February 23, 2004
TUNE CALLING:
Before Teaching Ethics, Stop Kidding Yourself (GORDON MARINO, 2/20/04, Chronicle of Higher Education)
Over the past couple of decades, the ethics industry has kicked into high gear. We now have a growing number of professional ethicists who are prepared to act as superegos for hire to the various professions. Indeed, take any given profession and there is another profession called the ethics of that profession. (Think bioethics, medical ethics, legal ethics, computer ethics, and so forth.) [...]People who presume to teach ethics should help their students be honest with themselves about their own interests. Such candor is, of course, part of the Socratic curriculum of coming to know yourself. But it is hard psychological work, which we do not value much in these post-Freudian times. Unless our ethics students learn to examine themselves and what they really value, their command of ethical theories and their ability to think about ethics from diverse perspectives are not likely to bring them any closer to being willing and able to do the right thing.
Whoever is paying the "ethicists" salary will get the answer they desire. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 23, 2004 10:37 AM
Whoever is paying the "ethicists" salary will get the answer they desire.
What other reason would there be to pay an "ethicist?" To be told that you are a greedy, screw-up who deserves twelve to eighteen months in prison?
Posted by: Brandon at February 23, 2004 11:05 AM"Whoever is paying the "ethicists" salary will get the answer they desire."
Works the same way when hiring a Minister.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at February 23, 2004 11:12 AMRobert:
Ever seen a congregation that's happy with their minister?
Posted by: oj at February 23, 2004 11:13 AMOJ, you're probably not paying him enough.
Of course, the whole idea behind the ethics "industry" is a sham. Having an ethicist on the payroll will end up being the equivalent of the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval", a marketing ploy.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at February 23, 2004 11:58 AMRobert:
Take it from the son of a preacher man, they don't make much.
Posted by: oj at February 23, 2004 12:07 PMMr. Judd;
Yes, I've seen a congregation that was happy with its minister. It was a fairly conservative congregation, though.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at February 23, 2004 04:34 PMMormon congregations are usually happy enough with their Priests, Bishops and speakers; 'Course, none of the above make a dime from the religion, other than networking.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at February 24, 2004 04:24 AMBy turning ethics, mediation, marriage counselling, etc. into scientific "disciplines", the practitioners neatly distance their own lives from their authority. All these used to be handled by religious leaders, whose lives were under scrutiny and who were subject to charges of the ultimate sin, hypocrisy, and still are from chortling materialists. Such a charge is no longer possible, because we are supposedly dealing with objective science, not experience.
Mr. Marino knows something is badly amiss, but he betrays a lot of modern confuson when he suggests the ethicists' job is to help students be honest with themselves. Just what the world needs more of--sincere fraudsters and adulterers.
Posted by: Peter B at February 24, 2004 06:39 AMThe pastor with the biggest congregation on the island has a million-dollar mansion on the hill and just bought 16 acres (we're talking the most expensive real estate in the country) to build an even bigger one. (He lied to get his building permit; morality, what morality?)
I don't guess he gets the St. Francis Award.
I dunno if there is an ethical overseer for my profession of newspapering. I understand that there are journalism schools at several places of higher education, and if so there must be places for the professors to publish lest they perish. But in nearly 40 years in the biz, I've never seen, or even heard the title, of one of those journals, nor have I ever encountered a working journalist who's ever referred to an academic article on the subject.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at February 25, 2004 12:40 AMHarry:
You lead a sheltered life. Type "journalism ethics" into your search engine and report back in a few months when you have finished browsing.
Posted by: Peter B at February 25, 2004 05:42 AMO, I don't doubt they're there. I just have never met an actual working journalist who pays them any attention.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at February 25, 2004 09:09 PM