This is regarding “Can you teach a person ethics? Iraqi allegations; Hiring probes; Enron; Right and wrong seem to be elusive concepts” (Page 1, June 7).
The article raises a timely question.
The very idea of discipline in parenting indicates that it is indeed possible to teach a person a particular code of ethics.
The more critical question for our day, however, remains: “Whose ethics?”
Therein lies the dilemma, for a post-modern culture that embraces tolerance has allowed for the incubation of moral relativity. And such relativity brings with it the deterioration of ethical moorings and the very notion of justice.
For example, if we truly believe that each of us should live according to the dictates of his or her own conscience, on what grounds, then, can we condemn Enronian business practices, battlefield misconduct or even pedophiliac pursuits?
And yet, we do condemn them, and rightfully so. Because behind the noble rhetoric advocating for the acceptance of all points of view, we know that right and wrong do exist. That acknowledgement invites the possibility of certain necessary moral absolutes. And with it, perhaps, we have taken our first step to answering the question, “Whose ethics?”
