Introduction to Ethics from UPSC perspective

1. Ethics, Integrity & Aptitude
Paper-4
-Ribhu Vashishtha

2. Topic 1: Introduction to Ethics

3. What is Ethics?
• Ethics means character, norms, morals & ideals
prevailing in a group, society.
• May be referred to as some standardised form of
conduct/behaviour of individuals understood &
accepted in a particular field of activity or a mass of
moral values about what conduct ought to be.
• They give an idea of what is right or wrong, true or
false, fair or unfair, just or unjust, proper or improper,
e.g. honesty, obedience, equality, fairness, etc. &
respect and then doing the right thing.

4. Why UPSC introduced Ethics as a
separate paper and that too with
equal weightage as other G.S. papers?

5. Ethics v/s Morality
Ethics is the study:
How?
Why?
Justification
Rationale
• Morality is the differentiation of
intentions, decisions,
and actions between those that
are "good" (or right) and those
that are "bad" (or wrong).
• Morality can be a body of
standards or principles derived
from a code of conduct from a
particular philosophy, religion, cu
lture, etc., or it can derive from a
standard that a person believes
should be universal.
• Morality may also be
specifically synonymous with
"goodness" or "rightness."

6. Ethics v/s Morality
Ethics is the study of
Morality.
Somethings are right.
and
Somethings are bad.

7. Ethics v/s Morality
Examples:
• Sati
• Untouchability
• Child Marriage
All these practices were
considered moral according to
their times until someone
stood up and questioned their
logic.

8. Morals and Values
• Morals are societal teachings.
• Moral is a system of beliefs
that is taught for deciding good
or bad.
Eg: Views on murder, stealing and
supporting the government.
Each of these is seen as being
right or wrong by society in
general.
• Values are likes and dislikes
of an individual.
• Values are personal beliefs or
something that comes from
within.
Eg: Ram likes to help others in
need, that is his value.

9. Morals and Values
1. Morals are generally taught by the society to the individual
whereas values come from within.
2. Morals act as a motivation for leading a good life while
values can be called as an intuition.
3. Morals are related to ones religion, business or politics
whereas values are personal fundamental beliefs or
principles.
4. Morals are deep seated whereas values keep on changing
with time and needs.

10. Ethical v/s Legal
• Any activity or practice which is legal may not
necessarily be ethical.
• What may be right according to the law, can be
wrong according to an individual’s personal
beliefs or society’s collective ideals.

11. Ethical v/s Legal
Examples:
1. Large scale killing of Jews by Hitler’s
government was legal in Germany at that time.
2. Saudi Arabian government’s ban on women
driving.

12. Ethics v/s Religion
Both of them don’t necessarily match always.
Examples:
• Large scale slaughter of animals for sacrifices in
India in the pre-Vedic age.
• Church’s intolerance for birth control measures.

13. Aptitude & foundational values of
Civil Services
Aptitude: Skill for a particular job.
1. Communication Skills
2. Negotiation Skills
3. Conflict-resolution skills
4. Leadership
5. Team building
6. Crisis Management

14. Thank You.