How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 1 Overview: The Ethics of Right versus Right

All of us make tough choices. The book advises using energetic self-reflection n order to make choices. Sound values raise tough choices; and tough choices are never easy.

Tough choices don’t always involve professional codes or criminal laws. Tough choices are those that pit one “right” value” against another. Right versus right is at the heart of our toughest choices. There are also plenty of right-versus-wrong questions such as cheating on taxes to lying under oath, running red lights etc.

Right versus right choices reflect our most profound and central values, wherein right versus wrong are “moral temptations, while right versus rights are “ethical dilemmas”.

Dilemma paradigms in right versus right

1. Truth versus loyalty2. Individual versus community3. Short-term versus long-term4. Justice versus mercy

The dilemma have actors, may be solved via a middle course resolution instead of a black/white response.

Principles for decision-making,

1. Ends-based thinking-utilitarianism, “Do whatever produces the greatest good for the greatest number”, used in legislative decisions, picks the decision that produces the most blessing over the greatest range.

2. Rules-based thinking-associated with German philosopher Kant, “the categorical imperative”, “Follow only the principal that you want everyone else to follow,”; stick to your principles and let the consequential chips fall where they may

3. Care-based thinking: The Golden Rule, Do to others what you would like them to do to you; reversibility; associated with Christianity, is universal; may be for many people the only rule of ethics they know.

The above principles are useful because they give us a way to exercise our moral rationality; they provide different lenses through which to see our dilemmas.

Does ethics really matter?

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis Chapter 1-What this Book is about

This book is about the ethics of teaching. There is a code of ethics for educators (NEA). The book wants you to think about ethics and educate yourself. Ethical thinking and decision making are not just following the rules.

The book presents case studies that will put you in a thinking mood. The cases will display ethical theories and ways of ethical thinking. The book also presents a “Dispute” which is a discussion about an ethical dilemma. After the “Dispute”, the book will present “Concepts” which are relevant to the dilemma and provide an opportunity for the student to see how major ethical theories throw light on the situation. The “Analysis” will show the decision making process using the consequentialist (attention to harmful consequences of an individual’s actions than to the obligation to follow the rules), and the nonconsequentialist (duty, obligation, and principle) perspectives.

The authors believe that ethics is a public as well as a personal matter. Teachers have a special obligation to help their students see and share the potential objectivity and rationality of ethical thinking so that we can all lead morally responsible lives together. Ethics concerns what kinds of actions are right or wrong, what kind of life is a good life, or what kind of person is a good person.

Facts tell us something about the world, they describe. Moral claims cannot be true or false in the same way that facts are; ethical claims are not the same as an appraisal or preference; they are not the same as a value; remember the “good burglar”. The person is competent at a form of theft, not that we approve of theft or believe that it is morally acceptable.

Moral judgments are not statements of preference or taste; they are statements of obligation; they tell us what we ought to do or not do. Hume (1957) determined that ethical knowledge cannot be entirely based on factual knowledge; it is also based on assumptions and ethical arguments.

Consequentialist ethical theories hold that the rightness or wrongness of an action is to be decided in terms of its consequences-the principle of benefit maximization. The best action is the one with the best overall results. Consequentialists are interested in maximizing the good.

A variety of consequentialism is utilitarianism wherein social policy is determined by what produces the greatest good for the greatest number. Two problems with consequentialism is that it requires us to have information that is often impossible to attain, and requires us to know all of the consequences of our actions or polices but to be able to judge the impact of these actions and policies on everyone. Consequentialism can also lead to results that are morally abhorrent.

Nonconsequentialist theories invoke the Golden Rule “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Kant (1724-1804) noted that the Golden Rule contained a categorical imperative such as a maxim or a principle (Do not Kill). This is the principle of equal respect for persons. We must respect their goals; regard others as free, rational, and responsible moral agents, who are equal value.

Ethical theories believe that any ethic needs a concept of virtue, that an ethic of caring (Kohlberg’s theory of moral development) involves an account of the human good, one which makes caring relationships central. This ethic of caring is a kind of consequentialist ethic.

The book does not view nonconsequentialism and consequentialism as competitors; they illuminate but can distort ethical reflections. They enable us to ask good questions about hard cases. They are tools to be employed in interrogating ethical dilemmas and hard cases. They are useful in illuminating ethical concepts that are part of what is called civic ethic. This includes concepts such as just punishment, intellectual and religious liberty, and equality of opportunity. These are central to ethical schools.

Ethics is not like geometry, ethical reasoning often begins with our intuitions about what is right or wrong.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 2 Overview: Right Versus Wrong: Why Ethics Matter

Ethics can be described as a conscience or morality; related to values of responsible authority, integrity, respect for the community and the environment and the future (see Chernobyl incident)

Moral perversion has slaughtered millions; danger lies in the hands of well-meaning experts; danger lies in the hands of people, like you and I; these people may be operating in a systemic and personal ethical vacuum that leaves them unable to tell right from wrong. One cannot ignore moral temptations.

What is a CEM?: Bath Iron Works (BIW) is a shipbuilder, a company that is 100 years old; its competitor is Ingalls Shipbuilding; both companies have vied for Navy contracts; BIW finds a confidential document, CEO orders it analyzed, copies it and returns it to where it was left; the BIW President realizes the ethical compromise, orders the document shredded and the computer data deleted; the original document is returned to the Navy; the CEO resigns; thus, CEM means a Career Ending Move!

Right –versus-wrong decision involves an ethical dilemma and moral temptations; each individual wrong begins with someone’s decision to do something other then right.

What is the nature of wrong? Violation of law, lack of compliance can arise ignorantly or intentionally; compliance officers inform managers about the law and urge respect for it; may blend a single office which promotes a blurring of law and ethics that is detrimental to each.

Departure from truth-wrong is described as that which does not accord with the facts as generally known; must determine what the parties say happened and what actually happened;

Deviation from moral rectitude: not reporting a shoplifter, forgetting to feed your dog, plagiarism; going against the moral grain; values can change, examples: slavery, women’s rights; however, there is an inner core that helps us separate right from wrong; if the inner moral compass is lacking, the individual may not recognize that his or her actions are wrong, this is amoral; most wrongdoing arises from immorality, that is, a violation of the precepts of morality; see page 44-45.

The good news is that we are talking about ethics more than ever; however, there appears to be a decline in our moral barometer: i.e. lying and cheating among students and professionals, an ebbing of moral attitudes as children get older and the comparison of past and present ethical ages.

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis Chapter 2 –Punishment and Due Process

FYI: a consequentialist may argue that lying is wrong because of the negative consequences produced by lying — though a consequentialist may allow that certain foreseeable consequences might make lying acceptable

The defining feature of consequentialist moral theories is the weight given to the consequences in evaluating the rightness and wrongness of actions. In consequentialist theories, the consequences of an action or rule generally outweigh other considerations; consequentialist views justify immoral conduct in order to produce good consequences

A central theme among nonconsequentialists or deontological theorists is that we have a duty to do those things that are inherently good ("truth-telling" for example); while the ends or consequences of our actions are important, our obligation or duty is to take the right action, even if the consequences of a given act may be bad; it is sometimes described as "duty" or "obligation" based ethics, because deontologists believe that ethical rules "bind you to your duty"; nonconsequentialist views take consequences into account in order to be fully adequate.

NEA Code of Ethics contains the following statements:

In fulfillment of the obligation to the student, the educator…

Shall make reasonable effort to protect the student from conditions harmful to learning or to health and safety.

Shall not intentionally expose the student to embarrassment or disparagement.

Punishment is often seen as a means of maintaining proper order; can also subject the student to a risk of embarrassment or disparagement; need to know what kinds of moral concepts are needed to discuss punishment intelligently. Read Case, p. 24-32; evaluate dispute, concept of due process, analysis of the case.

A consequentialist would have regard for due process, their decisions have desirable consequences that are not arbitrary and capricious; however, their arguments do not give a convincing reason why it is right to punish the guilty and not the innocent; consequentialsim provides no reason why the punishment must fit the crime.

With a nonconsequentialist, punishment balances the scales of justice, an eye for an eye; punishment provides retribution; the importance of punishing the guilty and of fitting the punishment to the offense explains the importance of due process; the provision of due process permits us to be sure that we are in fact punishing the guilty in appropriate ways.

Both views above cannot be considered to be successful; maybe the answer is to combine their best features.

Review cases pgs. 33-36.

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis Chapter 3 –Intellectual Freedom

NEA Code-Students are entitled to some kind of intellectual openness:

1. Shall not unreasonably restrain the student from independent action in the pursuit of learning.

2. Shall not unreasonably deny the student access to varying points of view.

3. Shall not deliberately suppress or distort subject matter relevant to the student’s progress.

John Stuart Mill wrote a classic essay on the subject of freedom of opinion called “On Liberty”. It presents a consequentialist point of view based on the principle of benefit maximization. Liberty serves the greatest good for the greatest number. True ideas contribute more to happiness than false ones.

The reason the liberties of adults and children differ is that the consequences of extending liberty to adults and children differ. The moral is that unqualified emphasis on benefit maximization, given the right facts, can lead not only to the denial of a basic right to freedom of choice, but to the substitution of happiness for growth. Ignorance could really be bliss.

Nonconsequentialists see people as moral agents who are responsible for themselves and their own conduct. To deny a person freedom is to deny that person the opportunity to be a moral agent. Basic rights such as free speech and a free press can be defended from this perspective. These rights regard human beings as responsible moral agents.

The book notes that moral agents will wish to be interfered with precisely in those cases where they are incapable of acting as moral agents. Is an adolescent mature enough to be held responsible for his actions? Nonconsequentialists share the consequentialist analysis of the notion of maturity as vague. We are not simply mature or immature. Maturity is a many-faceted thing acquired over a long period of time.

Consequentialists see education as a means of promoting the good, whatever they take the good to be. Nonconsequentialists see education as a prerequisite to moral agency; students are encouraged to decide responsibly who they will be and how they will live with others. Education is the business of creating persons.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 3 Overview: Ethical Fitness

1. Ethical fitness is having a perception of the difference between right and wrong; an ability to choose the right and live by it. Ethical fitness is reached by giving a little effort each day; the effort can be unconscious, natural, and even accidental. It is similar to getting in physical shape.

2. Ethical fitness must be maintained; it can slip away. Ethics is a supremely human activity that cares enough for others to want right to prevail; it involves dialogue, balance, compromise and rationality; solutions can be negotiated.

3. Ethos comes from the Greek word ethos meaning custom, usage or character.

4. There is little to be gained by tiring to distinguish rigidly between morals and ethics. Some philosophers use the two terms more or less interchangeably.

5. The relation of ethics and law according to Moulton are very different; when ethics collapses, the law rushes in to fill the void. You need only count the number of new laws emerging each year from state and federal legislative bodies to realize how powerfully Moulton’s worry about the encroachment of law into ethics is playing itself out. If our ethical decay is severe, the age of hyperregulation cannot be far behind.

6. Ethics and free will-The noble desire to flee from hyperegulation does not require that the pendulum bang back to the opposite extreme; one can mitigate the selfishness that can come with freedom, so that real creativity can be permitted.

7. The book reiterates that it is a vehicle for reflective dialogue not a handbook for ethical dilemmas.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 4 Overview: Core Values

What is one’s duty to the unenforceable (Lord Moulton’s definition of ethics as “obedience to the unenforceable”).

A value is defined at that which is worthy of esteem for its own sake; it is an end in itself;

Core values are the ones that are intrinsically worthwhile; they are moral values; political values, economic values, culinary values.

Lettuce values are strongly held values that are not necessarily moral.

Code of ethics such as the Ten Commandments (the first four define God’s relation to man, the final six are imperatives such as don’t steal, don’t envy or covet; all are phrased in the negative; they assert prohibitions against behavior, don’t say what must be done).

The Boy Scout Law-is positive in its syntax, defines what Scouts are (loyal, friendly etc.); differences in Law for girls and boys (boys must be kind, while girls need only be kind to animals). There has now been a revision in the code.

West Point Honor Code-most concise of ethical codes, it regulates one’s own actions, requires attention to the actions of others.

The Rotary Four-Way Test-uses syntax of questions, reaches back past behavior to motive.

McDonnell-Douglas Code of Ethics-nine bullet points, similar to Boy Scout Law.

The Minnesota Principles-Four core moral values, fairness, honesty, respect for human dignity and respect for the environment.

Evaluate your code of ethics, is it brief? without explanations?, is it expressed in a number of forms?, is it centered on moral values?

Johnson and Johnson did what was right with the Tylenol tampering case; Do we as people do what is right all the time?

Core values are universal in our world: injunction against killing, lying, stealing, immorality, and respect for parents and love of children; core values for a troubled world: love, truth, fairness, freedom and unity, tolerance, responsibility, respect for life.

Is ethics relative? (Mother’s uncle scenario)? What would happen if you landed in a strange country, walked up to a resident and took away something and ran off? Can you steal from your mother’s uncle? Physics is not merely institutional!!

Codes of ethics provide us with shared reference points.

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis Chapter 4 –Equal Opportunity and Democratic Community

The NEA Code also holds that the educator:

5. Shall not on the basis of race, color, creed, sex, national origin, marital status, political or religious beliefs, family, social or cultural background, or sexual orientation, unfairly:

a. Exclude any student from participation in any program;

b. Deny benefits to any student;

c. Grant any advantage to any student.

Read Dispute on page 58, for 5th edition.

Brown v. Board of Education-landmark ruling on American education; launched desegregation of American schools; a genuinely democratic community is one that values all of its members and values them all equally; it is about equal worth, equal dignity, and equal citizenship; asserts a doctrine of equality of educational opportunity and asserts a view about democratic community.

Distributive justice-society distributes things that people want, but which are scarce; schools do this; teachers should notice that their time and instructional style are also scarce resources that can be distributed fairly or unfairly; examine the justice of social institutions that determine who gets what in our society.

Aristotle held that justice consists in treating equals equally and unequals unequally; this means that treating equals equally is that people who are the same in a relevant characteristic are entitled to be treated in the same way (math criteria for admission into honors algebra class); if people differ on a relevant characteristic, they should be treated differently (i.e. Susan who is visually disabled should not be given the same printed book as a sighted student).

Consequentialist views believe that decisions about how resources are to be allocated must be made in terms of what promotes the greatest good for the greatest number; benefit maximization does not require that we make everyone better off, it requires that we make people better off on the average; it also focuses on the future not the past.

Nonconsequentialists views allow us to take history into account; both the past and future count; it warrants compensatory justice; this view seeks to show equal respect for the dignity and worth of all; people are seen individually, not as ciphers in calculating an average.

Different ethical theories bring different criteria to bear in judging facts; does not negate the fact that ethical judgments require facts.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 5 Overview: Right Versus Right: The Nature of Dilemma Paradigms

Remember Kohlberg’s stages of moral development? They were developed from studies of boys; do men and women have different moralities? Gilligan, in a study of women’s morals, determined that “ a moral person is one who helps others; goodness is service, meeting one’s obligations and responsibilities together, if possible without sacrificing oneself.”

This chapter examines the following four paradigms: justice versus mercy, short-term versus long-term, individual versus community and truth versus loyalty.

justice versus mercy-fairness, equity, and even-handed application of the law often conflict with compassion, empathy, and love;

Short-term versus long-term-now versus then, reflects the difficulties arising when immediate needs or desires run counter to future goals or prospects.

Individual versus community-us versus them, self versus others, or the smaller versus the larger group.

truth versus loyalty-honesty or integrity versus commitment, responsibility, or promise-keeping; truth is conformity with facts or reality;

loyalty involves allegiance to a person, a government, or a set of ideas to which one owes fidelity; truth is based on accurate reporting of the world around us in terms that most would use to report it themselves; if the dilemma arises in our experience because we are asked to make statement that violate truth, the truth-versus-loyalty paradigm is relevant; being truthful is one thing, telling all the truth on every occasion is something else.

The clashing of values constitutes a dilemma; to deal in ethics is to deal largely in the ways we talk to each other; dilemma comes from the Greek word for two and a fundamental proposition; an ethical dilemma is a right-versus-right situation where two core moral values come into conflict. Right-versus-wrong issues produce moral temptations.

Paradigm is from the Greek work for model; examine the four paradigms using the dioxin scenario; paradigm analysis help us distinguish right-versus-right dilemma from right-versus-wrong temptations; if none of the paradigms fit, the reason may be that it’s not an ethical dilemma, it is a moral temptation.

See cases at end of chapter.

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis Chapter 5

Diversity: Multiculturalism and Religion

Review first dispute on page 86-87.

Religious diversity and multiculturalism are complex issues. The New Harbor case presents issues of alienation and self-identity, issue of truth and of who controls it, issue of dialogue and the question of the one and the many.

Americans have respected some kinds of diversity-The Bill of Rights includes two phrases called the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses; however, religious toleration often applied only to different kids of Protestants; other kinds of diversity were not respected (slavery, Native Americans driven west).

Public schools have tried hard to make us one or to behave as though we were already one.

Trying to respect diversity raises questions of truth, what is to count as truth, and who is to control what is to count as true.

The chapter supposes that truth is relative either to central theoretical assumptions or to culture and that people have a right to control their own truth. Every culture has its own standards of value and of truth that are central to it; since there is no general Truth about them, then one culture may not reasonable impose its standards of worth on another; every culture owns its own standards. Difference rules; defined as radical pluralism.

Pluralism example-respecting the tastes of different cultures because they constitute both the standards of value and the objects of value of these cultures in a way that is not always amenable to judgments of inferiority or superiority-truth or error. Culture is often the reason why people find their happiness in different ways.

One weakness of radical pluralism is that is has difficulty explaining why we should regard people as equal and as possessed of equal rights; cultural relativism seeks to make all people equal by making all cultures equal. The book suggests that we need a view that acknowledges our sense of being situated to our sense of self, one in which we are not merely persons, and also acknowledges that our sense of the good is dependent on our culture.

A nonconsequentialist might reason that we should respect people’s moral choices; we owe equal respect to different religions or culture because they have been chosen by people who have equal rights; people have a duty to be just but are also entitled to have and to pursue their own concept of a good life-see Mr. Huxley’s biology case discussion on page 94. The nonconsequentialist view requires public school teachers to walk a tight line with respect to their treatment of controversial views and diverse life styles, but there is a line to be walked.

J.S Mill’s view of consequentialism and diversity would argue that tolerating diversity has the consequence of promoting experiments in living; diversity in ways of life makes life more varied and interesting; different people find their happiness in different ways; a society without diversity would require everyone to find their happiness in the same things. Mills argues that diversity contributes to the greatest good for the greatest number.

People have a capacity for a sense of justice, and they have a capacity for forming a conception of their own good. A concept of human beings as free and equal persons who are therefore entitled to equal liberty and equal treatment helps us to conceive and sustain a society that respects pluralism.

Read the Christmas Quarrel at the end of the chapter.

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis

Chapter 6: Democracy, Professionalism, and Teaching with Integrity

Reflective equilibrium-reaching a point in or deliberations where we feel that our moral intuitions and the moral theory that accounts for them are consistent and where the decisions we teach and actions we take can be justified by our moral theory.

Moral theories must meet the standards common to judging theories of all sorts; must explain the data appropriate to them; must be consistent.

Kant said the only really good thing is a good will.

We are fee because we are moral agents with the duty to decide for ourselves and because it is morally offensive to interfere arbitrarily with the liberty of a person who has the moral duty to make responsible choices.

Even in ethics, some issues about which people have long disagreed have eventually come to be resolved; ethics is more like law than math or science in its degree of precision and its aspirations;

Sovereignty/Authority-this is the authority or right to decide; professionalism is legitimacy conferred by reason of expertise, it maintains that authority should be vested in those who are most capable of making the best decision; but when individuals or special groups gain unencumbered power to make decision about public matter, they may make decisions in ways that are most attentive to their own welfare. Power tends to corrupt (Lord Acton).

Esoteric knowledge is knowledge that is not available to the ordinary person, usually because it is the product of lengthy training; Did you know that legally, teaching is not currently structured as a profession?!! If teachers are to govern their own practice, then the right of state legislatures of local school boards to make an extensive range of educational decisions will have to be diminished or restricted. Presently, teachers are public servants bound by the authority of democratically elected officials.

In a democratic society sovereignty over public education rests in elected legislative bodies. To oppose the authority of the school board is to oppose representative democracy. There is a dark side to representative democracy where teacher are the lowest link in a chain of command.

Professionalism emphasizes expertise and competence, communitarian democracy emphasizes participation and discussion, and representative democracy emphasizes equal representation of the citizenry; all commendable values but difficult to serve simultaneously; teachers are entitled to pursue professional status for themselves.

Teacher professionalism and teaching with integrity- evidence and peer affirmation, not personal opinion are the essence of a professional warrant; the practice of professionals is governed by an ethic that emphasizes professional responsibility and client welfare.

How do teachers protect their integrity when asked to do what they think is unwise or harmful: accommodate the expectations of one’s employer (give in, saints are admired from afar, but hard to live with); find productive ways to continue to press one’s case (suggest re-evaluation, discuss further, reconsider at a later time); work around the policy (think creatively, imaginative not deviously); resignation (no other solution available, if one’s moral core is violated).

Ethical deliberation as a social process; it is a social and dialogical activity; there are two kinds of values that dialogue might serve: values of community and values of rationality; dialogue strengthens a community; frequent exercise of sovereignty can degrade a community.

Ethical concepts are social creations and social resources that must be sustained by dialogue and reflective equilibrium; people are treated as ends not means; must have an open, undominated dialogue (accept input from all relevant participants, respects evidence and argument, does not exclude any relevant consideration from expression);

The Ethics of Teaching-K.A. Strike & J.F. Soltis

Chapter 7: Conclusions and Postscript

The book discussed ethical relativism and contrasted consequentialist and nonconsequentialist views because the authors believe that understanding them makes a difference not only in how teachers ought to behave toward students, but in our basic understanding of what education is about.

Teachers are in the business of creating persons; it is our first duty to respect the dignity and value of our students and to help them to achieve their status as free, rational, and feeling moral agents.

“A person’s a person no matter how small.” Thank you to Dr. Seuss.

Review supplemental cases.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 6 Overview: Three More Dilemma Paradigms

Paradigm #2: Individual versus Community-with the spread of American influence in the twentieth century has gone, inevitably, the spread of individualism; however, the mid 80’s ushered in the idea of the good community, one which finds a productive balance between individuality and group obligation (Gardner).

Etzione noted a distinction between the community and the inner self; this speaks to the dilemma presented in the individual-versus-community paradigm. Both the inner and outer voices are moral, both are right; the dilemma pits core moral values against one another.

Paradigm #3-Short-term versus Long-term-most familiar of all paradigms, do I spend a dollar or save it for a rainy day? Do I speak up now or wait? this paradigm extends beyond personal concerns when one deals with economics and environmentalism. Read scenarios in book.

Paradigm #4-Justice versus Mercy- justice is blind; remember the statue, while mercy never is. Should they be balanced? One must recognize that each has strong claims upon us, and that these claims create powerful and sometimes wrenching dilemmas.

Several different paradigms can be embedded in a single situation; Are there more than four paradigms?

The Potter Box formulated by Potter in a 1965 dissertation at the Harvard Divinity School deals with the Christian responses to the nuclear threat; it uses a quadrant to chart the flow of ethical decision-making; the left side of the Box (situation and values) deals with a description of what is, while the right side (loyalties and principles) deals with what ought to be. The upper half (situation and loyalties) concerns social phenomena while the lower half (values and principles) concerns analytical and philosophical thinking. The Box leans toward utilitarianism emphasizing loyalties rather than principles; allows for a reiteration of ideas through several cycles of discussion in hopes of a consensus forming around a particular action or policy.

Snow popularized the opposition between scientific and humanistic thinking, but the distinction is not new, was used by Plato and Aristotle; the two ways of thinking was bridged by Bacon during medieval times. Unfortunately, there is now a division between science and the humanities; there exists a line of demarcation between the objective and the subjective; the dualism is enforced in our secondary school system, see SAT.

The main point of the chapter is that these paradigms will prove useful in cutting through the wealth of contextual detail that surrounds every real-life dilemma. After all, the reason for all this is some kind of resolution not just an analysis.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 7 Overview: Resolution Principles

Journalism can build bridges, share knowledge and provoke new revelations; good journalism is about good sources; editors develop sources at the highest levels of the communities they cover-the political, corporate, cultural, and educational leadership that shapes opinion and sets agenda.

There is tension inherent in the truth-versus-loyalty dilemma in journalism; high-stakes game where careers are on the line and only minutes remain to make decisions. The resolution process begins with gathering the relevant information, by seeking alternatives that might point to a way around the dilemma; and by reaching out for a moral principle that lead us toward a resolution.

The following principles evolved from our human experience; ethics is about the concept of “ought”;

Principles for Resolving Dilemmas:

A. “Do what’s best for the greatest number of people”-ends based thinking; utilitarianism; Bentham (1748-1832) noted that the measure of the rightness of an action was to be found in the greatest happiness for the greatest number; Mill (1806-1873) focused on issues of personal conduct; consequentialism is the concept that right and wrong can be determined by assessing consequences or outcomes; modern policy-making is founded on utilitarianism; how can you foresee all the consequences of any personal action, let alone actions on a broad social scale? Remember slavery, nuclear reactors?

B. “Follow your highest sense of principle”-rule-based thinking; act on our highest sense of inner conscience; seeks to base action on a maxim that could be universalized; associated with Kant (1724-1804) and the categorical imperative which describes a requirement that our actions conform to certain large principles of action; we should act in accordance with whatever law we would like everyone else in the world to follow in relevant circumstances; this guideline is impossibly strict; If I let you do it, I’d have to let everyone do it!

C. “Do what you want others to do to you”-care-based thinking-the Golden Rule asks us to care enough about the others involved to put ourselves in their shoes; familiar to students of the Bible but is also present in the Talmud and the teachings of Islam; it is a principle of great antiquity (Singer); imagine yourself as the object rather than the agent; Kant criticized the Rule as too simplistic to be a supreme moral principle; Does it approve of bribing someone else with the understanding that , were I in their shoes, I would want to be bribed?

The Veil of Ignorance-Harvard philosopher John Rawls constructed “the veil of ignorance to ensure impartiality where one imagines that decision-makers are “situated behind a veil of ignorance” in such a way that they have no idea how “the various alternatives will affect their own particular case”; they do not have a knowledge of anything that might make them different from others, do not know their own class, social status, or wealth, level of intelligence or strength, optimism or pessimism, their society, their generation; they do not know who they are; this is a form of what philosophers know as the “reversibility criterion”, it asks us to assume the role of another and base our decisions on that perspective; Rawl’s test holds particular value for policy-makers who might ask themselves: Will this be fair to me wherever in the world I end up being born?

What did the newspaper editor Fanning decide?

Her Ends-based decision: the greatest good is the public

Her Rule-based decision: focus on the rule

Her Care-based decision: compassion, a helping hand

Final decision: She held the story because beating the competition is not enough reason to risk damaging someone’s life and reputation; the question was not “Is this a valuable story but Is this the time to publish it?”; used the editor’s own common humanity shared with her fellow citizens.

The role of the resolution process is not always to determine which of two courses to take; it sometimes lets the mind work long enough to uncover a third, see Trooper case.

Real resolutions are built upon a rich inwardness of understanding.

Ethics are a map, a pathway, a trip, a process.

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 8 Overview: “There’s Only ‘Ethics’…”

Ethical decision-making is exhibiting “intelligence functioning at intuitional velocity” (Lachaise).

Nine Checkpoints for Ethical Decision-Making:

A. Recognize that there is a moral issue.-identify issues needing attention; sift moral questions from manners and social conventions

B. Determine the actor-If this is a moral issue, whose is it? am I morally obligated and empowered to do anything in the face of the moral issues raised? Stakeholder thinking limits options.

C. Gather the relevant facts- part of the fact-gathering process involves peering as far as possible into the future.

D. Test for right-versus-wrong issues-legal test, stench test (your gut, rules-based), front-page test (ends-based reasoning), the Mom test (Golden Rule).

E. Test for right-versus-right paradigms-what kind of dilemma is this? Truth versus loyalty, self versus community, short-term versus long-term, and justice versus mercy.

F. Apply the resolution process-ends-based or utilitarian principle, rule-based or Kantian principle, and the care-based principle based on the Golden Rule.

G. Investigate the “trilemma” options-Is there a third way through the dilemma? Unforeseen and highly creative course of action.

H. Make the decision-requires moral courage, attribute essential to leadership; distinguishes humanity from the animal world.

I. Revisit and reflect on the decision-go back over the process and seek its lessons

Public and Private Ethics-There’s only ethics; moral consistency is an effective test for ethical actions; actions in public and in private are morally identical; if they diverge, something is morally amiss.

Public Issues include AIDS, the new world order, environment, immigration, human genome project, computer-communication revolution, free trade, medicine etc.; of all the things we could do, what’s the right thing to do?

How good people make tough choices-Kidder, R.M

Chapter 9 Overview: Epilogue: Ethics in the 21st Century

Wherever humanity comes to a decision point, we’re surrounded by reactions; this occurs in ethical decision-making; core values are lie moral reagents; sometimes the teacher will douse the experiment; most of the time the tough choices we face could use a little shaking up; ethical thinkers are catalysts; ethical fitness makes ethical thinkers; we have become a better catalyst by studying this book.

Purity is not being a saint, it describes a condition we all long for, clean air, fresh water, sharp focus, friendships, honest motives…; the only way to protect purity is to work at it, keep exercising your ethical principles, practice, exercise and do it right .

The moral landscape of the 21st century is shaped by 3 conditions not imagined by our ancestors:

A. We will face entirely new ethical issues.

B. We will live in an age of increasing moral intensity.

C. We will experience unprecedented pressures to drop out of society and make a separate peace (ethical tortoises)

Four Final Paradigms:

A. Compelled to choose between truth and loyalty, I would (all things being equal) come down on the side of truth (see Hitler, Saddam Hussein etc.)

B. Compelled to choose between the individual and the community, I would lean toward the community-self does not always embrace community.

C. Compelled to choose between short term and long term, I would favor the long term.

D. Compelled to choose between justice and mercy, I would stick with mercy-speaks of love and compassion.

We will survive by a morality of mindfulness where reason moderates the clash of values and intuition schools our decision-making.