Ethicists Revealed
March 31, 2019
I did not want to release this item on April Fool’s Day. The story which caught my attention was “A Study of Ethicists Finds They’re No More Ethical Than the Rest of Us (and No Better at Calling Their Mothers).” I assume this article contains “real” facts and is “real” news. Here’s what I circled with my True Blue marker, the same one I used to annotate Kritik der Urteilskraft:
A study of 417 professors published last week in Philosophical Psychology found that, though the 151 ethics professors expressed stricter moral views, they were no better at behaving ethically.
Here’s an example of one finding:
Most people agreed that not calling one’s mother was poor form: 75% of non-philosophers, 70% of non-ethicists and 65% of ethicists thought that not doing so was immoral. And, when it came to following through, the majority did manage to contact their mothers at least twice a month: 87% of ethicists did so, alongside 81% of non-ethicist philosophers, and 89% of non-philosophers. As with most moral acts, the researchers found no clear link between ethical expertise and ethical behavior.
Remarkable information. Is it ethical to say that?
Stephen E Arnold, March 31, 2019
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