Major Issues in Ethical Decisions - Essay Example

Ethical Decisions A mankind owes duties to both the past and future generations being a link between the past and the future. On the one hand, wehave duties to our children concerning environment, technology and scientific developments. The main duty of our generation is to reduce global warming and environmental pollution. While the current generation enjoys a rather high living standard from the combustion of fossil fuels, future generations will have to suffer from global warming, diseases caused by environmental pollution and other problems related to the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The economic and social conditions surrounding us continuously evolve, new technologies are developed, and new products are introduced; above all, the social infrastructure is continuously being built and renovated, and the institutional arrangements concerning education, medicine, culture, and other fields are constantly changing. In the face of these complications, it seems almost impossible to reach a consensus about the intrinsic meaning of sustainabiliy with respect to the natural environment. Nuclear power, atomic weapons, gene engineering, genetically modified food and water pollution will cause great problems for future generations "unable to cope with these threats" (Lomborg 2001, 87). Out duty is to minimize harmful effect of modern technology and progress on our children and save out planet from dying. Our duty to people in the past is to remember their achievements and contribution to science, culture and economy which had a great impact on historical development and current progress. Our duty is to value and keep their information and major achievements. Cultural and scientific heritage of the past should be kept because it impossible to render and reconstruct masterpieces and scientific knowledge. Children remain the prime source of old-age security, allowing many elders who can no longer work to achieve the cultural ideal of sitting by the fire and having food brought to them. 2. There should be a general statement of 'human rights' because all people are equal and should be equally treated in all countries across the world. The place of the individual is important as there is recognition of the normative and legal importance of protecting human rights over states' rights. All people around the world should be fairly treated according to the essential rights of man. The 'global human rights' should include such concepts as freedom, liberty and universal justice. Justice must be approached in practical terms that address the contradictions and complexities of the present-day world. These inquiries find relevance in contexts in which the pursuit of justice is a matter not of an imagined or desired future, but of an all-too-real present replete with dilemmas and risks. The main feature of justice is the pervasive need to find a balance between contradictory pressures. "Each individual aspect needs to be interpreted from the perspective of justice to assess whether its promise and performance is to be viewed positively" (Chandler Herman 2002, 51). Liberty and freedom is important because rights entitle people from one countries or social groups to equality with other social group or nationality. People should have universal rights such as freedom of movement, the right to take part in public affairs, directly or through elected representatives; and the right to free choice and practice of religion. Freedom means absence of restrictions and compulsion imposed on a person. The concept of freedom coexisted with the idea of liberty, which in effect relegated most dimensions of justice to the internal relations between state and society. With the separation of church and state that accompanied the rise of the modern state, the notion of freedom assumed a specifically and predominantly secular character that could no longer be interpreted merely as an extension of religious thought. These universal human rights should be introduced on the global scale because all "men are created equal" (Martin Luther King cited Chandler, Herman 2002, 34) and have equal rights in spite of the regime or economic development of their country. 3. Truth is one of the most complicated philosophical concepts dealing with beliefs and values regarded as undeniable facts. I suppose that truth is more important than personal beliefs because our beliefs and value are formed by different cultural and social environments created by people and life circumstances. Following Singer (1999) I suggest 'reality' and 'essential principles' are the subjects of metaphysical inquiries which go beyond our experience and personal beliefs. In many cases, it is impossible to test truth by personal experience and inquiry. In contrast to personal beliefs, truth is an unknowable thing which has no consequences for ordinary experience. Since an account of truth purports to be about the world, it must have consequences for experience, not experiences in special experimental setups, but experiences which we can all have. Rapid social changes and ideology can create new beliefs and values conflicting with previous beliefs. In contrast, new economic and social conditions cannot create 'new' truth. People need beliefs to be items that are not fully expressible so that they share some of the features of practical knowledge, a dependency on the availability of contingent conditions. Everyday life normally requires that beliefs be modeled as arrangements of repeatable symbolic components (Singer 1999, 267). For instance, religious beliefs are maintained to the extent that believers are shielded from awareness of potentially disconfirming alternatives, especially competing religions and modern science. A person can change beliefs if they conflict with truth (Singer 1999, 361). Beliefs can be subjective and biased. In many cases, beliefs are made because they are of the nature of a judgment suited for aiming at truth that it exhibits. Our beliefs can be interpreted as items that are systematically related to one another in terms of a common component structure. Thus they can be changed if they reject or oppose the truth, and do not reflect needs of a person. 4. Relating his or her behavior to fundamental principles of life lets the leader survive even as details of the situation change. Leadership based on these principles allows the leader to lead group members over time. The leader's role becomes one of internalizing these value principles and teaching them to followers, who in turn, can internalize them in their independent actions. The main traits of a good leader are professional expertise and personal charisma, good communication skills and honesty, openness and high moral standards. Moral values, honesty and integrity are based on ethical principles which help a good leader to guide and direct subordinates. "Leading by example" is based by strong personal qualities of a person and his culture, experiences and trust which attract his subordinates and persuade them to follow high standards of behavior and communication. The result is to have independent followers capable of and desiring to, apply commonly held principles in their work (Guiliani 2002, 56). The leader's role is one of learning and then teaching principles and values (such as courage and honesty) so followers can lead themselves. As followers internalize principles of leadership, they develop a loyalty toward the corporation that cannot come in any other way. Every leader should have a good control over his emotions and feelings, anger and irritation as a part of work environment. In all their behavior toward others, leaders teach the core-vision values they have set. Leader actions in goal setting, prioritizing work activity, selecting and promoting staff and all other decisions and actions should reflect and interpret the vision. Moral standards and fair treatment of employees by leaders can motivate and inspire them. Leadership role is to show employees areas of improvement and help them to reduce skills shortage in order to meet requirement of rapidly changing environment. Leadership policies are expressions of an official attitude towards types of behavior within which it will permit, or desire, subordinates to behavior. Works Cited 1. Chandler, D., Herman, E.S. From Kosovo to Kabul: Human Rights and International Intervention. Pluto Press, 2002. 2. Guiliani, R.W. Leadership. Miramax Books, 2002. 3. Lomborg, B. The Sceptical Environmentalist, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 4. Singer, P. Practical ethics. Practical Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 1999. Read More