How Does One Teach Ethics?

(from Stephen Scales’ “Metaethics across the Curriculum,” in Teaching Ethics, Spring, 2005)

• an appreciation for the idea that there is a moral point of view
• an understanding that their own moral convictions ought to guide their actions
• the ability to recognize ethical situations and ethical dilemmas
• the analytical skills necessary to be critical and self-critical of behavior
• the training to disagree with respect rather than with rancor

(Goals in the Teaching of Ethics by Daniel Callahan, quoted in Scales)

Using ethical questions in class ought to bring about independent thinking in students, giving them the ability to express, analyze, and evaluate ethical arguments on their own.

The ideal teacher of ethics gives students the tools they need to arrive at “a state of unstable peace between the principles one adopts cognitively and the intuitions one holds inherently.” Hopefully then, students find a place where they can stand, where both head and heart are in agreement about what one ought to do. Clear arguments must always take precedence over relativistic views, however sincerely expressed.

We need to bring coherence to our ethical principles. Ethical theory must be made concrete, but we do need the theory. Otherwise, ethical judgment becomes a matter of the loudest voice or cleverest debater.

When students examine a code of their chosen profession, they should ask why a particular restriction or behavior is required. This procedure is part of “doing ethics.”

Students who can recognize and think through ethical dilemmas and arrive at reasoned, principled judgments are well served indeed.

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