Ethics is something that I have always struggled with. By that, I don’t mean that I am an unethical individual or someone who commits bad acts or something. I just mean that I’ve always had a hard time understanding what exactly it means. Even having read this article, “A Framework for Ethical Decision Making”, I am still a little unclear, but I definitely have a better understanding now. Starting with what ethics is NOT helped tremendously in narrowing down some of my misunderstandings.

I often have conversations with friends or loved ones regarding choices within my life and the ethics surrounding them. In most cases, religion, feelings, law, and societal norms are brought up. While these may have some overlap with ethics, each of these things is not the end-all, so to speak. It’s not entirely 1-to-1 like I and others sometimes treat it, either. The definition in the article states, “Ethics refers to standards and practices that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves.”

So to me, this is still somewhat subjective, and there’s no real answer to those standards and practices outside of our knowledge, skills, and habits. That being said, the lens within the article provides a solid foundation for the knowledge required to act ethically. I suppose that may allude to more objectivity. On top of that, those questions dive even more into specifics depending on your circumstances, so I’ll give them a try at the next talk I have with family and friends. I’m curious to see the outcome of these and if it leads to a deeper conversation.

A Framework for Ethical Decision Making. Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. (2021, November 8). https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/a-framework-for-ethical-decision-making/