What is Ethics? Ethics is the search for the good People try to decide what is right and wrong for many situations However, many thinkers believe that there is no such thing as one kind of ethics which is appropriate for every situation The most basic form of ethics is the Golden Rule: Why you think that the Golden Rule is so universal? Are there exceptions to it? Here are a few examples of an ethical dilemma A dilemma a hard choice with no easy answer This situation was proposed by the writer Sartre to demonstrate the problem with ethics A young man is the only child of a widowed mother His mother is elderly and sick, and he must look after her Their country has been invaded by another country (Sartre was French as wrote this as the Nazis had invaded France) He feels a responsibility to his country, but also to his mother What should he choose? Can we say that he is wrong if he makes one choice over another? Two sailors are in a shipwreck There is only one plank floating in the water which they can hold on to, but it can only support one person They both see this and swim as hard as they can to reach it Sailor A reaches it first, and pushes Sailor B away Sailor B soon drowns Is Sailor A guilty of murder? A Cable Car breaks loose on Powell St., and runs out of control There are 10 people on it They are coming down towards a big truck, and they will certainly die if they hit the truck An operator is watching, and he can turn a switch which will move the car, but also hit a man who just happens to be crossing the street Should he it? Ethical dilemmas can also be more personal You see your friend cheating on a test The exam is graded on a curve, so if he scores too high it will affect your grade and others in the class Do you report it to the teacher? Should you give a homeless man money if you have some extra? You are a factory worker and see many unsafe practices at your work The problems are so bad that if you tell the authorities (“blow the whistle”) about the problems, the factory will be shut down and a whole town will lose lots of work and have a bad economy What should you do?