Essence of Ethics | UPSC Ethics Notes (GS Paper IV)
Meaning of Essence
The term essence refers to the intrinsic quality or core nature of something that defines its identity and character.
Thus, the essence of ethics refers to the fundamental features, significance, and indispensable properties that characterize ethical thinking and human conduct.
Essence of Ethics
Ethics is the foundation of human morality and social harmony. It helps individuals and societies decide what is right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. The following key features define the essence of ethics:
1. Ethics Defines What Is Good or Bad
- Ethics helps individuals differentiate between right and wrong, good and evil, and moral and immoral behavior.
- It serves as a guide for personal conduct and decision-making.
Example: Helping the needy is considered ethically good, while cheating or corruption is unethical.
2. Ethics Is Not Formed in Isolation
- Ethical values are not inborn; they are shaped by external influences such as family, society, education, and culture.
- Interaction between one’s genetic setup and environment determines moral development.
Example: A person learns honesty or empathy through social experiences, not by birth.
3. Ethics Is Both Shaped by and Shapes Society
- Ethics and society influence each other.
- Ethical evolution happens when great individuals or reformers challenge existing wrongs.
Example: Social acceptance of slavery or untouchability changed due to ethical awareness brought by reformers like Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
4. Ethics Is Contextual and Dynamic
- Ethical meanings and intensity vary with time, place, and person.
- What is considered unethical in one culture may be normal in another.
Examples:
- Spitting or littering on roads is unethical in Europe but often ignored in India.
- Abortion and homosexuality are judged differently across countries.
5. Ethics Is Subjective in Nature
- Ethical judgments are influenced by personal emotions, perceptions, and beliefs.
- When emotions dominate reason, unethical behavior may result.
Examples:
- Acts of mob violence or cow vigilantism arise from conflicting ethical perceptions.
- Honor killings reflect distorted ethical views based on emotions.
6. Ethics Originates from the Sense of Justice
- The feeling of fairness and equality gives rise to ethical behavior.
- Even children display ethical reasoning through their sense of justice.
Example: A child condemns another child hitting someone, showing an innate belief in fairness (as protected under Article 21 – Right to Life and Dignity).
7. Ethics May Go Beyond Law
- Not all unethical acts are illegal, and not all legal acts are ethical.
- Ethics often transcends legal boundaries by appealing to conscience.
Example: A police officer refusing to help a victim because the incident occurred outside his jurisdiction is legal but unethical.
8. Ethics Is Sustained by Responsibility
- Ethics depends on one’s inner sense of duty and responsibility, not merely external accountability.
- A truly ethical person acts rightly even without supervision.
Example: Returning a lost wallet even when no one is watching.
9. Ethics Is Prescriptive in Nature
- Ethics tells people how they should behave.
- However, when ethical teachings are imposed without reasoning, people lose respect for them.
Example: Traditional family values may decline if their moral rationale is not explained to the youth.
10. Ethics Is Also Descriptive
- Ethics also studies existing moral standards of individuals and communities.
- It helps understand how people actually behave in society.
Example: Studying corruption or honesty patterns in bureaucracy is part of descriptive ethics.
11. Ethics Deals with Voluntary Human Actions
- Ethics evaluates only voluntary acts performed with free will.
- Coerced actions (under threat or force) are excluded from ethical judgment.
Example: If someone commits an act at gunpoint, it cannot be termed ethical or unethical.
12. Ethics Operates at Multiple Levels
- Ethics functions at individual, organizational, societal, political, and global levels.
- All these levels are interconnected — ethical decline in one affects the others.
Example: Corruption at the political level undermines ethics in administration and society.
13. Ethics Involves Analysis and Evaluation
- Ethics analyses and evaluates principles, laws, values, and moral codes to determine their justness.
- It questions whether existing norms promote human welfare and justice.
Example: Ethical evaluation of laws related to death penalty or privacy rights.
Essence of Ethics
| Feature | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Defines good/bad | Helps decide right or wrong conduct | Helping poor vs corruption |
| Not in isolation | Shaped by family, culture, and society | Learning honesty from parents |
| Shapes society | Ethics evolves through reformers | Gandhi ending untouchability |
| Contextual | Differs across time and place | Homosexuality laws |
| Subjective | Influenced by emotions and beliefs | Honor killings |
| Based on justice | Arises from fairness and equality | Child condemning injustice |
| Beyond law | Ethical acts not always legal | Police ignoring victim |
| Based on responsibility | Driven by inner conscience | Returning lost items |
| Prescriptive | Tells what ought to be done | Teaching family values |
| Descriptive | Studies existing moral behavior | Ethics surveys |
| Voluntary acts | Only free actions are judged | Not forced acts |
| Multi-level | Individual to global ethics | Political corruption |
| Analytical | Evaluates principles and laws | Death penalty debates |
Conclusion
The essence of ethics lies in its ability to guide human conduct through a balance of reason, emotion, and justice. Ethics helps individuals and societies evolve toward fairness, responsibility, and human dignity. It transcends law, religion, or custom and remains the moral compass of civilization.
Tags: UPSC Ethics Notes, Essence of Ethics, GS Paper 4, Ethics and Integrity, Civil Services Ethics, Public Administration, UPSC Study Material