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Ethics Across the Curriculum

Ethical Reasoning In Action

Think OCEANIC | Guiding Questions: Concepts, Potential Pitfalls, and Strategies

These aspects of ethical reasoning form the acronym 

OCEANIC

The questions raised by ethics, like the ocean, are indeed profound, meaning deep and vast, and yet with the right tools remain navigable.

Like the ocean, ethical issues range far and wide, connecting to and affecting realities far distant from initial appearances.

What would it mean for ethical reasoning to be oceanic?

To think deeply and broadly, across time, to leave no border unexamined, to note the interconnectedness of life and resources across the globe.

OBLIGATIONS – What duties & obligations apply? (moral, personal)

Synonyms

Duties (what is morally “due” others) and obligations (what have you “obliged” yourself to do); what is owed to others; accountability

Potential Pitfalls

Avoidance; bystander effects; fear of getting involved; cowardice; confusion of rights and interests (rights inflation)

Strategies

  • Identify basic duties to aid and assist others
  • Consider voluntary promises and roles you have taken and the moral requirements that come from them
  • Consider all the rights (natural, legal, moral) that others may have and what may be owed to them because of those rights
  • Examine the intent behind actions
CONSEQUENCES – What would produce the best short- and long-term outcomes?

Synonyms

Outcomes; results; future utility; ends

Potential Pitfalls

Difficulties predicting the future; unforeseen or unintended consequences

Strategies

  • Consult those with more, richer experience, i.e. “competent judges” (JS Mill)
  • 10-10-10 Strategy (Sue Welch) – what could happen in 10 days, 10 months, and 10 years
  • Ask: Best for whom? For what?
EQUITY – How can I (we) act fairly and justly, balancing interests?

Synonyms

Justice; fairness; equality; considering and balancing all interests; impartiality; equal opportunity; objectivity

Potential Pitfalls

Biases such as:
self-serving and my-side/confirmation

Strategies

  • Seek impartiality, objectivity
  • Veil of Ignorance (John Rawls) – assume no knowledge about yourself, such as abilities, interests, gender, race, socio-economic standing, don’t privilege self-interest
  • Ideal Observer – try to see things “as if“ you knew everything, were omniscient
AUTHORITY – What do legitimate authorities expect? (professional, legal)

Synonyms

Rightful command; control or influence on moral decisions from law, experts, & religious sources

Potential Pitfalls

Legal and professional expectations may conflict with moral requirements; what is “legal” is not necessarily “right”

Strategies

  • Identify and evaluate differential claims to authority, and different authoritative expectations
  • What do professional or legal authorities expect?
  • What professional ethical codes may apply?
  • Note how power functions in the scenario
NEEDS – What needs exist? Are all voices being heard?

Synonyms

Essentials; must-haves; requirements;  “life and death” material necessities

Potential Pitfalls

Effort to direct and command the lives of others without moral sanction (Paternalism); disrespect; self-interest; short vs long term issues

Strategies

  • Ask for, listen to, value, and respect the needs others express themselves
  • Note which voices are not present
  • Pause discussions periodically to “check-in” and make sure all voices are being heard (“thumbs tool”)
  • Ask for and gain informed consent before doing something to anyone
INTEGRITY – Is this potential decision honorable and virtuous?

Synonyms

Character; honor; identity; ideal self; actualized self; virtues; habits

Potential Pitfalls

Self-deception; self-destruction; vices such as laziness and arrogance; ethical and epistemic fallibility

Strategies

  • Focus on the kind of person you want to become
  • Consider classical virtues such as, but not limited to honor, wisdom, courage, honesty, generosity, humility, compassion, respect
  • Ask: Would I be proud of the person I become as a result of this action/decision?
CARE – Who is vulnerable or in need of care?

Synonyms

Empathy; love; compassion; concern; sympathy

Potential Pitfalls

Too centered on the immediate, close, and personal; in-group and my-side biases

Strategies

  • Identify vulnerable persons
  • Attempt to take the perspective of others
  • Try to “walk in the other’s shoes”
  • Share personal stories; work with different people; travel; expand your concern to at least “humanity” if not further, i.e. beyond your circle of care

EAC Guide Download (PDF)

For more information contact Professor Joseph Moser at eac@mma.edu.

Brought to you by MMA’s Ethics Across the Curriculum Program with special thanks to the Ethical Reasoning in Action Program at James Madison University.