Law may also have a difficult time designing or enforcing standards in some important areas and may be slow to address new problems. Law can become ethically corrupt-a function of power alone and designed to serve the interests of narrow groups. A good system of law does incorporate many ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical.
Feelings do provide important information for our ethical choices. It is helpful to identify what ethics is NOT: It requires knowledge, skills, and habits. Ethics is also concerned with our character. What is Ethics?Įthics refers to standards and practices that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves-as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, professionals, and so on. Ethics really has to do with all these levels-acting ethically as individuals, creating ethical organizations and governments, and making our society as a whole more ethical in the way it treats everyone. We all have an image of our better selves-of how we are when we act ethically or are “at our best.” We probably also have an image of what an ethical community, an ethical business, an ethical government, or an ethical society should be.
Read more about what the framework can (and cannot) do. This document is designed as an introduction to thinking ethically.