What is Ethics for Mary - Case Study Example

Reflective Essay Introduction Values and beliefs are important for individuals as well as society as a whole since they create the idea of an individual. For example, if there is a person called Mary, then the person Mary is not her hand, her face or even the words that Mary speaks. The person Mary is a set of ideas, opinions and beliefs which other people have about Mary and that is how they would relate to her. For the most part, those opinions and ideas would be based on the beliefs and values exhibited by Mary therefore; the importance of beliefs and values in personal coaching becomes very significant (Starr, 2002). The Incident In my personal experience, I was undergoing a lecture on current research in coaching and I saw a slide that said “Men have it right”. This created a sudden shock inside me since the statement hit me really hard. It was a moment in my life that really mattered as per the directions given by Frankl (1984) who says that, “What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general, but rather the specific meaning of a persons life at a given moment (Frankl, 1984, Pg .171)”. At that moment my life’s meaning seem to be under threat as being less than any other man in the world. I looked around the room for support and for others to object to the statement that created such a storm within me. I saw that there were more than a dozen other people in the same room yet I could not find the same reaction on their faces and I would not be lying if I said that this brought upon a feeling of disappointment. I simply could not believe that the other students in the class could agree with the statement and not question it. However, I questioned the statement and got into a long discussion over the meaning and background of the suggestion that men have it right. It seems that the more we consider statements which give power to one sex over the other, the more likely it is that we will believe that one sex is more powerful and important than the other. I discussed this issue with the lecturer and several more comments came into my mind regarding the naivety of the statement to more positive thoughts which got me thinking about my own beliefs and values. Reflections The question of feminism certainly comes into the equation since it is important for me that women should be accepted as equal. As a subject, men have often talked about women and there are quite a few misogynistic statements that can be found throughout history coming from men who we would consider great thinkers. In modern times, they may be considered nothing more than the product of irrational thoughts, misguided ideas and negative conceptual stereotypes about women which only highlight the need for feminist thought. Interestingly, the persons who gave the misogynistic statements are usually male which only serves to clarify their ideas about how women should be treated or how a woman should be valued in social terms. The names of Aristotle, Confucius, Butler, and St. John are very important because these individuals have been responsible for creating and influencing the structure of society. For example, the thoughts of Confucius laid down the principles of how society should be organized and how government should be operated for a significant period in the Far East. The Ideas of Aristotle were distributed, translated and rediscovered by societies in the Middle East, the Latin west and he is still considered to be one of the founders of philosophical thought as he continues to be studied today. At the same time, their misogyny shines through. As the point in the lecture showed me, the problems between the sexes continue to exist and the need for feminism is ever greater. Even though we can plainly understand that the ‘philosophy’ of Andrew Dice Clay will probably never have the influence which Aristotle had, we must also understand that a celebrity will be admired by a lot more of the common people than a philosopher like Aristotle. Misogyny The words used for women throughout history are degrading to say the least. They show us quite clearly that the representation of a woman’s worth, the natural defects and the treatment of women as soulless objects is not something modern or recent. In fact such ideas have been present as a common factor in several societies across the world and across time. While contemporary examiners may look at women’s lives and their position in society with regard to their social, economic, race or marital status, the overall positioning of women in society also deserves betterment since it is clearly in need of help. It is difficult for me to understand the reason why, i.e. why is there a preconceived notion and thought that women are weak, need to be controlled and that they are not worth anything? Second, how can this notion be broken or worked against considering that there is existing baggage in the field which continues from the Greek philosophers to present day celebrities who control the airwaves and dominate the minds of the masses. With the continuation of studies in this field, and by acting as a person coach, I hope to find the answers to my questions much as Frankl (1984) recommends that we can by clarifying on that by saying, “The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected (Frankl, 1984, Pg. 157). For many of us, this detection comes from the ideas given to us by society, the media and when I consider mass media and the nature of treatment given to women with social issues such as pornography and prostitution, it is difficult to understand why such things are still tolerated in the modern world. The relationship between pornography and prostitution is quite strong even though one is taken to be more legalised than the other. Of course I concede that pornography must serve some social or economic need considering the amount of material which is consumed as pornographic material across the world. However, it certainly has an influence on feminist thought because pornography is nothing more than the objectification of women and degrades all that women scientists, sociologists and thinkers have worked towards. Pornography and Prostitution Essentially, pornography and prostitution come across to me as tools to show that women can be dominated, humiliated and coerced into submitting to the will of a man. I feel that these things can reinforce the sexual thoughts of a person who considers cultural attitudes towards women and feminism to be worthless. On reflection, it becomes clear to me that the majority of pornographic films and prostitution itself has only the satisfaction of the male as the primary purpose of its existence therefore the woman is nothing more than a tool to be used just as the man wants her to be used by being engaged in the process of solicitation or viewing the pornographic material. To me, both become the creation of men, for men and only to be used by men. The involvement of a woman is only there for her degradation and the use of her physical attributes as an example of how a specific woman should look like and act like. The representation of prostitutes and nearly all pornography continues the use of stereotypes and culturally biased images which need to be changed if social progress is to be made a reality. At the same time, it does not seem to me that prostitution is a source of freedom for women since it is nothing more than the economic subjugation of women where the only economic value they can provide is through sexual gratification. While I am not alone in these beliefs and values, there are prominent feminist thinkers who consider both pornography and prostitution to be a choice made by an individual and it is the right of women to act as such if they wishe to engage in these activities. For such thinkers, what has traditionally been seen as being bad for women is a perfectly acceptable fact of life since acting in a pornographic film is a choice which women are free to make on their own. The same treatment is given to prostitution since it allows women to come to some form of economic independence and have a source of income when all other realistic measures of making a living have been more or less closed. When I reflect on those ideas, I come closer in my own opinions feminists who consider pornography or prostitution as an individual choice. Just like smoking or any other socially unacceptable habit society dislikes, using pornography and engaging in prostitution are nothing more than individual choices. Just like continued smoking can make a person contract cancer, continued engagement in prostitution or pornography can also have their negative effects. This certainly appeals to my personal value of fairness and equality since it would be wrong for me to say that a man has a right to act in pornographic material or become a prostitute while a woman does not. Philosophy or Emotion? Reading more about feminism and doing some quick research on various websites, the only thing that becomes clear is that feminism and feminist ideas have constantly been in flux for as long as there have been feminist thinkers. It is important to keep an open mind when it comes to understanding what feminist thinkers want and what modern feminism is all about. I found myself taking a very different approach to feminism as compared to the online and offline materials that I had gone over. While a lot of feminist literature is devoted to the search for equality, it seems that equality may not necessarily be available in any given system. Social scientists such as Rawls (1993) and Dworkin (2000) lament the fact that perfect equality between genders, and even individuals within the same gender is not only difficult but also impossible and could even be inefficient in social terms. In fact, Rawls (1993) goes on to suggest that inequality between individuals can actually be a good thing since it would lead to the process of the social order establishing a system of distributive justice. This form of justice concerns itself with the idea of how a limited number of resources within a given social order can be distributed amongst the people in that society in a manner which can be considered just. A society where distributive justice is said to exist would be a society where each member is able to get whatever resources are available to the society without let or hindrance in the sense that no members of the same society would be given preference over them (Carens, 1981). In the case of feminism, such as approach would mean that no man would be able to get the resources which a woman may not be able to have access to. Of course the reality of the situation is quite different and sociologists and thinkers such as Rawls (1993) accept that a little injustice in terms of sharing resources between individuals may actually be a good thing since the more capable individual would be the one to bring the most wealth to the social order. I completely agree with the idea but also strongly believe that the more capable individual does not necessarily have to be the male part of society since it can also be the female member that can be more capable than the male. Rawls suggests that overall social and economic inequalities can be accepted but only if they are connected with positions that can be achieved by anyone in the economic system. This means that it is perfectly alright for a man to have more money and be better off than his neighbor who is a woman but only if the woman also has the same opportunities and chances to be in the same position as the man. The second purpose for accepting some level of inequality in socio-economic terms is that these inequalities should result in the lowest class of the social order to be better off as compared to a case where there had been total equality. This situation what is understood as the Difference Principle in Rawlsian distributive justice (Rawls, 1993). The sharing of resources in such cases would come from the richer segment as they take the responsibility of caring for the weaker or less capable members of society through taxes and a welfare state. This form of distributive justice is perfectly acceptable to writers such as Kymlicka (1993) as long as the least powerful members of society are placed in a position where they would be better off as compared to a position where they would be worse off with perfect equality. I admit that we all have natural abilities and men may have some natural abilities more than women just as women may have some natural abilities or values that they hold dearer than men. As per the natural values and abilities that have been discussed by Starr (2002), I personally take feminism to be a individual natural value which is present in many of us and it does not require a high level of education or studying about feminist theory in a historical context. In a simple social context, I think that the study of feminist theory or the academic side of the debate does not seem to be very important because that is quite archaic since there are laws which now establish the equality of the sexes and protests and marches have become more or less a thing of the past. However, we have also entered a brave new world of social equals but the equality is nowhere near perfect. As a nation, we have yet to establish the general directions towards which society should move in terms of gender equality. We live in a time where ten year old girls can be affected by sexual harassment and influenced by negative thoughts. Interestingly enough, I think that if the majority of feminist thoughts are to be examined by a biased male, he would only be angered and quite possibly be outraged by what women consider the male of the species to be. A Question of Ethics? I also reflected if the situation had resulted due to the event being an attack on my personal ethics. I found out that the word ethics comes from the Greek word ethikos which means ‘based on habit’. However, as it is used today, ethics is a branch of philosophy which discusses individual and collective acts as being right, wrong, good or bad in relative terms. In business and professional fields like finance, construction, public relations, advertising, personal coaching as well as many others, the application of ethical principles is said to be a part of the good practices which create and increase credibility (Fisher, 2003). The world today is very much concerned with ethics since media attention as well as professional organizational focus has come to ethics in a big way. The field of personal coaching is not exempt in any from the practice of ethics and there is code of ethics connected with the actions of coaching professionals who have to follow the given guidelines (Starr, 2002). In fact, even academic researchers have to follow their own set of ethics on how they can perform research and accept the legal guidelines that govern how research can be done on any particular topic (APA, 2002). Despite the strict application of ethics, the field itself is so broad that it often becomes difficult to define it in any particular way (Fisher, 2003). Therefore, it is important to know what ethics is not before we can understand what it is. Velasquez et. al. (1987) have reported that when people on the street were inquired about the meaning of ethics, they said that ethics are internal feelings about what is right and wrong or that ethics are basic religious beliefs or that ethics are strict legal requirements. Some people considered ethics to be acceptable behavior as per the norms of society and some simply did not know what ethics meant. While the responses stated above may come naturally given the way the word is used so often, Fisher (2003) clarified that ethics have nothing to do with the internal feelings of a person. Feelings and emotions about something may lead a person to do what is considered to be wrong rather than what is considered to be right. In fact, even religion has nothing to do with ethics because if ethics were based on religion then every person might be free to follow their own set of ethics (Wikipedia, 2006). Additionally, those who do not believe in any religion whatsoever may consider themselves to be free of ethical rules while clearly everyone has to accept the ethical guidelines for his or her professional practice or business position (Velasquez et. al., 1987). Similarly, laws cannot be understood as ethics because legal clauses may include or be founded on ethical principles but all laws at all times may not be considered ethical. I can reflect on the examples of the discriminatory laws which were in place before the civil rights movement or the slave ownership laws before the civil war. We can even consider the situations described by Frankl (1984) of the ‘legal’ treatment given to concentration camp inmates If we take ethics to mean whatever is acceptable to society then it would be ethically acceptable to be anti-Semitic if a person was living in the Nazi era. As a matter of fact, I feel that it is nearly impossible to accurately judge what is acceptable to society since the acceptance level of certain things changes dynamically with time. When it comes to the definition of ethics that is given by Velasquez et. al. (1987), ethics are the professionally mandated standards of right and wrong supported by reasonable arguments given by experts in the field. Fisher (2003) agrees with this idea and further points out that ethics explain how individuals ought to perform their duties. These mandated standards are the exact ethical values which personal coaches are supposed to follow as they perform their duties and render their services to the public. Reflecting on these definitions and suggestions, I can see clearly that my response was not a response to the breach of ethics but rather a response in terms of emotions. An Emotional Response By taking a clear view of the situation, the values and the philosophy presented by the feminist thinkers concerning their thoughts about men and women, it becomes easy to understand my reason to the presented situation as a personal value given our modern social context. Openness, equality and the empathetic understanding of each other is what the more appealing philosophers seem to recommend and the same qualities should be used to understand personal values and the beliefs held by individuals regardless of their gender. On reflection, I believe that it were my values of fairness and equality which resulted in an outburst of emotion therefore I need to understand emotion as well as values and beliefs. A singular definition of emotion is hard to come by but the general direction given by authors such as Cornelius (1996) calls it a mental state which is affected by changes in the environment or the central nervous system and what creates a psychological response for the person going through that particular emotion. Emotions may have several components such as genetics, physiology, cultural and social background as well as individual thinking about certain events or situations that cause people to react in different to the same event or to the same stimulus. On reflection, this definition certainly agrees with my own reaction and if the response was emotional then indeed it were my values that had been hurt by the statement. Of course values may not have a genetic component while the genetic component of emotion is a rather recent discovery. Genetic links between emotional states or mental conditions which ran in a family had been known for years in anecdotal terms yet recent studies have shown that things such as being emotionally depressed or even having aggressive emotions can be connected with the genes of an individual. The same emotions can be linked to personal motivation since a clinically depressed person would be motivated to do very little in his/her life (Angst and Cassano, 2005). Creating Emotions Similarly, the physiology of a person can be an influence on both the motivation and the emotional state of the person. For instance, a person who has been given an injection of adrenaline to their bloodstream would likely feel more aroused emotionally as a result of being presented a stimulus than a person who has not received the same chemical dosage. Such chemicals can also be created by the body on its own in response to external factors such as the fight or flee response (Cornelius, 1996). When I consider what I went through with the observance of the statement I cannot help but agree that it was certainly an emotional response. Cornelius (1996) also suggests that a person who tends to think aggressively about situations may be more influenced by emotions which lead to conflicts while a person trying to avoid confrontations would focus her emotions on thinking more positively. On reflection, I am quite certain that I might have taken the statement in a negative manner which gives me further evidence towards the notion that my values of fairness and gender equality had been challenged by the given statement. In a similar manner, Cornelius (1996) notes that culture can also influence emotions that a person has particularly when it comes to things which have been made a part of the culture with its traditions and norms. For instance, seeing the national team lose a match or a game may make a person quite sad and even cause them to be depressed for while if the culture is deeply connected with the given sport. In the same manner, seeing women being treated or considered inferior to men may have generated certain emotional responses that have been learned as part of my personal education and training. Of course the idea of emotion is still not fully understood by science and even though a lot of progress has been made in terms of how emotions and emotional states can be controlled we still have a long way to go. To some extent emotional states have been controlled through medical means but even in those areas a lot remains to be done (Angst and Cassano, 2005). I believe that as scientist better understand human emotion and motivation they can create tools which allow people to control their reactions and emotions for the betterment of society. I feel that in and of themselves, emotions are simply reactions which are created within us and they can be neither good nor bad, it is our reaction to these emotions which can have a very negative or very positive effect on us. Conclusions With the reflection I have done over my personal beliefs, values as well as opinions combined with the research that I did over the various subjects that had come up during the reflections, I came to three primary conclusions. The first is that gender equality is an ethical value which has been supported not only by ethical considerations but also by legal authorities. The second conclusion is that opinions against what I believe to be true have to be respected. Finally, and most importantly, I have come to the conclusion that it was my personal value of fairness and equality that had been challenged during the lecture and that was the reason which created an emotional conflict that resulted in a physical reaction and verbal outburst. Overall, I feel that this reflection practice has been useful for me in coming to terms with what I feel and how I understand various situations and individual positions on the same topic. Word Count: 4,176 Works Cited Angst, J. and Cassano, G. (2005). The mood spectrum: improving the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disorders, 4(7), 4-12. APA. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Retrieved August 28, 2006 from APA.org website: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html Carens, J. 1981, Equality, Moral Incentives and the Market, Chicago University Press. Cornelius, R. (1996). The science of emotion. Prentice Hall. Dworkin, R. 2000, Sovereign Virtue, Harvard University Press. Fisher, C. (2003). Decoding the Ethics Code. Sage Publications. Frankl, V. (1984). Mans Search For Meaning, Washington Square Press. Kymlicka, W, 1990, Contemporary Political Philosophy, Clarendon Press. Rawls, J. 1993, Political Liberalism, Columbia University Press. Starr, J. (2002). The Coaching Manual, Prentice Hall. Velasquez, M. et. al. (1987). What is Ethics? Retrieved August 28, 2006 from SCU.edu website: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/whatisethics.html Wikipedia. (2006). Ethics. Retrieved August 26, 2006 from Wikipedia.org website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics Read More