Unit 1: Introduction to Ethics

Topics Covered
❖ Introduction: What is Ethics?
❖ Explanation of Syllabus
❖ Explanation of Syllabus (Part-02)
❖ Nature of Questions in Civil Services

INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS:
Ethics is a normative science that guides human conduct by distinguishing
between right and wrong. It serves as a dilemma-solving science, helping
individuals make morally sound decisions in complex situations.
❖ At its core, ethics is the science of inclusive and sustainable happiness,
aiming to promote well-being not just for individuals but for society at
large.
❖ It envisions holistic human development by fostering virtues and values
essential for a meaningful life.
❖ Ultimately, ethics is the science of the good life, dedicated to nurturing moral
character and guiding humanity toward a just and harmonious existence.

What is Science:
❖ Science is a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its
phenomena. It entails unbiased observations and systematic
experimentation, using reason. All sciences describe our world so that
humans can better understand it.

Types of science :
❖ Descriptive Science:
➢ A human being is a curious being who tries to understand everything
through questions like what, how, and why.
➢ Descriptive science is a rational explanation of curative questions like
why, what, and how to understand the world better. Examples are
political science, biology, chemistry, etc,

PW OnlyIAS 1 Class Notes

 ➢ It is also known as the science of facts as well as the science of ‘is’.
➢ The primary purpose of descriptive science(the science of is) is a better
understanding of the world and the primary purpose of normative
science(the science of should) is the betterment of the world
➢ Descriptive science is a science of facts(Natural World) which is divided
into the following facts:
 Facts of the physical world are known as physics.
 Facts of living beings is known as Biology.
 Facts of plants are known as Botany.
 Facts of chemical processes are known as Chemistry.
❖ The objective of descriptive sciences is to improve our understanding better
about the world in which we live.
❖ Religion explains this world through certain myths whereas descriptive
sciences explain the same world through facts.
❖ The objective of normative science is to make our world a better place to
live. It is also known as the science of norms, science of ideals or science of
should.

Note:
Normative science is the science of the artificial world whereas, descriptive
science is the science of the natural as well as the artificial world.

Descriptive Science:
❖ Descriptive science is a science of facts which is divided into the following
facts:
➢ Facts of the physical world are known as Physics.
➢ Facts about living beings are known as Biology.
➢ Facts of plants are known as Botany.
➢ Facts of chemical processes are known as Chemistry.
❖ The objective of descriptive sciences is to improve our understanding of the
world we live in.
❖ Religion explains this world through certain myths whereas descriptive
sciences explain the same world through facts.

PW OnlyIAS 2 Class Notes

Types of Sciences Based on the Questions:
Questions related to “Is”:
❖ Is of the natural world includes Physics, Biology, etc.
❖ Is of the artificial world talks about society (Society), religion (Theology), and
state (Polity).

Questions related to “should”:

❖ Questions related to “should” only be found in the artificial world.
❖ Questions related to the artificial world include polity, law, religion, state,
society, and decisions.

Note:
Normative science is the science of the artificial world whereas, descriptive
science is the science of the natural as well as the artificial world.

Normative Science:
❖ Normative science is a type of information that is developed, presented, or
interpreted based on an assumed, usually unstated, preference for a
particular outcome, policy, or class of policies or outcomes.
❖ It is also known as the science of ideals or the science of “should”.
❖ It is a science of ideas and used to study the artificial world. An example of
normative science is ethics.
❖ The objective of Normative Science is to make our world, life, and institution
better than what we have in the present.
❖ In normative science, we learn about the idea of the world, life, and
institutions.

Types of the World:

The world can be classified into:
❖ Natural world or Physical world: It is studied through the physics we
study.
❖ Artificial world: It represents the world made by humans. It is studied
through political science. Example: Political world like society, or state.

PW OnlyIAS 3 Class Notes

RTI as an Example:
❖ Descriptive science explains facts such as what is RTI, and the different
sections of the RTI.
❖ The normative approach studies evaluation, critical inquiry, and ideals of RTI.

Ethics is a science of dilemma-solving:

Ethics helps us deal with tough situations where values or principles conflict. It
provides a guide to making decisions in such scenarios.

❖ What is a Dilemma?
➢ A dilemma happens when you're stuck between two equally good
options but can only choose one.
❖ Examples of Dilemmas:
➢ Mahabharata Example: In the Mahabharata, there was a property
dispute between the Pandavas (5 brothers) and the Kauravas (100
brothers). This led to a war where many innocent people, uninvolved in
the conflict, lost their lives. Arjun, one of the Pandavas, faced a dilemma
between seeking justice and the devastating consequences of war.
➢ Non-Cooperation Movement: Gandhiji started the Non-Cooperation
Movement to achieve self-rule (Swaraj) through non-violence. However,
violence at Chauri Chaura made him question whether the goal justified
the means. Gandhiji’s commitment to non-violence influenced Indian
democracy deeply.
➢ Contemporary Dilemmas in the economy and foreign policy are the
welfare state vs laissez faire state, the Gujarat model vs Kerala model,
economic development vs human development, human rights vs
security, prioritization between national interest and global order,
rights vs privacy, and ecological balance vs development.
➢ Contemporary Dilemmas in Foreign policy:
 National Interest vs. Rule-Based Global Order: An example of the
tension between national interest and rule-based global order in
the context of India and China can be observed in their territorial
disputes, particularly concerning the border regions of Tibet and
Kashmir.

PW OnlyIAS 4 Class Notes

 ➢ Contemporary Dilemmas in Economic Sphere:
 Sen vs. Bhagwati (Kerala Model vs. Gujarat Model): This dilemma is
about the priority between human development and economic
development. The Sen’s model focuses on health, education, and
overall development of human life whereas the Bhagawati model
focuses on an increase in GDP, per capita income, and
infrastructure development.
➢ Contemporary Dilemmas in Social or Cultural Sphere:
 Faith vs. Reason: Wearing burkha is faith in religion, but in certain
institutions, such as schools, everyone has to follow norms related
to the dress code.
 Examples of cultural dilemmas are the beaf eating dilemma, the
Sabarimala temple issue, the dilemma of homosexuality, and the
dilemma of Jalikkatu.
❖ Hence ethics often involves addressing moral dilemmas and making
difficult decisions based on critical analysis of dilemmas in situations where
there are conflicting values or principles.

Ethics is a science of dilemma-solving:

❖ Ethics often involves addressing moral dilemmas and making difficult
decisions in situations where there are conflicting values or principles.
❖ It provides a framework for resolving such dilemmas.
❖ Some of the dilemmas are the welfare state vs less-affaire state, the
Gujarat model vs Kerala model, economic development vs human
development, Human Rights vs Security, prioritization between National
Interest and Global Order, rights vs privacy, and Ecological Balance vs
Development.

Ethics is a science of holistic human well-being:

❖ Here, being means essence. Essence also means common characteristics.
Examples: The essence of all knives is to cut. An increase in the sharpness
of the knife is a quality.
❖ Ethics as science gives certain models through which humans can achieve
holistic human being.

PW OnlyIAS 5 Class Notes

❖ Ethics is concerned with human well-being and flourishing.
❖ Humans are rational, emotive, moral, aesthetic, and spiritual beings. A
corrupted person automatically loses all these qualities.
❖ Most human beings identify themselves as bodily being. This phrase
suggests that human existence is fundamentally tied to the physical body.
All these beings separate humans from animals.
❖ Development of Characters such as aesthetic, rational, emotive, moral,
bodily, and social beings make human holistic well-being.
❖ Ethics provides answers to questions such as how to achieve holistic well-
being or what kind of life we should live.
❖ According to Karl Marx, capitalism makes dehumanization( alienation from
habits, well-being, and social structures) which means earning profit is the
only essence of human life which makes humans a bodily being.
❖ Ethics is a science of holistic well-being or the idea of good life. There are
two types of good life narrower and broader.
Ethics is the science of sustainable and inclusive happiness:
❖ As science of happiness ethics performs two functions first is the
identification of the source of pain or suffering and second one is the
identification of means for the elimination of pain or suffering and
achievement of sustainable happiness.
❖ To learn how ethics is a science of happiness, we have to study the following
models (context).
❖ We have taken the following three contexts, through which we will
understand how ethics and happiness are correlated.

Indian Ethical Context:

Buddhist Ethics:
❖ The core concern of Siddhartha was that he paid attention to human
suffering.
❖ Questions raised by Buddha include,
➢ “Is suffering real”,
➢ “What is the root cause of suffering”,
➢ “How to eliminate suffering” and
➢ “Menace to eliminate suffering.”

PW OnlyIAS 6 Class Notes

❖ After getting all the above solutions, Siddhartha was enlightened and
became Buddha.
❖ Buddhas said ignorance is the root cause of all suffering or pain.
❖ Buddhist ethics is mainly about the causes and removal of suffering
through the “eightfold path (Ashtangika marga) to achieve sustainable and
inclusive happiness. For example, understanding of ignorance of Sati Partha
helps reduce Sati practice.
❖ The objective of Indian ethics is to remove suffering from society.
❖ Ambedkar connected ethics with justice. He said justice would bring
happiness into the lives of Shudras.
❖ In the Indian context, whether it is Buddhist ethics or Ambedkarit ethics,
these ethics are a menace to bringing inclusive happiness in human life.

Western Context:
Karl Marx (Marxist Ethics):
❖ Objective: what is the root cause of suffering or pain?
❖ According to Karl Marx, the root cause of pain is private property, which
creates inequalities and the formation of classes in society.
❖ He says the root cause of the suffering is the capitalist mode of production,
which leads to class formation( haves or have not) exploitation, alienation,
and inequality in society.
❖ He believed that capitalism creates economic disparities, fosters alienation
from one's labor, and perpetuates class hierarchy which leads to domination,
exploitation, and injustice, all contributing to human suffering(pain).
❖ Anything whether it is religion or culture, helps in the sustenance of the
capitalist models is unethical. The primary function of the marriage is the
sustenance of private property.
❖ According to Marx state is also controlled by the capitalist class.
❖ Marx proposed eliminating suffering through the establishment of
communism (Classless Society which includes communism of marriage as
well), where private ownership of menace of production is abolished, and
wealth and resources are distributed equally among the society.
❖ According to Karl Marx Communism is the only way of life that eliminates
human pain or suffering.
PW OnlyIAS 7 Class Notes
Contemporary Context:
❖ We are trying to understand how ethics are associated with happiness.
❖ Index of ethical ideas, which includes gender justice, fairness, democracy,
corruption perception, hunger index, and press freedom index.
❖ The top ten countries of the index of ethical ideas are more or less the same
and occupy the top position on the happiness index.
❖ Happiness also depends on the purchasing power capacity of the people.
❖ This proves that citizens of a more ethical society are happier, which means
that ethics is directly proportional to happiness.
❖ Happiness should not only be sustainable but also inclusive.

Note:
Ethics as science searches for values and ideas that are incorporated into
society, making people happier.
What does ethics seek to prompt in human life?
Ethics, as a normative science, seeks to promote inclusive and sustainable
happiness in life. For example, in Scandinavian countries, there is more
equality, more justice, and more transparency, where human beings are
happier. They occupy a top position in the happiness index; this proves that
ethics brings or promotes happiness in human life.

Objective of Ethics Paper:

❖ Ethics is about diagnosing the root causes of immorality in human beings
and evils in institutions and providing solutions to remove evil and
immorality.
❖ Diagnosis:
➢ First Step: To identify the root cause of immortality.
➢ Second Step: To remove immortality.
Causes of Immorality in Human Beings:
❖ Ignorance:
➢ Ignorance is about identifying moral and immoral, right and wrong,
good and bad, and ethical values and principles.
➢ People think of social evil as a culture and due to this ignorance many
social evils persist even after passing so many generations. Examples
of such social evils are the Varna system and women's rights,
untouchability, etc.
PW OnlyIAS 8 Class Notes
 ➢ The first unit of the syllabus is designed to remove ignorance (Ethics
and Human Interface includes the essence of morality, dimension of
morality, and determinants of morality), and the fifth unit
(Contributions of Moral Thinkers and Philosophers from India and the
World), are meant to understand what is right and wrong.
➢ When the question is related to moral and immoral things your
question should not come from your identity, it should be answered
based on an understanding of ethics.
❖ Lack of Moral Motivation, Conviction, and Courage:
➢ The problem related to the lack of optimism about morality, and
ignorance about the benefits of morality was solved through the
second part of unit first. This unit is about great leaders or thinkers
who changed society.
➢ The first unit of the ethics paper is to make aware of the benefits of
morality at the personal level and how to make changes in society.
➢ Those who lack moral courage think about what one person can change
in society.
❖ Immoral Attitude:
➢ Attitude means acquired perspective. Attitude develops based on
knowledge which means knowledge presides over attitude.
➢ The wrong acquired perspective leads to wrong actions. For example,
 An educated women know about property rights but she does not
take property from their fathers mainly because of her attitude.
Patriarchal norms are forced on women and no one opposes them
because of a lack of positive attitude.
 An educated IAS officer considers dowry to be a problem of
attitude.
➢ Constitutional knowledge with constitutional attitude will lead to
constitutional acts and constitutional acts with social attitude will
determine the person's action.
➢ The second unit of the syllabus (Attitude: Content, Structure, Function;
its Influence and Relation with Thought and Behaviour; Moral and
Political Attitudes; Social Influence and Persuasion) is intended to
ensure ethical behavior and perspective.

PW OnlyIAS 9 Class Notes

Objective of Ethics:
❖ The primary aim of ethics is to promote human goodness—reflected in
decisions, actions, and life—and to improve institutions and the world.
❖ Ethics involves examining the existence of evil within human character,
decisions, and society.
❖ It seeks to identify these evils and offer solutions to address them.
❖ Evil originates from two main sources:
➢ the first is human beings becoming evil or the presence of evil in
human beings, and
➢ the second is the presence of evil in institutions.

First and Fifth Unit:

❖ The syllabus's first unit is designed to remove ignorance (Ethics and Human
Interface include the essence of morality, dimension of morality, and
determinants of morality).
❖ The first unit of the syllabus provides ethical knowledge through which
individuals will identify what is ethical or moral.
❖ The fifth unit (Contributions of Moral Thinkers and Philosophers from India
and the World) is meant to understand what is right and wrong.
❖ The units first and five provide remedies for questions like why an individual
should become moral, from where the individual will get moral courage,
what is the source of moral optimism and what are the benefits of
morality at the personal level.

Second Unit:
❖ The second unit of the syllabus (Attitude: Content, Structure, Function; its
Influence and Relation with Thought and Behaviour; Moral and Political
Attitudes; Social Influence and Persuasion) is intended to ensure ethical
behavior and perspective.
❖ It provides a remedy for bad attitude.
❖ The second unit of the syllabus provides answers to questions such as how
to change undesirable attitudes.

PW OnlyIAS 10 Class Notes

Causes of Immorality in Human beings:
Fourth Cause of Immorality: Lack of Aptitude
❖ Lack of Aptitude:
➢ Every individual is not right for every place. Right, aptitude is the
foundational value of civil services.
➢ A lack of aptitude may lead to unwanted results despite having good
intentions.
➢ Good ethical aptitudes are required in society for the betterment of
society and institutions.
➢ People are choosing a profession or career for which they don't have
the right attitude.
➢ The third unit of the syllabus (Aptitude and Foundational Values for
Civil Service, Integrity, Impartiality, Non-partisanship, Objectivity,
Dedication to Public Service, Empathy, Tolerance, and Compassion
towards the weaker sections) tries to ensure the right people get
membership in any particular institution.

Fifth Cause of Immorality:

❖ Inability of Emotional Management:
➢ Emotional inability transforms into a lack of helping nature.
➢ The presence of bad emotions in civil servants or individuals leads to
the wrong action.
➢ People do not come forward to oppose wrongs happening in society
because they lack empathy and emotional management.
➢ The fourth unit of the syllabus is (Emotional Intelligence-Concepts, and
their Utilities and Application in Administration and Governance) which
is intended to develop emotional management and emotional behavior
in people.
❖ Absence of Empathy and Compassion:
➢ Absence of empathy and compassion leads to social evils.
➢ Emotional intelligence is necessary to instill values of empathy and
compassion.

PW OnlyIAS 11 Class Notes

 ➢ Too much compassion is not good for civil services or business because
it can lead to violation of laws or loss in the business.
➢ The fourth unit of the syllabus is (Emotional Intelligence-Concepts, and
their Utilities and Application in Administration and Governance) which
is intended to develop emotional management in people.

Problems of Immorality in Institutions:

❖ Units six (Public/Civil Service Values and Ethics in Public Administration)
and seven (Probity in Governance) address the issue of unethical practices
in institutions and propose solutions to eliminate the challenges described
in the Hegelian model of bureaucracy within Indian civil services.
❖ The Hegelian model of bureaucracy and the findings of the Second
Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) highlight the structural
problems prevalent in institutions.
❖ The Fourth Report of the Second ARC identifies these issues and suggests
strategies to address administrative shortcomings.
❖ A key factor contributing to institutional challenges, as per the Fourth
Report, is the socialist nature of the Indian economy. This economic model
often results in monopolies or grants excessive power to bureaucracies. As
Lord Acton famously stated, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely."
❖ This section of the syllabus delves into the underlying causes of immorality,
erosion of values, and weakening institutional norms in both public and
private sectors. Contributing factors include political and legal structures,
individual ethical standards, and the role of civil society.
❖ The Fourth Report also presents a roadmap for eradicating unethical
practices and outlines a model for good governance to foster integrity and
accountability in institutions.

PW OnlyIAS 12 Class Notes