THE MEANING OF ETHICS: 1. Describe mind tyrants and explain their significance to the study of ethics. Identify two original examples of mind tyrants. Mind tyrants are an individual’s thoughts and ideas that are influenced by customs, traditions, and social norms. These tyrants play a vital role in establishing what one might believe is right, wrong, good, or bad. Unfortunately, individuals sometimes fall victim to the tyrants that were created by their family, friends, and society, ignoring the fact that other societies and cultures have different beliefs. Mind tyrants are significant to the study of ethics because this mindset falls within the definition of ethical relativism, where an action is considered right or wrong depending
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MIND: 5. Write a 2-4K (1-2 typed pages) response answering the question, "Is the mind or is custom the primary source of moral conduct?" In your response you should identify the relationship of the mind and custom to moral conduct, then choose which you think is of more importance and defend your answer. Everyone has a set of values and beliefs. These beliefs are influenced by many factors, two of the factors beings custom and mind. Moral conduct is attributed to a set of customs of right and wrong that exist within a society. Socialization is an imperative process to learning moral conduct. The steps an individual takes to develop a sense of correct behavior can be guided by social norms. An individual learns what clothes to wear, what type of car to drive, how to shake someone’s hand, the best place to live, and other behavioral expectations that are deemed acceptable by social standards. The learning of morality is also impacted by parental teaching. Family customs and traditions, or folkways, play a crucial role in teaching moral conduct. These customs are deeply ingrained in an individual and are often learned during childhood. Laws include rules and regulations imposed by authority that becomes values and beliefs for a society (Warner, 2002, pp. 5-6). Socialization determines how to act and behave according to a set of rules. Customs flourish and are learned within a society; there are not created within one’s …show more content…
In the “Stanford Prison Study,” students were affected by institutional forces of the prison system. Even though all students were of healthy, normal and stable mental capacities, they took to the roles “inmate” and “guard” without prejudice. The inmates became disturbed, but more surprising is how the guards became violent and brutal, inflicting physical force and harassment. Outside the experiment, students wouldn’t have forced an individual to do something against their will. However, circumstantial factors created by the experiment established a faux authority where students viewed these actions as appropriate. “If Hitler asked you…” the “teacher,” influenced by authority, applied negative reinforcement by shocking the “learner” for each wrong answer. The study was originally conducted under the hypothesis that Germans have a character flaw to obey authority without question, “no matter what outrageous acts the authority commands.” The results showed that most human beings act uncharacteristically when endowed with circumstantial
MIND: 5. Write a 2-4K (1-2 typed pages) response answering the question, "Is the mind or is custom the primary source of moral conduct?" In your response you should identify the relationship of the mind and custom to moral conduct, then choose which you think is of more importance and defend your answer. Everyone has a set of values and beliefs. These beliefs are influenced by many factors, two of the factors beings custom and mind. Moral conduct is attributed to a set of customs of right and wrong that exist within a society. Socialization is an imperative process to learning moral conduct. The steps an individual takes to develop a sense of correct behavior can be guided by social norms. An individual learns what clothes to wear, what type of car to drive, how to shake someone’s hand, the best place to live, and other behavioral expectations that are deemed acceptable by social standards. The learning of morality is also impacted by parental teaching. Family customs and traditions, or folkways, play a crucial role in teaching moral conduct. These customs are deeply ingrained in an individual and are often learned during childhood. Laws include rules and regulations imposed by authority that becomes values and beliefs for a society (Warner, 2002, pp. 5-6). Socialization determines how to act and behave according to a set of rules. Customs flourish and are learned within a society; there are not created within one’s …show more content…
In the “Stanford Prison Study,” students were affected by institutional forces of the prison system. Even though all students were of healthy, normal and stable mental capacities, they took to the roles “inmate” and “guard” without prejudice. The inmates became disturbed, but more surprising is how the guards became violent and brutal, inflicting physical force and harassment. Outside the experiment, students wouldn’t have forced an individual to do something against their will. However, circumstantial factors created by the experiment established a faux authority where students viewed these actions as appropriate. “If Hitler asked you…” the “teacher,” influenced by authority, applied negative reinforcement by shocking the “learner” for each wrong answer. The study was originally conducted under the hypothesis that Germans have a character flaw to obey authority without question, “no matter what outrageous acts the authority commands.” The results showed that most human beings act uncharacteristically when endowed with circumstantial