Download ethics2017-a

Engineering Character
“The real cycle you’re working on is
a cycle called yourself” ZAMM
“A man not at peace with himself will
not be at peace with others.”
“Assembly of Japanese bicycle takes
great peace of mind” ZAMM
“On doing the right thing”
“Be a role model and expect
role models”
“If you tell the truth you will not have to
remember what you said”
“Character IS destiny”
“All good teachers of ethics come
to remind more than to instruct, so
just some things to think about
Roadmap to this sequence of classes:
1. Why? Some folks tend to make a mess
of their lives. Each week we will
watch video clips on ethical situations.
A focus on character.
2. What is Truth? How do people think
about ethics? A look at the -Ism’s
3. Definition of ethics and morals
4.
5.
6.
7.
On going astray
Moral conscience
Aristotle’s ethics & happiness
Virtue
8. Human actions
9. On ignorance
10. Morality of human actions (object, intention, circumstances)
11. Approaches to ethics: situation ethics, utilitarianism, consequentialism,
proportionalism, rights & duty ethics, virtue ethics; which is best?
12. Principles for evaluating human actions
13. NSPE quiz
14.essays
So, what is ethics or being ethical?
Ethics – comes from the Gk word ethikos or ethos which is the fundamental
character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that
informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; a body
of moral principles or values; pertaining or dealing with morals or the
principles of morality, that is right and wrong conduct or practice, the
standards of a profession, also making sense of the way we make sense
of our lives. How should I (we) live? What am I (we) to do? , i.e Oughtness
Moral – of or pertaining to, or concerned with right conduct or its principles,
conforming to these principles rather than to just law or custom, that is a
moral obligation, to be a good citizen and have a good character
Where does ethics or morality come from? - family, your faith or religion
or cult, your community/tribe , your education, your culture, your nationality,
your history, experiences, your nature as a well-adjusted human being
So what we are really talking about in ethics is being moral
and doing the right thing. There is right and wrong.
Engineering Character
Is the problem us or our institutions?
What kind of person do I want to be?
How do I become that person?
How do I make sense of my life? Means no regrets
What am I to do with my freedom?
How can I help others?
VERSUS
What am I to do with my freedom?
What is freedom???
What is my world view?
The age of pluralism
Tolerance and diverse views
Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu
Christian, Islam, Judaism
Unitarian/Universalist,
Secular Humanist, Atheist,
Agnostic, Pantheist, other
You have a Choice as to
What to Do With Your Freedom
Indifference
Excellence
Those who need instruction will profit from this
discussion and those who already have this
knowledge will revive the memory of what they
already know.
Teach others who may need direction or are
confused about the direction of their life.
Putting a Face on Indifference
We see the effects of indifference every
day in the world in which we live. From the
show What Would You Do?:
Aiding the Fallen - YouTube
A very disturbing and startling example
of indifference happened near the end
of October 2011 in China. A 2 year old
Chinese girl was struck and run over
twice by hit and run drivers in a
well-lighted market area in Guangdong
province.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaZhM2XLYo)
(Warning: Strong Content)
The entire incident was picked up by surveillance videos and if you have the stomach for it you can watch
what happened on YouTube. The little girl was first hit and run over by a mini-van and as she laid in the middle
of the street in agony another small panel truck soon drove right over her. Interestingly these vehicles were
probably only travelling about 10-15 mph. They could have stopped or gotten out of the way. The little girl’s
name is Yue Yue and after she was run over by these two vehicles, and she was laying in the middle of the
street, something like 18 people, either walking or on motorized bikes, passed by the little girl and because of
their indifference they all did absolutely nothing. They just let her lay there in the middle of the street like she
was a squirrel or someone’s pet. Finally a 57 year old trash collector stopped to help the little girl and moved
her to the side of the street. But little Yue Yue later died of her injuries at a local hospital.
Corporate Indifference – Olympus and Endoscopes
Indifference affects other people and can even kill them!
From the January 7, 2017 Toledo Blade
Barry Cadden’s indifference
ended up killing 64 people!
Why Follow the Path of Excellence?
True happiness and freedom in life comes from the
pursuit of excellence and perfection. This happens
because you will no longer suffer from the
consequences of indifference, and the stress and
despair that comes from doing the things you ought
not to do, this is then how you become truly free.
So Morality is Really
a Focus on Character
What kind of person do I want to be?
How do I become that person?
Our character is shown by
what we:
1. think about (thoughts)
2. what we say (words)
3. what we do (actions)
Character means that at all
times we need to act in
accordance with right reason.
Who or what are you willing to
let control your life?
You can say what you say but
what you are is what you are
Living a moral or ethical life is more than
just debating or learning how
to be for or against social and institutional
policies.
Character
You are not just a moral spectator trying to
sort out what to believe. Your human actions
have a moral component and
consequences. As a member of society you
are responsible for your human actions.
If you stand for nothing, you will fall for
anything.
But you must consider the importance of
your own personal responsibility
and practical decency, your footprint. That
is, how we, you, are to behave.
Read the news and you will see many
examples that highlight how good people
went wrong through a failure of personal
responsibility: the great, the not so great,
people just like you and me.
Think about this. Everything you do today
is being recorded, there is an electronic
trail that you leave behind, just like a foot print
Some folks today argue there is no Right or Wrong!
We now live in the POST-TRUTH age, the age of
alternative facts, and the Many
–ISM’s
Freedom means people are free to
believe whatever they want to
believe.
Most arguments about ethics or
moral issues come down to the
question of what is truth?
The good news is that these isms help us to understand how
folks see the moral or ethical life
in our world
We now live in an age
of pluralism.
However, the danger is that there are no
universal moral rules; usually the poor,
the weak, the old, the vulnerable are the
ones that will suffer.
Relativity Theory
Relativism – is basically the belief
that all truth is relative,
that there is no such thing as an
objective truth, that truth
depends on many factors such as
history, the situation, the
people, those in power etc.
Leads to the belief that there are
no universal moral rules, I can do
what I want. So we can always
imagine a situation where it would
be ok to lie, to steal, cheat on your
spouse, or even to kill. The end
justifies the means. Watch the
Breaking Bad series
Moral relativism is the idea that what is praiseworthy or contemptible is a
matter of cultural conditioning, i.e. cultural pluralism, a matter of one’s own
opinion, that there is no standard of goodness or decency, so anything goes.
So is there such a thing as an objective
truth to guide our moral life?
Or do those with the Gold
get to make the Rules?
Live Under Lies or Under Truth?
Snowball and Napoleon (2 young pigs)
by their studies had succeeded in reducing
the principles of Animalism to Seven
Commandments, and these would form an
unalterable law by which all animals on
Animal Farm must live by for ever after. These
were painted on the wall of the barn for all to
see. The last two were:
6. No animal shall kill any other animal
7. All animals are equal.
However, later, things became corrupted.
“Are the Seven Commandments the same
as they used to be, Benjamin?”
So “he read out to her what was written on
the wall. There was nothing there now except
a Single Commandment. It ran:”
All Animals are equal
but some animals are more
equal than others
Collectivism is centralized
social and economic control
Lies Lead to Collectivism
Mustapha Mond, Resident World Controller for
Western Europe, to Bernard and the Savage:
But as I make the laws here, I can also break
them. With impunity… The world’s stable now.
People are happy; they get what they want,
and they never want what they can’t get. They’re
well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not
afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of
passion and old age; they’re plagued with no
mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or
children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re
so conditioned that they practically can’t help
behaving as they ought to behave. And if
anything should go wrong, there’s soma.
Lies lead to a loss of human dignity and
humans become a tool, to be used and
discarded when no longer useful. Read 1984,
Animal Farm, BNW, or move to N. Korea
Lethal medicine linked to meningitis outbreak - YouTube
So A Two Flavor World: Objective vs. Subjective Truth
Objective truth is that which
lies outside of ourselves or
our own personal beliefs.
Truth is not an attitude and not
how we know, i.e. a process, the
truth is what we know.
Most arguments about ethics or moral
issues come down to this question. So
what objective means is that it is
independent of the knower and not an
opinion, “I itch” is a subjective truth,
“Huxley wrote BNW” is an objective truth.
Objective truth is then “telling it like it is.”
Objective does not mean “known
by all” or even “believed by all”,
you don’t get to the truth by simply
counting noses. Even if everyone
believes a lie, a lie is still a lie.
Even liars know about objective
truth, since the best way to lie is to
sprinkle in a little bit of objective
truth.
The World of Subjective Truth
Subjectivism – claims that all truth is
subjective, that is it is “in” or dependent on
each person individually (the subject).
Sort of like “what you say may be true for you,
but not for me.” “That the truth is relative,” or
“What right do you have to impose
your beliefs on me. You are judgmental.”
Everyone is entitled to their own
opinion, but you cannot make up your
own facts. Leads to indifference.
Ethics classes are more about
moral values (subjective, what I
value) instead of moral laws
(objective, right & wrong).
The contradiction lies in the subjectivists claim
that truth is absolutely or objectively
subjective! Which is itself an objective truth!
Hence subjectivism itself cannot be
true for a subjectivist.
Alternative Theories of the Truth
Skepticism – claims that no truth is knowable.
But this is also contradictory for it claims
to know that it is true that no one can know the
truth.
It is an objective truth that says there is no
objective truth!
The Pragmatist
Pragmatism – truth is whatever
works, or what you think
works, or what works for you.
Pragmatism is a form of
subjectivism and relativism.
However,
what is true is not always
practical (e.g. a flat tire) and
what is practical is not always
true (e.g. a “successful” lie),
leads to the idea that the end
justifies the means.
Empiricism
Empiricism – truth is only what
we can experience, for
example by experiments.
Some things we sense are not
true (i.e. mirages), some
things we all know are true
are not sensed, i.e.:
C
 
 3.141596254...
D
Empiricism is simply that
everything we need to know
about our world is knowable
by our senses as a fact, a
form of materialism.
The Rationalist
Rationalism – “truth is what can
be clearly and distinctly
understood by reason” or
“what can be proved by
reason alone.” A form of
secular humanism
You can’t prove that
truth is only what can be
proved.
Some truths are not perfectly
clear, some things are a
mystery. Why do two
people fall in love? Why
would you risk your life to
save someone else?
Emotivism
Emotivism – “truth is what I
feel,” or an emotion, sort
of like 2 + 2 = 5!!!!
But many feelings
are false.
Just because I feel that I
did well on an exam does
not mean in an objective
sense that I did!
So Who Does Get to Decide?
Civilization depends on the civilized imposing their standards on the
uncivilized. But who decides who the civilized are? The civilized do, that’s
who. If you cannot accept that then you are against civilization.
Although this may seem hard to accept then consider the fact that science
is what scientists say it is. And who decides who scientists are? The
scientists. Or who defines “bioengineering,” me and some others as well. They set
the standards by which persons are recognized as doing properly scientific
work or for that matter bioengineering, as opposed to dilettantism, quackery,
or magic. This is not arrogance, although there can be abuses, but simply
recognizes that there is an objective truth as a result of human minds trying
to make sense of our world within the bounds of a specific field of endeavor.
Those engaged in a profession must develop the standards (objective truths)
of the profession and must judge who are the persons qualified to practice it.
But what about deciding what is bad or good? Is there an objective standard
here as well, an objective truth? What is our responsibility to ourselves
and to others? Idea of Universal Human Rights is a guide for this.
“A human right is a moral
entitlement that places
obligations on other people
to treat one with dignity and
respect. If it makes sense at
all, it makes sense across
cultures, thereby providing a
standard of minimally decent
conduct that corporations and
engineers are morally required
to meet.” from Ethics in
Engineering by Martin and
Schinzinger, 4th ed.
Our worth as human beings is
greater because of what we are
than because of what we may
have.
Universal Human Rights as a
Guide to Our Human Actions
Immanuel Kant was a German
philosopher who lived from 1724
to 1804. His emphasis on human
dignity has given us today the idea
of universal human rights.
1. This means that we are to respect
other people as ends in themselves,
every person is worthy of our
respect, not a means to an end, a tool.
Leads to the idea of human dignity.
2. Kant also says to examine your human actions in terms of whether you would want
your action to become a universal law. For example (from Sandel, Justice), “Is it
ever right to make a promise you know you won’t be able to keep?” Kant argues,
according to Sandel, that if everybody made false promises (a universal law) then
nobody would believe such promises and universalizing the false promise would
undermine the institution of promise keeping. So don’t give false promises.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) looks at the teleos, which is the purpose, end, or
essence of our human actions. Humans are meant to pursue the good, to
live a good life. So what is a good life? Is there such a thing?
Consider the following two lists of opposites:
life
nourishment
material wellbeing
health
community
common good
respect
friendship
marriage
family
knowledge
truth
meaning/purpose
death
starvation
destitution
sickness
isolation
individualism
humiliation
hatred and bigotry
celibacy or adultery
alone
ignorance
lies and error
meaninglessness/nothingness
Any doubt which of the above is the good and capable of being chosen
for its own sake? No one pursues the RHS as ends in themselves. We
pursue the good since they address the basic needs of human nature
(what we ought to be or ought to do). A society based on the RHS would
be unbearable and likely fail and would not be human in its essence.