Composition instructors face ethical challenges every day in their professional lives—when they are required to act in their teaching practice, in their interactions with students, and in their relationships with their colleagues, departments, and schools. Many times such actions are made due to on the spot decisions rather than carefully arrived at through a thoughtful, informed decision-making process, and likewise are often defended by an on the spot justification. However, when a composition instructor arrives at a professional decision by considering his or her own personal ethical values and how she or he has come to possess those beliefs (Boylan 4; Palmer 10; Weimer 23; Brookfield, The Skillful Teacher 17; Fink 71; Richlin 9), then such
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The term postmodern ethics, for the purposes of this study, might be best thought of as ethics influenced by a postmodern age. Zygmunt Bauman claims that “Human reality is messy and ambiguous—and so moral decisions, unlike abstract ethical principles, are ambivalent. It is in this sort of world that we must live . . . . Knowing that to be the truth . . . is to be postmodern” (32). Since human reality, according to postmodernism, is messy, it can be no wonder that the postmodern view of ethics is also not …show more content…
While postmodern ethics accepts that the field of ethics studies what actions are right or good, it claims that the criteria used for evaluating an action determine the ethicality of that action, rather than the outcome of that action. In other words, the outcome of the action is irrelevant—only the process of deciding which action to take determines the ethicality of the action. Furthermore, it also claims that consideration of the Other, the “neighbor” who is or will be affected by those actions, is paramount (Bauman 12, 4, 84). The Other is so important, Bauman claims, that “he will be the gatekeeper of moral life” (85). Postmodern ethics, for this dissertation, will be used in this manner—that there can be no one set of rules that will always determine a correct, moral answer; that the process of deciding what is ethical is, in fact, ethics in and of itself; and such decision-making cannot be ethically completed without considering the impact that the decision will have on those who will be affected by the action that results from the decision-making
The term postmodern ethics, for the purposes of this study, might be best thought of as ethics influenced by a postmodern age. Zygmunt Bauman claims that “Human reality is messy and ambiguous—and so moral decisions, unlike abstract ethical principles, are ambivalent. It is in this sort of world that we must live . . . . Knowing that to be the truth . . . is to be postmodern” (32). Since human reality, according to postmodernism, is messy, it can be no wonder that the postmodern view of ethics is also not …show more content…
While postmodern ethics accepts that the field of ethics studies what actions are right or good, it claims that the criteria used for evaluating an action determine the ethicality of that action, rather than the outcome of that action. In other words, the outcome of the action is irrelevant—only the process of deciding which action to take determines the ethicality of the action. Furthermore, it also claims that consideration of the Other, the “neighbor” who is or will be affected by those actions, is paramount (Bauman 12, 4, 84). The Other is so important, Bauman claims, that “he will be the gatekeeper of moral life” (85). Postmodern ethics, for this dissertation, will be used in this manner—that there can be no one set of rules that will always determine a correct, moral answer; that the process of deciding what is ethical is, in fact, ethics in and of itself; and such decision-making cannot be ethically completed without considering the impact that the decision will have on those who will be affected by the action that results from the decision-making