | Democracy, institution building, consensus building, socialism, secularism, self-determination, internationalism etc |
| Nelson Mandela | Service, dignity, self-belief, equality of the human race, freedom, fairness, justice, etc |
| Abraham Lincoln | Humanism, equality of the human race, integrity, idealism, honesty, freedom etc. |
| Martin Luther King Jr | Self-belief, equality of the human race etc |
| Raja Rammohan Roy | Social equality, equality of the human race, women empowerment, scientific thinking etc |
| Swami Vivekananda | Self-belief, equality of the human race, patriotism, compassion etc |
| B R Ambedkar | Self-belief, equality of the human race, radical thinking, compassion etc |
| Mother Teresa | Compassion, altruism, helpfulness, kindness, cleanliness, determination. |
| Verghese Kurien | Self-belief, co-operative societies, entrepreneurship, innovation, farmer welfare etc. |
| E. Sreedharan | Punctuality, self-belief, integrity, high-quality standards etc. |
| M .S. Swaminathan | Sustainable development, green revolution, poverty alleviation, farmer welfare etc. |
Role Of Family, Society And Educational Institutions In Inculcating Ethical Values #
Significance of Value Inculcation: Shaping Ethical Behavior and Character Development #
Values are a certain principle possessed by an individual which guides them towards desirable behaviour. They are either moral, immoral and amoral but inculcating moral values is very much important. They are important because:
- Inculcates ethical behaviour like honest, service towards nation, kindness towards poor
- They make an individual bold and strong. They will have a lifelong impact on our lives. For example, Hunger strike unto death by Sri Potti Sriramulu to achieve a separate Telugu state.
- They socialize an individual. Example, gender sensitisation, equality
- Acts as an anchor to exhibit certain way of behaviour where society accepted
- They shapes our personality
- Inculcating values in early age will have a long lasting effect. So, we can make good citizens in the future through moral values.
Stages of Moral Development: Ethics in Value Inculcation #
Lawrence Kohlberg developed six stages of moral education among the people. He proposed three levels and six steps to inculcate values.
| Level 1: Preconventional level (Child stage) | At the preconventional level, morality is externally controlled. Rules imposed by authority figures are conformed to in order to avoid punishment or receive rewards. This perspective involves the idea that what is right is, what is personally satisfying. Level 1 has two stages:
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| Level 2: Conventional level (Teenage stage) | At the conventional level, conformity to social rules remains important to the individual. However, the emphasis shifts from self-interest to relationships with other people and social systems. The individual strives to support rules that are set forth by others such as parents, peers, and the government in order to win their approval or to maintain social order.
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| Level 3: Post conventional or principled level (Maturity stage) | At the postconventional level, the individual moves beyond the perspective of his or her own society. Morality is defined in terms of abstract principles and values that apply to all situations and societies. The individual attempts to take the perspective of all individuals.
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Sources of Values #
At an early age of children, we can mould like clay pot, good desired behaviour by inculcating moral values. The various sources where values inculcate are:
- Family
- Society
- Education
Family’s Role in Ethical Value Inculcation #
Family is a social institution where we will spend our half of life together with family members. During formative years of his/her age our behaviour gets its shapes where our family values and morals have an impact on it. These formative years shape personality development. Being ethical or not is nothing but a part of personality and this family plays a critical role in determining ethics in human action.
Family’s Role in Ethical Value Inculcation: Methods and Examples #
- Parents as role models: For anyone the first person who has influence is either father or mother. And also, grandparents’ bedtime stories guide us about what is right and wrong through moral stories from Panchatantra, religious books, moral books etc.
- Examples:
- I, myself learnt discipline from my father and being hygiene and cleanliness from my mother
- Thomas Alva Edison was able to study at home when his school kicked off from school and became a great scientist only because of his mother.
- If elders taught us about the king being treated equally in his kingdom, such perception develops a positive thought in children’s mindset where they treat everyone equal in the society.
- Respect towards others and Lower sections of people: Respecting elders and mingling with downtrodden sections of people by family members creates positive attitudes towards lower sections of people. Then he/she will treat everyone equally and develops a habit of empathy towards lower section kids which makes him a soft hearted personality.
- Charity: If parents are doing charity work children develop such a habit of donating. This instills kindness in children.
- Examples:
- Manipuri 6yrs old boy and Bengaluru 6yrs old girl donated all their savings to PM CARES fund during lockdown
- In Chennai, A saloon shop owner, on request of his daughter, spends all his savings saved for his daughter’s education on poor people who were suffering with basic necessities. Even she, Netra 13, was appointed as UN goodwill ambassador to the poor.
- Pampering or Punishment: Pampering makes parents eyes and ears blind and deaf when their children do wrong things. Parents should be in a position to make them realise their wrong acts. Even harsh punishments result in counter results. Therefore, counsel them and treat them like friends so they won’t be afraid to share their thoughts with their parents. Hence, in order to inculcate good values parents should not pamper the kid but limited freedom to be expected.
- Examples:
- Instagram Boyz locker room – All the members of this group including admin who created this group on Instagram having age group below 15 where they are discussing sexual comments against their class girls
- Nirbhaya case in 2012 – A juvenile involved in such heinous crime
- Dignity of Labour: Children should adopt doing their own work that is self-help. This instills a kind of dignity of labour and respect towards the daily wage workers. Parents should teach them how it’s important to self-help.
- Examples:
- In India we feel that cleaning our own toilets is not our duty, it’s someone else who comes and cleans our toilets. India should adopt from western societies where they feel it’s embarrassing when someone cleans their toilets. It should start with elders, and start cleaning our own washrooms. This kind of attitude creates an egalitarian society.
- Open defecation is very much prevalent even today. Children should start to teach parents that open defecation is not good practice.
- Observational learning: Children observe what happens at home and begin to see such behaviour as normal and morally correct. This is a basic process of attitude formation. For example, children who witness domestic violence and gender discrimination at their home themselves develop similar vices and fail to develop values of gender equality.
- Joint family: The joint family structure stands for certain values like tolerance, cooperation, sacrifice, care etc. Living in a joint family and its healthy functioning imparts these values to the children.
- Traditions and customs: Families follow certain practices as a norm which are always adhered to by the children. Traditions themselves become a value for children due to regular and repetitive behaviour.
Strengths of Family in Ethical Value Inculcation #
- First stage of moral education start from family so it acts as bedrock in shaping one’s ethical personality
- Family as a permanent source of ethics and value. There is no brokerage of relationships here.
- Family consists of all kinds of diverse people, elders, youngsters, women, men, children, adults. Therefore, there is a chance to learn diverse views and opinions.
- Family is the first place of creating trust
- Family is the first place where self-confidence develops
- Family punishes and rewards for bad behavior. Therefore, it’s the first place to learn both good and bad.
Challenges in the Role of Family in Ethical Value Inculcation #
- Anti-Social– Family as studied as a first place to learn values; hence it can be as a first place where we can become anti-social by adopting various means which is not acceptable to society
- Harsh Means- Sometimes parents adopt harsh and regressive measures to bring desired behaviour, this creates a sense of fear and erodes a self confidence among the children.
- Outsourcing Parental care– Parents spend more time with children; they get to know about their children. If parents get busy with their work and outsourcing children care it will bring negative consequences
- Grandparents care– Children also need grandparents carers and their bedtime stories so keeping them children away from elders may leaving a good chance to learn values
- Patriarchy vs Gender equality, bribing vs Honesty – Children should not confuse between those two values families’ certain kind of behaviour. They should practice what they preach.
Impact of Society on Ethical Value Inculcation #
- Ethics are a set of standards which are acceptable to society. Therefore, society is the main pillar where ethical values mould their shape.
- History of human civilisation divided into two phases
- Pre-Industrial society
- Post Industrial revolution society
| Nature of society | Pre-Industrial Society | Post Industrial Revolution society |
| Family System | Joint family; Children here opportunity to learn from grandparents | Nuclear Families |
| Economy | Sharing & Caring | Business and profits |
| Role of Money | Money didn’t play much important role | Techno- Economic advancement gave importance to money |
| Society | Village based society and not materialistic societies, Peaceful and no communal clashes | Urban based society and became materialistic, more violent society and communal clashes |
| Ways to happiness | In Human relations and family members | Momentary pleasures |
| Education | Value based Education which consist of Morals and Ethics | Education mainly focussed on marks and grades and how to earn money instead of how to earn ethical assets |
| Form of Entertainment | Plays, dramas picked up from Ramayana and Mahabharata | Movies, Erotic content, Violent reality shows for ratings (WWE) |
| Role of Technology | Technology did not enter into personal lives of people | Technology running humankind now. We are running on computer simulation where mobile and gadgets are part of our lives. |
| Environment | Living in harmony with nature and Sacred groves | Exploitation of nature; Pollution and taking away tribal and forest inhabitant rights |
Ethical Challenges in Capitalistic Society #
- Emergence of Capitalism gives maximum importance to capital intensive machinery or technology. Objective is to maximize profits. Capitalism strengthened Physical, Financial and Human infrastructure in the society but the most important Ethical Infrastructure it ignored.
- Adam smith to be considered as father of capitalism. He gave a moral boost to Capitalism and laid the foundation for ethical capitalism. His concept of Invisible hand creates demand and in turn it promotes growth. But over a period of time profits and business took place and started exploiting ethical infrastructure. In place of capitalism, crony capitalism adopting.
Impact of Capitalism on Human Relations #
- Human relations became materialistic
- Joint family became nuclear family
- Breakdown of marriage system and high rate of divorce
- Growing child care homes and old age homes where elders don’t have time for their children and age-old parents
Role of Education in Ethics Development #
- Education is defined as ‘adjustment ability to a changing situation and environment’. Education should be a means to empower children and adults alike to become active participants in the transformation of their societies. Education means a change in man’s conduct of life. It means the upgrading of a man’s ability to choose the best alternative available in any circumstances he faces. It means the development of the person to prepare him to adopt the best approach to a problem at any given time.
- Learning should also focus on the values, attitudes and behaviours which enable individuals to learn to live together in a world characterized by diversity and pluralism. Education therefore has a crucial long-term role in developing a knowledge and understanding of human rights, the values base they represent and the skills required to strengthen a democratic culture.
Purpose of Education in Ethics
- The purpose of education is to educate individuals within society, to prepare and qualify them for work for an economy as well as to integrate people into society and teach them values and morals of the society.
- Role of education is a means of socializing individuals and to keep society smoothing and remain stable.
- After the family a person spends most of his/her life with educational institutions starting from school. Even after schooling during graduation and post-graduation education helps to develop ethical behaviour in the students.
Role of Educational Institutions in Ethics #
- Producing a new generation that enables us to solve the real problems in our society.
- Community service is another area that can help in cultivating and instilling the sense of national identity. It includes the activity that stressed about tolerance and harmony value regardless religion and race aspect.
- Youths’ development toward a positive sense of ethnic identity.
- It can give them an opportunity to interact with others from various backgrounds.
- Produces leaders and develops leadership qualities.
Challenges in Ethics Education #
- Today’s Modern education deals only with knowledge-based education but not value based education.
- Educational institutions run after marks and trophies but there are no specific chapters on ethics or how to be happy in the curriculum.
- The Consequence is that we are producing a number of professionals like doctors, engineers or lawyers but not producing a good human being.
- We are creating a professional without a kind heart but with an intelligent mind just like a robot.
- We are facing a moral crisis in the education system which leads to suicides among the students those who are failing at subjects and not in a position to accept failures in life.
- Forcing children to take the areas of subjects where parents are interested instead of exploring children’s creativity.
- Even parents too run after the competition with neighbour children’s and relatives.
Improving Value-Based Education System #
There is a need to overhaul the educational system in India. More importance should be given to value-based education along with rationality and science. We are teaching them how to be successful but not teaching them how to be happy.
- Inculcate discipline and punctuality starting from early days of schooling
- Charity habits should be inculcated among the students. Example: Coins for the Country Initiative: Hyderabad based school took an initiative to encourage students to save money at home while reducing unnecessary expenditure and without borrowing money from anyone. At the end of the academic year, saved money will be used for the betterment of society.
- Constitutional values should be part of every level of education curriculum.
- Field visits to rural areas and teach how land & farmers inter interlinked so they will understand the value of food and stop wasting the food.
- Develop scientific temper among the children and it’s a part of school curriculum. Example:
- We can adopt Nordic countries education system
- Fundamental duties mentioned in the Article 51A of the Indian constitution reads that “to develop scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”
- Happiness curriculum became part of the school books. So, it helps students not worry about marks and grades. Example: Delhi govt’s Happiness curriculum. American first lady visited one of the Delhi school and interacted with students and enquired how these happy hours to be implemented
- Stop giving too much importance to only engineering and medicine. Let’s encourage students to explore various areas of subjects. Example: New Education Policy 2020 has such provisions. It should get implemented in letter & spirit.
- Teach students how to accept failures
- Education should happen at the mother tongue at primary level.
Essence Of Human Life #
Birth and Death are not in our hands so the essence of human life is to remain happy forever. Happiness should be our ultimate objective.
Happiness: A Perspective of Ethics #
- It’s a state of mental and emotional stage with positive and pleasurable feelings with intense joy. For an average common man happiness is all about securing a good salary job, family, weekend fun, less uncertainty about future, success in professional career etc.
- But that’s not real happiness, A real happiness should be forever. All human relations are transitory in nature so they can give us only momentary pleasure and joy.
- A real happiness should be:
- Permanent
- It can’t be taken away from our life that is It should be something internal happiness but not external happiness
- Should not be attached to any material thing.
The Importance of Happiness: Ethics and Well-being #
| Positive Reasons | Negative Reasons |
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How to be Happy forever: #
- Gratitude: Help selflessly without expecting anything in return.
- Don’t complain, be grateful that you have.
- We can be really happy only when we do right actions, right conduct
- Believing in the philosophy of “Good actions will bring you good fruits” – As you sow, so shall reap
- Able to differentiate between goodness and badness.
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- Even every other religious scripture preaches how to be happy by following only good actions.
Previous Year Questions: #
| Theme | Question | Year |
| Essence of ethics | “A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.” | 2019 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | “Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world” – A.P.J. Abdul Kalam | 2019 |
| Dimensions of ethics – Constitutional ethics | What is meant by the term ‘constitutional morality’? How does one uphold constitutional morality? | 2019 |
| Ethics in private and public relationships | What are the basic principles of public life? Illustrate any three of these with suitable examples. | 2019 |
| Human Values | The crisis of ethical values in modern times is traced to a narrow perception of the good life. Discuss. | 2017 |
| Human Values | The crisis of ethical values in modern times is traced to a narrow perception of the good life. Discuss. | 2017 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte. Stating examples mention the rulers (i) who have harmed society and country, (ii) who worked for the development of society and country. | 2017 |
| Role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values | “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are father, mother and teacher.” Abdul Kalam. Analyse. | 2017 |
| Consequences of Ethics in human actions. | Without commonly shared and widely entrenched moral values and obligations, neither the law, nor democratic government, nor even the market economy will function properly. What do you understand by this statement? Explain with illustration in contemporary times. | 2017 |
| Consequences of Ethics in human actions. | Explain how ethics contributes to social and human well-being. | 2017 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” – Napoleon Bonaparte. Stating examples mention the rulers (i) who have harmed society and country, (ii) who worked for the development of society and country. | 2017 |
| Role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values | Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the family and social surroundings in which we grow up. Some of these unconsciously acquired attitudes and values are often undesirable in the citizens of modern democratic and egalitarian society. (a) Discuss such undesirable values prevalent in today’s educated Indians. (b) How can such undesirable attitudes be changed and socio-ethical values be cultivated in the aspiring and serving civil servants? | 2016 |
| Essence of ethics | Law and ethics are considered to be the two tools for controlling human conduct so as to make it conducive to civilized social existence. (a) Discuss how they achieve this objective. (b) Giving examples, show how the two differ in their approaches | 2016 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | “The weak can never forgive; forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” | 2015 |
| Determinants of Ethics in human actions | We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. | 2015
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| Dimensions of ethics – Environmental Ethics | What is meant by ‘environmental ethics’? Why is it important to study? Discuss any one environmental issue from the viewpoint of environmental ethics. | 2015 |
| Essence of ethics | Social values are more important than economic values. Discuss the above statement with examples in the context of inclusive growth of a nation. | 2015 |
| Essence of ethics + Dimensions of ethics | Differentiate between the following (200 words); a) Law and Ethics; b) Ethical management and Management of ethics; c) Discrimination and Preferential treatment; d) Personal ethics and Professional ethics. | 2015 |
| Role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values | We are witnessing increasing instances of sexual violence against women in the country. Despite existing legal provisions against it, the number of such incidences is on the rise. Suggest some innovative measures to tackle this menace. | 2014 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | Which eminent personality has inspired you the most in the context of ethical conduct in life? Give the gist of his/her teachings giving specific examples, describe how you have been able to apply these teachings for your own ethical development | 2014 |
| Ethics in private and public relationships | The current society is plagued with widespread trust-deficit. What are the consequences of this situation for personal well-being and for societal well-being? What can you do at the personal level to make yourself trustworthy? | 2014 |
| Lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators | Which eminent personality has inspired you the most in the context of ethical conduct in life? Give the gist of his/her teachings giving specific examples, describe how you have been able to apply these teachings for your own ethical development. | 2014 |
| Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions | All human beings aspire for happiness. Do you agree? What does happiness mean to you? Explain with examples. | 2014 |
| Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions | What does ethics seek to promote in human life? Why is it all the more important in public administration? | 2014 |
| Essence of ethics | What do you understand about ‘values’ and ‘ethics’? In what way is it important to be ethical along with being professionally competent? | 2013 |
| Determinants of Ethics | Some people feel that values keep changing with time and situation, while others strongly believe that there are certain universal and eternal human values. Give your perception in this regard with due justification. | 2013 |
| Human Values | There is enough on this earth for every one’s need but for no one’s greed. Mahatma Gandhi. | 2013 |
| Human Values | Nearly all men can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power. —Abraham Lincoln. | 2013 |
