My General Principle of Ethics

I have always had ethical problems with Immanuel Kant and strict duty-based ethics. I don’t think a strict duty-based ethics is immoral, just not human. Mr. Kant believes that you should always act in accordance with duty. Your most important duty is based on a ranking system of obligations within the categorical imperative. Although, Kantian deontology allows for a duty to be happy and towards self-improvement, these are not ranked highly in the obligation chain. More importantly these are seen as valuable only as they contribute towards your duty.

Always doing your duty is a repulsive concept. As a human we have passions, make mistakes, make jokes, do the wrong thing, and have fun. We do these things not because they are valuable in contributing to something else, but because we value them as part of the human experience, in themselves. The sterility of life being lived only according to duty is inhuman. Being constrained to not generally pursue happiness, but instead having to follow a list of duties, is inhuman. We should get to value happiness as a worthy pursuit in itself.

Kant justifies his ethics of duty in the concept of self-dignity. We do these duties because we have respect for ourselves. I agree with Kant that dignity is an important concept and should be highly valued. We should certainly value the concept of obligation that contributes to dignity. Since we value dignity so highly, in many situations an obligation should overrule our hedonistic tendencies to pursue happiness. But dignity is not our only value. Even if you assume it were the cardinal value, it is precisely because of this self-dignity that we can not always follow duty. Always following duty is not treating yourself with respect. In certain situations there are other worthy ends that should be pursued at the expense of duty.

The best way to look at ethics in my opinion is to avoid making broad principles. Instead one should look at the details of individual situations and evaluate based on our previous experiences. In each individual decision one should evaluate which value or values are of the most importance. In some situations it will be obligation. In other situations it will be happiness, or whatever other values or sub-values is deemed to be most important. Some small detail could change what is most important. Also certain values playing together could over rule a value that would be seen as greater than either part. I would identify this ethic as a situational prima facie value based ethic.

To avoid all the technical jargon, we should make ethical decisions based on our experiences, not on broad principles. We should look at individual cases, look at our past experience, and render judgment based on what values are most important in this particular situation. That seems like the most human way to approach ethics, especially since it allows for improvement and growth of morality.

Law School Begins

The Law School Dean on the first day mentioned how a large quantity of students become alcoholics or use drugs in law school and that we should take great care to avoid them. She also talked about the extreme stress and pressure that law school creates. That law school is on a bell curve. In order to have some A’s, there had to be some poor grades, regardless of caliber. The quantity of material necessary to read and comprehend is immense. But, to do that notably better than others, is a gigantic pressure. She claimed that there are more law students in need of psychological help then in any other department at school.

Can you really blame students, for becoming over competitive, abusing alcohol and drugs, and needing psychological help when we are placed in such a competitive environment? When put in a zero-sum, dog-eat-dog environment, students will do whatever it takes to reach the level of success they believe they need, regardless of consequences.

I believe both society and law schools are in error in forcing this kind of situation. Society should not value success at any price. There are certain values that are more important than being the best. Among these are health, friendship, family, and happiness among many other possibilities. There is nothing wrong with making your best effort within your value system and not doing the best in the class. But there is something wrong with treating yourself poorly and compromising your values.

The law schools are also to blame for the situation. All law schools to my knowledge grade on a strict curve, on a more or less, one final basis. In order for someone to do well, someone must also do poorly. This is despite of the fact that both legal analyses could be correct and well organized. It is true one has to be better than the other and there needs to be a hierarchical system to place in a limited job market. But there does not need to be a system of constant pressure, to create that ranking. I think it is an error to value the benefits of competition in constant pressure over a system that allows for a more balanced and healthy life with less competition.

I am not advocating that the challenge should be removed. Law school should be challenging. Nor am I advocating that people shouldn’t be diligent in their studies. They should. I don’t advocate babying people. Life is a contact sport and sometimes difficult decisions need to be made.

But, we can do better.

We can surely design a system that still evaluates individuals’ caliber, but does not encourage such intense competition. We can encourage people to stick to their values and to have mentally healthy behavior, instead of stressing out in competition. Alcohol addictions and performance enhancing drugs, such as aderall, are not worth compromising our integrity. We can help find interesting career options without being the best. We can encourage hard work, but a balance of other values, as well.

I am only one week into law school. But regardless of if I am in the top 10 or bottom 10 percent, there are certain things that I refuse to compromise. After getting berated by a professor and being concerned that I may not be the smartest person in the class anymore. I realize that it’s not worth worrying about. What is worth worrying about is keeping your values under adverse and competitive conditions. Sure I want to be in the top of my class and want to work hard. But I don’t want to give up what makes us most human. Our society needs to advocate that morality is of more importance than success.