[Ethics] E1/P1: Human Interface: Types of Judgments, Prerequisite for Ethical scrutiny, Meta Ethics, Applied ethics, Normative-Descriptive ethics

Prologue
3 Types of Judgments
3 Areas in Study of Ethics
1. S1:Meta-Ethics / Critical Ethics
2. S2: Applied Ethics
3. S3: Normative vs. Descriptive Ethics
4. Ethics vs. Morality?
5. Legality vs. Morality
3 Preconditions for Ethical Scrutiny
1. Pc1: Free Will
2. Pc2: Knowledge
3. Pc3: Voluntary Action
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	Earth rotates around Sun. Whether you test or an alien species tests, the fact will remain the same. There are only two outcomes: True / False They’re not morally right or wrong. They’re morally empty, they’re “amoral”.
2.Aesthetic Judgment	Concept of beauty, taste, color, sensualities. One person may like red color the other person may like blue color.
3.Moral Judgment	Our sense of good/bad/right/wrong. IN GS paper 4, we are concerned with this.

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.”
e.g. in imperialist age, white men enslaved Africans. However, Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery so Mr.ABC historian lauds him an ethical president. However, Lincolns’ motive to abolish slavery was to win the war against confederates, rather than ‘freeing’ black people so Mr. xyz Historian in his xyz book doesn’t concur with the views of Mr.ABC.	In the Imperialist age, white men enslaved Africans and sold them to American plantation owners, wherein they’re exploited in the most inhuman manner. It was wrong on part of the White men to exploit other humans for personal gains. No one should enslave another human being.
As you can see, only ‘describing’, rather than prescribing.	As you can see- “prescribing” about what should have been done.
	Examples of Normative theories: Virtue ethics theory, the views of Plato and Aristotle Utilitarianism Nishkam Karmayoga (Gita)

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 itsconsequence. 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	If someone tries to kill/loot you and you kill/injure him in self-defense, you’re acting under fear for your life. So, it’s subject to legal scrutiny but not ethical scrutiny. Because it was ‘either you or him’.
Ignorance	Foreigner comes to Gujarat and drinks in a desi-liquor den. This is illegal but not ‘unethical’ IF the foreigner was unaware of the prohibition law in Gujarat.
Passion	A husband finds his wife in a compromising position with another man, he gets enraged and murders both of them. Illegal but difficult to scrutinize on ‘ethical’ grounds, since his passion was not aroused by himself. A man takes narcotic drugs and under its influence he rapes/murders/maims someone, it is both illegal and unethical because he himself aroused his ‘passion’. Hence, In murder cases, court looks at aggravating and mitigating factors.
Pathological status	Husband suffering from schizophrenia mistreats his wife/children. This is not subject to ethical scrutiny because he’s suffering from a mental disorder so he lacks the “knowledge” and “free will”. Same way the ‘mistake’ of mentally instable person falling in tiger enclosure in Delhi is, is beyond ethical scrutiny.
Habit, temperament	Since childhood, Japanese are trained to apologize profusely even for slightest mistake or discomfort caused to another human. If an American executive working in Japan, doesn’t behave in similar fashion, it can’t be termed as ‘unethical’. Because its not in American habits.
Value system	A fallen Samurai would prefer to commit ‘ritual suicide’ (seppuku) rather than suffering torture/humiliation by his enemies. Because it is part of his Bushido honor code. If a fallen American soldier doesn’t commit suicide, it can’t be evaluated on ethical grounds.

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 previous part (E1/P1), we looked at the types of judgments and pre-conditions for ethical scrutiny. In this part, we shall look at various theories of ethics, their merits and demerits.

3 Theories of Ethics (V-C-R)

1. Virtue Ethics	We judge a person’s virtue rather than his ‘conduct’
2.Conduct Ethics	We focus on ‘conduct’ rather than ‘person’. Further If we focus on course/means/action: Deontological If we focus on goal/end/outcome: Teleoglogical / consequentialism.
3.Rights based Ethics	We give ‘rights’ to an individual. By xyz action, whether ‘rights’ of Mr.ABC are violated or not? On that parameter we’ll evaluate the action

T1: Virtue Ethics

Focus more on virtues of the agent rather than consequences of his actions.

Plato

Gave four Cardinal virtues of a “good man”: Wisdom, Courage, Temperance, Justice.

Aristotle

Proposed “Golden Mean”. Which means avoiding extreme good and extreme bad.
Avoiding altruism (Maximum happiness to others while ignoring yours) and avoiding hedonism (maximum pleasure for yourself).
Buddhist philosophy of “Madhyama-pratipad” proposes the same ‘middle-way’.
Although it can’t be applied to all cases. e.g. if someone alleges “you’re a mad-man”, you can’t say “I’m half-mad”!

T2: Conduct Ethics

Theories of Ethics: Deontological Ethics

Teleological: Consequentialism	Deontological: Non-consequentialism
Examples: (1) Utilitarianism (2) Hedonism (3) Egoism	Examples (1) Varnashram dharma (2) law of Karma (3) religious scripture
Focus on “End/Goals/Consequences”	Focus on “means/methods/actions” Also known as Duty based ethics
We’d have gained independence sooner, had we used violence against the British, and sooner we gained independence, faster we’d have become a 1st world country, so, use of violence is right, because end goal is noble.	Gandhi: We don’t want to gain independence through the use of violence. Because even though self-rule is a noble goal, violence is not the right ‘mean/instrument’ to achieve it.
It may justify robbing a bank, IF the looted money is to be used for charity. It may justify pirating coaching class material, because it’ll lead to greatest good for greatest number of people. In both 1 and 2, we are focusing on the ‘end’.	Kant: ‘Piracy’ as a ‘process’ is wrong. Because it violates the ‘right to property’. Anyways, we’ll discuss Kant in detail, in separate lecture on Syllabus topic #5: Moral Thinkers.
It’s ok to lie, to save someone’s life.	Difficult to justify because by lying we’re violating the other person’s ‘right to knowledge’.
—	Gives motivation to work, even when the result is uncertain or far away. e.g. Lord Krishna advising Arjun to fight in the war against the Kaurav.

Anyways, it’s not important to get into finer nuances of each and every thinker and theory, we just have to see its application in case studies. So, while solving a case study, try to see it through the glasses of various theories.

T2A: Utilitarian Theory

UTILITARIANISM: IF LYNCHING MAKES 99 PEOPLE HAPPY AND ONE PERSON UNHAPPY, IS IT GOOD?

Utilitarianism says you should work for greatest happiness for greatest number of people.
A lynch mob kills a person believing a committed a crime.
In this case say 100 people’s happiness minus 1 dead guy’s unhappiness = 99 units of happiness. So, is it an ethical action after all it led to maximum happiness for maximum people?
Thus, in traditional “Act Utilitarianism” theory, lynch mob is justifiable.
But, What if we make a rule out of above case I.e. “it is ok for people to kill other people.” If this rule is held valid then people will fear coming out of their home => economy & society will collapse=> not maximum good for maximum people.
Therefore, by application of ‘Rule utilitarianism‘, we can prove “lynch mob” is ethically wrong.

Utilitarianism is not same as altruism.
Altruism	You should put other people’s happiness before your own happiness.
Utilitarianism	You should strive for maximum people’s happiness, you’re also part of that crowd. So, your own happiness also matters as a unit.
Hedonism	You should maximize your own pleasure.

Utilitarianism: Merits and demerits
Merits	Demerits
Democratic way of decision making. Who should become PM? Ans. The one whose party gets maximum votes. Ensure distributive justice. Take higher taxes from the rich and use it for the welfare scheme of the poor.	Minority voice / opinion is not considered. Because utilitarianism concerned with benefit to majority. Utilitarianism would not agree with the fundamental rights given to minorities. Orthodox views are validated. e.g. in the times of Raja Ram Mohan Rai, people thought Sati system was right. Not every happiness is quantifiable or comparable: is reading Shakespeare equivalent to happiness of eating two Macdonald burgers? So, which “happiness” should government provide to citizens? Although thinkers later qualified the levels of happiness. Reading Shakespeare is ‘sublime’ happiness so it can’t be equivalent to even 100 mac-burgers.

You’ve to keep the merits and demerits of each theory in mind, to ensure its proper application in case studies. E.g. if a case study involves minority rights or feminism, it may not be right to bend the utilitarianism principle to justify your stand.

T2B: Hedonism

Hedonism says maximize your own pleasure/happiness.
Among Indian philosophical schools, Charvaka school (Lokayatmat) advocates the same.

Hedonism	Strive for Pleasure in all forms. Pleasure is the only truth of life.
Epicureanism	Absence of pain is the greatest pleasure. Sustainable pleasure is (1) freedom from fear (2) freedom from bodily pain Sustainable pleasure obtained by (1) Knowledge (2) friendship (3) Modest Life
Gandhism	opposite of Hedonism because it preaches Complete control over senses, Bramhcharya.

Hedonism: Merits and Demerits
Merit	Demerits
Focus on maximum happiness if we stop defining Hedonism as “gross sensual pleasure” and focus on ‘long lasting sustainable’ pleasure then it is refined hedonism. Refined hedonism: appreciating art, investing in personal relations, cultivating hobbies. Similarly Epicureanism also encourages us to live happy, modest, good life and invest in friendship.	Drug abuse gives short term pleasure, hedonism would justify it. It’s ok to spend salary on lavish lifestyle rather than saving it for pension. Health and financial prudence gives long term happiness at the expense of short term discomfort. But a Gross Hedonist wouldn’t like it.
Promotes consumerism: boost to economy, employment generation. If everyone pursues ascetic lifestyle, who’ll provide food to the families of Chinese workers in apple factory?	Law of marginal utility: you’ve to consume more and more to get same amount of pleasure. This, consumerism leads to exploitation of natural resources which is not good for environment and sustainable development. Greed becomes need.

Moral Skepticism

According to Sophists (Greece) and Charvaka (Ancient India)- Ethical studies have no logical foundation because

There are no fixed / objective criteria to separate moral act from immoral act, therefore, men are incapable of pursuing moral path
If men pursue moral path, it’ll not be in their best ‘self-interest’.
External forces determine a man’s action, so rarely a man has free will to choose his own action.

And this thought process leads to next theory of ethics – Egoism

T2C: Egoism

Egoism says maximize your own self-interest. Because (1) it is in human nature to avoid pain (2) it is irrational for a man to ignore his self-interest.

Hedonism	It is ok to sleep till late, even if you miss important business meeting.
Egoism	You should walk up early, if there’s an important business meeting. Similarly, A girl wanting to become fashion-model will deny herself the pleasure of good food (Hedonism), to remain thin and slim.

If parents sacrifice personal comforts for better education for children, if businessman gives part of his income in philanthropic causes, if a soldier sacrifices his life for protection of the nation -how does Egoism interprete them?
Egoism says in all such actions are unconsciously selfish. e.g. philanthropy – hidden objective of gaining fame and respect. Although hidden motives are difficult to verify.

Egoism: Merits and Demerits
Merit	Demerit
Egoism can lead to happiness for others also e.g. Mukesh Ambani’s decision to run a refinery at Jamnagar is driven by his own self-interest of profit generation but it also generates employment for lakhs of people. Capitalism works parallel to this.	Labour exploitation. Not always environmentally sustainable or socially inclusive. Trickle down doesn’t always work. In a resource scare country, will not work. And increase the divide between the rich and the poor.
You’re running a mobile company with profit motive, but at the same time you’re doing a social service by helping people in their need to ‘communicate’ with others.	Mobile tower radiation harming entire society in the long term. If everyone looking @his self-interest, who’ll care for future generation aka no more sustainable Development.
If everyone tries to maximum his own self-interest, still there will be resistance by others, so ultimately an ‘equilibrium’ will be established wherein its win-win for all.	If everyone tries to maximize his own self-interest, it’ll lead to disaster. e.g. Prisoner’s dilemma

The demerits of egoism encouraged Mathematician John Nash (movie: A beautiful mind), to work on “Game theory”. He died in 2015, May. So consider that homework, for some ethical case study involving game-theory.

Summary of Conduct Ethics

Theory	Thinkers	Meaning	Merits	Demerits
Utilitarianism	Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill.	Maximum happiness for maximum no. of people	Democratic Decision Making	Minority unheard Orthodoxy
Hedonism	Charvaka Epicurus (Refined)	Maximum pleasure for yourself	Refined hedonism: long term sustained pleasure Consumerism boom to economy	Consumerism vs. environment Greed becomes need
Egoism	Greek Sophists Hobbes Nietzsche	Maximum self-interest	Capitalism, trickle down	Prisoner’s dilemma

T3: Rights Based Ethics

We give ‘rights’ to an individual. By xyz action, whether ‘rights’ of Mr.ABC are violated or not? On that parameter we’ll evaluate the action.
In China, a person from rural area can’t move to Shanghai without permit. So, his right to self-development is violated.
In N.Korea, ordinary citizens are denied internet service, so their right to knowledge id violated, although the State may justify it saying internet-ban is necessary for maintenance of law and order or to prevent the brainwashing of the North Koreans by Western powers.
When “rights” are given, it imposes accountability on the government. e.g Freedom of expression =>Media => Check on corruption.
Right to education => enlightened citizenry =>they exercise RTI and thereby make government answerable.
Human rights: ensures feudalism doesn’t come back.
So, How do we judge an action using rights based theory? Our thinking of rights based ethics begins with the liberalism.

Negative Approach	Positive Approach
Freedom of expression: State is ‘denied’ from encroaching in individual sphere. Most of our fundamental rights are negative.	State is enabled to empower the citizenry. e.g. Freedom of movement is a negative right, but if the state constructs more highways and railways to enable faster movement of goods and people, the state is enabling the citizens to enjoy their rights. Same way right to education=> Government making more sarkaari schools.

3 Generation of rights
1st Gen	Negative rights. Usually political rights e.g. right to vote, civil liberties. But these were found to be inadequate. e.g. women got right to vote but they found it did not lead to their real development. This gave birth to 2nd generation rights
2nd Gen	Enabling rights, developmental rights, positive rights. e.g. Social security, right to health, education
3rd Gen	Environmental rights: Kyoto protocol, Rio+20 and subsequent sustainable Development goals (SDG) Group rights, cultural rights e.g. ensuring protection of the culture of North East people.

John Rawls

Leading thinker of this school is John Rawls. As such not much point doing Ph.D on him, all you should remember is he tried to reconcile between Liberty (capitalism) and Equality (Communism)

Liberty	give maximum liberty to people without encroaching on other people’s liberties.
Equality	If Ambani is earning Rs.1,000 crore, if that leads to the poor getting Rs.10 crore (say through taxation and trickle down), then it is ethical. This is akin to Gandhi’s “Antyodaya”. This is different from Capitalism – because they’d not like taxation. This is different from communism, because they’d want wealth of Ambani to be equally distributed among all poor.

For Case studies, keep in mind- rights based approach should be used for major themes only e.g. speech, health, education. For trivial individualist things, e.g. ‘lying, stealing’ better to apply other theories for your answer.

Case study: Sardar & ICS

During the British era, ICS (Indian Civil services) officers were responsible for arrest and persecution of Sardar Patel and many other freedom fighters. Yet, after independence, Patel decided to continue ICS service under a new name “IAS” and retained those ICS officers in it, despite the opposition by the other members of Constituent assembly. Discuss the ethical dilemmas that Sardar Patel would have faced before arriving at this decision.

Case study: Ethical justification?

Is following course of action ethically justifiable? Yes / No and Why?

It is ok to remove organs of a convict on death row without his consent, IF we transplant them to needy children from poor families.
It is ok for government to run opium farms, provided they sell it to foreign countries use the money for benefit of the poor.
We should legalize prostitution because it’ll lead to less exploitation of the women in the hands of pimps and policemen.
Government should ban cigarettes and alcohol from movies since it influences young audience to begin smoking and drinking.
Women in armed forces should be posted only in the desk jobs, since they’re physically less fit to serve in frontline field posts.

Descriptive Questions (200 words each)

Discuss in brief, major theories of Ethics. Which of them, in your opinion, answers the moral Dilemma better than others?
Utilitarianism, though logically consistent, has internal-contradictions. Do you agree? Justify your stand?
Define “Betrayal”. Narrate a historic example of betrayal and discuss the underlying ethical currents.
Moral value of an act is not wholly dependent on its consequences. Discuss with a historic example.
A universal theory of Ethics is impossible to frame since the moral choices depend on culture, religion, region and time-period. Do you agree, Justify your stand.
According to Charvaka and other moral sceptics- Ethics has no logical foundation and perception is the only source of knowledge. Do you agree, Justify your stand.

[Ethics] E1/P3: Human Values-Role of Family, Society, Educational Institutes; Ethics in Public & Private relations

Values
Value vs. Belief
Classification of Values
Human Values
1. Role of Family
2. Role of Society
3. Role of Educational institutes
4. Role of Teachers
5. Role of education
6. Value education: desirable?
Private relations vs. Public Relations?
1. Separation of Public & Private life?
2. Family man = Responsible man?
3. Inconsistencies in Public and Private life?
4. State encroachment in Personal sphere?
5. Personal Religion vs public duty?
Case study: role of Cinema
Case Study: Homosexual Opposition leader
Descriptive Questions (200 words)

In the previous part (E1/P2), we looked at various theories of ethics. In this part, we look at the last portion of syllabus topic#1 viz. Human values, role of family-society-edu.insti. and ethics in public and private relations.

Values

Values help as “Short hand” or “tools” of the theory. E.g. in a case study, every time you need not go back to xyz theory, IF you’re able to justify it on the grounds of non-violence, truth, compassion.
So, theory => Values => Daily life we follow the “Value” and not “theory”.
Deontological Ethics=> Karma Theory=> Value of “duty”.
Deontological Ethics=> Gandhism => Value of “Compassion for the Poor”.
Thus, Values make life meaningful, help in self-realization, underline our attitude-behavior-judgment.

Value vs. Belief: What’s the difference?
Belief	If you believe in something, then you’ve that ‘value’. e.g. Democracy, tolerance
Attitude	You believe in democracy => you vote, you goto mygov.in and give your suggestion to the government. All this shows your attitude. So values are ‘beneath’ the attitude ground. Western societies are becoming less tolerant. Recently a Muslim kid was arrested in USA because teacher mistook his clock as a bomb. Such things less likely in India, for we are more tolerant. So, “not doing” such mess, is reflection of our “tolerance” belief in our attitude.

Classification of Values
Individual values	Self-Development, creativity, liberty, survival
Social values	Cooperation, Tolerance, Compassion, Empathy. These help you as a ‘social being’.
Environment Values	Non-vegetarianism, compassion towards animal Harmonies living with your surroundings, “Chipko-movement” is example of Social+Environment values..
Organizational Values	Public service (in Government and NGO), profit (in private company), Truth (Journalism)
Constitutional Values	Fundamental rights, duties and DPSP. Creating scientific temperament, holding the honor of women and so on.

Human Values

Common to All humans. Love, truth, Compassion. Even Osama Bin Laden would love his children. So, merely by being a human being, at minimum you’ll have these values.
Examples: Universal human values, fundamental rights
They remain static. Never change with time or region (unlike environmental values or privacy- western world person would be more focused on them).
We gain human values through two ways

Socialization

e.g. parents and teachers tell children not to lie or steal.
For this reason, Juveniles are given lesser punishment for their crime, because their socialization process is still incomplete, he doesn’t know what is right and what is wrong.
In this “socialization” process, different agents have different role to play- family, educational institute, society – that we’ll see in next part of the lecture.

Social control

Even after inculcating values through “socialization”, there will be some deviants, who’ll lie or steal.
So, social control through reward and punishment mechanism, will inculcate the values. e.g.
social osctricization: of person who is habitual liar or thief and
social appreciation / acknowledgement: of person doing charitable things.

Role of Family

If parents informally talk bad things about a particular caste or religion, if they knowingly violate traffic rules, child will imbibe the same.
If child raised in an authoritarian manner, he’ll show less concern for democratic values.
If a boy raised in an environment where girl child is treated as a second citizen, he’ll treat his wife in similar fashion and find nothing wrong in it.
If parents are meticulous about cleanliness in both private and public property, child will follow the same.

Type of family	Value system acquired
Nuclear family	Individualism, responsibility, introvert. Modernism: More amenable to inculcating new values / changes because young parents.
Joint family	patriarchal values, respect for the ‘authority’ but at the same time less respect for women or that women should not wear jeans/t-shirt and so on Attitude of sharing- among siblings, cousins. Conservatism: old people in the joint families would oppose.

Role of Society

Within society- neighbors, classmates peers, colleagues, media, movies, television
Conformity: What peers/colleagues are doing, person is forced to mimick the same.
If they’re smoking, he’ll smoke; if they’re living in nuclear families, he too will feel to separate from his joint family and so on.
If they’re participating in decoration of residential complex for Ganesh-festival or Navratri, he too will feel the moral obligation. Recall how Lokmanya Tilak used the Ganesh Utsav, to collect people and inculcate spirit of nationalism and pride among them.
Social control: reward and punishment, we already learned.
Tolerance: if you’re living in a building with people from variety of caste, religion and regional background, you develop tolerance.

Role of Educational institutes

Teachers and curriculum have profound impact on a person’s value system.
If child participates in sports: values of sportsmanship, team-spirit.
If college kid participate in college-festival to get stupid extra-curricular certificate for UPSC/CAT- he is learning leadership, cooperation, event management.

Role of Teachers
Aristotle	He was the private tutor of Alexander the Great. He gave the doctrines of Moral and politics. When Alexander concurred empires, he never forced his culture/religion upon people in fervent /fanatical manner unlike the other kings.
Gopal Krishna Gokhle	He was the political guru of Gandhi and in many ways he shaped the ideology and outlook of Gandhi towards India and life.
Modern day	If teacher is promoting his private coaching class during official class in the school, he is indirectly imparting materialistic values in students that education is a commodity that can be sold. Corporal punishment: When same child goes to college, he’d think it is right to do ragging of juniors, when he becomes father, he’d think physical punishment is right way to discipline children; if he becomes a cop, he’d think custodial torture is justifiable to extract confession from criminal and so on.

Similarly, School environment also plays a role in the value system of a child e.g. child from Government school, vs. that from a boarding/convent school.

Role of education
Syllabus / Textbook	Values Taught
World History: French revolution	Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity)
World History: Gandhi’s train to Pretoria	Standing against injustice.
New NCERT	Secularism and non-violence. Because according to its chapters no king ever invaded / killed / plundered India and every king patronized all types of religions.
Literature	It helps us understand human nature and prevalent social values of a given era.
Science	Curiosity: that in turn makes a person ask questions against orthodoxy and bad practices in religion.

Content of the textbook plays important role in imparting value system

If a textbook has passage “papa is coming from office while mummy is cooking food and munni is helping mummy.”
While it sounds innocent, but its putting ‘gender-roles’ in the minds of children that men goto office and women are supposed to stay at home and cook food only.

Value education: desirable?

Should Government impart values to children through school education?
North Korean Government uses textbooks to poison the brains of children against South Korea and Western World.
Same way Pakistani textbooks pouring Anti-India venom.
Even within India, ruling party regime’s ideology would be poured in the textbook. For example,
2008: In Kerala class 7 social science textbook contained a chapter with an imaginative interview between a headmaster and parents seeking admission. The boy carries a Christian name; the father is named Anwar Rashid and the mother Lakshmi Devi. The headmaster asks the father what religion should he fill in for the child in the required column to which the reply is: “Let him choose his religion when he grows up.”
Protests irrupted in Kerala, because people saw that chapter as a move by the Communist State Government to promote “atheism” among children.
So, IF Governments are misusing textbooks to impart their ideologies, should we ban value education in school textbooks? Ans. Nope, because then child will only learn facts but his holistic education will remain unfinished.
Solution: “Middle way” i.e. Textbooks should only impart Constitutional values -democracy, secularism and human values (truth, love, compassion). Other values should be avoided.

Other ways to impart social values among children-
Event	Values imparted
Take them to old age homes	Compassion, altruism
museums, cultural centres	Tolerance, secularism
tree plantation, street cleaning	Environmental protection
Yoga	It internalizes your mind. Once your mind is focusing inward, you’ll have more clarity of thought.

Private relations vs. Public Relations?

What’s the difference?
Private relations	Public relations
They’re Inherited with or without choice- example your parents, cousins, relatives; love marriage vs. arranged marriage.	They too are inherited with or without choice.
Your private relations are confined to small number of people.	Large number of people.
Even with imperfections and problems they’re relatively permanent.	Not the case. e.g. disgruntled employee or customer may leave, without giving explanation or giving you chance to correct mistakes.
You begin private relations to get intimacy, loyalty, love, affection.	You begin public relations to get respect, attention, power, authority and materialistic benefits.
In private relations, you usually involve with people sharing ‘similarity’ with you in value system.	You will have to deal with people having completely different temperament from you.
Your duties are voluntary, self-imposed and informal. E.g. standing by your friends/loved ones in the good and bad times; providing good facilities to your children, raising them in responsible manner etc. If you fail, still relationship may remain intact. At the same time, they’re also defined by personnel laws / religious laws e.g. bigamy, property rights, maintenance of parents/wife/children.	Your duties externally imposed and formally mentioned in code/laws. E.g. All India civil service conduct rules, prevention of corruption Failure to oblige usually ends the relationship/job/client.
Your actions are guided by internal control	External control e.g. must behave in respectful manner in front of the boss / client.

Separation of Public & Private life?

If a person becomes bankrupt because of his lavish “private” lifestyle (Hedonism), then he is automatically ineligible from various constitutional / statutory “public” posts in India. Because if such financially distressed person is holding a public office, he is more likely to accept bribes and take decisions that will not lead to maximum benefit to maximum people. (Utilitarianism)
Thus, private life does have bearing on the public life of a person. We can’t look at them two as isolated compartments.
For the same reason, Judges have to ‘rescue’ themselves from the cases involving their relatives or friends.
President Clinton’s impeachment process was initiated because of his scandalous affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Family man = Responsible man?

Ethics in public & private life- US President

American/Christian society considers happy married family life auspicious. Therefore, you’ll find US Presidential candidates or State Governor candidates- always appearing in media with their wives and daughters, holding hands, sharing hugs and kisses, running parallel social media accounts. They do it to portray that “I’m a happy family man- I’m a good husband and a good father so, I can run the public office in a responsible manner, you should vote for me.”
In India, scenario is different- tell me the name of Manmohan Singh’s wife or Anandiben Patel’s husband!? We are not concerned much with private life of a public leader.
Bad private life doesn’t mean bad public life. There have been Kings, Prime Ministers and Presidents with ‘not good’ private life in their role as father, husbands, lovers and yet historians term them to be ‘good’ leaders in public life.
E.g. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India vs. M.K.Gandhi, the father of Harilal.

Inconsistencies in Public and Private life?

Kesab Chandra Sen opposed child marriage but married his own underage daughter to Maharaja of Cooch Bihar. Consequently his followers abandoned him and founded Sadharan Brahmo Samaj (1878)
Thus, If there is inconsistency in the public life and private life of a person, it leads to disastrous outcomes.

State encroachment in Personal sphere?

It is held that the State should stay away from private life of an individual.
But it is the private life, from where most injustices begin such as domestic violence and malnutrition of girls in a family.
An officer starts drinking in his home to cope up with stress. Although he doesn’t come drunk in the office, still in long term alcoholism would hurt his work-efficiency.
Field officers in revenue, police and forest department, are on duty for 24/7 basis. They can’t give sufficient time to wives and children, often leading to marital discord. The same stress from ‘personal life’ may reflect passively in their dealing with general public.
So, should the state begin monitoring the private life of its officers and ministers? Won’t it violate their “right to privacy”?

Personal Religion vs public duty?

Orthodox Christians consider contraceptive (birth control) drugs and abortion as sinful. So, what if he becomes a chemist or doctor? Should he run away from his duties?
Muslims consider Alcohol as sinful. What if a Muslim IAS officer is transferred to liquor-excise department of the state government? Should he refuse to take charge in the new department? Similar case for a devout Hindu IAS officer transferred to fisheries department?
These questions lead to UPSC syllabus topic #3: aptitude and foundation values of civil services- that we’ll learn in subsequent lectures.

Case study: role of Cinema

In 1950s , following criticism was made against movies:

poor wage earners can find better use of the money. (CM of Madras)
Sex and murder depicted in movies, is corrupting India’s youth and encouraging to repeat the same acts in real life. (Petition signed by 13,000 housewives).
Cinema responsible for high rate of failure among students. (Study by Calcutta University)

In this context, discuss your views about role of cinema as a social agent for value inculcation among the children and the youth. Do you think, above views justify stricter control by Censor board over the cinema?

Case Study: Homosexual Opposition leader

In 2008, the Malaysian authorities accused Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomizing an aide who worked for his opposition party. In 2012, Malaysian High court acquitted him, although media and critiques continued to cite some procedural lapses. Parallel to this, the Members of Malaysian parliament have come up with a demand for his removal/impeachment. Whether to accept such motion or not, is under the discretionary powers of Speaker. If you’re the Speaker of Malaysian “Lok Sabha” (Dewan Rakyat), would you accept such motion or not? Discuss the legal and ethical rationales behind your decision.

Descriptive Questions (200 words)

According to Confucius, “all human beings are fundamentally good in their nature, and if uncorrupted by external circumstances, their actions will be morally correct.” Discuss the role of family, society and educational institutes in this context.
According to Dostoevsky, “If God doesn’t exist, everything is permissible.” In this context, discuss the role of religion in ensuring moral behavior in the society.
Discuss the merits and demerits of using “Social osctricization” as a tool for ensuring moral behavior among people.
The way a person conducts their private life is an indication of how trustworthy they are in public life. Do you agree? Justify your stand.

FIRST PILLAR IS OVER.