How is ethics related to morality and values formation

Character development: Integrating ethical understanding, care, and action. The theories described so far all offer frameworks for understanding how children grow into youth and adults. Those by Maslow, Kohlberg, and Gilligan are more specific than the one by Erikson in that they focus on the development of understanding about ethics.

One problem is that they focus primarily on cognition—on what children think about ethical issues—more than on emotions and actions. The other is that they say little about how to encourage ethical development. Many educators have recognized these educational needs, and a number of them have therefore developed practical programs that integrate ethical understanding, care, and action.

As a group the programs are often called character education , though individual programs have a variety of specific names for example, moral dilemma education , integrative ethical education , social competence education , and many more. Responses have to become intuitive, automatic, and embodied —meaning that they have to be based in fairly immediate emotional responses Narvaez, To the extent that this goal is met, students can indeed live a good, ethically responsible life.

Schoolwide programs of character education. All members of the staff—not just teachers and administrators, but also custodians, and educational assistants—focus on developing positive relationships with students. The underlying theme that develops is one of cooperation and mutual care, not competition. Fairness, respect and honesty pervade class and school activities; discipline, for example, focuses on solving conflicts between students and between students and teachers, rather than on rewarding obedience or punishing wrong-doers.

The approach requires significant reliance on democratic meetings and discussions, both in classrooms and wherever else groups work together in school. Classroom programs of character education. Even if a teacher is teaching character education simply within her own classroom, there are many strategies available. The goal in this case is to establish the classroom as a place where everyone feels included, and where everyone treats everyone else with civility and respect.

Conflicts and disagreements may still occur, but in a caring community they can be resolved without undue anger or hostility. Berkowitz, M. What works in character education: A research-driven guide for educators. Brown, L. Elkind, D. How to do character education. Accessed February 1, Kohlberg, L. Moral stages: A current formulation and a response to critics. Basel: S. Minow, M. Just schools: Pursuing equality in societies of difference.

New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Narvaez, D. Moral complexity: The fatal attraction of truthiness and the importance of mature moral functioning. Perspectives on psychological science , 5 2 , — Taylor, J.

Between voice and silence: Women and girls, race and relationship. Authored by: Kelvin Seifert and Rosemary Sutton. Conventional justice: conformity to peers and society As children move into the school years, their lives expand to include a larger number and range of peers and eventually of the community as a whole.

Character development: Integrating ethical understanding, care, and action The theories described so far all offer frameworks for understanding how children grow into youth and adults. Classroom programs of character education Even if a teacher is teaching character education simply within her own classroom, there are many strategies available. De-transcendentalizing religion. Edoardo Zamuner and D. Oxford: Routledge, — Google Scholar. Boghossian, Paul. The rule-following considerations.

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I owe a special thanks to Bastian Reichardt for his suggestion that we publish our papers back-to-back and for his insightful comments. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to M. Reprints and Permissions. Stokhof, M. Ethics and morality, principles and practice.

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Skip to main content. Search SpringerLink Search. Download PDF. Wittgenstein on ethics and morality Often when Wittgenstein talks about value, it is characterized in absolute terms. Here are two examples from his early writings: Footnote 2 If there is any value that does have value, it must lie outside the whole sphere of what happens and is the case. Morality typically is concerned with others, but ethics, Wittgenstein claims, is not: Can there be any ethics if there is no living being but myself?

Ethics and morality: practice first An alternative view starts from practice, rather than principles, and considers concrete moral decisions, actions, and judgments, made in context, as its base.

Moral facts Moral induction assumes that morally relevant features do indeed exist, viz. Challenges Of course, the alternative view has its own challenges. Normativity in other domains: meaning To illustrate that the kind of questions and considerations that have been treated above are not limited to the case of ethics and morality, we take a very brief look at one other debate in which similar issues arise, viz.

Footnote 18 In the debate there is agreement on two features of meaning normativity that limit possible answers. Footnote 19 These are global and fairly intuitive constraints on the explanation of most forms of normativity. Conclusion We have identified two ways in which relationship between ethics and absolute value, and morality and contextual dependence can be construed. Notes 1. And we mark some of them as not just change but actual progress.

Note that similar features inform the discussion about ethics and morality. References Arnswald, Ulrich. Chapter Google Scholar Biletzki, Anat. Google Scholar Boghossian, Paul. Google Scholar Crespo, Ines. Google Scholar Cuypers, Stefaan.

Google Scholar De Mesel, Benjamin. Article Google Scholar Giarelli, James. Google Scholar Gibbard, Alan. Google Scholar Hattiangadi, Anandi. This approach is in contrast to universalism, which holds the position that moral values are the same for everyone. Cultural relativists consider this to be an ethnocentric view, as the universal set of values proposed by universalists are based on their set of values.

Cultural relativism is also considered more tolerant than universalism because, if there is no basis for making moral judgments between cultures, then cultures have to be tolerant of each other. The French and Americans have different views on whistle-blowing. Compared to the French, American companies consider it to be a natural part of business.

So natural, in fact, that they set up anonymous hotlines. The French, on the other hand, tend to view whistle-blowing as undermining solidarity among coworkers. Personal values provide an internal reference for what is good, beneficial, important, useful, beautiful, desirable, and constructive.

Over time, the public expression of personal values has laid the foundations of law, custom, and tradition. Personal values in this way exist in relation to cultural values, either in agreement with or divergent from prevailing norms.

Personal values take on greater meaning in adulthood as they are meant to influence how we carry out our responsibilities to others. This is true in the workplace, especially for managers and leaders, who are charged with overseeing resources for the benefit of others.

Because of their authority structures, social norms, and cultures, organizations can have a powerful influence on their employees. In this way they seek to promote their standards of ethical behavior. Since moral judgments are based on the analysis of the consequences of behavior, they involve interpretations and assessments. One might be asked to do something that violates a personal belief but is considered appropriate by others. Without that awareness, it can be difficult to justify a decision on ethical or moral grounds in a way that others would find persuasive.

If you value equal rights for all and you go to work for an organization that treats its managers much better than it does its workers, you may form the attitude that the company is an unfair place to work; consequently, you may not produce well or may even leave the company.

It is likely that if the company had a more egalitarian policy, your attitude and behaviors would have been more positive. Ethical decisions involve judgments of facts and situations that are subject to interpretation and other influences.

Analyze the gray areas of ethical expectations within the context of corporate decision making and ethical business practice. Law and ethics are not the same thing. Both exist to influence behavior, but complying with the law is mandatory, while adhering to an ethical code is voluntary. Laws define what is permissible, while ethics speak to what is right, good, and just. Lawyers and judges are responsible for clarifying the meaning of a law when there is ambiguity or when a matter is subject to interpretation.

Where ethics are concerned, that responsibility lies with each individual. In organizations, employees can look to the code of ethics or the statement of values for guidance about how to handle ethical gray areas. Even when an individual has a clear sense of right and wrong, or good and bad, it can be difficult to know what is ethical in a given situation.

One analyzes ethical issues by asking questions such as: What could happen? How likely is it happen? What might the harm be?

Who might be hurt? The answers are not always clear cut. Individual judgments can be influenced, even clouded, by a number of factors. In addition, there are times when people believe that the ends justify the means. In other words, if the result of an action is good, then it is okay if the action itself is unethical.

There is a saying that a good person is one who does good deeds when no one is looking. The same goes with ethical decisions.