Today, I would like to get to know
your views on Damon Horowitz TED Talk regarding moral choices. After stating
that “we have a responsibility that is proportional to our power. Being
sensitive to the human considerations is crucial in making ethical decisions ",
he asks more questions than gives answers, which leaves an enormous field for a
discussion.
I wonder if ethical questions are
important for you at all ?
Have you ever experienced a moral
dilemma at work ?
If so what has helped you to resolve
it ?
What is your opinion about the idea
of a “moral framework” ?
Have a good week :),
Asia
ReplyDeleteThank you Asia for your curious video. This is the most hard lesson that potential human can face. In constant battle between good and evil, right or wrong trying stabilize our system of our believes or knowledge. How long we can stay in one place it depends about our decisions.
I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
There are people who have now time for ethical questions who make a decisions and probably expect not to be judged. But even this kind of people sooner or later face proper evaluation in their life or after.
Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
For me it is really hard to find people that are not experience a moral dilemma. It depends about the environment when you living. It is a treasure if you are not forced to constantly change your values.
If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
Unless or when we face the wall we try to adapt to changing world and try to survive as a proper human species. But at this point you can realize how difficult to force some ideas when there are unequal division between people forced to fight for resources. You may choose between defending your goods or moving them to safer place.
To be honest, I'm bit surprised by this TED video as I expect much more from this kind of speakers.. though have to agree with you that he asks more questions then provides answers, so food for thought.
ReplyDelete1. I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
I think all of us (if not all, then majority of us) have been brought up according to the same core values and have the same moral backbone, meaning same set of core values was thought (be honest, do good things, don't harm others etc). These core values now are innate characteristics of each of us which leads me to belief that ethical questions may not be even considered as important but they are definitely natural.
2. Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
3. If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
Having said above, I have to admit I was fortunate enough not having to struggle against any moral dilemma at work. This may sound bit odd, but I used to work and I currently work at major American companies where all types of policies are promoted in order to avoid any moral dilemmas. Such guidance may be definitely useful during hard times.
I will start with:
ReplyDeletehttp://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/c/c0/Spider-Man_With_Great_Power_Comes_Great_Responsibility_Vol_1_2.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120904031306
I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
No, I'm sorry. Maybe a little, it's hard to say for sure. Never had real ethical questions.
Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
No, I have never had.
If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
As I have already answered above, I never had opportunity to be in such situation.
What is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework” ?
It's hard to answer to this question. Talking about moral framework, philosophy and so on is pointless for me. I don't have neither time nor will to talk about it. I'm sorry.
I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all?
ReplyDeleteIn my private life moral question are very important to me. Our world is imperfect and many actions, even in everyday life need to be considered if they are moral or not. The decisions we are making tell a lot about our humanity.
Even as a society or country many moral dilemmas are discussed all the time (like abortion: whos life is more important, the unborn child or the woman? migrations: should we help people that are in danger or poor, but maybe this people will behave in unethical way for our culture? and how about the question mentioned in a TED talk: our safety vs. our privacy?) and I am sure nobody is neutral for them and has their own opinion congruent with their moral rules.
And I think we should have such thoughts and we should talk about them and listen to the people that have another opinions.
Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work?
If so what has helped you to resolve it?
I have never experienced a moral dilemma in my work. I think my speciality is usually not very controversial. Actually I don't know if I could have a job where the moral decisions are often made, I think it must be very difficult.
What is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework”?
I agree with the final thought of the TED talk that we need to communiacte with other people to get know different point of view than our own.
Emilia, thank you for hightlighting the openess for discussion.
Delete1. I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteI sure hope it was rhetorical question. I really don't know how a person could live a life without considering ethics.
2. Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
Yes, I had. A colleague stole something (abstract) for his girlfriend. The dilemma was of course should he be fired or not.
3. If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
I didn't have to resolve it, I was just asked for opinion. Yes, he was fired. Small mistake, big consequences...
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ReplyDelete1.
ReplyDeleteI must say that in my young life I didn't have to make any moral or ethical questions. Yes sometimes I think what would I do in some situation,but this is only in theoretical phase nothing more.
But sometimes I think that someone should ask himself some moral or ethical question but no one doesn't want to do this.
Really, why can't people just think?
2.
I have never experienced moral dilemma at work and I must say that I feel really good with this.
3.
I haven't experienced moral dilemma at work so this point does not concern me. :-)
4.
I have very similar thoughts as Emilia that we should communicate with other people to get know different point of view. This quite off topic but I have a friend who travels around Poland and sometimes Europe to get his own opinion about something and after some trips he usually comes to me a share his knowledge from his journey. He also talks about different kind of people he met. After couple of his journey has said to me that know he have different opinion about some things that he had before journey. Maybe your ability to answering ethical questions comes with your wisdom and knowledge gathered from world?
Tomasz, thank you for sharing the story about your friend changing opinions on what is good or bad after experiencing new things. And I mean experiencing and not hearing it from somebody else or see it recorded. This is how we grow.
DeleteI have never experienced a moral dillema at work so it seems to be hard for me to indicate moral dillemmmas related to my work. On the other hand, once I was offered a job for econometricians where one of the responsibilities was to analyze the data of the loyalty card customers. I did not accept the job but not because of the moral aspects. However, for me the advert market seems to be quite controversial because I do not like being a target of any adverts.
ReplyDeleteI think that for me it would be a real moral problem to develop a site with a child pornography content. I would not accept that type of a contract.
Wow, thank you for the example with the loyalty cards. Most people would not think about it in ethical terms. I totally share your view on this.
Delete1.I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all?
ReplyDeleteIn my life I don't have a ethical questions so I don't know are important for me . I never think about it so I can't say you how I behave
2.Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
No I haven't ever a moral dilemma at work
3.If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
I can't tell you because I don't have a this problem
1-I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion: the name of his good personal conscience, torn from the peace of mind of a person who has been promised to care (and that, in my opinion, is really of serious infidelity). On behalf of its intellectual satisfaction (everything is displayed ... at least for the person who does not stay at home to imagine the worst scenarios). On behalf of a certain snobbery ( "I'm so open minded").
I do not know at all what the "right" answer to these ethical questions, but I prefer the classic infidelity: one that is unfaithful to the words and codes, but true to his happiness and well-being of their spouse. Ethically, I prefer to save the human values. But it is discussed, of course.
2- Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
yes. but sorry it's very hard to tell you the situation
3- If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
I totally forgot the problem after 5 min
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMorals, ethics and other such kind of issues are very important but very difficult and sensitive things. First question about this topic in my opinion is: which type of morals and ethic rules should we follow? Around the world there are a lot of different cultures and religions. Each of them has different value system. I recon one moral operating system for all is not possible to achieve. People from Western Europe and from North America think that with high level of life and technology they have the right to decide what is good or bad. I think this is not a right way. In my opinion general rules for example: don’t kill or don’t steal should be provided for all people but more sensitive rules as for example about religion should be only optional.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your algorithmic way of thinking about this human question : “In my opinion general rules for example: don’t kill or don’t steal should be provided for all people but more sensitive rules as for example about religion should be only optional.”
Delete1. I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteEthical questions are part of our life, I think. I have made this kind of decisions and I think about the past sometimes. I believe that the most of this questions depends on our culture and tradition. We listen inner voice “do that / do not do that”, while we are fighting.
2. Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
I do not remember situation, which can be a good example but probably yes I have had this kind of dilemma. Of course it was not crucial decision that changed life of somebody but it was important for me for sure.
3. If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
My inner voice.
** We listen inner voice “do that / do not do that”, while we are facing dilemma.
ReplyDeleteMixing IT with morality, ethics or philosophy always confuses me. Maybe my boring job of requirements analysis and web application design isn't as immoral as I'd like it to be :) The most unethical act during my career was changing logo of mass order management system (OMMass) by skipping one "M" letter by one of my developers. As a product owner I'm constantly prioritize user stories and convince my teat that they can deliver all the stories I want,but I wouldn't call it a moral dilemmas. From my point of view, stakeholders need a "moral framework" to resolve conflicts of interest between company branches, more than computers need "moral operating systems".
ReplyDeleteI think that computers are just complex tools, and shouldn't be considered as ethical, just like hammers, cars or even guns.
The „moral operating system” would rather be for us, humans, not for the computers.
DeleteI wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteEverybody has an ethical compass, but each compass is a bit different. For everybody ethical questions are important, but the main meaning of them is different.
Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
There is something that is call "professional ethics", if you`re honest with you`re client and you don't want to cheat him than you will have clear consience like me :)
Hi Asia, thanks for the video recommendation. It was something I was actually rethinking once again after this weeks post about morality of autonomous cars. I'll try to answer your questions:
ReplyDelete1. Yes they are important to me because they influence the world around me (mostly the social related aspects). Ethics are important for anyone who is part of a society.
2. I think I do every time, I try to be as objective as possible however since I am only human I am biased and probably even if I make objective decisions they are truly subjective and therefore prone to morality issues.
3. Trying to think of something under different circumstances helps.
I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteYeah, ethics is important to me. As a CEO of a software company I would be in a completely different place if I didn't think about ethical questions.
Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
I have experienced a lot of that. There a lot of opportunities to earn easy money and not to care about everything else. But it is not worth to do that, to follow that temptations. I care about everything else. I want to do good things and I don't want to take advantage of information that I posses just to gain more.
If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
I have a code. Not a religious one but rather my own. It is based on experience, gut feeling, ethics. I follow that code to make a decisions that are in my opinion morally OK. So of course it is not any kind of framework. It's not quantified. It is subjective. But it helps.
Tomasz,
DeleteIt restores hope when someone says he would hesitate before making easy money when the moral side of his choice is not obvious. Thank you.
1) I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteWhat comes to your mind when you hear the word or think of ‘ethics’? Is it a just list of rules that one must follow in ones professional life? Is it a set of principles – moral or otherwise that you believe in? Is it being fair and honest with others, either personally or professionally? Is it simply following the letter of the law? Does doing that make one ethical? In my opinion, one can be within the law and not act ethically. Does/should your personal definition of ethics go beyond that just acting within the law? I think it is a combination of all of these and more.
There is also something like ethical in business that I would like to say something: according to me, ethical business is a way to follow that contains different criteria that we have to respect. For example it means to make clean money respecting laws. Ethical business examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problem in a business. Ethical business is applied to individuals and also the organisation.
2) Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
Oh, many times. For example when I discover something bad at work and when I know who is responsible for that bad thinks.
3) If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
It depend of situation. I always try to resolve problem without any unnecessary complication.
4) What is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework” ?
I agreee with Emilia and Tomasz. That is only ractionally solution for me.
Piotr, thank you for the questions you have written (especially for “Does/should your personal definition of ethics go beyond that just acting within the law?”) and your reflexions on the ethics in business.
DeleteAs for discovering something bad at work when you know the responsible person, I would rather search to fix the problem and make sure it will not be repeated than looking to blame the responsible. Especially that in large organisations there are usually several factors contributing to the bad result.
Thank you for important topic.
ReplyDeleteOf course, morality is very important for me. I believe that morality is important for all people (almost all) I believe that education and family traditions has affected on every person. I had not been having a a moral dilemmas at work. I do not know how to solve it if will are.
1)The quuestions about ethics will always be a questions without answer. The deeds which can be assume as unethical now, don't have to be unethical in the future - the thoughts of humans are changing, the world is changing, the rules of our lifes are changing.
ReplyDelete2)The moral dillema occurs when one have to choose between two evils, and yes sometimes it happens in our life - so it has happened to me.
3) I solve such dilemma by answering the question: How Can I fix this in the future?
I must admit this is a vague answer.
DeleteCan you give me examples of the unethical deeds from the pass which are now considered ethical ?
Fortunately, I didn’t need to make any unethical decisions. And I do not have to decide if what I am doing is ethical or not both at work and in a private life. It seems to me that our social behavior is mostly a consequence of how we were brought up. In my house there was no room or acceptance for unethical behavior or foul-mouthed vocabulary. Sometimes I regret that I am not used or capable of lying like the others, capable of sheading the responsibility or using gross language. But I find all these below my dignity and that is something I am sure I acquired as the result of my upbringing at home.
ReplyDeleteI envy you this lack of moral choices in private and professional life.
DeletePutting unethical behaviour and foul-mouthed vocabulary on the same level seems to be an over-simplification, which makes me think we probably do not talk about the same thing.
Ethical questions are important to me, I spoke about these issues during the speech on the lecture "research methodology". The topic is very interesting. I have never experienced a moral dilemma at work. the nature of my work doesn't create such situations.
ReplyDelete1. I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteYes they are.
2. Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
Unfortunately yes.
3. If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
It depends. Usually the simplest decision is the best one.
4. What is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework” ?
I always try to follow one of them. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." We are capable of valuing others as much as we value ourselves. In other hands before I judge other I always "Look-in-the-Mirror"*
* "The principle broadens the range of our moral judgments in that it forces us to take others' interests into account in a meaningful way."
Could you bring some example of an ethical question? I'm not sure if taking questions as something important means the same as just being ethical. In my work most of ethical dilemmas applies to cooperation with students. I think it is not so bad with comparison with what rest of you experience in work. In such problems the best help is experience (my or my work colleagues). It's always better to consult something with people you trust. Beside that the mentioned "inner voice" works sometimes (and sometimes not). Saying that there is one moral framework is imprecise. I would rather say that my "moral framework" develops constantly.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework” ?
I really like Emilia's answer to the first question. I fully support what she wrote about the importance of ethical questions in everyday life. Fortunately I haven't faced any moral dilemma in my work career. 'Moral framework' is unclear to me. When I'm faced with a moral problem I try to cope with in a decent way, not harming anybody. So I guess you can say that this would be my 'framework'.
ReplyDelete1. I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?
ReplyDeleteYes.
2. Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?
Yes, all the time...
3. If so what has helped you to resolve it ?
It depends... sometimes first idea is the best... sometimes not and I have to live with it... or forget about it
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ReplyDeleteEthical questions are important. In my work I did' have any moral dilemma. But I have had one during elections. I choose party with different morality than my own but with close with my own economics point of view. Today we can observe moral battle in media, that;s why ethics is neglected. We should talk more about it in school and work but today that values are forgotten.
ReplyDelete