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| Ethics are integral to science – and everyone’s life Ethics are integral to science – and everyone’s life | |
| (4 months later) | |
| Something extraordinary has happened to the way we think about morality: it has become a subject for experts. “Ethics” has been almost completely divorced from the things that people actually do. | Something extraordinary has happened to the way we think about morality: it has become a subject for experts. “Ethics” has been almost completely divorced from the things that people actually do. |
| I was at a conference last week where both forms of this disconnection were very clearly displayed. We were discussing the effects of the newest technology on various security questions: not just the obvious aspects like the use of drones, but also the role of social media, and the ways in which information can now be gathered in war zones. These are all subjects that ought to interest moral philosophers, but it is much more important that they all raise direct and immediate moral questions of anyone who takes part in them. | I was at a conference last week where both forms of this disconnection were very clearly displayed. We were discussing the effects of the newest technology on various security questions: not just the obvious aspects like the use of drones, but also the role of social media, and the ways in which information can now be gathered in war zones. These are all subjects that ought to interest moral philosophers, but it is much more important that they all raise direct and immediate moral questions of anyone who takes part in them. |
| The drone pilot and the officer who gives them orders are both being ethical (or not). The philosopher or newspaper writer who observes them is merely supplying a commentary. It is of course important to reflect on our actions, but to do this we must first act; reflecting on other people’s choices is more enjoyable but one is less likely to learn anything from it. | The drone pilot and the officer who gives them orders are both being ethical (or not). The philosopher or newspaper writer who observes them is merely supplying a commentary. It is of course important to reflect on our actions, but to do this we must first act; reflecting on other people’s choices is more enjoyable but one is less likely to learn anything from it. |
| What really startled me was a highly intelligent man prefacing one of his suggestions with the remark that he was only a computer scientist, and knew nothing at all about ethics. Of course he knows about ethics. He practises them every day at work and at home. The suggestion that he made was itself motivated by ethical concerns – by the belief that trolling and persecution are bad things – and would have the effect of making immoral behaviour harder and moral behaviour easier. What could possibly be more ethical? Yet he appeared entirely sincere in his belief that he was just applying technology in a commonsense way; that “ethics” was a separate specialism, perhaps housed in another department of the university, about which he could know as little as the philosophers know of computer science. | What really startled me was a highly intelligent man prefacing one of his suggestions with the remark that he was only a computer scientist, and knew nothing at all about ethics. Of course he knows about ethics. He practises them every day at work and at home. The suggestion that he made was itself motivated by ethical concerns – by the belief that trolling and persecution are bad things – and would have the effect of making immoral behaviour harder and moral behaviour easier. What could possibly be more ethical? Yet he appeared entirely sincere in his belief that he was just applying technology in a commonsense way; that “ethics” was a separate specialism, perhaps housed in another department of the university, about which he could know as little as the philosophers know of computer science. |
| The contemporary professionalisation of ethics seems to arise from normative liberalism and the rise of pluralistic societies. Its roots go back a very long way. You might say that any system of justice professionalises ethics, in that until quite recently the legal and the ethical were inextricably entwined, and some professional magistrate had to decide in a binding way which rules applied in which cases. | The contemporary professionalisation of ethics seems to arise from normative liberalism and the rise of pluralistic societies. Its roots go back a very long way. You might say that any system of justice professionalises ethics, in that until quite recently the legal and the ethical were inextricably entwined, and some professional magistrate had to decide in a binding way which rules applied in which cases. |
| The rise of organised, bureaucratic religions increased this tendency. It might seem that a theocracy is the ultimate expression of professionalised ethics, since all the big choices are reserved to a priestly caste. But this is not actually quite true. In a theocracy, or even a traditional society, everyone is expected to internalise the ethics or values of society and to play their part in building them up. The professionals are there only for edge cases. Of course there will be a divergence between the perfect, theoretical ethics and their practical application. There will be tragic cases where two ethical demands clash with one another. But all of these are situations that concern the whole of society. | The rise of organised, bureaucratic religions increased this tendency. It might seem that a theocracy is the ultimate expression of professionalised ethics, since all the big choices are reserved to a priestly caste. But this is not actually quite true. In a theocracy, or even a traditional society, everyone is expected to internalise the ethics or values of society and to play their part in building them up. The professionals are there only for edge cases. Of course there will be a divergence between the perfect, theoretical ethics and their practical application. There will be tragic cases where two ethical demands clash with one another. But all of these are situations that concern the whole of society. |
| The sexual revolution and the pressures of mass migration tend to make it seem ethically wrong to judge other people | The sexual revolution and the pressures of mass migration tend to make it seem ethically wrong to judge other people |
| Liberal market societies bring about a further professionalisation and a further detachment. It is taken for granted that there will be varying ethical codes within society that are bound in a more ethically neutral code of laws. In our own time both the sexual revolution and the pressures of mass migration tend to make it seem ethically wrong to judge other people. “Judgmental” itself become a bad word. Ethical consideration demands that we refrain from some of the traditional practices of ethics. | Liberal market societies bring about a further professionalisation and a further detachment. It is taken for granted that there will be varying ethical codes within society that are bound in a more ethically neutral code of laws. In our own time both the sexual revolution and the pressures of mass migration tend to make it seem ethically wrong to judge other people. “Judgmental” itself become a bad word. Ethical consideration demands that we refrain from some of the traditional practices of ethics. |
| This leads to such absurdities as the quest for “British values” when no one would talk about “British ethics” – yet separating values from ethics makes as much sense as separating flesh from blood. In both cases you kill the thing you’re studying. It won’t do, and it can’t last. But in the meantime we should remember that ethics, like prose, is something we practise all the time, even – and perhaps especially – without knowing it. The true ethical specialists in newspapers are not the columnists but the agony aunts. | This leads to such absurdities as the quest for “British values” when no one would talk about “British ethics” – yet separating values from ethics makes as much sense as separating flesh from blood. In both cases you kill the thing you’re studying. It won’t do, and it can’t last. But in the meantime we should remember that ethics, like prose, is something we practise all the time, even – and perhaps especially – without knowing it. The true ethical specialists in newspapers are not the columnists but the agony aunts. |