Ethics In Public Life

Public Ethics
Public ethics is related to public life. Public life means that vast collection of political, cultural, social and economic structures, organizations and institutions, including the workplace, which make up cohesive societies. People who are engaged in leadership positions and who actually influence the lives of others are engaged in public life. A society is said to be healthy if there is a widespread participation by its citizens in public affairs and in the institutions that make up civil society. Each of us has the obligation to contribute to the building of social capital, that is to say, to the forces and influences which bind us in community spirit and concern for each other. David Gill referring to the subject of Public

David Gill of the University of Southern California cuts to the heart of the matter concerning private and public ethics with a brilliant assessment of the relationship between the two. He says “It is impossible to maintain a clear and precise distinction between social ethics and personal (individual) ethics. No individual behavior is without social implications. No social situation or problem is without individual repercussions. According to Gill, public policy and social ethics are intertwined.
Ethics in private and public relationships is also based onsome moralvalues. These are trustworthiness, respect,responsibility, fairness, caring, openness, loyalty, integrity, forthright-communication, co-operation and many more. These ethicalvalues guide our choices. The standards of conduct that arise out of these values constitute the ground rules of ethics, and therefore of ethical decision-making.
1. Trustworthiness: When others trust us, they believe in us and hold us in higher esteem. That’s satisfying. At the same time, we must constantly live up to the expectations of others and refrain from even small lies or self-serving behavior that can quickly destroy our

Loyalty: Some relationships— husband-wife, employer-employee, citizen-country — create an expectation of allegiance, fidelity and devotion. Loyalty is a responsibility to promote the interests of certain people, organizations or affiliations. Loyalty requires us to keep some information confidential. When keeping a secret breaks the law threatens others.However, we may have a responsibility to "blow the whistle."
6. Respect: People are not things, and everyone has a right to be treated with dignity. We certainly have no ethical duty to hold all people in high esteem, but we should treat everyone with respect, regardless of who they are and what they have done. We have a responsibility to be the best we can be in all situations, even when dealing with unpleasant people.
7. Responsibility: Life is full of choices. Being responsible means being in charge of our choices and, thus, our lives. It means being accountable for what we do and who we are. It also means recognizing that our actions matter and we are morally on the hook for the consequences. Our capacity to reason and our freedom to choose make us morally autonomous and, therefore, answerable for whether we honor or degrade the ethical principles that give life meaning and