THE EDITOR, Sir:Having read Ralph Thompson's article, 'What is legal, what is ethical?' (Sunday Gleaner, May 22), I agree that ethics-driven problem-solving encourages better civic behaviour. Thompson rightly states, "A society with abundant laws but no moral conscience is like a sturdy ship without a rudder, doomed eventually to sink." But he also suggests that JSE companies should "place ethicians on retainer and employ them to run training sessions on business ethics." That's a problematic solution.
Those who have studied ethics often know more about classical philosophers than those who haven't, and they've often also learned to unpack approaches, choices, and solutions. However, all citizens, educated or not, can make their own ethical decisions and develop the strong moral character necessary for ethical habits. We can professionalise ethics, and make it the domain of philosophers, experts, and office monitors, but only at the expense of personal ethical development.
Nobody should ever defer his/her thinking-about-ethics (and, hence, his/her accountability) to an 'ethics expert.' Let every bucket stand on its own bottom: private citizens and public officials must accept full responsibility for their own ethical or unethical reasoning and behaviour. Employing ethics experts or relying on periodic workplace training is an insufficient response to 'rampant corruption' unless individual employees also integrate strong ethical principles into their personal and business practices.
One won't learn to drive by yielding the steering wheel to someone else, however knowledgeable or well-meaning that substitute is. In the same way, ethics cannot appropriately be legislated by the government or delegated to company monitors. Ethics flow from the bottom up, not from the top down; we must all develop ethical sensitivities and habits individually. If, however, we each cede our ethical authority to 'professional ethicians,' unfortunate excuses like 'the expert made me do it' won't be long in coming.
I am, etc.,
KEISHA MCKENZIE
keisha.mckenzie@ttu.edu
Mandeville, Manchester
Via Go-Jamaica
