Prof. H Narayanan on personal ethics

Practical Ethics

Practical Ethics

H.Narayanan,EE Department

IIT Bombay, Mumbai

October 16, 2012

Practical Ethics

Why have an ethical code?

Why have an ethical code?A personal ethical code is a strategy for choice of action insituations encountered commonly by an individual. It limitsthe choice and thereby reduces the stresses involved inconstantly optimizing according to objectives which mightvary with time, environment etc.

If the choice is made according to a code, it is usuallythought of as a duty carried out and therefore leads tolesser feelings of guilt, dissatisfaction with outcomes, fearof punishment etc.

Practical Ethics

How to design an ethical code for oneself

The Strategy

What strategy should one use to design an ethical frameworkthat is suitable for oneself while conforming broadly touniversally accepted norms?

First study the nature of the individual in relation to oneselfand in relation to others.Look for generally agreed ‘universal principles’- as few ofthem as possible.Match the two and work out details.

Practical Ethics


(Structure : individual - X

Individual by oneself.Individual - individual.Individual - community.

Practical Ethics


Structure: Individual by oneself:

Internal Structure Behaviour: Internal/External.Nature Evolutionary reasons:

(Why do we have guilt, anger, anxiety, cruelty?)Nurture Conditioning by education:

(that losing control of oneself is wrong, thatnegative feelings are sinful, uses of prayer).

Altering the biochemistry of the brain

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Individual - individual: close relationships

Siblings, mates, partners, progenyBehaviour with these is dominated by evolution.

Friends, acquaintancesBehaviour with these is influenced by education.

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Individual - community local/distant Interactions:

Nature

Evolution of the anthropological kind

Nurture

Current society norms

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Fuzzy rules

Rules:1 individual should aim at long term personal ‘happiness’.

2 Individual should not ‘hurt’ others –should preferably be invariably kind.

Rule 2. is related to Rule 1., is consistent with it.

Practical Ethics

Happiness

Happiness

Rule 1: individual should aim at long term personal ‘happiness’.

What does happiness mean?

Sense of present mental and (to some extent) physical,well being, not being unduly concerned with future (noserious anxiety), or past (guilt, regret, anger withinreasonable limits).a feeling of freedom (the feeling that I can do what I pleasebut I do not choose to do what is ‘forbidden’).a feeling that the universe and ‘others’ are benign andindeed like or love the individual.

Equivalently

‘Mood’ is slightly elevated.

Practical Ethics

Happiness

Mood

Mood

What is mood?

The state of mind as captured by how we perceive ourselves inrelation to the present environment, past actions, futureprospects, whether positively or negatively, to what degree.

Practical Ethics

Happiness

Mood

Control of Mood

Mood can be controlled temporarily and in the long term bymany techniques.

Safest: Control through routines related to sleep, exercise,relaxation, diet, social interaction, change ofscene.

Control through modes of thought which improveself esteem and help perceive others as benign.

These are slow and time tested.More drastic: medication- should only be done with

professional help.

Practical Ethics

Happiness

Physical and Mental well being

Physical and Mental well being

Physical: Organs, particularly the brain to be kept in goodhealth –good routines – sleep, food, exercise.

Mental: self discipline in order to feel free, doing what isrequired to keep the mood mildly elevated on theaverage, improving self esteem, increasing thefeeling that others and universe are benign,focusing largely on the present.

Anxiety, anger, dwelling on imponderables (whoam I? what is the purpose of life?) not forbiddenbut must be within control.

Use could be made of religious feelings andreligious routines.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy

No hurt policy

Recall . . .

Rule 2. Individual should not ‘hurt’ others –Should preferably be invariably kind.

Rule 2. is related to Rule 1., is consistent with it

Do unto others . . .Dealing benignly with others, thereby increasing one’s ownhappiness.Thinking benign globally and acting locally.Degree of trust and loyalty depending on nearness tooneself– Family, immediate community, next levelcommunity, . . . , nation . . .

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy

Communicating with others


One should be truthful as far as possible. Lying is natural,is not totally forbidden (in the sense that what one speaksmay not be literally correct eg white lies) but should beavoided in all essential matters; should not gainsubstantially by it.Truth is easier to remember than the infinity of possible lies.Excessive lying is noticed by others and the individual isbranded as unreliable.Also (this is very serious)lying affects one’s own view of external reality, one startsbelieving one’s own lies.Perhaps should use three valued logic - truth, falsehood,silence.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Negative feelings towards others

Excessive suspicion builds anxiety, anger, hurts physicaland mental health, others noticeEnvy, greed – these are natural but do not appear to beessential for survival currently. These are noticed by othersand perceived as harmful to them.They lead also to personal discontent, reduction in selfesteem.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Dealing with Negative Feelings

Whenever others feel individual can hurt them, theirreaction leads to a strengthening of individual’s ownnegative feelings.All negative feelings should therefore be hidden to a lesseror greater extent from others – depending on theirnearness to oneself.Attempts must also be made to reduce these feelings.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Dealing with Negative Feelings

Mechanisms for hiding:Politeness, manners, muted gestures particularly facial.Strategy:

1 Appear ‘normal’2 Do not needlessly reveal your disagreement with others’

opinions but avoid lying.

To reduce negative feelings one could act positive, try tohelp others, to be kind.The reaction to such acts will usually be positive andthereby reduce one’s own negative feelings.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Caring

Be concerned with others’ well being.Excessive self interest clashes with others’ interest andthey notice it. The individual’s anxiety,anger increase dueto perceived losses.Taking care of one’s family or one’s pet is better thanworrying about oneself.(One’s own ‘aches and pains’ are interesting to oneself soone can get obsessed with them.) But, taking care of ‘nearand dear’ ones has some of the disadvantages of beingobsessed with oneself.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Caring

Do good to people whose well being does not directlyimpinge on one’s own mental peace - Mother Theresamethod.

This increases one’s self esteem, gives a ‘purpose’ to one’slife, leads to an increase in one’s own long term happiness.

Practical Ethics

No hurt policy


Dealing with Laws

Avoid violating ‘laws’ as far as possible – even the letter,but definitely the spirit.Punishments and the threat of punishments will reducepersonal well being or the sense of well being.Personal rules should be stricter than laws so that onefeels free.

Practical Ethics

Religion

Religion

What is the place of religion in all this?Religious feeling and ‘religious experience’ may beregarded as a part of human nature, since we seesimilarities in the experiences of ‘mystics’ all over theworld.These are personal and truly sacred for all of us.One can use these to get a feeling that the universe isbenign and indeed that one is a part of the whole.

Practical Ethics

Religion

Organized Religion

Organized religion is useful in defining a community towhich one is responsible. It is useful in making theindividual less self centred. Rituals improve mood.Organized religion is evil when it breeds hatred towards‘others’. History is replete with instances of enormousmisery brought about by this hatred.

Practical Ethics

Ethics in scientific activity

Ethics in scientific activity:the context

For an individual, as a way of life, being a research worker hassome great advantages and some serious difficulties.

Practical Ethics


Research as a way of life:advantages

Doing research allows the individual to ‘escape’ life in arelatively safe way.

When one is involved in it, it is often exciting and keeps themind occupied, essentially allowing one to ‘forget’ oneself.When a difficult problem is solved, there is a relatively safemood elevation that can last a long time.

Since it requires serious mental effort one naturally tends to getback to day to day living after some time. So the dangers ofbeing cut off from reality are usually not serious.

Practical Ethics


Research as a way of life:disadvantages

When research is not going well, such as when one is stuck ata problem for months, or, additionally, in the case ofexperimental work, one is beset by equipment malfunction orshortage of funds, negative feelings come to the fore. Inserious cases, the individual can get clinically depressed.

Sometimes, even when research is going well, sleep can bedisturbed to an extent that affects both physical and mental wellbeing.

Practical Ethics


How free is the research worker?

A research worker is not entirely free unless he is a theoristwith independent means. Even in this case, since mostresearch workers would like acceptance by the community ofscientists in their area, by being able to publish their results,there is the constraint of ‘going with the flow’.

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Figures of merit for professional research

Modern professional research, at the mundane level, hasacquired a quantitative bias for its figures of merit.

Researcher is ‘good’ if he publishes many adequate papers injournals of acceptable standard rather than a few paperstackling hard problems.Papers are ‘good’ if they are cited often.

Many middle level awards depend upon quantity rather thanquality.

The chances of acquiring a middle level award, and even howwell an experimentalist is funded also depends on how manysuch awards one has obtained in the past. A research worker’sprofessional advancement depends on the above figures ofmerit.

Practical Ethics


Research: the temptation

Since there are substantial benefits if a research worker scoreshigh in the ‘research figure of merit’, there is a natural tendencyfor any research worker to aim directly at ‘appearing good’rather than to concentrate on his/her work and treat ‘appearinggood’ as a byproduct.

When this is within limits, only the quality of research and theresearcher’s own mental state deteriorate.

When it is out of control, the code of scientific ethics can beviolated.

Practical Ethics


Scientific Ethics: Rules

Rule 1. When you state your results, do not knowingly utterfalsehood.Rule 2. Give credit where it is due.

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Scientific ethics: being truthful

The results of a paper can sometimes be wrong even when theauthor is a great scientist.

For instance statements of theorems may not be fully correct -sometimes even fully wrong- because of a flaw in the proofwhich has misled the author.Experimental results can be completely wrong because certainimportant factors affecting the outcome of the experiment wereover looked.

The above are not unethical and no author is punished by thesystem for committing these errors. Scientific endeavour doesnot suffer greatly because of them. Indeed, usually somethingis learnt because of these errors, if the author or someone else,while pointing them out, also analyzes them.

Practical Ethics


Scientific ethics: consequences of falsehood

In theoretical work, people usually would not knowingly publisha wrong result because, if it is interesting, others would attemptto understand it and discover the error. It would be interpretedby the community that the author was not skilled enough tonotice the error. This would damage the author’s reputation.

In experimental work, deliberate falsification is very difficult todetect since repeating someone’s experiment is timeconsuming and expensive. But the author is deliberatelymisleading the direction of research the entire community isundertaking. Therefore, in the rare instances where falsificationis proved, the system deals very harshly with the perpetrator,essentially terminating his/her professional career.

Practical Ethics


Research:giving credit

Scientists deserve credit for their work. When it is correctlyaccorded, the person concerned is motivated to continue doingresearch. When a deserving scientist is denied credit, usuallythe person would become bitter and get side tracked fromcontinuing the involvement in research.

It is in the interest of the community that whenever newresearch is reported the work on which it rests is dealt with careand fairness and due credit is given to these earlier workers(‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you ’).

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Why shouldn’t we plagiarize?

One is robbing others of credit.Plagiarism is universally condemned as againstprofessional ethics. When it is committed, it is very easy todetect and the punishment is certain and harsh.Some alleged plagiarism only violates the letter not thespirit, but even this gets punished currently. So extra carehas to be taken to see that one is not committing‘inadvertent’ plagiarism.So, whenever a material (text, table, figure, photograph ...)is taken from a source verbatim, the source should beimmediately stated and also the fact that the material isverbatim.

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Beyond the code

The researcher should actively resist the temptation to ‘appeargood’ rather than concentrating on being ‘good’. It is better toadopt a personal code which enables one to do this. This couldbe regarded as working towards long term personal happiness.

Practical Ethics


Beyond the code

One’s natural tendency is to grab as much credit as possible foroneself or for one’s immediate group and ‘damn’ others’contributions ‘with faint praise’. However, all of us appreciategenerosity in others even if we ourselves have difficulty in beinggenerous. So active efforts must be made to be generous asfar as possible. (eg. Einstein’s generosity to Bose.)

Practical Ethics


Beyond the code

Established workers should always be on the lookout fordetecting and nurturing talent particularly among thedisadvantaged. When such talent is discovered the entireresearch community is inspired. (eg. Hardy discoveringRamanujan).

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember whatpeace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with allpersons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, eventhe dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to thespirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain andbitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons thanyourself.

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Desiderata

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a realpossession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full oftrickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many personsstrive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Desiderata

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection.

Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity anddisenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Desiderata

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrenderingthe things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourself with imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Desiderata

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and thestars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe isunfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him tobe, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisyconfusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still abeautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann 1927

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Desiderata

THANK YOU

Practical Ethics

Desiderata

Prof. H Narayanan on personal ethics

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