Essay on Ethics Course Discussion

The development of the contemporary ethics is closely related to different aspects of social life. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that ethics has started to penetrate the field of business rapidly and, today, business ethics plays an important part in the contemporary business environment. At the same time, individuals often have to solve diverse ethical problems, which they confront in different situations and diverse environment. At this point, some people prefer to follow traditional ethical norms and rules, which they learn from their religious beliefs and sacred books, such as Bible, Koran or Talmud. Some people prefer using the golden rule and other basic ethical norms and principles, which define their moral values and behavior. However, there is still the diversity of views on approaches to solution of ethical problems, which may differ depending on individuals and their views, but, today, individuals should take into consideration the cultural background of individuals, because cultural background influences considerably the behavior of individuals and their moral set of values.

Therefore, ethical views and moral norms of individuals form under the impact of different factors, including existing social norms and standards, religious and philosophic influences, including the impact of Bible, Koran and Talmud, and cultural background of individuals.

On analyzing the ethical problem solving, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the ethical problem solving can be grounded on different approaches. However, it is up to the individual to choose the ethical approach to solve some problems. In such a situation, individuals may develop different views and beliefs in the ethical problem solving. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish the golden rule and the impact of sacred books, including Koran, Talmud or Bible as key factors that influence the moral set of values and ethical norms of individuals. However, people cannot always follow the golden rule strictly and some deviations from the golden rule are possible under the impact of the socio-cultural environment, which people live in. The golden rule is not the absolute rule, which can be applied to different ethical situations. What is meant here is the fact that people can behave differently depending on the situation they confront. For instance, people can face ethical dilemma, when they have to violate the golden rule and existing ethical norms and rules, for the sake of their relatives. For instance, when the life of an individual is at risk, they may violate the existing ethical and moral norms and rules and deviate from the Golden rule. As a result, the environment of individuals and circumstances, which they take decisions in, affect the choice of moral norms and values they choose to follow.

In actuality, religious and traditional moral values grounded on sacred books such as Bible, Koran or Talmud are still popular but many people become atheist and stop following religious norms and rules, although this does not mean that they stop following moral norms and values set by different religions and set in the aforementioned books. In fact, Bible, Koran and Talmud provide people with clear set of moral values. At the same time, these books and respective religions have some fundamental values and moral norms, which may be treated as universal that means that they are accepted by different people living in different parts of the world because they appeal to universal values. On the other hand, each book and respective religion has its specificities. Followers of these religions observe norms and values set in Bible, Koran or Talmud, whereas atheists do not always follow these rules. As it has been already mentioned above, it is not always possible to follow strictly the set moral norms and values. Therefore, sacred books, such as Bible, Koran and Talmud, provide believers as well as atheist with the clear set of moral values and help them to solve ethical problems, but people do not always follow ethical and moral norms set in the sacred books.