Expository/Analytical Miscellaneous Topic #25
DBRA 100 2:00 PM
Jose Antonio Flores
November 6, 2018
Lynn University
Ethics
Our live consists of millions of moments and millions of decisions that we make consciously and unconsciously. Every time we make a decision or take an action we follow the rules that already exist in our mind. Even without knowing the definition of moral and ethics we use them since a very young age.Being a human and a part of society requires us to be self-conscious, to analyze our behavior and follow specific rules. Moral and ethics play a fundamental role in establishing the type of organization that we live in and determines our behavior in it.
Thou terms moral and ethics might seem to be synonyms, there is an essential difference between them. The term moral refers to the ensemble of rules that govern our actions and values and function as the norm in society. Usually, when some acts are being evaluated as moral or not, we rely on our understanding of good and evil. Moral often goes hand in hand with our religious beliefs, we follow the rules and accept the obligations imposed to us by the higher power (God).
The Ten Commandments is probably the brightest example of the set of moral rules. People have made rules and laws ever since they began living in organized groups. However, the requirements that just stated the rights and obligations of the members of the society eventually turn into not enough. The need to improve the quality of life, the quality of the relationship between people led to the creation of moral rules. Religion became the vessel that carried them to us thru thousands of years. Knowing that these laws were given to us by God made it much easier to agree with and to accept. Rules like "Do Not Kill" and "Do Not Steal" are automatic to us, we absorb them like our mother’s milk. They formed the core of our general understanding of what our behavior should be like.
Ethics is based on moral, but it is entirely different. Ethics makes us rigorously analyze the situation, the pros, and cons; it makes us use logic instead of blindly follow the given rule. To decide on the conduct when faced with a moral problem ethics applies to reason, it examines and questions the rules. While moral questions are abstract, ethical questions very often arise in our daily personal and professional lives in the situations that cause us to hesitate and to reflect.
Self-reflection is the foundation of the ethics. When we face a dilemma, we begin to analyze our behavior, to compare it to a known standard and start making predictions of what outcomes our upcoming action will have. Ethics goes beyond following the rules. It places the greater good of the human in the center. It presumes that we act the best way possible in the given environment by genuinely seeking the solution that is correct and is in everybody's best interest or at least the one that brings the least amount of harm.
Since a young age, we are used to listening to phrases like "Make good decisions," "Behave," "Be good" and others. However, making the right choices, following the rules at all times and intending to improve your behavior is not as easy as it may sound. Benjamin Franklin, one of the greatest minds in the history of humanity was working very hard on perfecting himself, intending to organize his routine, his thoughts, his actions in such a manner that it was to help him to achieve the greater good for all people around him and himself. He created the list of rules to follow to behave the best and most effective way possible, the record that he considered necessary for any person that has such important responsibilities as himself. He also found it is tough to follow all those rules, and thou, he was quite successful in his self-improvement he also had realized that not everyone has the conditions, the abilities and the determination to follow all these rules. Therefore, we can't expect different people to think the same way, make the same type of choices or react the same way.
Everyone's situation is different. People have different backgrounds, education, religious values. Not everyone has an opportunity to observe moral behavior in their family, or at their school, or at the place where they live. Morally and ethically we are the result of our upbringing. Moreover, even if we had all the right examples in our lives, sometimes we happen to make the decision that goes against our moral because the situation presents us with no other option. Like when you hurt another person to defend yourself and preserve your own life, or when a parent has to steal some food to feed the children. We have to appeal to human rights, dignity, respect for the person and many other criteria to substantiate our ethical reflections and decisions.
It is important to state that ethics is involved in much more than our personal affairs. Ethics is crucial in many professions. Professional ethics is one of the critical requirements for any company to function successfully. It is a set of rules that each company or organization establishes. It regulates the behavior of all the employees and can be different for different types of professions. To say, a teacher can not restrain a student for inappropriate behavior; however, the police officer is permitted to control a person for disturbing the peace. The same as a pizza delivery person cannot break your door to deliver the food while the firefighter can knock out the door, the window or even the wall to do his job.
In our time, when people have access to all kinds of information, personal and professional ethics become almost inseparable. Many companies require their employees and associates behave according to the code of ethics at all times especially since it is effortless to find online pictures, videos, and even private personal records. Today customers have very low tolerance to inappropriate and unethical conduct; they consider such employee unprofessional. No one wants to hire a lawyer, or a teacher, or a doctor that disregard the codes of conduct. Finding the right specialist is no longer enough. The client chooses the companies where the employees are trusted and respected people on and off the clock.
So, hundreds of years later the ideas of Benjamin Franklin about ethical conduct self-improvement are coming to life. To compete for a better job, or to win over the customers we have to work on ourselves just like he was trying to do. Temperance, order, resolution, frugality, sincerity, and justice are valuable traits in our society, and that is what any company and client looks for. Franklin's ideas on human behavior could have been considered a bit exaggerated but he just was ahead of his time, and all his ideas seem pretty reasonable for our modern life.
Moral and ethics are unremovable part of our lives. Our society changes, laws change, new inventions and discoveries change our lifestyles that is why it is important always to remind ourselves about the general moral rules. Also, ethics in its turn helps us to adapt to all those changes. The progress of science, new technology and social pressure for individual rights require that we find an optimal balance between the individual and collective rights and interests and, our moral integrity and ethical behavior are the key to that.
References
301 Moved Permanently. (n.d.). Retrieved November 6, 2018, from http://Https://www.realtechsupport.org/UB/WBR/texts/markups/brief_summary_ethics.pdf
Simpson, C., Lewis, M., & Hall, J. H. (Eds.). (2016). Dialogues of belief and reason level 100 (4th ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Lynn University.
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