Suchergebnisse

A fair amount of attention has been given recently to teaching ethics and what manners of conduct are proper, especially in the public sector. This article examines not only the substance of teaching ethics, but also the process. The author contends that professors of ethics are in a difficult field because its scope is so broad. While different professions have different ethical codes and standards, it remains true that all fields have ethical considerations. The challenge for the ethics professor is to instill in students a basic understanding of proper conduct, realizing that some actions and decisions are better than others, while not attempting to appear morally omniscient.

Classical liberalism and the unrestrained individualism that is of its essence are inappropriate for current ever-increasing interdependence. Recent communitarian thinking in the United States suggests that the exclusive pursuit of private interest is, in fact, inimical in the long run to individual liberty. Sustained policy change depends, however, on a fundamental rethinking of ethics and epistemology; Vickers's concept of appreciation is an important contribution to this task. The authors conclude that there is a need both for more government and for more democracy; greater intrusions on autonomy are inevitable if Western culture in its present form is to survive.The sanest like the maddest of us cling like spiders to a self-spun web, obscurely moored in vacancy and fiercely shaken by the winds of change. Yet this frail web, through which many see only the void, is the one enduring artifact, the one authentic signature of humankind, and its weaving is our prime responsibility.—Geoffrey Vickers"The Psychology of Policymaking and Social Change"