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Summary

Ethics Class 02

## BRIEF OVERVIEW OF PREVIOUS CLASS (5:03 PM)

- Faculty explained why PYQs are important and why students need to focus on PYQs and prepared a theme based on it.
- Faculty revised Values, Attitudes, Morals, and Ethics and their inter-relationship.
- **Compassion = Empathy + Desire for action.**
- **Note:**
- **Antipathy:** I am against this person
- **Apathy:** Indifferent towards others
- **Sympathy:** To pity someone
- **Empathy:** I will imaginatively put myself in the shoes of others and feel the pain
- **Compassion:** I am able to understand the situation and help to alleviate the pain
- **For e.g.** **Awanish Sharan** an IAS officer introduces the concept of a bike ambulance for the tribal population of Chattisgarh

## ABSOLUTE VERSUS RELATIVE (5:20 PM)

- "Truth is a truth even if no one speaks, a lie is a lie even if everyone speaks".
- Something right or wrong for all time to come.
- There cannot be the wrong way of doing the right things. Hence *means are important.*
- **For example:** Jumping a traffic signal to save someone's life is not justified. similarly, the concept of Robinhood is also not justified
- However, this approach has too much rigidity and a certain amount of flexibility is required to successfully interact with the environment.
- Hence relative aspect is preferable because the decision can be made based on the situation
- **For example:**  the story of Sage when he took pride in the fact that he always spoke the truth however it resulted in the killing of a young man.
- According to **Buddha** "Being kind is more important than being right "
- Hence it is said to evaluate the rightness of an action it is important to understand the intention behind the action.

## SUBJECTIVE VERSUS OBJECTIVE (5:35 PM)

- The value is not the property of the object but the judgment of the subject. **For example:** Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholders.
- However, if values are evaluated irrespective of the individual, it is referred to as objective. **For example:** According to Plato, beauty is a value independent of the individual.
- However, there are some values which exist independent of the individuals. **For example:** wisdom, compassion, love etc
- **Note**: **Wisdom = Intelligence + Morality.**
- However, the values can be objective but their manifestation can be subjective. For example - Cinema has often glorified stalking as a manifestation of love.
- **Note:**  Kindly refer to the flowchart made by the faculty in this regard.
- Long-lasting **beliefs** based on preference with respect to desirable and undesirable become the **values**
- **Values** result in **morals and ethics:**
- When it is seen through the prism of right and wrong.
- Only those values which can be seen through the prism of right and wrong, those values become morals at the individual level and ethics at the societal level
- Honesty, integrity, courage - all these values can be seen through the prism of right and wrong.
- **Morals** when accepted at the societal level become **ethics**
- **Ethics** when practiced at the individual level becomes **morals**
- **Morals** are individual standards of right and wrong and **Ethics** is a framework with respect to right and wrong
- **Value and Attitude:**
- When values are tied to an object it is referred to as **attitude**.
- Attitude depicts the readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way.
- On hand, values are general and not related to any object whereas attitude is specific and is always oriented towards distinct objects.
- Values represent what ought to be whereas attitudes are well-established thoughts which reflect the likeliness to behave in a particular manner.
- Values are derived from culture, traditions, family etc. Hence are relatively more enduring.
- However, attitude is also determined by personal experiences. Hence, is relatively less enduring.
- **For example:** respect is a value but that does not guarantee you will be respectful towards everyone.
- **Home assignment:** learn Gandhiji's seven sins.

## MORALS AND ETHICS (6:13 PM)

|  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Parameters | Ethics | Morals |
| Concept | What is the right way to act in a situation by an actor | Standards of behaviour which individuals have set for themselves with respect to right or wrong |
| Source | External/society | Internal/ Individual |
| Why do we follow? | Because society says it is the right thing to do. | Because we believe it is right |
| What if we deviate? | It might lead to social exclusion, boycotts, or social ostracization. | The feeling of guilt, anxiety, remorse |
| Flexibility | Collective proposition of society hence more objective as compared to morals. | Varies from individual to individual hence more subjective |

- **Situation**: With respect to administrative officials, there exists a situation where person X is poor, hungry and starving but does not have a linked ration card.
- **Morality**: It says gives the ration to the person.
- **Administrative Ethics**: follow the rules in every situation.
- **Assignment question:** What do you understand by values and Ethics? In what way it is important to be ethical along with being professionally competent? (150 words /10 marks)

## QUERY HANDLING  (6:49 PM)

## CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE (COC) (7:02 PM)

- The **conscience** is defined as the ***==intuitive authoritative judgment==*** with respect to the ***==moral==*** quality of actions.
- ==Acrisisof conscience can be defined as a situation where you worry because :==
- 1. You think, you have done something wrong.
- 2. You had a dilemma between the two options and you were compelled to take action against your conscience.
- 3. There exists a feeling of guilt.
- **For example:**
- A. State of mind of Arjun before Kurukshetra
- B. You wanted to build a career in social service but because of financial responsibility, you chose an economically lucrative career.
- C. The dilemma of medical professionals with respect to ***generic v/s branded medicine.***
- D. Inertia to appear as a witness in criminal cases.
- E. Forcefully dispersing the crowd engaged in peaceful protest.
- Integrity, courage and wisdom are required to overcome the crisis.
- "Conscience is like a dog which never bites but never stops barking "
- **Question**: What is meant by ‘crisis of conscience"? Narrate one incident in your life when you were faced with such a crisis and how you resolved the same. (150 words/10 marks)

## NORMS (7:19 PM)

- Norms are one of the sources of ethics.
- They are referred to as **informal guidelines** which act as guiding principles of behavior
- They are agreed upon by the societal members and it is binding on all members of society
- They are referred to as "**social expectations**" or tools of social control to ensure uniformity, and conformity and to check deviance.
- However if one digresses from the norms it might lead to a social boycott social exclusion or social ridiculing or social ostracization or scolding.
- **For example,** Early marriage wrt girls, arrange marriage, universalisation of marriage, the hetero-sexual norm of marriage
- **For example** - Bhanwari Devi's example --> precursor for Vishaka guidelines ---> SHE acts.
- The higher stage of the evolution of norms is referred to as laws.

## THE TOPICS FOR THE NEXT CLASS ARE LAWS AND ETHICS AND SOCIALIZATION.