Ethical Judgement and Action

Throughout my time at Hobart and William Smith Colleges I have had the opportunity to wrestle with ethical decision making and action. With the help of the learning and reflection I completed in course such as Philsophy and Feminism and Sociology: Research Methods, I will use this essay to write about how I believe you can tell the difference between and ethical and a non-ethical act, and in what situations or circumstances we need to be mindful of the ethical implications of our actions.

Telling the difference between an act that is ethical and an act that is not ethical is not as easy as one might think. Ethics are very culturally specific, yet also situational. We are all raised in different social and economic situations that color our perspective of what an ethical act versus a non-ethical act is. While this might be true, the common thread that one can use to truly decide whether an act or a decision is ethical or not ethical is if the act results in minimum harm and maximum good for someone else. Lets take, for example, the following situation. Students who are in a teaching certificate program are studying for an exam that can make or break whether they will obtain their teaching certificate. As the students study for the test, they, as well as the professor, are all under the impression that the only study materials that are available for the test include a list of objectives that will be covered for each academic category of the test. Therefore, the students study the list; thinking that this is all there is to help them pass the test. When studying for the exam, one student finds a book that provides definitions and examples for all the objectives of the academic categories that will be on the test. At this moment, this person is faced with an ethical decision to make. To maximize the good of his or her whole class, and minimize the harm they will all face if they only study the objectives list, the student should not think of his or herself, but should instead think of the good of the class when he or she emails the professor to let him or her know about the book. This act is an ethical act to make because the professor will then tell the entire class of the resource, which will maximize the good for all the students involved. This resource will give the students more material to study from so that they can all hopefully pass the test, minimizing the harm they might face if they fail the test as a result of a lack of study materials, and in the end not be able to obtain their teaching certificate.

Through the above example, it can be see how in certain circumstances it is important to be mindful of the ethical implications of our actions. Being mindful of the ethical implications of the action that was made in the above example was important because there were power differentials involved in the above example. Looking at the example if can be seen that the student who found the extra study guide to the test had more power than some of the other students who were in the class and would also be taking the exam. This is because he or she had access to a computer with Internet, and had the time to be able to look up additional resources to hopefully aid in the studying process. Through this example we can see how it is important to be mindful of the ethical implications of our actions in situations when power is involved because people who have power generally have the greatest ability to make ethical decisions, those that minimize harm and maximize good. Along with having the ability to make ethical decisions, people in power are also generally the ones who get to determine whether an act is ethical or not ethical. Therefore, when power is involved it is very important for the person who has power to not think about themselves, yet think about the other or others involved and think about which decision they can make that will be the most ethical, in other words, the decision that will result in the least amount of harm and the most amount of good for all the parties involved. Another example, which I learned from taking SOC 211, is the ethical implications that need to be considered when conducting social science research. When sociologists conduct social science research, the researcher is in a position of power over his or her human subject. As a result of the researchers obligation to minimize harm to the participant and maximize the good participant experience, social scientists have agreed on ethical decisions that all social science researchers need to make. One of these ethical decisions is to make sure that all human subjects have the rights to voluntarily participate in research. Along with this, to minimize the harm that the participants experience, anonymity and confidentiality have to be kept, and the participants cannot be deceived.

Overall, determining what qualifies an act as ethical and what qualifies an act as not ethical is not black and white. As I stated above, ethics are culturally specific and are also situational. While this is true, one common thread that can and should be considered when trying to figure out if an act is ethical or not is looking at whether the act results in minimum harm and maximum good for the party involved. As well as keeping this common thread into account, it is important to remember that generally, people in power are the ones who have the ability to not only make ethical decisions, yet to also decide what is ethical and what is not. Therefore, people with power are responsible for being mindful of the ethical implications of their actions.