The University’s statement of purpose and goals includes the goal “to quicken, discipline, and enlarge … ethical awareness” in the University’s members. To pursue this goal, the University should make ethics a required course in the curriculum of all its undergraduate schools.
Undergraduate schools already have area requirements, which are appropriate; making sure students have basic knowledge in more than one academic area contributes to their abilities to understand the world through multiple perspectives. But quickening, disciplining and enlarging ethical awareness, as the University aspires to do, requires more than making students take a course or two in a diverse range of departments. Students should also have an understanding of different perspectives on morality. Requiring students to study ethics, which is the philosophy of how we define right and wrong behavior (in other words, moral philosophy), is the most obvious way for the University to fulfill this goal.
Morality is subjective — and that’s the main reason we should make ethics a requirement. Most people who think they behave ethically and understand morality often believe this primarily on the basis of whatever set of principles they grew up with. But in a massive and diverse student body such as ours it quickly becomes clear that not everyone adheres to the same code of ethics; each culture has a different perspective on ethical behavior, and it is important to respect these philosophies and learn how to interact without offending people’s different perceptions of morality. The extent to which any action is “right” or “wrong” is debatable; studying ethics helps us understand this.
Studying ethics also forces us to question pre-existing social conventions. In my short time on Grounds, I’ve directly or indirectly heard what I consider to be offensive comments, including ones that are homophobic, sexist and racist. I’ve found that the remarks in these situations are not always from people who are inherently homophobic, sexist or racist, but rather they are sometimes from people who are somewhat unaware of how offensive their remarks are. This can be because of their upbringing or the acceptance their comments receives on Grounds. A good example of this is the chanting of “not gay” during the Good Ol’ Song, which has now been formally condemned but was common practice until far too recently. From this, it is clear to me that the University is not living up to the standard it set for itself of enlarging ethical awareness.
Requiring every undergraduate to take an ethics course will help the University achieve that standard by encouraging more introspection in students. In ethics courses, after studying basic ethical principles such as utilitarianism, as well as philosophers such as Kant, students are often compelled to ask difficult questions of themselves. Is it ethical to be charitable if it makes you feel good, or is that a selfish action? How can we determine what is the greatest good for the greatest number, and should that be our goal? Is inaction unethical, meaning, is it an ethical obligation to help someone in need, or is only actively harming someone unethical?
This last question has immediate relevance to University students. If you see a drunk student stumbling home, do you have a moral obligation to help him or her, or are you just particularly virtuous for doing so? It’s clear that, though these issues might seem broad, they are actually relevant to us here and now, and having students discuss them in an academic setting will ultimately compel them to question their own systems of belief and everyday actions. This introspection relates back to the questionable comments I mentioned above — students will begin to question how their actions affect others, and maybe some of those comments will happen with less frequency.
We are all brought up with some understanding of ethical behavior, but it is important to recognize that these concepts of morality are not universal. Studying ethics heightens our awareness of this, and it will be even more relevant to us later in life when we have influence over more broad-reaching decisions, as opposed to just our own personal actions. Ethics is not just a topic for philosophy majors: it permeates every field. There are perpetual ethical debates in science about issues such as genetic engineering; in policy-making, about what ethical obligations the government has to its citizens; in business, about what we can consider unethical behavior (such as how banks gave unsustainable loans that led to the recent U.S. housing crisis) — the list is endless. We will face ethical dilemmas in whatever professions we end up in, and studying ethics will make us better equipped to handle them. Making ethics a required course is necessary if the University hopes to produce graduates who incorporate morality into their short- and long-term plans of action.
Dani Bernstein is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. Her columns run Tuesdays.
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