discussion question response

Desmond Soverns’s response

In our lives today we find that ethics is a functioning part of society regardless of whether we recognize it or not. Depending on one’s career the common idea of what action can be taken to achieve the greatest result, outcome, or what does the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, animals, or other subjects. In my current career field, the best example of ethics at work I can think of is the act of triaging patients. Triage is a French word meaning “to sort”; the concept of triaging is to provide the best possible care to the greatest number of people resulting in the highest amount of lives saved. In some cases what may be necessary to save one person may result in the death of another and a choice must be made based on logical practices that “justifies” or “governs” the decision being made. The decision will not always be simple or easy because as human beings our innate instincts in the right environment are to care for all those around us but the reality of mass casualties are that resources may be outweighed by the number of lives needing saved.

Ethics differs from morals in these situations as it asks more the question “what action is best?” versus “what action feels best?”. Ethics seem to be more defined as the guidelines in which we follow in pursuit of what is best or good. Morals lies more in the realm of the principles in which we find personally acceptable or “right”. Guidelines aimed in achieving a common goal which we can agree is the best outcome for the greater good are more readily standardized across the board in certain careers such as healthcare. Morals have a more volatile nature as they can prohibit certain actions from being taken based on personal beliefs which may prevent the greatest amount of good from being done. Morals has more in common with the Greek word “pathos” which is an appeal to emotions which are commonly evoked in situations involving death or suffering. On the other hand, “ethos” is an appeal to ethics which is based more in the theory of doing what is good. The common issue with the interchanging of the words as if they have the same meaning could possibly come from the situations that exist where what is ethically right also happens to coincide with what someone may view as morally right.

In regards to what morality is, it could be looked at as what we like or what we choose over something else. We get this from our values or concepts learned early on. Values can vary from person to person and from society to society. What one person views as acceptable and makes up good character may be completely different from what another person may accept. Our values play a role in what our morals will be. “The word morality has a slightly different connotation from that of the terms ethics and values. That is because morality usually refers to the moral rules we follow; the values that we have.” Nina Rosenstand explains that one of the more notable differences between the terms values, ethics, and morals comes from the perspective. Morals are more personal and specific to an individual versus ethics which are more broad and based in theory about a goal.

Resources:

Rosenstand, N. (2016) The moral of the story: an introduction to ethics. Eighth Edition. (p. 8)