Ethical Reasoning Essay Example
WEEK THREE READINGS REVIEW:
TOOLS OF TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR LEARNING CRITICAL THINKER
Fair-mindedness is the human tendency to reason in a self-serving or self-deluded manner.
UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL REASONING:
Ethical principles are not a matter of subjective preference. All reasonable people are obligated to respect clear-cut ethical concepts and principles. To reason well through ethical issues, we must know how to apply ethical concepts and principles reasonably to those issues. Ethical concepts and principles should be distinguished from the norms and taboos of society and peer group, religious teachings, political ideologies, and the law. The most significant barriers to sound ethical reasoning are the egocentrism and sociocentrism of human beings.
Following that discussion, we emphasize three essential components in sound ethical reasoning: (1) the principles upon which ethics is grounded, (2) the counterfeits to avoid, and (3) the pathology of the human mind.
We must learn to check our thinking for egocentrism, sociocentrism, and self-deception. This, in turn, requires development of the intellectual dispositions described earlier in the book, including intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, and fair-mindedness. What these same people fear most is someone else's ethical perspective taught as the truth: conservatives afraid of liberals being in charge, liberals fearful of conservatives, theists of nontheists, nontheists of theists, and so on.
These are the kinds of challenging ethical issues often ignored by the naïve and the good-hearted on the one hand, and the self-deceived and cynical on the other. Because ethical reasoning is often complex, we must learn strategies to deal with these complexities. The three intellectual tasks we believe to be the most important to ethical reasoning are: Mastering the most basic ethical concepts and the principles inherent in ethical issues. Learning to distinguish between ethics and other
TOOLS OF TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR LEARNING CRITICAL THINKER
Fair-mindedness is the human tendency to reason in a self-serving or self-deluded manner.
UNDERSTANDING ETHICAL REASONING:
Ethical principles are not a matter of subjective preference. All reasonable people are obligated to respect clear-cut ethical concepts and principles. To reason well through ethical issues, we must know how to apply ethical concepts and principles reasonably to those issues. Ethical concepts and principles should be distinguished from the norms and taboos of society and peer group, religious teachings, political ideologies, and the law. The most significant barriers to sound ethical reasoning are the egocentrism and sociocentrism of human beings.
Following that discussion, we emphasize three essential components in sound ethical reasoning: (1) the principles upon which ethics is grounded, (2) the counterfeits to avoid, and (3) the pathology of the human mind.
We must learn to check our thinking for egocentrism, sociocentrism, and self-deception. This, in turn, requires development of the intellectual dispositions described earlier in the book, including intellectual humility, intellectual integrity, and fair-mindedness. What these same people fear most is someone else's ethical perspective taught as the truth: conservatives afraid of liberals being in charge, liberals fearful of conservatives, theists of nontheists, nontheists of theists, and so on.
These are the kinds of challenging ethical issues often ignored by the naïve and the good-hearted on the one hand, and the self-deceived and cynical on the other. Because ethical reasoning is often complex, we must learn strategies to deal with these complexities. The three intellectual tasks we believe to be the most important to ethical reasoning are: Mastering the most basic ethical concepts and the principles inherent in ethical issues. Learning to distinguish between ethics and other