Questions
- Can ethics be taught in educational institutions? Does the awareness of ethical reasoning make a person more ethical? (10)
- Attitude has a huge role to play in personal as well as professional lives of individuals. Explain. (10)
Integrated Prelims + Mains Test Series
For UPSC Prelims and Mains 2023
Model Solutions
Q1. Can ethics be taught in educational institutions? Does the awareness of ethical reasoning make a person more ethical?
Model Structure
Introduction
- As Theodore Roosevelt noted, to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.
Main Body
It is highly desirable to have ethics as a discipline in educational institutions and it can impact students in the following ways:
- Studying ethics can make students less dogmatic and more tolerant?
- It will expose students to various alternative lines of reasoning about day to day scenarios.
- It will give an opportunity to think and become more clear about their own value commitments.
- Classes give students a safe place to talk about moral disagreements. They provide students with the language and social license to discuss topics they would not have otherwise felt comfortable bringing up, such as their moral concerns with shady practices they have observed.
- Teaching morality is not about inculcating substantive positions. The purpose isn’t necessarily to answer questions, but to raise them, and at the same time to provide students with a method (rules, or boundaries) in accordance with which the questions must be discussed.
- While there may never be consensus on the ‘right answer’ in ethics, ethics courses will help in improving the reasoning and reflecting on our intuitions, principles and values by challenging students to provide reasons for their views, and to counter the reasons of others without invoking flawed arguments or fallacies.
Conclusion
- Many scholars have raised questions on the efficacy of ethics courses being taught. They contend that it merely makes them aware of various kinds of ethical reasoning, but does not make a person more ethical. However, by equipping the people with ethical reasoning, it reduces unethical actions caused due to ignorance. When more and more individuals are ethically aware, it increases the propensity for ethical behavior.
Q2. Attitude has a huge role to play in personal as well as professional lives of individuals. Explain. (Answer in 150 words)
Model structure
Introduction
- Attitude is a learned predisposition to think, feel, perceive and act in a particular way towards any external or internal object. That object may be tangible or intangible and include any individual, organization or a social issue.
Main body
- Functions of attitude in personal life-
- Promotes positive thinking and forward looking mindset. Failures come and go but rather than feeling defeated, one must learn from it and avoid repeating mistakes.
- Helps maintain acceptance, good behavior and understanding. It further helps in maintaining balance between personal and professional life.
- Brings empathy and self belief. Even with continuous rejections, one can make a comeback with a positive attitude.
- Functions in professional life-
- Important for courage and honesty in public life as it helps uphold rule of law and take on violators of law and order.
- Helps prevent corruption as an attitude of accountability and impartiality helps to further organizational interests.
- Brings compassion and objectivity which helps discharge duties properly.
- Emotional intelligence is developed which helps balance personal and professional life and manage stress.
Conclusion
Right attitude is indispensable for excellent growth of personality in professional life. To quote Thomas Jefferson, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal, nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”
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