ETHICAL ISSUES: WHAT ETHICS IS ALL ABOUT
Unplugged, in its musical connotation, means unamplified—unembellished (acoustic) content. In another sense it refers to removing obstruction(s): clearing the way to the goal (think plumber’s plunger). Both apply here; simplicity is the watchword. Getting at ethics via philosophy can be daunting, so we’re going to bypass all that for now. Ethics (with respect to its adjective ethical) can be reduced to a simple model that can be applied to everyday living in a very basic way. Here it is—ethics for everyone, in five paragraphs.
HOW TO BE ETHICAL
You certainly can get by without walking the ethical line. Most people do in fact wander from it whenever it suits them. But Natural Law comes with our being, and we’re able to take advantage of (or ignore) it because it’s always there in spite of us. The truth is that we correctly assume that most people will behave predictably because of it, and most of us do, most of the time. But it’s also true that some of us take advantage of those trusting souls who generally do follow it. We can use it to our advantage without subscribing to it, but is this right? It certainly isn’t ethical. To be ethical, the Golden Rule really says it all if you would reflect on all that it implies. Simply “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or if that doesn’t resonate, try the Confucian “Do not do to another what you would not want him to do to you.” Or Kant’s more prolix Categorical Imperative: “Act only according to that maxim through which you can at the same time (resolve) that it should become a universal law.” (More simply: what if your mother read about it in the newspaper…) But maybe you expect something more than (what really are not) platitudes, so let’s try another tack: Honestly acknowledge, affirm, accept and apply what is (fact, truth), and actively encourage the same in others. This will work very well, by the way. You can stop right here and have the gist of this article. Or you may read on for more detail. It’s a fact that you can’t know something that isn’t true. Knowledge requires truth—fact—which represents what is. What isn’t counts for nothing. To be ethical you have to first acknowledge and affirm the facts, accept them, and apply this knowledge, honestly; first to yourself, then to others, and do no harm while doing so. Put in the form of simple exclusionary rules, try these: Do not violate trust (don’t lie, mislead, cheat or steal); and Do not cause harm (don’t murder, damage, impair or deprive). Stop me if I’m wrong, but we’re back to the Golden Rule and Confucius again. Why make things complicated when they’re not? In the spirit of even greater simplicity, being ethical can be described in just one word: integrity. Look it up and you will find that it means the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles; the state of being sound, undamaged. Synonyms include: honesty, truth, actuality, veracity, reliability, incorruptibility, soundness. You get the idea… What comes next should fill in the gaps and demonstrate why being ethical is essential to the complete human being.
