This blog is about "Applied and Professional Ethics" by Gorgan Collste(2012).
What is "Applied Ethics", in his article, he said "applied ethics is the art or science of reflecting on moral dilemmas and moral problems in different contexts"(G.Collste, 2012). From this definition, we can understand applied ethics is about the moral adjustment of right and wrong in different social contexts. Since all of us are living in big social contexts, those social adjustments impact every corner of our society. One easy example of this impact can be seen in " Dont't be Evil" from Google. "Don't be evil" is one of the core ethics value when Google run business and made big business decision. So when Google found this value has conflict with Chinese government in term of user's privacy, they made the decision to leave china's market. Another Example is about euthanasia. Back to my home country,Euthanasia is illegal. I had read so many news that the very sick patients requested to end of their life to release their pain while Doctor have to obey the patients's willing and keep their lives. Under this situation, should Doctor follow the requests from the patients or should he follow his professional ethics to keep their pain? Those questions are exactly the area where applied ethics want to give help.
Because Applied Ethics deals with all above difficult situations in the social context, Tom Beauchamp(2003) said the philosophical method is not the only tool to treat those moral problems, some other tools can be used, such as ethical inquiry or reflective equilibrium(RE) by Rawls(1971) and Daniles(1996).
Ethical inquiry is a way to increase our knowledge of ethical issues. It started with conceptual clarity. Collecting and interpretation of different views are very constructional at ethics difficulties. One of my example in my working place is about attitude to digital learning. While some parents welcome using digital tools in the classroom, some parents are not happy about digital tools. They complained that too much "screen time" for their children and they are not learning. While if we asked the same question to children, most children will said they love the digital tools and screen time. As an educator, should we follow children's request or should we listen to parent's suggest? Ethical inquiry (in my case, face to face talking and survey) provide help. Rather than put my personal adjustments in advance, listen to parents and children, noting down their concerns and worries give me some idea of parents why they are not happy about digital learning. Once I accept their complains, adapt my teaching practices, such as limit digital learning to a short time, using digital tools in a meaningful project or sharing children's digital creations to their parents, I receive more encouragements than complains.
Another methods the author talked about is reflective equilibrium(RE).In Rawls(1971) and Daniels(1996)'s view, "relating different aspects of an ethical problems" is central in dealing with applied ethics difficulties. In the perinatal treatment case in the article, RE approach is used to invite both the doctor and the philosopher into the process of finding a solution and both inputs will be considered. In my view, this method is trying to balance different thinking to give solutions to the problems. Going back to living case in my preschool, balancing children's safety and their learning curiosity is also a challenge for me. from learning point of view, I should let children use any opportunity to extend their curiosity as I was raised, when climbing tree is common, while on the other hands, increasing concerns from parents about their children's safety is also understandable from parents view. Balancing those two requests need our teachers to make a professional adjustments about risk and learning. It looked a simple task. Trust me, when you are facing 20 or more children and their parents, balancing will be a very challenge role. I had to admit I am still learning that skills and that is the reason why RE methods can give me some guidance in my working place.
What is "Applied Ethics", in his article, he said "applied ethics is the art or science of reflecting on moral dilemmas and moral problems in different contexts"(G.Collste, 2012). From this definition, we can understand applied ethics is about the moral adjustment of right and wrong in different social contexts. Since all of us are living in big social contexts, those social adjustments impact every corner of our society. One easy example of this impact can be seen in " Dont't be Evil" from Google. "Don't be evil" is one of the core ethics value when Google run business and made big business decision. So when Google found this value has conflict with Chinese government in term of user's privacy, they made the decision to leave china's market. Another Example is about euthanasia. Back to my home country,Euthanasia is illegal. I had read so many news that the very sick patients requested to end of their life to release their pain while Doctor have to obey the patients's willing and keep their lives. Under this situation, should Doctor follow the requests from the patients or should he follow his professional ethics to keep their pain? Those questions are exactly the area where applied ethics want to give help.
Because Applied Ethics deals with all above difficult situations in the social context, Tom Beauchamp(2003) said the philosophical method is not the only tool to treat those moral problems, some other tools can be used, such as ethical inquiry or reflective equilibrium(RE) by Rawls(1971) and Daniles(1996).
Ethical inquiry is a way to increase our knowledge of ethical issues. It started with conceptual clarity. Collecting and interpretation of different views are very constructional at ethics difficulties. One of my example in my working place is about attitude to digital learning. While some parents welcome using digital tools in the classroom, some parents are not happy about digital tools. They complained that too much "screen time" for their children and they are not learning. While if we asked the same question to children, most children will said they love the digital tools and screen time. As an educator, should we follow children's request or should we listen to parent's suggest? Ethical inquiry (in my case, face to face talking and survey) provide help. Rather than put my personal adjustments in advance, listen to parents and children, noting down their concerns and worries give me some idea of parents why they are not happy about digital learning. Once I accept their complains, adapt my teaching practices, such as limit digital learning to a short time, using digital tools in a meaningful project or sharing children's digital creations to their parents, I receive more encouragements than complains.
Another methods the author talked about is reflective equilibrium(RE).In Rawls(1971) and Daniels(1996)'s view, "relating different aspects of an ethical problems" is central in dealing with applied ethics difficulties. In the perinatal treatment case in the article, RE approach is used to invite both the doctor and the philosopher into the process of finding a solution and both inputs will be considered. In my view, this method is trying to balance different thinking to give solutions to the problems. Going back to living case in my preschool, balancing children's safety and their learning curiosity is also a challenge for me. from learning point of view, I should let children use any opportunity to extend their curiosity as I was raised, when climbing tree is common, while on the other hands, increasing concerns from parents about their children's safety is also understandable from parents view. Balancing those two requests need our teachers to make a professional adjustments about risk and learning. It looked a simple task. Trust me, when you are facing 20 or more children and their parents, balancing will be a very challenge role. I had to admit I am still learning that skills and that is the reason why RE methods can give me some guidance in my working place.
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