Ethics, Legal

• Author: Jeffrey Lehman, Shirelle Phelps

Page 231

The branch of philosophy that defines what is good for the individual and for society and establishes the nature of obligations, or duties, that people owe themselves and one another. In modern society, ethics define how individuals, professionals, and corporations choose to interact with one another.

The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, which means "character," and from the Latin word mores, which means "customs." ARISTOTLE was one of the first great philosophers to study ethics. To him, ethics was more than a moral, religious, or legal concept. He believed that the most important element in ethical behavior is knowledge that actions are accomplished for the betterment of the common good. He asked whether actions performed by individuals or groups are good both for an individual or a group and for society. To determine what is ethically good for the individual and for society, Aristotle said, it is necessary to possess three virtues of practical wisdom: temperance, courage, and justice.

The need to control, regulate, and legislate ethical conduct at the individual, corporate, and government levels has ancient roots. For example, one of the earliest law codes developed, the CODE OF HAMMURABI, made BRIBERY a crime in Babylon during the eighteenth century B.C. Most societies share certain features in their ethical codes, such as forbidding murder, bodily injury, and attacks on personal honor and reputation. In modern societies, the systems of law and public justice are closely related to ethics in that they determine and enforce definite rights and duties. They also attempt to repress and punish deviations from these standards.

Laws can be neutral on ethical issues, or they can be used to endorse ethics. The prologue to the U.S. Constitution states that ensuring domestic tranquility is an objective of government, which is an ethically neutral statement. CIVIL RIGHTS laws, on the other hand, promote an ethical as well as legal commitment. Often laws and the courts are required to resolve strong ethical dilemmas in society, as in the controversial issues of ABORTION (ROE V. WADE, 410 U.S. 113, 93 S. Ct. 705, 35 L. Ed. 2d 147), AFFIRMATIVE ACTION (UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA V. BAKKE, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S. Ct. 2733, 57 L. Ed. 2d 750), and SEGREGATION (BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873).

Laws also permit many actions that will not bear ethical scrutiny. In other words, what the law permits or requires is not necessarily what is ethically right. For instance, laws allow disloyalty toward friends, the breaking of promises that do not have the stature of legal contracts, and a variety of deceptions. Laws sometimes require gross immoralities, as did the FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT OF 1850, which required citizens to return runaway slaves to their masters, and the U.S. Supreme Court's DRED SCOTT decision, which in 1857 declared that slaves were not citizens but property (60 U.S. 393, 19 How. 393, 15 L. Ed. 691).

Local, state, and federal regulatory acts influence the conduct of some professions. Business executives are faced with two types of ethical issues in conducting their day-to-day affairs, and the law holds them accountable for their actions in these areas. Micromanagement issues include conflicts of interest, employee rights, fair performance appraisals, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, proprietary information, discrimination, and accepting or offering gifts. Macromanagement issues include corporate social responsibility, PRODUCT LIABILITY, environmental ethics, COMPARABLE WORTH, layoffs and downsizings, employee screening tests, employee rights to privacy in the workplace, and corporate accountability.

Although the law does influence the conduct of some professions, many ethical issues cannot be settled by the courts. The ethics of a particular act is many times determined independently of the legality of the conduct. In fact, decisive answers cannot always be given for many ethical

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