20th Apr 2006
Teaching Ethics
Education in ethics is difficult for me to conceive of. Whose ethics? And how do you teach them?
Very often ethicists and educators return to the Golden Rule, supposedly a cross-cultural ethical scheme. But IB World points out that The Golden Rule is not really the same in all cultures. We want it to be, but it’s just not.
In a fascinating article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Gordon Marino posits his view that it is not education and knowledge that is is needed, but abiding by what we already know:
Ethics missionaries are driven by the assumption that improving our moral lives is a matter of developing our conceptual understanding and analytical acumen. The fantasy seems to be that if up-and-coming accountants just knew a little more about ethics, then they would know better than to falsify their reports so as to drive up the value of company stock. But sheer ignorance is seldom the moral problem. More knowledge is not what is needed. Take it from Kierkegaard: The moral challenge is simply to abide by the knowledge that we already have.
Ah, yes, I see that dear Kierkegaard has been mentioned not once but twice in a week here on my blog. Bless him.
The Josephson Institute is a well-known organization in Southern California that teaches ethics. The City of Santa Clarita must have bought their course because we have Character Counts Week and lest I forget, a Personal Kindness and Character Nomination form.
But the primary question is this: Does ethics education help people behave better?
