What Is the Meaning of Ethical Responsibility?

Ethical responsibility encompasses moral and social behavior.

Ethical responsibility impacts almost every profession, from art to science to coaching to the criminal justice system to medical personnel, according to ChildLife.org. Ethical responsibility means fulfilling obligations in all ethical areas, or as many areas as possible. When an ethical dilemma occurs, involved individuals must choose between a wide variety of ethical principles and weigh which ones should be emphasized.

Aristotle and Ethics

Aristotle developed foundational principles of ethical responsibility that can be used in decision-making. Human acts can be categorized as either voluntary or non-voluntary (unintentional), according to DeAnza.edu. Responsibility, along with praise and blame, is a key factor in voluntary acts. Involuntary acts may be forced, while voluntary acts are done with knowledge of the situation and by deliberate choice. Aristotle defines negligence as not following common safety practices and recklessness as the failure to use caution. Acting out of ignorance means an act performed with unawareness, and acting in ignorance means an act performed without control. Incompetence means an inability to use, make or form sound decisions for a variety of reasons including immaturity, mental impairment or unconsciousness. When external pressures force a person to act in ways he normally would not, that is called duress.

Meta-ethics

Meta-ethics is an overview of the entire concept of ethics. The field of meta-ethics covers a wide range of issues including morality, spirituality, philosophical perspectives and semantics, according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The two main issues meta-ethics addresses are morality apart from humans (spiritual) and psychological influences related to the intellectual reasoning behind morality (mental).

Normative Ethics

Normative ethics applies morality to conduct, such as the Golden Rule. It answers the question--how do individuals and cultures determine appropriate behavior? Some schools use character traits to teach normative ethics to students and guide conduct based on these foundational principles. Actions are judged based on conduct. Normative ethics assumes there is just one standard of morality, according to DeAnza.edu.

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics uses practical but controversial situations, such as abortion or euthanasia. Two main points of consideration are generally used when deciding if an issue meets the applied ethics criteria. The issue should be both controversial and specifically moral, not political or social. Ethical responsibility helps participants determine how to arrive at a responsible moral conclusion in applied ethics.

Common Principles

Common ethical principles guide the lives of the general population and may be used in applied ethical discussions. These include personal benefit, social benefit, benevolence, paternalism (speaking on behalf of the vulnerable), harm, honesty, law-abiding, autonomy (a person's Independence), justice (legal rights), and rights (personal). These ethical principles guide responsible ethical choices and behavior.

References

• DeAnza College: Ethical Responsibility
• Child Life Council: Code of Ethical Responsibility
• Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ethics