Background: Can Ethics Be Taught?

Can Ethics Be Taught?

Can ethics be taught? Well, it depends on what you mean by 'teaching,' and also what you mean by 'ethics.'

I argued earlier that there are large disagreements about what ethics even is. Is it about approval? Or power? Or justice? Or prudence?

Let me give you my position: I will argue, later on, that ethics is really just about well-being – both about the well-being of other people, and also about your own well-being. This means that ethics is about both justice and prudence.

So earlier, I gave you a formal (although correct and uncontroversial) definition of ethics - the study of if and how to justify moral judgments. But given what I have just told you about my own position on ethics, let me given you my definition of ethics: the study of human well-being.

This means that ethical concern in general, for instance 'acting ethically,' or being an 'ethical person' is rooted in a concern with human well-being. So if we say you are 'acting ethically,' we mean that you are acting with human well-being in mind.

So, can concern for human well-being be taught? In a sense, no, of course not. There is nothing I can do to make you care about other people's well-being (and if for some reason you don't care about your own well-being, I can't do much about that either!)

But if you already care about human well-being, we will hopefully have some interesting times ahead! Because on the one hand caring for human well-being is the simplest thing that there is. But to do it well - really well - requires us to think deeply about several issues.

So my final answer: ethics can be taught to people who care about human well-being!

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