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In this module, we provide some guiding principles, and pathways to help guide ethical decision-making. These are a series of basic questions that should be asked when confronted with ethical dilemmas. These are often complex situations with no clear-cut resolution, and without a right or wrong answer. But these decision-making processes will go a long way towards helping all of us make informed decisions that can justify consequent actions. Ethical Reasoning Can Be Taught: Ethical reasoning is a way of thinking about issues of right and wrong. Processes of reasoning can be taught, and school is an appropriate place to teach them. the reason that, although parents and religious schools may teach ethics, they don ot always teach ethical reasoning. See the article by: Sternberg, Robert J. Teaching for Ethical Reasoning in Liberal Education. Liberal Education 96.3 (2010): 32-37. And, like learning to play baseball or play the violin, it's important to practice early and often. So, let's get started: BeneficenceBeneficence is the concept that scientific research should have as a goal the welfare of society. It is rooted in medical research, the central tenet is "do no harm" (and corollaries remove harm, prevent harm, optimize benefits, "do good"). For a more expansive introduction to beneficence, see the essay on The Principles of Beneficence in Applied Ethics from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Some simple guiding questions in applying the concept of beneficence to ethical dilemmas include:
Take a look at the video on Causing Harm--"Causing harm explores the different types of harm that may be caused to people or groups and the potential reasons we may have for justifying these harms." From "Ethics Unwrapped", McCombs School of Business, University of Texas-Austin. A 7-STep Guide to Ethical Decision-MakingThe following is a summary of: Seven-step guide to ethical decision-making (Davis, M. (1999) Ethics and the university, New York: Routledge, p. 166-167.
A Seven Step Process for Making Ethical Decisions--An example from the "Orientation to Energy and Sustainability Policy" course at Penn State. A related guide to ethical decision making can be found at Kansas University Iinternatinoal Center for Ethics in Business. Additional Approaches to Ethical Decision MakingShaun Taylor's presentation: Geoethics Forums (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 380kB Jun11 14), given at the 2014 Teaching GeoEthics workshop, provided a simple model to help students engage Ethical Decision-Making that includes a) the context/facts of the situation, b) the stakeholders, c) the decision-makers, d) these inform a number of alternate choices, e) that are mediated through the evaluation of impacts and negotiations among the parties, that lead to f) selection of an optimal choice. Taylor provides guidance for what makes a good ethical dilemma discussion, including:
Reviews of the literature on ethical decision-making can be found at:
The American Counseling Association has published their A Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making (Acrobat (PDF) 20kB Jun18 18) (1995) authored by Holly Forester-Miller, Ph.D. and Thomas Davis, Ph.D. Assessment of Ethical Reasoning, Values, Moral Thinking
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Moral choice is committing to act for what one believes is right and good. It is less about what we know than about defining who we are. Three cases typical of those used in the principles or dilemmas approach to teaching ethics are presented. But they are analyzed using an alternative approach based on seven moral choice heuristics--approaches proven to increase the likelihood of locating the best course of action. The approaches suggested for analyzing moral choice situations include: (a) identify the outcomes of available alternative courses of action; (b) rule out strategies that involve deception, coercion, reneging on promises, collusion, and contempt for others; (c) be authentic (do not deceive yourself); (d) relate to others on a human basis; (e) downplay rational justifications; (f) match the solution to the problem, not the other way around; (g) execute on the best solution, do not hold out for the perfect one; and (h) take action to improve the choice after it has been made. |