03 VAME

Value, attitude, moral, ethics

• mental construct used as instrument of behaviour regulation
• helps in
  • guiding decision making
  • influencing choices
  • directing our behaviour

What is VAME made of?

VAME

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Belief

• internal feeling that something is true, w/o proof
• mental conviction held by individual or grp

Features of belief

• inherently personal, vary from one person to another
• based on evidence, experience, teaching, intuition, superstition, culture, society, family
• influence behaviour, emotions, decision making process
• 2 types: core, peripheral
  • both can be challenged, but core difficult to change
  • core = long lasting, based on preferences called values

Belief	Value
Lying wrong	honesty
cheating immoral	loyalty
god created universe	religiousnes
women are weak, need care	patriarchy

Emotions

• bodily arousal which is reaction to an event, either internal or external
• emotions reflected through action and when expressed through appropriate action, it gives sense of relief

Behavioral tendency

• desire for action but doesn’t guarantee action
• eg. X believes corruption is root cause of all problems -> generates emotion (anger) but no guarantee he’ll be whistle blower

Characteristic features

Static vs Dynamic

• VAME source of identity
• investment wrt cost, time, energy, emotions
• thus not dynamic; its rather permanent

Change accommodated in following ways

• admitting different behaviour under same values
  • eg. diff manifestations of patriarchy
• when sudden experience in life
  • Samrat Ashoka post Kalinga War
  • Angulimal and his interaction with Gautam Buddha
  • Covid 19
• drastic change in env
  • radicalization by anti social elements, social media

Culture specific vs universal

• values bind ppl together
• society survival requires stability and harmony
• pre-requisite for stability and harmony is value consensus
• hence some values are culture specific

West	India
Individualism	Collectivism
Competition	Cooperation
Secularization	Strong religious orientation
Consumerism	Delayed gratification

• However, some values transcend boundary of society (are universal) eg love, compassion, happiness
  • Compassion = empathy + desire for action
  • empathy = imaginatively placing yourself in place of others to understand their emotional profile
  • antipathy = negative value system towards others
  • apathy = indifferent attitude

Absolute vs Relative

Absolute	Relative
Truth is truth, even if nobody speaks it	Nothing is right or wrong for eternity
if something is right, its always right in all contexts, hence no wrong way of doing right	depends upon circumstances, society, culture, context
eg. Robinhood not ethical, Kantian Ethics	Eg. Euthanasia, Surrogacy, Live in
Gautam Buddha: Being kind more imp than being right.

Wrt. Newton Movie, lesson learnt was one shouldn’t take pride in duty that was expected when one joined the services.

Subjective vs Objective (wrt Individual)

Sujective	Objective
Value isn’t property of object, but perspective of subject	value of object independent of subject
Beauty lies in eyes of beholder	plato -> beauty objective value
eg. Live in, homosexuality, adoption, surrogacy, capital punishment	Peace, discipline, integrity, compassion, happiness, duties

Interrelationship b/w VAME

VAME interconnection

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• not every value can be seen in prism of right or wrong eg creativity, beauty, adventure, curiosity
• hence only those values which can be evaluated in light of right or wrong at individual => moral and collective => ethics

Ethics vs Morals

Parameters	Ethics	Morals
Concepts	What is right to do for an actor in situation	standards of behaviour set by individual for himself
source	external/society	internal/individual
Why	May lead to social boycott	generate guilt, anxiety, remorse
Flexibility	collective preposition of society, more objective than morals	highly subjective, varies from individual to individual
Case Study: distribution under PDS only to Aadhar linked Ration Card. If family recently migrated, no link, genuinely starving?

• Administrative ethics
  • deny ration as per rule
• morality
  • provide ration despite lack of aadhar linkage to alleviate hunger of family
  • provide support in linking

Crisis of Conscience

• Conscience: intuitive authoritative judgement wrt morality of action

crisis of conscience is a situation when

• you worry because you did something wrong
• confronted by ethical dilemmas (i.e. forced to choose action against your conscience eg Arjun)
• sense of guilt
• eg.
  • Inertia to appear as witness in criminal case
  • employee discovering illegal activities within company; CoC as not able to decide whether to report and risk job + relationship or stay silent to protect his career
  • IAS; peaceful protest (constitutional right), but order from snr to disperse crowd
  • Dr. Savita’s medical termination of pregnancy case
• to overcame CoC, require wisdom, courage, integrity
• Conscience is like a dog, which can never bite, but never stops barking.

Being ethical is sine qua non for maintaining social cohesion.

Source of Ethics

• ONE OF THE SOURCE of ethics = NORMS
• Norms = informal guidelines wrt behaviour of individual
  • agreed upon by societal members, binding on all individual
  • can be referred as societal expectaions
  • eg. folding hands to greet, touching feet of elder, caste endogamy
  • tool for social control to ensure conformity and uniformity and check deviance
• any digression from existing norms might lead to social boycott / ostracization
• higher stage of evolution of norms is laws

Laws and ethics

• answers what is the right thing to do
  • can have multiple answers depending on source of ethics
• Hence need for minimum enforceable standard of behaviour common to all = laws

What are laws?

• external set of standards wrt behaviour of individual imposed by appropriate authority based on ethical framework
• obj = ensure social order by controlling immoral behaviour
• societal sanctions, hence plays significant role in smooth functioning of society
• ethics = moral compass when law silent
  • first line of defence against disapproved behaviour, whereas laws are remedial and reactive
    

    ethics compass

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