What is it?
In their critical thinking exercise that concludes the reading "It's Legal, But Is It Ethical", Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss three questions that follow up ideas in the reading we have now read carefully, (2018). The three questions all invite us to apply the ideas in the reading to our own experience, or to give our own opinions on related issues.
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Response
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Questions
After thinking about them for few minutes, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's questions in a comment below. You probably want to write two or three paragraphs.- Should all unethical behaviour be illegal? (Examples will probably be useful here.)
- Is it OK to do unethical things as long as they are not illegal? (For example?)
- Who is responsible for judging unethical behaviour?
On page 138, Rogers and Zemach suggest some useful language to start, but I suggest you not use the "Yes" and "No" in their suggestions. That would be appropriate in an oral discussion, but it's not a good choice here. The other language might be more useful and appropriate.
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You have 15:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the three questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:
- planning = 3:00 minutes
- writing = 10:00 minutes, and
- editing = 2:00 minutes.
Remember, your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, so it would be useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer.
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Reference
- Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education
My first idea was that all unethical behaviour should be illegal. For example, killing people for fun is unethical, and I hope everyone thinks that should be illegal. And even when it was legal for husbands to control their wives' money, that weas unethical and should have been illegal. But then I thought of other examples. I think it's unethical to gamble, but I'm not sure that that should be illegal. And because it's bad for the themselves and society, drinking alcohol, which is a drug of addiction, might be often be unethical, but I don't think it should be illegal. The reason is that getting drunk might be stupid and even unethical, but like most other drug use, it does not directly harm other people, so it should not be illegal. I think the law should protect society and other people, not punish people for behaviour that only harms themselves. Of course, if a drunk person drives a car, that is a direct threat to other people on the road, so it should be illegal.
ReplyDeleteI definitely do not think it is OK to do unethical things just because they are legal. The law can be anything that people make up, but that does not mean it is OK to do something. For example, the law in the US until 1963 said it was legal to own slaves, but I think that owning slaves was always wrong, even though it was legal, and good people would not have owned slaves just because it was legal to do that.
Finally, I think it's very difficult to say who is responsible for judging unethical behaviour. Religions have traditionally done this, but I don't think religions are very good at it. I think the work of famous thinkers such as the Buddha, Plato, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, in the past and Peter Singer today are much more helpful in helping us to decide what what is ethical or unethical. The trouble with religions is that they have trouble evolving better ideas because they want to stick with tradition, which is often seriously wrong about ethical questions. I really like the Buddha's teachings in his Kalama Sutta (กาลามสูตร) because he emphasizes the importance of critical thinking above tradition, authority, religion or other things that are often wrong. Like Aristotle, Plato and Kant, the Buddha would be happy to say, "Yes, I was wrong."
I suppose that all of unethical behavior should not be made illegal, since according to the reading that provided the example about serious lying is unethical but it was legal. This means that not all unethical behviour should be illegal.
ReplyDeleteIt is not OK to do unethical things even they are legal because ethic is a factors that make humans live along together without privacy violation.
In my opinion, the responsible for judging unethical behavior should be the person who is the role model
I suppose that all unethical behavior should not be illegal. For instance, all most of Thai eldery hate the teens, who live with their boyfriends or girlfriends before marriage, since they are settled that this behavior is unethical. However, it is not illegal. This means that not all unethical behavior should be illegal, since it depends on the situations, which base on moral, culture and belief.
DeleteWe can do the unethical things because they are legal. In my opinion, I disaree with the state. Since it is wrong behavior, it seem like those do not respect the ethic, which is a factor that agaist the violence and make we all are balance living. For example, slander just for fun in friend group should be a fun conversation but make the one, who slanded feel grief or unfair.
I think, the responsible for judging unethical behavior should be unanimous voice of populations's judgment that related to the rules of their ethic. Do not judgment without logical.
Not all unethical behaviour are illegal, ethical has vary of judging rage, and it's depend on individual point of view too.
ReplyDeleteIn some situation it might OK to do unethical things as long as they are not illegal if there is a woman drowning in the water and the monk walk by it is unethical for monk to touch a woman body but it is ethical to help others when they are in danger and it not against the law.
Unethical behaviour should judging by the society some unethical behaviour might not against the law so only people in the society can judge it. Such as married with underage children even if their parent consent but it still unethical if that child is not agree to marry so only way that the society can do with this case is blaming them or use social disagreement force them to stop it. The situation may not stop their parent from set up the wedding but this kind a case can rise awareness in the society and help preventing it.
For example marry with same gender might be unethical in some country especially Muslim culture, such as Isis group they hunts gay people and kill them. In Thailand in the old day we may have heard often that gay kids always get bully even now a day this thing still happens even many people claim that we open mind about same sex love. This situation show that we are think that same sex love is not normal and some people judge it as unethical believes for some country. In contrast, we see many modern family accepts same sex marriage and having baby which I support that idea and in our country I wish the couple should be protected by human right and the law should support their parent status like straight couples.
Deletesome unethical behaviors are legal, leading to the discussion should it is controlled under the law. Ethics is so diverse and created by culture, tradition or sub-culture. If some ethics become the written rule
ReplyDelete, it should be an agreement in our society for enhancing our lives base on contemporary context.
Following that, should we continue unethical things in case they still be illegal. It depends on many conditions. some of them might be acceptable in that community.
Responsible for judging unethical behavior is required. I think that Everybody in our society should participate in this issue however they shouldn’t respect personal rights.
For instance, euthanasia is one of the top controversial issues. Despite being legal in certain countries, the majority of nations do not accept this concept. The first reason is that people combine it into committing suicide hence it strongly contrary to much religious law. Moreover, there are questions in terms of the mental checking process and hidden advantages for some purpose. However, some people think that it is a personal right to have euthanasia as long as that person isn't having a mental illness. Many paralysis patients wouldn't like to suffer anymore. Meanwhile, their country hasn't legalized mercy killing and their relatives also don't support them.
DeleteAll unethical should not be illegal because the unethical is only very different from the normal behavior for the example in this situation, covid 19 crisis, there are many celebrities donate many things such as the foods, money, anything else. That is the good ethical behavior. However, there is some celebrities do not donate for the people that is not good ethical behavior but is not illegal. Therefore, this behavior is not illegal that they do not give to charity. Anywhere, the people in the social will be blame or judge them because the people think the celebrities get the money they and the celebrities should be give back to the community.
ReplyDeleteIn my perspective, all unethical behaviour should be illegal. All countries, races and tribes should make international agreement of ethical and unethical activities. For example, Japan have legal and tradition to kill hundred whales per year, while others argue this as unethical activity. This tradition is highly likely torture the mind of majority and seem infringe the laws for animals. However, the locals think that this is a value tradition for their country and benefit for their domestic economy.
ReplyDeleteI definitely not OK to do unethical things even they are never been judge illegal or legal. Although, some unethical behaviours of tribes are their belief, I never been agree with that. For example, some African tribe eat human meat, which is unethical and illegal activity in various countries. However, this is a way of their life. The eating human meat never be legal or ethic, in my view, in the same way as I cannot did any harm action to preventing them. We should have agreement on what kinds of meat human can eat legally and are not an unethical meal. Of course, vegetarian people would not agree on. This issue is resemble to a snake swallowing its own tale.