Professional Ethics, 2nd Edition

R. Subramanian

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2017
 Chapter 3

Ethical Theories

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 OBJECTIVES
✔ List and explain the basic ethical principles.
✔ Explain the moral development theories of Kohlberg, Turien, &
Gilligan.
✔ Classify ethical theories and explain the concepts involved in
utilitarianism and rights and duty theories.
✔ Explain the uses of ethical theories with examples.

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 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
1. BENEFICENCE
The beneficence principle states that our decisions and
actions must be taken ensuring that it does good to
others. One consciously looks for and avoids harm to
others. Your concern for the welfare of others is a
cardinal ethical principle.
 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
2. LEAST HARM

A decision taken or action implemented based on ethical

principles is essentially for the good of the society. An
action may, while causing good, also harm some people.
This principle urges you to take a very considerate
decision so that any such harm is minimal.

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 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
3 . AUTONOMY/RESPECT FOR OTHERS

✔ Respect the rights of others.

✔ Do not impose your view on others.
✔ People have a right to hold to their value system.
✔ Respecting rights of others will prevent many conflict
situations.

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 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
4. NON-VIOLENCE OR PEACE
✔ It is a universal principle.
✔ Dictated by all religions.
✔ Peace is what every one aspires for.
✔ Resolve conflicts by peaceful means.
✔ Violence in society is a sign of ethical vacuum.

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 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
5. JUSTICE

✔ Our decisions and actions must be fair to everyone

concerned.
✔ Principle of fairness or justice is at the core of ethical
actions.
✔ Conflicting situations must be analyzed and justified
before deciding an action on the principle of fairness.

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 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES
6. TRUTHFULNESS

✔ Truthfulness is considered a universal value.

✔ Truth prevails at the end.
✔ Mahatma Gandhi embodied this principle as Satyagraha.
✔ As an ethical principle, it exhorts us to take decisions and act
based on truth and follow this value while reacting to
situations.

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MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

1.Piaget’s Theory
2.Kohlberg’s Theory
3.Domain Theory
4.Gilligan’s Theory

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JEAN PIAGET

Born in Switzerland
9th Aug 1896 to 17th Sep 1980
Developmental psychologist &
Epistemologist
Known for theory of cognitive development
 PIAGET’S THEORY
JEAN PIAGET (1896 – 1980)

▪ One of the first psychologists to study moral development in

children.
▪ He hypothesized that children learn moral values by interacting
with the environment.
▪ Heteronomous stage of moral development.
▪ Egocentrism among children.
▪ He developed a two-stage theory.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY
1. MORALITY OF CONSTRAINT (Typical 6 year olds)

✔ Point of View The child has a single, absolute, moral perspective

(he/she believes that a particular behavior is right or wrong and that
everyone sees it the same way).

✔ Rules The child sees rules as sacred and unchangeable or ‘carved in

stone’.

✔ Intention The child is under the impression that the extent of guilt is
determined by the amount of damage done by an act and not by the
motivation behind the action.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY
MORALITY OF CONSTRAINT (Typical 6 year olds)
✔ Punishment The child tends to define moral wrong in terms of what is
forbidden or punishable. He/She expects severe punishment in case of
wrongdoing. The child feels that punishment itself defines the wrongness
of the act. An act is perceived to be bad if it leads to punishment.

✔ Respect for Authority The child thinks that peer aggression must be
punished by an external authority. The external authority is normally a
parent. The child has a tendency to run to one of the parents for protection
or justice. Unilateral respect leads to a feeling of obligation to conform to
standards and rules set by adults.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY
MORALITY OF CONSTRAINT (Typical 6 year olds)

✔ Concept of justice The child thinks he/she should obey laws

because they are established by those in authority. The rule is in
effect because an authoritative figure—mother, father, or
teacher—has set the rule. The child confuses moral laws with
physical laws and believes that any physical accident or
misfortune that occurs after a misdeed is a punishment willed by
God or some other supernatural force.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY

MORALITY OF COOPERATION (Typical 12 year olds)

✔ Point of View The child is aware of the differing viewpoints
regarding rules. Children put themselves in the place of others.
They are not absolute in their judgments but know that more than
one point of view is possible.

✔ Rules The child understands that rules are made by people and can
be altered by people. Children consider themselves just as capable
of changing rules as anyone else.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY
MORALITY OF COOPERATION (Typical 12 year olds)
✔ Intention The child judges actions by intentions and not by
consequences. He/She knows that the wrongdoer’s intention will
be considered while evaluating guilt.

✔ Punishment The child expects milder punishment. He/She is of

the view that punishment must compensate the victim and help the
culprit recognize why the act is wrong, thus leading to reform.
Punishment should involve restitution or suffering the same fate as
the victim of someone’s wrongdoing. Peer aggression should be
punished by retaliatory behavior by the victim.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY

MORALITY OF COOPERATION (Typical 12 year olds)

✔ Respect for Authority Mutual respect for authority and peers
allows children to value their own opinions and judge other people
realistically. Children should obey rules because of mutual concern
for the rights of others.

✔ Concept of Justice The child does not confuse natural misfortune

with punishment.

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 PIAGET’S THEORY
Guide to Moral Education
✔ Emphasis on discovery learning
✔ Not to impose moral values in children
✔ Provide opportunities for problem solving and cooperative
decision making
✔ Learn from experience and make common rules based on
fairness.

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LAWRENCE KOHLBERG
✔ 25th October, 1927 -19th January, 1987.
✔ Nationality – American.
✔ Worked as Professor at the University of
Chicago and at the Graduate School of
Education at Harvard University.
 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Lawrence Kohlberg (1969) extended & improved on Piaget’s theory :

✔ Children form different ways thinking through experiences and

form ideas about justice, rights, equality, and human welfare
✔ Moral maturity takes more time
✔ Developed a moral reasoning theory and classified it into three
levels and six stages.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
LEVELS STAGES ESSENTIAL FEATURES

Pre-conventional 1 Obedience and punishment

2 oriented
Individualism and exchange
Conventional 1 Good interpersonal relationships
2 Maintaining social order

Post-conventional 1 Social contract and individual rights

2 Universal Principles
 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Pre-conventional, Level 1, Stage 1

✔ Heteronomous orientation
✔ The focus is on attempts to avoid breaking rules that are
followed by punishment
✔ One opts for obedience for its own sake and to avoid the
physical consequences of an action on individuals and
property.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Pre-conventional, Level 1, stage 2
✔ Early emergence of moral reciprocity
✔ Moral orientation focuses on the instrumental, pragmatic value
of an action.
✔ Follows the rules or norms only when it is of
✔ immediate interest to the self
✔ Concept of something being right is based on a fair sense of an
equal exchange, a deal
✔ The concept of right is relative

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Conventional, Level 2

✔ Shift in the moral perspective.

✔ Realization of need for norms and conventions to uphold
order in society.
✔ Individual interests become secondary.
✔ Consciously becomes aware of shared thoughts, vision and
agreements.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Conventional Level 2, Stage 1

✔ Maintaining good relationships.

✔ Being loyal, honest, grateful, and respecting others.
✔ Limited to family and close relations or local community.
✔ Morality in a generalized social system is yet to evolve.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Conventional level, Level 2, stage 2

✔ There is a shift from what is expected in terms of local norms

and role expectations to defining what is right in a larger
social context.
✔ Understanding of larger social context.
✔ Realization of social objectives and responsibilities.
✔ A system of laws and the need for everyone to respect them is
considered important.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY

Post-conventional, Level 3, stage 1

✔ Social perspectives take deeper root.

✔ Decisions and actions based upon social norms and
conventions.
✔ No support for uniform application of rules.

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 KOHLBERG’S THEORY
Post-conventional, Level 3, stage 2

✔ Transformation of the individual from a local domain to a

universal domain.
✔ Individuals develop a much wider perspective and imbibe
ethical principles that can be said to be universal.
✔ Moral judgment calls for reasoning based on the ethical
fairness.
✔ Develops an understanding that the elements of ethics, such as
regard for life and human welfare, transcend particular cultures
and geographical boundaries.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
✔ Kohlberg was critical of traditional moral education based on
‘a bag of virtues’.
✔ Teachers inculcate such virtues and values and let the
students practice and experience.
✔ No guiding principles to define the set of values.
✔ Moral education depends upon the social, cultural and
personal beliefs of teacher.
✔ Gave rise to the concept of ethical relativity.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
✔ To account for ethical relativity, suggested method is
value-clarification.
✔ Students made to realize that there is no unique solution or
universal answers to ethical problems.
✔ Need to be tolerant towards divergent views.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
Alternative Approach

✔ Teachers not to impose a set of values.

✔ Inform students about divergent views and the reasons.
✔ Act as a moderator during discussion by students.
✔ Teacher may also give his/her views and suggestions.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education

✔ Moral development is not gaining more knowledge but a

qualitative change in thinking.
✔ As the student faces new situations, there is conflict with prior
understanding.
✔ Student is forced to rethink and make adjustments and rearrange
moral reasoning.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
Kohlberg’s Approach to Moral Education

✔ This adjustment is called moral equilibration.

✔ Development occurs during moral equilibration stage.
✔ Problems posed to students should force students to think about
contradictions.
✔ This enables them to rethink and make adjustments in moral
reasoning.

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 DOMAIN THEORY

✔ Elliot Turiel
✔ American psychologist
✔ Ph.D from Yale University
✔ Colleague of Lawrence Kohlberg
✔ Worked at the University of California
✔ Moral reasoning theory
 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Further research on Kohlberg’s stage theory revealed
anomalies in stage sequence and goals.
✔ Attempts to make small, cosmetic changes in stage goals did
not succeed.
✔ Need felt for comprehensive review of stage sequences and
their goals.
✔ Substantial adjustments in the theory was needed to remove
anomalies.
✔ This led to the Domain theory.

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 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Elliot Turiel and his team evolved the Domain theory.
✔ Development takes place in two domains – Moral & Social.
✔ Distinction is made between moral development & developing
social skills.
✔ Social convention is the term used for development of social
skills.

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 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Morality domain has different norms for judging behavior.
✔ Concept of morality based on harm, welfare and fairness.
✔ Existence of rules have limited influence on moral issues.
✔ Moral actions are judged by the effect on well-being and
fairness.

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 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Social conventions are based on different set of rules.
✔ Right actions decided by socially accepted norms.
✔ Social norms are conventions accepted as right by the local
community.
✔ Conventions have no intrinsic value but are necessary for
conducive environment in society.
✔ Social conventions are important to regulate the behavior of
members of the community.

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 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Research by the Domain theory team found the inadequacy of
the single stage framework developed by Kohlberg.
✔ Two parallel, distinct domains of development were
established.
✔ To decide the right course of action, a person has to understand
both the domains – Moral Values & Social Conventions.

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 DOMAIN THEORY
✔ Coordinated consideration of moral standards and social
conventions form a better framework to decide the right action.

✔ The domain theory is thus supposed to give a better framework

and provide a better chance to youngsters for making
morality-based decisions.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
Based on Domain Theory :
✔ Moral development is the recognition that moral cognition is
inherently tied to the realm of human social interaction.
✔ Principles of fairness and human welfare should form the basis of
moral education and should not be limited to any specific social
convention or norm.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
✔ Moral education should foster morality among children by focusing
on universal principles, without being biased against particular
religious edicts and emphasizing basic, core moral norms for all
religious systems.
✔ While dealing with a moral issue, students would be asked to focus
on the underlying justice or human welfare aspects of the situation.
✔ While dealing with social conventions, students will be required to
focus on the role of social norms and expectations and the
importance of social organizational functions of such social norms.

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 MORAL EDUCATION
✔ Many social convention issues also relate to the domain of morality.
Teachers should take cognizance of this and stimulate discussion on
such issues that develop moral values from social conventions also.
✔ Elementary discussions on the two independent domains followed by
issues that cover elements from both domains is a good way to
develop understanding of moral rules and their interaction with
social convention.
✔ Teachers should facilitate the students’ understanding of social
conventions and their role in the larger context of morality.
✔ An understanding of interaction between the two domains develops
the comprehension of the role of social convention, making it easier
to discuss complex moral issues viewing them in the light of social
convention.

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CAROL GILLIGAN
✔ Born November 1936
✔ American feminist, ethicist & psychologist
✔ Taught at Harvard University before
shifting to New York University
✔ Best known for her work – ‘In a different
Voice’
 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
✔ Carol Gilligan was a student and
colleague of Kohlberg
✔ She disagreed with Kohlberg’s theory
on two counts –
✔ one, his theory is biased against
women as he used only boys for his
experiments;
✔ second, she opposed Kohlberg’s
theory of rules and rights, which are
again biased against women.
 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
She conducted exhaustive studies on girls and came up with her own
theory, which she called the morality of care. By listening to
women’s experiences, Gilligan offered that the morality of care can
serve in the place of the morality of justice and rights espoused by
Kohlberg.

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 GILLIGAN’S THEORY

The morality of caring and responsibility is founded on

non-violence, while the morality of justice and rights is based on
equality. Perhaps one can look at these two moralities as providing
two distinct injunctions—the injunction to not treat others unfairly
(justice) and the injunction to not turn away from someone in need
(care). She considers these moralities as distinct, although
potentially connected.

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STAGES IN GILLIGAN’S THEORY
STAGE GOALS

Pre-conventional Individual survival

Transition from selfishness to responsibility to others

Conventional Self sacrifice is goodness

Transition from goodness to truth that she is a person too

Post-conventional Principle of non-violence; do

not hurt others or self
 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
✔ Gilligan emphasized the gender differences thought to be
associated with the two orientations—care and justice.
✔ The morality of care emphasizes relationship and presumably is
found to a greater degree in girls owing to their early identification
with their mothers and continuance of that attachment.

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 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
✔ A moral orientation based on justice was proposed to be more
prevalent among boys because their attachment with their
mothers, which goes away afterwards.
✔ Enhanced awareness of the difference in power relations
between themselves and adults. This creates an intense set of
concerns over inequalities.

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 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
✔ Further research have found that moral reasoning does not
necessarily have such a distinct impact due to gender differences.
The evidence shows that both boys and girls base their reasons on
justice and care. Gilligan’s theory possibly suggests that girls are
more concerned about care, while boys are more concerned about
justice.

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 COMPARISON
✔ Moral development theories are based on the pioneering work
done by Jean Piaget. Kohlberg’s work was a landmark in the area
of moral development. His stage theory was a commendable
attempt to put things in some perspective.

✔ The domain theory extended Kohlberg’s approach by adding the

domain of social conventions to the paradigm.

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 COMPARISON
✔ Both these theories have helped in the evolution of methods and
approaches for moral education among children.

✔ Kohlberg’s work was extended in Gilligan’s theory by adding the

concept of care in moral development, which helped to eliminate
gender bias.

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 ETHICAL THEORIES
Major theories:
1. Deontology (Duty Theory)
2. Utilitarianism
3. Virtue Theory
4. Rights theory
5. Casuist theory
6. Moral Absolutism
7. Moral Relativism
8. Moral Pluralism
9. Ethical Egoism
10. Feminist Consequentialism

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 CLASSIFICATION
(Due to Rosalind Hurst)
Theory Consequentialis Deontology Virtue theory
Particulars m

Example Mill’s Kantian Ethics Aristotle’s moral

Utilitarianism theory

Abstract An action is right An action is right An action is right

description if it promotes if it is in if it is what a
best accordance with virtuous agent
consequences a moral rule would do
More concrete The best Moral rule is one A virtuous agent
specification consequences that is required is one who acts
are those by rationality virtuously
maximising
happiness

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 Ethical Theories

Ethics of conduct Ethics of Character

What sort of actions What sort of people

should we perform? should we be?

Consequentialism Deontology
Aristotleianism:
The right action is The good is
the one producing Virtue is a mean
defined
the most intrinsic between extremes of
independently
good action or passion
of the right

Kantianism:
For the agent: For every one Actions must satisfy the
Ethical egoism affected: categorical imperative
Utilitarianism
 DEONTOLOGY
✔ Deontology defined as duty
ethics by CD Broad
✔ The theory is credited to
Immanuel Kant
✔ (1724 to 1804)
✔ German philosopher
✔ Interest in Epistemology,
Metaphysics and Ethics
 DEONTOLOGY
Duty Ethics or Kantian theory

✔ Kant considered that an act is good if it is in accordance with some

cardinal principles that govern our duties.
✔ An action that is performed according to the duties prescribed is
considered to be ethical.
✔ Consequences of the action are not the most important thing.

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 DEONTOLOGY
✔ Act only according to that maxim by which you can also will
that it would become a universal law.
✔ Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in
your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as
a means, but always at same time as an end.
✔ Act as though you were, through your maxims, a law-making
member of a kingdom of ends.

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 DUTY ETHICS
William David Ross stated the duties of people as –

✔ Duty of beneficence A duty to help other people (increase

pleasure, improve character)
✔ Duty of non-maleficence A duty to avoid harming other people
✔ Duty of justice A duty to ensure people get what they deserve
✔ Duty of self-improvement A duty to improve ourselves
✔ Duty of reparation A duty to recompense someone if we have
acted wrongly towards them
✔ Duty of gratitude A duty to be of benefit to people who have
benefited us
✔ Duty of promise keeping A duty to act according to explicit and
implicit promises, including the implicit promise to tell the truth.
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 DUTY ETHICS
Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative:
✔ Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or in the person of another, always at the same
time as an end and never simply as a means.
✔ Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the
same time will that it should become a universal law.
✔ The principle of autonomy requires people to recognize the
right of others to act autonomously and means that, as moral
laws must be universalisable, what is required of one person is
required of all.

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 UTILITARIANISM
Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
✔ English philosopher
✔ Greatest happiness principle
✔ Utilitarianism
✔ Political philosophy,
Philosophy of law, ethics and
economics
 UTILITARIANISM
Jeremy Bentham
✔ Based on utilitarianism, an action is judged by the consequences
of the action.
✔ Maximum good to maximum number of people.
✔ Consequences of an action is pain or pleasure; as pleasure is a
more desirable state, an action is good if it gives pleasure.
✔ Criticism – How to measure the good?
✔ As consequences happen after the action, there is predictive
element in the theory.

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 UTILITARIANISM
John Stuart Mill(1806 –1873)
✔ British Philosopher
✔ Utilitarianism
✔ Interest areas – political
philosophy, ethics, economics
and inductive logic
 UTILITARIANISM
John Stuart Mill : Extended Bentham’s theory.

✔ The doer should seek higher levels of pleasure.

✔ Lower levels of pleasure like eating or exercising is not the judging
criteria.
✔ Maximum good comes if we attain higher pleasures like creativity,
appreciation and love.

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 UTILITARIANISM
✔ A consequentialist theory – actions are judged by results
produced.
✔ Mill proposed act-utilitarianism which stipulates that an act
is ethical if it produces maximum good.
✔ Richard Brandt supported rule-utilitarianism which states
that one should act within general rules and maximize good.

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 UTILITARIANISM
✔ Critics of utilitarianism contested that the concept of maximum
good is vague and its measurement is also not possible.
✔ Consequences occur afterwards and there is a predictive
element in the theory.
✔ Predicting and judging consequences is difficult before taking
action.

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 VIRTUE THEORY
✔ Due to Aristotle Values are acquired
habits.
✔ Wisdom and good judgment are at
the core of rational life.
✔ Along with truthfulness, courage,
generosity, comradeship.
 VIRTUE THEORY
✔ Moral values are virtues acquired to exhibit balanced behavior
or the golden mean between extremes.
✔ An action is considered ethical if it is what a virtuous agent
would have done.
✔ The character of the person performing the action, not the
action itself, decides the morality of the action.
✔ One criticism – the virtues are not permanent.

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 RIGHTS THEORY

✔ People have rights and these

forms the basis for deciding the
morality of actions.
✔ Rights also decides the duties of
people. John Locke

✔ Acting on the basis of ones

rights has to respect the rights of
others.
 RIGHTS THEORY

✔ Rights come with responsibilities.

✔ Bestowing rights pre-supposes the
person’s ability to respect others’
rights A I Melden
✔ Individual rights cannot be at
variance with those of others in a
moral community
 CASUIST THEORY
✔ Compare a present ethical problem with a similar problem of the
past to find solution.
✔ Criticism of the theory.
✔ One may not find an identical problem for finding acceptable
solution.
✔ A current situation and its solution may differ due to contextual
and other differences in the time periods.

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 MORAL ABSOLUTISM
✔ Moral absolutism is a kind of dogmatism.
✔ Moral absolutists believe in one correct perspective which is the
one held by them.
✔ The theory lacks rationalism and does not respect moral
autonomy.
✔ The theory does not accept that the issue may have a contextual
bearing.
✔ This leads to a kind of fanaticism.

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 MORAL RELATIVISM
✔ No action can be absolutely moral.
✔ Actions to be judged by context and individual rights.
✔ Moral rules and codes of conduct cannot be set.
✔ Criticism – No free-for-all moral actions.
✔ Universal laws and codes can be made accepting that there are
always exceptions.

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 MORAL PLURALISM
✔ Human values are many and
good and can come into conflict
in a situation.
✔ There is no hierarchy of values
and cannot be reduced to an
over-riding system. Isaiah Berlin
✔ Individual liberty cannot
override public order.
✔ Impartial justice can come into
conflict with mercy and
compassion.
 ETHICAL EGOISM
✔ This theory deals with self interest.
✔ An action is morally correct if it promotes self interest.
✔ Obviously, does not respect the rights of others.
✔ Critics point out that selfishness in actions is not acceptable.
✔ Self interest should include also larger public interest.

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 FEMINIST CONSEQUENTIALISM
✔ Propounded by feminist ethicists due to gender bias in other
theories.
✔ Support consequentialism but do not accept utilitarian model of
computation.
✔ Consequences also to be evaluated on the effect it has on
relationships and feelings.
✔ Morally correct actions tend to foster comradeship and harmony
among people.

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 COMPARISON
✔ No single theory can tackle all situations.
✔ Duty ethics, Utilitarianism and rights ethics are commonly
employed to analyze situations.
✔ Every theory has some attractive features but lack in
universality.
✔ Best of these theories or a combination can be selected in a
given situation.

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 MORAL ISSUES
✔ There are a variety of moral issues that come up and have to be
solved.
✔ Micro-ethical issues are those that are faced in day to day
situations and need solutions. These are generally faced by
individuals.
✔ Macro-ethical issues are those that have a bearing on society.
Initial neglect makes them big later on. Individuals are not
generally responsible for these and have to be tackled by teams
and generally categorized as societal issues.

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 MORAL DILEMMAS
✔ Moral dilemmas are problems with a moral bearing, either of
individual or a community.
✔ Conflict of interest situations or situations where the actions
based on moral principles can also lead to harm result in
dilemmas.
✔ Conflict of moral principles, lack of clarity and difference of
opinion on the right course of action can lead to moral dilemmas.
✔ Considering all options and arriving at an acceptable solution is
the difficult task here.

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 RESOLVING MORAL DILEMMAS
STEPS IN RESOLVING MORAL DILEMMAS

✔ Formulate some cardinal ethical principles that you would like to follow, if you
have not done so already.
✔ Collect all relevant facts of the case.
✔ Perform an ethical analysis of the given situation wherein you analyze the
ethical factors that predominate the problem and the ones that tend to conflict.
✔ While it may be difficult, prioritize the ethical factors in the order that you think
should take precedence.
✔ Having formulated your ideas, it may be desirable to discuss with some people
close to you about the case and the implications you think any decision or action
would have.
✔ Having received inputs from them, you can now formulate your plan of action,
noting down all the moral implications of the solution.

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 MORAL AUTONOMY

✔ Freedom and self reliance of individuals to take moral decisions

or hold on to moral points of view.
✔ Comes from inherent strength for rational thinking based on
moral values.
✔ Rationale and basis on which decisions are based reflect moral
autonomy.
✔ Professionals to develop skills required to practice moral
autonomy.

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MORAL AUTONOMY – SKILL SETS
✔ Develop skills to identify problems of a moral nature in
professional work. A problem may have many dimensions but
recognizing the moral aspects of the problem and relating these to
other dimensions of the problem is important.
✔ Develop the ability to critically analyze a moral issue or situation

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MORAL AUTONOMY – SKILL SETS
✔ Develop sensitivity to genuine difficulties. Some moral issues
may call for taking actions, which at first sight may go against
some moral principles held by the individual as sacrosanct. In
such cases, some flexibility in thinking and taking decisions for
the overall good of the people concerned may be called for.
✔ Develop ingenuity, creativity, and imagination to find
alternative solutions to complex problems.

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MORAL AUTONOMY – SKILL SETS
✔ Develop consistency in thinking on moral issues. Consistency
comes from knowledge and understanding of similar situations
and comparison of facts in a given situation with those of
others.

✔ Develop the ability to express your perception on moral issues

clearly to others. An understanding of ethical principles and
theories will enable one to make a comprehensive expression
of one’s views.

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MORAL AUTONOMY – SKILL SETS
✔ Develop moral integrity and credibility.
✔ Develop tolerance and try to understand other people’s views
on moral conflicts.
✔ Develop the ability to assimilate moral issues and solutions
even in cases where you are not directly concerned.

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 RELIGION & ETHICS
✔ All religions fundamentally and inherently speak of ethical
conduct.
✔ If religion is practiced in the right way, there will be no conflict
with ethics.
✔ Religion has great influence as it shapes the ethical behavior of
individuals.
✔ Religion followed by individuals will have no conflict with ethics
if the two are properly understood.

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 MORAL CONDUCT
TYPES OF ENQUIRY
Descriptive or factual enquiry

✔ How have the practices in the particular profession developed over the years?
✔ What are the basic concepts and principles that guide the current practices in
the profession?
✔ What is the ethical and psychological profile of the professionals in the system?
✔ Do the professionals have enough guidelines and mechanisms to undertake an
analysis of the safety and risk factors in the practice of the profession?
✔ How much is the influence or effectiveness of the professional societies in
guiding ethical practices among its member professionals?
✔ How much care is taken by the employers or professional societies to sensitize
the professionals about ethical issues in the profession?
✔ How effective are the codes of conduct or punitive measures for professional
misconduct?

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 MORAL CONDUCT
Conceptual Enquiry

✔ What is a profession?
✔ Who is a professional?
✔ What is meant by professionalism?
✔ What are the concepts and principles having bearing on
professional ethics that need to be defined and clarified?
✔ What kind of control or monitoring mechanism should be put in
place to ensure ethical conduct by professionals?

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 MORAL CONDUCT
Normative Enquiry

✔ What are the rights and responsibilities of a professional?

✔ When and how should a professional exercise his/her rights?
✔ What are the obligations of professionals to the public as they
perform their duties?
✔ What rules, regulations, and procedures can be called morally
warranted in a professional organization?

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 USE OF THEORIES
✔ Morally correct decision making is important to professionals.
✔ Ethical theories help us to identify the considerations that should
go into making decisions.
✔ No theory can be applied universally.
✔ There are technical and moral considerations in taking decisions.

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 USE OF THEORIES
Justify Decisions & Actions
✔ The engineering product is useful and beneficial to a large group
of people.
✔ The product is safe for public use.
✔ The rights of the public are not violated.
✔ One performs one’s duty keeping these three conditions in mind.

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