- Prologue
- 3 Types of Judgments
- 3 Areas in Study of Ethics
- 3 Preconditions for Ethical Scrutiny
- Case study: Memento
- Case Study: Crank
Prologue
- This article series based on Ethics Lectures by Mr.Kavan Limbasiya (AIR-198, IRS-IT) at SPIPA, Ahmedabad
- The Syllabus of UPSC General Studies Paper-4 Ethics is available here click me. Accordingly, we can divide the Ethics topic into 8 parts
- First part would be Ethics and Human interface- further subdivided into three articles
- E1/P1: Types of Judgments, Pre-requisite for Ethical scrutiny, Meta Ethics, Applied ethics, Normative-Descriptive ethics.
- E1/P2: Theories of Ethics: virtual ethics, deontological vs. teleological ethics, utilitarianism, hedonism, epicureanism, egoism, conduct ethics etc.
- E1/P3: Values, Role of family-society-educational institutions in inculcating values, ethics and private and public relationships.
3 Types of Judgments
1.Factual or Epistemological |
|
2.Aesthetic Judgment |
|
3.Moral Judgment |
|
Question: Are these three judgments inter-related?
- Traditional thinkers considered them one and same i.e. what is ‘true’ (factual) is ‘beautiful’ (aesthetic) and therefore it is Good (moral). Something like Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram.
- They believed, just as facts are not ‘dependent’ on us, the morals are not dependent on us. The morals are created by the God.
- Now we don’t see things in the same manner. Consider following question: Was Amitabh involved in Bofors case? (Factual judgment)
- If you’re a bigB fan, you’d say “no he can’t be involved because he is a ‘good’ guy (Moral judgment). And you’d say this without verifying the facts. So, you’ve internal inconsistency- you like this guy, so you can’t believe he can be bad.
- Similar case about Sanjay Dutt’s involvement in 1992 bomb blasts.
3 Areas in Study of Ethics
The study of Ethics is subdivided into three areas: (1) Meta Ethics (2) Applied (3) Normative Ethics
S1:Meta-Ethics / Critical Ethics
- If we steal, is it “good” thing? That is an example of ethical question.
- What is “good”? That is meta-ethical question. In other words, Meta-ethics is one ‘step’ above ethics.
- If you begin evaluating the ethics itself, then it’s meta-ethics.
- Nature=> philosophy of nature => physics.
- Similarly here morality =>ethics => meta-ethics.
S2: Applied Ethics
- In subsequent lecture, we’ll discuss various theories of ethics. One such theory is Utilitarianism, which says if a decision leads to “maximum happiness for maximum people” then it’s an ethical decision.
- Now if we apply this utilitarianism theory to a specific field, then it’d become “Applied Ethics” examples,
Bioethics | step cell therapy is good or bad? |
Environmental ethics | cutting trees and displacing the tribal for highway projects is good or bad? |
S3: Normative vs. Descriptive Ethics
Descriptive | Normative / prescriptive |
---|---|
Einstein’s equation is E=MC2 | Should we use that equation or knowledge to build nuclear weapon? |
Newton’s third law: action and reaction are opposite. | Should we use Newton’s third law to build a rocket or a gun? |
It describes “this is what’s happening.” | It prescribes “what should be done or what ought to be done.” |
|
|
As you can see, only ‘describing’, rather than prescribing. |
|
|
Ethics vs. Morality?
- Subject matter of Physics = Natural phenomenon. It studies nature and derives formulas.
- So subject matter “nature”=> its study is called “physics”.
- Same way subject matter “morality” => its study is called “ethics”.
Legality vs. Morality
Legality | Morality |
---|---|
Gay marriage is illegal | Perhaps in some ethical school of thought, gay marriage could be considered ethical because everyone has ‘right’ to have a life partner to provide him/her emotional support. |
Every illegal thing may not be immoral | Every moral things may not be legal. If we make ‘lying’ illegal, then everyone will be jailed. |
One and same throughout the region/nation | Varies from culture, religion and region. |
Murder is illegal | Murder is immoral so its in the ‘intersecting’ region of legality and morality. |
3 Preconditions for Ethical Scrutiny
For case studies- Before we can decide where an action is worth ethical debate or not, you should first ‘test’ whether given case passes 3-preconditions or not?
Pc1: Free Will
- In Delhi zoo, a mentally instable person falls in Tiger enclosure. The white tiger kills him, while the crowd is busy capturing the MMS video of the event.
- If a person has multiple choices, and freedom to pick one within those choices, only then we can debate it on ethical ground.
- When that white tiger killed the mentally instable man, Tiger didn’t have ‘free will’ or ‘knowledge’. Nature has designed tiger to act that way. Hence tiger’s action can’t be judged as ethical or immoral. He can’t /shouldn’t be punished for that.
- While crowd’s action can be termed as unethical- because they had ‘free will’: Option A- help the person or option B- record MMS on mobile. They chose option A, hence unethical.
Pc2: Knowledge
- A Child takes “iphone 6s plus” from table and dips it in a fishbowl. Phone is permanently damaged. Was Child’s action unethical?
- Well, Child had ‘free will’- (A) Take selfi and upload on facebook (B) dip it in a fishbowl
- She chose optionB. But she didn’t have the ‘knowledge’ that iPhone are not waterproof.
- We cannot exercise ‘free will’ in an ethical/unethical manner, unless and until we have ‘knowledge’ of its consequence. Hence baby’s action can’t be termed as ethical or unethical.
Pc3: Voluntary Action
- If someone puts a gun on your head or straps a bomb on your waist and then orders you to commit a crime, then ‘it’s an involuntary action’ by you, hence we can’t judge it on ethical grounds.
- Apart from above three, following conditions also make it difficult to evaluate an action on ethical grounds:
Fear / violence |
|
Ignorance |
|
Passion |
|
Pathological status |
|
Habit, temperament |
|
Value system |
|
Now you can see the broad picture- consider following Case: Mr.X murders Mr.Y to acquire his property.
Action | Component |
---|---|
Mr.X | Moral Agent |
He killed Mr.Y | Human Action. (Recall 3 types of assumptions: if he had done with out free will, knowledge and voluntary action, we’d have called it “non-human” action and topic would end here. |
Mr.X’s action is morally wrong. | Moral Judgment. (Recall 3-types of Judgments-factual, aesthetic and moral) |
It is wrong to murder another human | Moral Standard=> Ethics => Meta-Ethics. |
No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. | Article 21, Constitution of India |
Whoever commits murder shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine. | Section 302, Indian Penal Code (IPC) |
Case study: Memento
In the movie “Memento”, the protagonist- Mr. Leonard Shelby suffers from short-term memory loss. Following people take advantage of his mental conditions:
- A waitress: by making the protagonistkill her abusive boyfriend after court and police fails to give her protection or justice.
- A Cop: by making the protagonist kill various criminals for cleansing the society as well as looting the money from dead corpses. He uses this money to tip-off informants and fight against crime.
- A motel-receptionist: by charging the protagonist multiple rooms not used by him, because receptionist’s boss had ordered him to increase revenue by doing so, else threatened to fire him from job. This receptionist has a daughter for marriage and a son in expensive coaching at Delhi/Kota so he can’t afford to lose job.
In above case, whose action(s) is/are subject to ethical scrutiny? If yes, then are they ethical or unethical?
- Leonard Shelby
- Waitress
- Cop
- Motel receptionist
Case Study: Crank
In the movie “Crank”, Chinese Mobsters inject our protagonist Jason Statham with a synthetic drug which inhibits the flow of adrenaline, slowing the heart and eventually killing the victim. Jason enters a hospital trying to explain his condition to staff but nurses refuse to believe him and doctor says he’d need to run 24 hours medical tests before giving him any drug, despite repeated requests by Jason that he requires immediate shot of Adrenaline. Impatient Jason breaks into the storeroom and tries to steal vials containing synthetic adrenaline, so he can inject them to survive. But the staff and policemen try to apprehend him. Jason fights back, injures a few of them before escaping the hospital. In above case, whose action(s) is/are subject to ethical scrutiny? If yes, then are they ethical or unethical?
- Jason Statham
- Nurses
- Doctor
- Policemen
In the next part (E1/P2) we’ll look at various theories of Ethics. Visit Mrunal.org/Ethics for more study material on Ethics.
Thank you very much sir…… good article but please provide us vedio lectures also…. please sir
In Pc1: Free Will :Option B is unethical
Sir plz provide the lectures also as u fid in economics and geography. They were very helpful.
In momento all except the protagonist and receptionist should be subjected to ethical scrutiny as they have used the protagonist as a means to an end after using free will. The receptionist was subjected to compelling circumstances, therefore he shouldn’t be subjected to ethical scrutiny.
Case studies are unique and interesting.
Jason’s action cannot be judged on the ground of ethics because he if he will not do that then he will die.
But at the same time we can see that he is a gangster and it was his choice.He made his condition (whatever is happening to him).So from this point of view he is unethical.
Sir, I have one doubt. You mentioned “subject matter “morality” => its study is called “ethics”.” In lexicon, it is mentioned that Morality is considered when we are talking about one individual, whereas Ethics deals about the society as a whole.
Please clarify.
I loved ur lecture at SPIPA sir. Plz guide me.. I want to score like you. And u r also very dashing. I love u sir. Muaahhhaa
it is not the platfarm for these type of things. dont misuse the forum like this
In Memento case
Under ethical scrutiny – Cop and Waitress
Cop did it out of free will, had the knowledge of consequences as it was done with the purpose, and was his voluntary action.
Unethical because it shows cop was unable and incapable of handling law and order of the city and takes advantage of a person with mental disorder in killings.
Waitress too did it out of free will, had a purpose so the knowledge also, and was a voluntary action.
Unethical because she took advantage of a person with mental disorder for committing crime.
Protagonist and receptionist – not under ethical scrutiny
As the actions were not voluntary, and the former was having mental disorder.
it is really a great job.thanks a lot for this and help the person who need guidance.
its very good,thank u sir
thank you
cutoff?
Thank u so much sir i understand well from your notes especially from your example….thanks again
”If someone puts a gun on your head or straps a bomb on your waist and then orders you to commit a crime, then ‘it’s an involuntary action’ by you, hence we can’t judge it on ethical grounds”
the person can offer his own life, instead of following the order. so, the person, even in this case, has choices. should not we scrutinise this case on ethical grounds?
Hahahaha.. All forums r platforms for these kind of things..
Hahahaha, All forums r platforms for these kind of things..
Thank u so much Kavan and Mrunal sir for ur efforts…:)
THANK SIR, AB HAME LAG RAHA HAI KI BINA DELHI GYE AUR LAKHO KHARCH KIYE BINA BHI HAM “IAS” BAN SAKTE HAI. SHACH AAP TO BINA COACHING WALO KE BHAGVAN HO.
can someone clarify difference between FREE WILL and VOLUNTARY actions.
Isn’t voluntary actions come out of free will ?
One is action other is thought. Voluntary action means that what are you doing is on own will not by forcing some one else. If some one has put gun on your head and ask to kill some in that case your will may be to not or may be to kill but you are killing. so your action is very away from your will. other exam of mentally challenged person who does not know even his will so it can not be termed as free will.
but I searched the definition for voluntary actions at many places. and i found that actions bcoz of free will are called as voluntary actions
Sir , please share the answers too for the mock question in the end of the articles.
BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG THNAKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
thanku so much sir
plzz go on
nothing can be better than this ……….thanks mrunal SIR
thank you so much!!
Hello sir.thanks for providing such useful information. Sir I can’t take any coaching , so please guide me for mains exam.my subject is sociology. Thanks again
Excellent material
Thank u very much sir
The book that followed by the author was McGraw Hill one (By Nanda Kishore, Santhosh Ajmera)
Yes.. The content matches..
Thanks sir..
Can we answeres to case studies in Ethics – E1/P1
Can you please upload the lectures on youtube sir.