Transcript Is acting ethically a skill?

Is acting ethically a skill?
"Skill, to put it another way, is not a
'theory' informing action. Skill is a way
of dealing with things, not a derivation
from theory ... knowledge helps only
when it descends into habits."
Jerome Bruner, The Culture of Education
p. 152
Not a theory
“… reflective criticism should basically go in a
direction opposite to that encouraged by
ethical theory. Theory looks characteristically
for considerations that are very general and
have as little distinctive content as possible …”
Bernard Williams, Ethics and the Limits of
Philosophy p. 116
informing action
“Theory (so to speak) is not a foundation on
which we can safely construct Practice; rather
it is a way of bringing our external
commitments into line with our experience as
practitioners.”
Stephen Toulmin, Return to Reason, Loc 1762-63
A way of dealing with things
Three Models of Ethics and Efficacy
1. Rest & Narvaez (1991)
2. Richard Moorhead et al (2012)
3. Mary Gentile (2012)
Rest & Narvaez (1991)
• Moral Sensitivity – awareness of the moral
dimensions of the situation;
• Moral Judgement – ethical reasoning, familiar to
us from Kohlberg’s work on the subject;
• Moral Motivation – wanting to act morally which may involve putting concerns about ethical
rectitude above e.g. money, or professional
success, or the approval of superiors;
• Moral Character – the ability to see it through.
Moorhead, Hinchly, Parker, Kershaw, Holm
(2012)
Interaction between
Character - refers to the values and attitudes held
by individuals.
Capacity - refers to the ability to reason ethically.
Context - refers to the ethicality of the
environment within which people work (and
live).
Mary Gentile (2012)
Post decision making – (after perception,
judgment and motivation)
Effectiveness – a curriculum for effectively giving
voice to values which involves
1. Pre-scripting
2. Practice
3. Coaching
Is acting ethically a skill?
Not independent of context
“These, and innumerable others, died not
despite their valour but because of it”
Primo Levi, The Drowned and the Saved p. 63
“A young German did not become a committed
SS man only by reading pamphlets. He had to
be bound up in a network of common
practices.”
Neitzel and Welzer, Soldaten Loc. 6066
Is acting ethically a skill?
Certainly not a single skill, nor only a skill – although it
involves cognitive skills and social skills
Practical Art – phronesis (Greek) Prudence (from the
Latin)
Is it time for: “… the practitioners to turn the tables,
and look the theoreticians squarely in the face.”
Toulmin, Return to Reason Loc1365
Consequences 1: What is one trying to
teach when one teaches ethics?
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Not about the right answer
Not about meta-ethics
Not about clever argument
Not about know what
About seeing, reflecting, judgment, caring, feeling
able to act, knowing how to act
• About situation, culture, what we care about, our
sense of ourselves and the groups we identify
with
Consequences 2: How does one teach
ethics?
How does one learn that which is not reducible
to propositions and logical relations?
In groups
Experientially
Through discourse
Through practice
Through reflection
Consequences 3: Where does one
teach ethics?
“The activity in which knowledge is developed and
deployed, it is now argued, is not separable from or
ancillary to learning and cognition. Nor is it neutral.
Rather, it is an integral part of what is learned.
Situations might be said to co-produce knowledge
through activity. Learning and cognition, it is now
possible to argue, are fundamentally situated. “
Brown, Collins and Duguid, Situated Cognition
and the Culture of Learning 1989