3. mrunal ethics (e1:p3) human values, family,society,public vs.private

09/10/15 12:25 pmMrunal Ethics (E1/P3) Human Values, Family,Society,Public vs.Private

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[Ethics] E1/P3: Human Values-Role of Family, Society, EducationalInstitutes; Ethics in Public & Private relations

Posted ByMrunalOn 20/09/2015 @ 7:00 pm In Ethics | 60 Comments

1. Values2. Value vs. Belief3. Classification of Values4. Human Values

1. Role of Family2. Role of Society3. Role of Educational institutes4. Role of Teachers5. Role of education6. Value education: desirable?

5. Private relations vs. Public Relations?1. Separation of Public & Private life?2. Family man = Responsible man?3. Inconsistencies in Public and Private life?4. State encroachment in Personal sphere?5. Personal Religion vs public duty?

6. Case study: role of Cinema7. Case Study: Homosexual Opposition leader8. Descriptive Questions (200 words)

In the previous part (E1/P2), we looked at various theories of ethics. In this part, we look at the lastportion of syllabus topic#1 viz. Human values, role of family-society-edu.insti. and ethics in public andprivate relations.

Values

Values help as “Short hand” or “tools” of the theory. E.g. in a case study, every time you need notgo back to xyz theory, IF you’re able to justify it on the grounds of non-violence, truth, compassion.So, theory => Values => Daily life we follow the “Value” and not “theory”.Deontological Ethics=> Karma Theory=> Value of “duty”.Deontological Ethics=> Gandhism => Value of “Compassion for the Poor”.Thus, Values make life meaningful, help in self-realization, underline our attitude-behavior-judgment.

Value vs. Belief: What’s the difference?Belief If you believe in something, then you’ve that ‘value’. e.g. Democracy, tolerance

Attitude

You believe in democracy => you vote, you goto mygov.in and give your suggestion tothe government. All this shows your attitude. So values are ‘beneath’ the attitudeground.Western societies are becoming less tolerant.

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Recently a Muslim kid was arrested in USA because teacher mistook his clock as abomb. Such things less likely in India, for we are more tolerant. So, “not doing” suchmess, is reflection of our “tolerance” belief in our attitude.

Classification of ValuesIndividualvalues Self-Development, creativity, liberty, survival

Social values Cooperation, Tolerance, Compassion, Empathy. These help you as a ‘social being’.

EnvironmentValues

Non-vegetarianism, compassion towards animalHarmonies living with your surroundings, “Chipko-movement” is example ofSocial+Environment values..

OrganizationalValues

Public service (in Government and NGO), profit (in private company), Truth(Journalism)

ConstitutionalValues

Fundamental rights, duties and DPSP. Creating scientific temperament, holding thehonor of women and so on.

Human Values

Common to All humans. Love, truth, Compassion. Even Osama Bin Laden would love his children.So, merely by being a human being, at minimum you’ll have these values.Examples: Universal human values, fundamental rightsThey remain static. Never change with time or region (unlike environmental values or privacy-western world person would be more focused on them).We gain human values through two ways

Socialization

e.g. parents and teachers tell children not to lie or steal.For this reason, Juveniles are given lesser punishment for their crime, because theirsocialization process is still incomplete, he doesn’t know what is right and what iswrong.In this “socialization” process, different agents have different role to play- family,educational institute, society – that we’ll see in next part of the lecture.

Socialcontrol

Even after inculcating values through “socialization”, there will be some deviants,who’ll lie or steal.So, social control through reward and punishment mechanism, will inculcate thevalues. e.g.social osctricization: of person who is habitual liar or thief andsocial appreciation / acknowledgement: of person doing charitable things.



Role of Family

If parents informally talk bad things about a particular caste or religion, if they knowingly violatetraffic rules, child will imbibe the same.If child raised in an authoritarian manner, he’ll show less concern for democratic values.If a boy raised in an environment where girl child is treated as a second citizen, he’ll treat his wifein similar fashion and find nothing wrong in it.If parents are meticulous about cleanliness in both private and public property, child will follow thesame.

Type offamily Value system acquired

Nuclearfamily

Individualism, responsibility, introvert.Modernism: More amenable to inculcating new values / changes because youngparents.

Jointfamily

patriarchal values, respect for the ‘authority’ but at the same time less respect forwomen or that women should not wear jeans/t-shirt and so onAttitude of sharing- among siblings, cousins.Conservatism: old people in the joint families would oppose.



Role of Society

Within society- neighbors, classmates peers, colleagues, media, movies, televisionConformity: What peers/colleagues are doing, person is forced to mimick the same.If they’re smoking, he’ll smoke; if they’re living in nuclear families, he too will feel to separatefrom his joint family and so on.If they’re participating in decoration of residential complex for Ganesh-festival or Navratri, he toowill feel the moral obligation. Recall how Lokmanya Tilak used the Ganesh Utsav, to collect peopleand inculcate spirit of nationalism and pride among them.Social control: reward and punishment, we already learned.Tolerance: if you’re living in a building with people from variety of caste, religion and regionalbackground, you develop tolerance.

Role of Educational institutes

Teachers and curriculum have profound impact on a person’s value system.If child participates in sports: values of sportsmanship, team-spirit.If college kid participate in college-festival to get stupid extra-curricular certificate for UPSC/CAT-he is learning leadership, cooperation, event management.

Role of Teachers

AristotleHe was the private tutor of Alexander the Great. He gave the doctrines of Moral and politics.When Alexander concurred empires, he never forced his culture/religion upon people infervent /fanatical manner unlike the other kings.

GopalKrishnaGokhle

He was the political guru of Gandhi and in many ways he shaped the ideology and outlook ofGandhi towards India and life.

Modernday

If teacher is promoting his private coaching class during official class in the school, heis indirectly imparting materialistic values in students that education is a commoditythat can be sold.Corporal punishment: When same child goes to college, he’d think it is right to doragging of juniors, when he becomes father, he’d think physical punishment is rightway to discipline children; if he becomes a cop, he’d think custodial torture isjustifiable to extract confession from criminal and so on.

Similarly, School environment also plays a role in the value system of a child e.g. child from Governmentschool, vs. that from a boarding/convent school.

Role of educationSyllabus / Textbook Values TaughtWorld History:French revolution Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity)

World History:Gandhi’s train toPretoria

Standing against injustice.



New NCERT Secularism and non-violence. Because according to its chapters no king everinvaded / killed / plundered India and every king patronized all types of religions.

Literature It helps us understand human nature and prevalent social values of a given era.

Science Curiosity: that in turn makes a person ask questions against orthodoxy and badpractices in religion.

Content of the textbook plays important role in imparting value system

If a textbook has passage “papa is coming from office while mummy is cooking food and munni ishelping mummy.”While it sounds innocent, but its putting ‘gender-roles’ in the minds of children that men goto officeand women are supposed to stay at home and cook food only.

Value education: desirable?

Should Government impart values to children through school education?North Korean Government uses textbooks to poison the brains of children against South Korea andWestern World.Same way Pakistani textbooks pouring Anti-India venom.Even within India, ruling party regime’s ideology would be poured in the textbook. For example,2008: In Kerala class 7 social science textbook contained a chapter with an imaginative interviewbetween a headmaster and parents seeking admission. The boy carries a Christian name; the fatheris named Anwar Rashid and the mother Lakshmi Devi. The headmaster asks the father whatreligion should he fill in for the child in the required column to which the reply is: “Let him choosehis religion when he grows up.”Protests irrupted in Kerala, because people saw that chapter as a move by the Communist StateGovernment to promote “atheism” among children.So, IF Governments are misusing textbooks to impart their ideologies, should we ban valueeducation in school textbooks? Ans. Nope, because then child will only learn facts but his holisticeducation will remain unfinished.Solution: “Middle way” i.e. Textbooks should only impart Constitutional values -democracy,secularism and human values (truth, love, compassion). Other values should be avoided.

Other ways to impart social values among children-Event Values imparted

Take them to old agehomes Compassion, altruism

museums, culturalcentres Tolerance, secularism

tree plantation, streetcleaning Environmental protection

Yoga It internalizes your mind. Once your mind is focusing inward, you’ll havemore clarity of thought.

Private relations vs. Public Relations?What’s the difference?

Private relations Public relations



They’re Inherited with or without choice- example yourparents, cousins, relatives; love marriage vs. arrangedmarriage.

They too are inherited with or withoutchoice.

Your private relations are confined to small number ofpeople. Large number of people.

Even with imperfections and problems they’re relativelypermanent.

Not the case. e.g. disgruntled employeeor customer may leave, without givingexplanation or giving you chance tocorrect mistakes.

You begin private relations to get intimacy, loyalty, love,affection.

You begin public relations to get respect,attention, power, authority andmaterialistic benefits.

In private relations, you usually involve with people sharing‘similarity’ with you in value system.

You will have to deal with people havingcompletely different temperament fromyou.

Your duties are voluntary, self-imposed and informal.E.g. standing by your friends/loved ones in the goodand bad times; providing good facilities to yourchildren, raising them in responsible manner etc.If you fail, still relationship may remain intact.At the same time, they’re also defined by personnellaws / religious laws e.g. bigamy, property rights,maintenance of parents/wife/children.

Your duties externally imposed andformally mentioned in code/laws.E.g. All India civil service conductrules, prevention of corruptionFailure to oblige usually ends therelationship/job/client.

Your actions are guided by internal controlExternal control e.g. must behave inrespectful manner in front of the boss /client.

Separation of Public & Private life?

If a person becomes bankrupt because of his lavish “private” lifestyle (Hedonism), then he isautomatically ineligible from various constitutional / statutory “public” posts in India. Because ifsuch financially distressed person is holding a public office, he is more likely to accept bribes andtake decisions that will not lead to maximum benefit to maximum people. (Utilitarianism)Thus, private life does have bearing on the public life of a person. We can’t look at them two asisolated compartments.For the same reason, Judges have to ‘rescue’ themselves from the cases involving their relatives orfriends.President Clinton’s impeachment process was initiated because of his scandalous affair withMonica Lewinsky.

Family man = Responsible man?



American/Christian society considers happy married family life auspicious. Therefore, you’ll findUS Presidential candidates or State Governor candidates- always appearing in media with theirwives and daughters, holding hands, sharing hugs and kisses, running parallel social mediaaccounts. They do it to portray that “I’m a happy family man- I’m a good husband and a goodfather so, I can run the public office in a responsible manner, you should vote for me.”In India, scenario is different- tell me the name of Manmohan Singh’s wife or Anandiben Patel’shusband!? We are not concerned much with private life of a public leader.Bad private life doesn’t mean bad public life. There have been Kings, Prime Ministers andPresidents with ‘not good’ private life in their role as father, husbands, lovers and yet historiansterm them to be ‘good’ leaders in public life.E.g. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India vs. M.K.Gandhi, the father of Harilal.

Inconsistencies in Public and Private life?

Kesab Chandra Sen opposed child marriage but married his own underage daughter to Maharaja ofCooch Bihar. Consequently his followers abandoned him and founded Sadharan Brahmo Samaj(1878)Thus, If there is inconsistency in the public life and private life of a person, it leads to disastrousoutcomes.

State encroachment in Personal sphere?

It is held that the State should stay away from private life of an individual.But it is the private life, from where most injustices begin such as domestic violence andmalnutrition of girls in a family.An officer starts drinking in his home to cope up with stress. Although he doesn’t come drunk in theoffice, still in long term alcoholism would hurt his work-efficiency.Field officers in revenue, police and forest department, are on duty for 24/7 basis. They can’t givesufficient time to wives and children, often leading to marital discord. The same stress from‘personal life’ may reflect passively in their dealing with general public.So, should the state begin monitoring the private life of its officers and ministers? Won’t it violatetheir “right to privacy”?

Personal Religion vs public duty?

Orthodox Christians consider contraceptive (birth control) drugs and abortion as sinful. So, what ifhe becomes a chemist or doctor? Should he run away from his duties?Muslims consider Alcohol as sinful. What if a Muslim IAS officer is transferred to liquor-excise



department of the state government? Should he refuse to take charge in the new department?Similar case for a devout Hindu IAS officer transferred to fisheries department?These questions lead to UPSC syllabus topic #3: aptitude and foundation values of civil services-that we’ll learn in subsequent lectures.

Case study: role of Cinema

In 1950s , following criticism was made against movies:

poor wage earners can find better use of the money. (CM of Madras)Sex and murder depicted in movies, is corrupting India’s youth and encouraging to repeat the sameacts in real life. (Petition signed by 13,000 housewives).Cinema responsible for high rate of failure among students. (Study by Calcutta University)

In this context, discuss your views about role of cinema as a social agent for value inculcation among thechildren and the youth. Do you think, above views justify stricter control by Censor board over thecinema?

Case Study: Homosexual Opposition leader

In 2008, the Malaysian authorities accused Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomizing an aide whoworked for his opposition party. In 2012, Malaysian High court acquitted him, although media andcritiques continued to cite some procedural lapses. Parallel to this, the Members of Malaysian parliamenthave come up with a demand for his removal/impeachment. Whether to accept such motion or not, isunder the discretionary powers of Speaker. If you’re the Speaker of Malaysian “Lok Sabha” (DewanRakyat), would you accept such motion or not? Discuss the legal and ethical rationales behind yourdecision.

Descriptive Questions (200 words)

According to Confucius, “all human beings are fundamentally good in their nature, and ifuncorrupted by external circumstances, their actions will be morally correct.” Discuss the role offamily, society and educational institutes in this context.According to Dostoevsky, “If God doesn’t exist, everything is permissible.” In this context, discussthe role of religion in ensuring moral behavior in the society.Discuss the merits and demerits of using “Social osctricization” as a tool for ensuring moralbehavior among people.The way a person conducts their private life is an indication of how trustworthy they are in publiclife. Do you agree? Justify your stand.



First Pillar is Over.

This concludes Syllabus topic#1 Ethics and Human interface. Next time we’ll see “Attitude”. VisitMrunal.org/Ethics for more study material on Ethics.

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