Ethics, Values, and Challenges in Today’s World
Ethics
Ethics is the reflection on how we act, what actions are correct and what not, what criteria we should follow when making decisions, and what goals are worth pursuing throughout life.
Dimensions of a Person
Biological
Genetic inheritance defines the conditions of our body.
Psychological
Our way of being shapes our behavior.
Sociocultural
We are part of various groups and share our way of thinking, acting, and feeling. These groups include family and friends, but also the culture or historical era in which we were raised.
Moral
The moral dimension is responsible for the other dimensions.
Intelligence and Emotions
Intelligence
Intelligence is the ability to absorb, store, and produce information, and to use it to solve problems.
Feelings
Feelings are impulses toward what we have heard or imagined as good or rejecting what we have heard or imagined as bad.
Emotions
An emotion is an affective state that is experienced as a subjective reaction to stimuli from the environment and is accompanied by physiological changes.
Self-Esteem and Self-Assessment
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the feeling of acceptance and love toward oneself that is linked to feelings of competence and personal worth.
Self-Assessment
Self-assessment is the evaluation we make of our behavior, which involves a feeling of pleasure or displeasure and gives rise to beliefs and opinions about our life.
Human Acts and Values
Human Acts
All human acts are motivated, prompting action, seeking an order, having different means, and producing consequences.
Our Horizons
What interests us and what we value helps to define the meaning of our life. Values give us a direction that guides us and a motivation that encourages us to act in this direction. They are the benchmarks that we have on the horizon. Values are taken as objectives defined as a model person, one way or lifestyle.
Elements of Communication
- Paralanguage: The tone, rhythm, and speed indicate mood.
- Facial Expression: The combination of eyes, mouth, and muscles creates a concrete expression.
- Gestures and Postures: The body takes a position when we say something.
- Distances: Distances can suggest closeness or coldness, but it depends on the context.
- Items: Clothing and accessories say something about us.
Empathy and Thinking
Empathy
Empathy allows us to understand the sentiments, reasoning, and motivations of others. It implicitly accepts that others may have, or have had, views different from ours.
Types of Thinking
- Causal Thinking: Determining the cause of a problem.
- Alternative Thinking: Imagining different solutions to a problem.
- Consequential Thinking: Foreseeing the consequences that attitudes may have.
- Perspective Thinking: Understanding the other points of view.
- Means-End Thinking: Looking at objectives and organizing the available means.
Challenges in Today’s World
Challenges in today’s world include avoiding technologies or techniques that go against ethics, ensuring that future generations inherit a planet in good condition, negotiating with peace, and creating a fairer world.
Ethical Attitudes
Alter-globalization
Alter-globalization involves combating inequality and finding new ways of organizing the world.
Thought
Economic power has the last word; the market determines the existence of an idea or product.
Confidence in Progress
Confidence in progress is trusting in human capacities, independence, reason, and problem-solving abilities.
Weak Thought
Weak thought refers to scattered ideas from the last century.
Shared Values
Ethics of Minimum
Ethics of minimum refers to values that society agrees on, affecting all of society. They are the result of a consensus, allowing coexistence in public life.
Maximum Ethics
Maximum ethics refers to values that are unique to each person. These values are a benchmark because they are limited by laws of ethics—rules that guarantee the minimum.
Values, Non-Violence, and Attributes
Values
Values indicate some major goals that give meaning to actions carried out by acting with motivation.
Non-Violence
Non-violence is a form of vindication or reaction to an attack in which peaceful methods are used.
Attributes
Attributes are ways of seeing, feeling, thinking, and living according to the world of what is feminine and what is masculine.
Roles and Stereotypes
Roles
Roles refer to the diversity of tasks a person performs in society. Roles are related to the private sphere (family and household) or the public sphere (political or labor). Traditionally, roles related to the private sphere are associated with women and those related to the public sphere with men.
Stereotypes
A stereotype is an idea that is fixed and perpetuated based on the characteristics of one sex or the other. These simplifications are beliefs that are influenced by cultural criteria and past historical moments, and can only be overcome with education.
Empowerment and Feminism
Empowerment
Empowerment has to do with access and equitable distribution of power, not only for women but also for all peoples.
Feminism
Feminism is a set of currents of thought that propose change caused by discrimination and sexism.
Equity
Equity is recognizing and valuing biological differences, but giving equal opportunities to men and women to develop their skills and meet their needs.
Difficulties in Today’s World
Housing
There are difficulties in obtaining housing. There are few rental properties, and prices are too high.
Job Insecurity
Job insecurity is prevalent, with an abundance of garbage contracts, unworthy working conditions, low salaries, and unemployment.
Loneliness
Many people feel alone. This feeling of loneliness and emptiness makes some people fall into addiction. Paradoxically, the media and advances in computer technology can reinforce this feeling of isolation.
Individualism
There is an increasingly marked tendency to fight for one’s own interests without considering others, thus setting goals that are achieved by only considering oneself.
Aggression and Violence
Aggression and violence are a sad reality in our country. The level of stress and anxiety with which we live is also worrying.
Discrimination
People who are different from the majority due to their origin, health, personal history, or economic difficulties need to be integrated as equals in our society.
Egoism
Egoism is acting according to our own interests, fighting for what benefits us, and trying to avoid anything that could harm us. We do not like having to depend on anyone or having anyone depend on us.
Risk Groups
Risk groups include children, youth (due to insertion problems and problems finding housing), seniors, women, older women, immigrants, and people with disabilities.
Causes of Social Exclusion
Causes of social exclusion include economic, educational, health, residential, and relational factors.