Ethics is often used in our daily conversations, on the job, in our homes, on the streets of the Federation and even in rum shop. For instance, when public officials use their offices for personal profit, or when politicians accept bribes from special interest groups, they are described as unethical.
When a person does a good deed, engages in charitable activities or takes a stand against wrong doing (such as a police officer), we might describe that person as one with high morals or someone of good ethics.
Having completed a class on ethics, which involved detailed explanations and applications of the ethical systems, a friend of mine asked me, “Why be ethical?” I replied, “There is a long and a short answer to that question.”
The long answer is that philosophers through the ages have examined, debated and analysed the same question. Ethical systems can be seen as not only answering the question “What is good?” but also the question “Why be good?” Under Ethical Formalism, the answer is that the world works better, and it is rational to do one’s duty and live up to the categorical imperative.
Under Utilitarianism, the answer is that it is better for everyone, including the individual, to do what benefits the majority especially in a small country like St. Kitts and Nevis. Under the Ethics of Care, the answer is that we naturally and instinctively have the capacity to care and be concerned about others.
Each of these frameworks provides answers as it relates to ethics. One dominant theme that emerges from all the ethical systems are that we are connected to each other in ways fundamentally and emotionally. The golden rule, the universalism principle under the categorical imperative, rule utilitarianism, even enlightened egoism recognises this connection.
One senses the interconnectedness intuitively or can explain it rationally. The reason we should act ethically can be explained rationally. For example, why it is important to have integrity in the public services and laws to regulate our behaviour, or intuitively, for example, to love one another, care for each other and so on.
Professional ethics is merely an application of moral systems to a particular set of questions or a specific environment. The basis of all professional ethical codes is the same. To be a good professional one must be a good person. My opinion here may be criticised as too short, too superficial, or too uninformative. But my response is that for everyone, other than philosophers, most of these issues are simple. How does one act ethically or make ethical choices? How does one know what they are?
Most of the time the answer is easy…no one needs to tell a police officer or a bank clerk that stealing is wrong; no one needs to tell a politician taking a bribe, obstruction of justice or official abuse of power is wrong; no one needs to tell a prison officer that beating up a helpless inmate is wrong; no one needs to tell a business person that avoidance or evasion of taxes, embezzlement, bribery and extortion, antitrust violation, or financial fraud is wrong.
So, then rationalisations are developed because we know these actions are wrong. For those choices that are truly difficult, people of goodwill, using rationality and sensitivity, can apply to any ethical system and come up with an ethical solution. It may not be the best, not everyone may agree, but it will allow the individual to be satisfied that he or she made a choice based on ethics rather than egoism.
Finally, why be ethical?
The short answer is “So you can sleep at night peacefully.”
Simplistic, perhaps, but no less accurate!
Conclusively, I believe that, in our country, it is all too easy to be become cynical and pessimistic. Organisational (political or otherwise), peer, and societal pressures seem to conspire against ethical decision-making in St. Kitts and Nevis.
I believe that it takes each individual person to say, “I am responsible for my actions and I will try to make the right choice.” If there are enough of these people, then St. Kitts and Nevis can represent the best of democratic ideals and we can be proud Kittitians and Nevisians in a country that has the goal as well the reality of a good and just nation.
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