Stealing: Morality and Modern Moral Philosophy
When Is Stealing Ethical? |
By: David Gebler |
Sept/Oct 2007 -- The week of Sept. 10 brought shocking news to sport-crazed New England. The assistant of Bill Belichick, the super-star head coach of the New England Patriots, was caught videotaping defensive signals of the opposing team, against the rules of the National Football League. In a quick resolution, Belichick and the team were heavily fined and penalized with a loss of draft choices.
Have the "selfless" team-spirited Patriots taken an ethical hit? Should fans no longer look up to Belichick and owner Bob Kraft as role models of the right way to build a sports dynasty? Or is this the moral equivalent of a parking ticket in a sport where competitive intelligence is as vital as a healthy quarterback?
Getting an edge over the competition is inherent in sports. Are there instances when stealing signs is OK? Does that apply to other types of unethical conduct?
In order to make heads or tails of this issue, let’s explore both the legal and ethical parameters of when it is acceptable to get information about another team and its players. Let 's be clear on our terms. Most people, fans as well as players, accept the need for rules. Even if we like to bend the rules, we want the referees to be fair, if for no other reason than we want the other side to follow the rules as well. So being "legal" in sports means following the rules of the sport.
What about "ethics?" In sports, as well as in business, what is ethical is not often so clear. We believe in fairness and that one side should not have an unfair advantage over the other. But we also believe in winning, and being aggressive sometimes means pushing the rules to the limit, even if that means sometimes going too far. Balancing fairness and success is hard, but our heroes are those who manage to do both.
Part of winning is gathering competitive intelligence by getting clues as to what the other side is about to do. In sports what’s legal and what’s
By: David Gebler |
Sept/Oct 2007 -- The week of Sept. 10 brought shocking news to sport-crazed New England. The assistant of Bill Belichick, the super-star head coach of the New England Patriots, was caught videotaping defensive signals of the opposing team, against the rules of the National Football League. In a quick resolution, Belichick and the team were heavily fined and penalized with a loss of draft choices.
Have the "selfless" team-spirited Patriots taken an ethical hit? Should fans no longer look up to Belichick and owner Bob Kraft as role models of the right way to build a sports dynasty? Or is this the moral equivalent of a parking ticket in a sport where competitive intelligence is as vital as a healthy quarterback?
Getting an edge over the competition is inherent in sports. Are there instances when stealing signs is OK? Does that apply to other types of unethical conduct?
In order to make heads or tails of this issue, let’s explore both the legal and ethical parameters of when it is acceptable to get information about another team and its players. Let 's be clear on our terms. Most people, fans as well as players, accept the need for rules. Even if we like to bend the rules, we want the referees to be fair, if for no other reason than we want the other side to follow the rules as well. So being "legal" in sports means following the rules of the sport.
What about "ethics?" In sports, as well as in business, what is ethical is not often so clear. We believe in fairness and that one side should not have an unfair advantage over the other. But we also believe in winning, and being aggressive sometimes means pushing the rules to the limit, even if that means sometimes going too far. Balancing fairness and success is hard, but our heroes are those who manage to do both.
Part of winning is gathering competitive intelligence by getting clues as to what the other side is about to do. In sports what’s legal and what’s
Links: Montaigne 's Challenge Modern moral philosophy began as the effort to answer questions like those raised most effectively by Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) Natural Law and Intuitionism The two earliest lines of thought were started simultaneously. Hugo Grotius (1583–1645), a Dutch Calvinist lawyer, initiated a new understanding of natural law theory with his Law of War and Peace in 1625