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Professional Ethics (HU-222)

Value and Virtue

Ethics

Izhar Mithal Jiskani, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor | Mining Engineering
National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST),
Balochistan Campus, Quetta, Pakistan
izhar@nbc.nust.edu.pk
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Values

▪ Value is a belief about what is desirable “Good” or “Bad”

▪ Values represent the ultimate reasons people have for acting the
way they do
▪ Values Guide Human Actions
▪ Values are like “Standards” in the field of science or engineering
▪ Values are ideas and concepts, not physical entities
▪ Not physical entities
▪ Related to human psychology & behavior

UNITY, FAITH, DISCIPLINE

INTEGRITY, EXCELLENCE, TEAMWORK
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Values

▪ A clear and uncompromising statement about what is critically

important

▪ Important and lasting beliefs or ideas shared by the members of a

culture about what is “good” or “bad” and desirable or undesirable

▪ Values have major influence on a person’s behaviour and attitude

and serve as broad guidelines in all situations
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Sources of Values
▪ FAMILY: heredity, basic source of social behavior and attitudes
▪ FRIENDS: early childhood experience
▪ RELIGION: Friday sermon, groups, books
▪ EDUCATION: teachers, school, books
▪ ROLE MODELS: older youth or important adults
▪ PEER: colleague or friends
▪ ORGANIZATIONS: Professional ethics
▪ MEDIA: TV, radio, film, theatre
▪ GEOGRAPHICAL ROOTS: social environment
▪ TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER ASPECTS: standard of living, state of
economy, availability of time
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Types of Values
▪ Personal
• Guide the conduct of a person
• Sources of learning are parents, friends, family and schools
• Profession also establishes methods of transmitting its values to its
members
• e.g., equality, integrity, service, responsibility, accuracy, respect,
dedication
• Take long time to develop

▪ Prudential
• If followed by an individual, will serve his / her best interest
• Values that are likely to increase individuals’ level of well being or
personal happiness
• Prudent to maintain physical and mental health, discipline, punctuality
• Sometimes may not be as important as some other values, e.g.,
Shahadat
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Types of Values
▪ Conventional
• Generally accepted and enforced within a given social order and
are binding upon the members of a given social order
• Values that have been arrived at over time by a majority of a
society
• Social order could be a nation, members of a college community,
or an organisation
• e.g., women working outside of home

▪ Moral Values
• Rooted in the comprehensive view of human life, social living and
meanings of life
• Religion based or non-religion based
• Very strong and dominate other values
• Our moral values emanate largely from our religion
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Types of Values – Moral Values
▪ Universal Moral Values
▪ Accepted by the international community and carry universal
obligation
▪ e.g., justice, respecting human life, liberty, equality etc

▪ Non-Universal Moral Values

▪ Do not carry a universal obligation
▪ eg prayers, fasting, holy days, festivals
▪ Can not be imposed by one on another
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Features of Values

▪ Values
• A clear and uncompromising statement about what is critically important
• Values are like stars, you chose them as your guide and follow to reach
your destination
• Values are sign language by which people communicate with each
other within and outside the organisation

▪ Features
• Values are revered
• Values are freely chosen
• Values must be expressed
• Values must be acted upon
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Features of Values
▪ Values are revered (feel deep respect)
• One function is to define meaningful reference for an individual
or an organization
• System of values for a person defines purpose in life for that
person
• Once adopted, values are cherished and adored by persons or
organisation
• “I (or we) value success, honesty, diversity and ambition”

▪ Values are freely chosen

• Values can not be externally imposed
• Must be freely and consciously chosen
• Complete conviction and faith is required to choose values
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Features of Values
▪ Values must be expressed
• Must be understandable, approachable and supported by people
• Those who have adopted must take pride in following and
expressing them
• Not only be expressed in words but also in deeds

▪ Values must be acted upon

• Doing something with the choice and then repeating the choice
consistently
• Saying but not doing damages persons or organizations
• Bad example: “Do what I say, don’t do what I do”
• Strong belief in the adopted values and its physical manifestation
is essential for an efficient and dignified behaviour on the part of
an individual or an organisation
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Values Define Who You Are

▪ Values are like beacons that allow you to range widely in pursuit of
your objectives, without losing sight of who you are and what is
important
▪ Actions get you what you want
▪ Things go wrong due to fundamental inconsistency between a
person’s values and his or her actions
▪ Some of the conditions that cause this inconsistency are:
• Person may have adopted someone else’s values without going
through the painful process of conscious choice
• Person may not be clear about what his or her real values are
• External pressures may force someone to act in a manner that is
not consistent with his or her values
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Some Relevant Quotations

▪ “We first make our habits and then the habits make us”

▪ “Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your
habits become your values, Your values become your destiny”

▪ “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value”

▪ “You can buy a man’s time; you can buy his physical presence; you can
even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions per hours.
But you can not buy enthusiasm… you can not buy loyalty… you can not
but the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.”
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Values : Development

▪ Effective communication

▪ Shared values among

• Families
• Schools
• Religious organizations
• Communities
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Values : Development
▪ Set meaningful and achievable goals
▪ Little things mean BIG to other people
▪ Achieve your dreams
▪ Believe in your self
▪ Consider things on every angle and aspect
▪ Don’t give in and don’t give up
▪ Enjoy work as hobby
▪ Family and friends. Don’t loose sight of them
▪ Hang on to your dreams
▪ Keep trying no matter how hard life may seem
▪ Learn to love yourself
▪ Make things happen
▪ Never lie, cheat or steal. Always play fair
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Values : Development
▪ Practice makes man perfect. Learn from your mistakes
▪ Quitters never win and winners never quit
▪ Ready your self: it wasn’t raining when Noah build the ark
▪ Take control of your life
▪ Understand others. Learn to listen.
▪ Want it more than anything
▪ Ignore those who try to destroy you
▪ Just be yourself. Don’t overact
▪ X-factor is what will make you different from others
• Extra time for family
• Extra help at work
• Extra care for friends
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Values : Development

▪ You are unique. No one in this world look, acts, or talk like you
▪ so others are also unique
▪ Two human are not same
▪ Take things one at a time

▪ Every successful organization has adopted a strong identifiable set

of positive values. The values reveal themselves in products,
services, behavior and procedures being followed
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Value and Virtue Ethics

▪ Values (the degree of importance) and virtues (conformity to a

standard of right / moral excellence) are significant concepts that
shape our behavior.

The main difference between value and virtue is that

values are principles or standards of behavior that help

one to decide what is important in life

whereas

virtues are qualities that are universally or generally

considered to be good and desirable
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Value and Virtue Ethics
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Value and Virtue Ethics

Values
▪ Principles or standards that are considered as important or desirable.
▪ “principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgement of what is important in
life”
▪ standards that form the foundation of an individual’s character, shaping his
personality, attitudes, behavior, and perceptions.
▪ Values are often subjective – each individual may have a set of values that
are unique to him. This happens because each of us gives important to
different things.
• For example, one might think that honesty is better than kindness
whereas one might put more value in kindness above all other qualities.
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Value and Virtue Ethics

Values
▪ These different values govern how we behave.
• For example, suppose your friend is wearing a dress that does
not look good on her. If you value candor (frankness) above all,
you might say outright that the dress looks horrible, but if you put
more value on being kind, you’d not directly say that it looks
horrible.
▪ Values of a person can be based on various elements such as his or
her family and social background, culture, religion, and experience.
Values may also change over time.
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Value and Virtue Ethics

Virtues
▪ Qualities that are considered to be good or desirable in a person.
▪ Virtues have high moral value. A morally excellent person has many
virtues such as honesty, trustworthiness, patience, kindness,
courage, etc.
▪ Virtues compel a person to always do the right thing no matter the
cost. Virtues may also be influenced by different factors such as
culture and religion.
▪ Different religions also have different virtues.
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Value and Virtue Ethics

Virtues
▪ Value and virtue both refer to the same thing — beliefs, principles, ideals,
qualities, traits, properties, attributes, expectations, or characteristics of
individuals or groups that are highly-valued, desired, admired, and prized in
society, but the key distinction is that values are aspirational expectations,
ideals or goals that are not always achieved, while virtues are those
principles or qualities that have actually been achieved and can be directly
observed and experienced.
▪ Values are more the theory, while virtues are more the reality. Values are in
principle, while virtues are conformity with principle.
▪ A simple model is to assert that values represent intentions, expectations,
and aspirations, while virtues represent realized intentions, expectations,
and aspirations.
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Virtue ethics & professionalism

▪ Cardinal principles of the (Institution of Engineers, Australia) IEAust

code of ethics:
• To respect the inherent dignity of the individual
• To act on the basis of a well-informed conscience
• To act in the interests of the community:
▪ These principles are duties that express virtues:
• Virtuous ways to interact with others
• Desirable features of character
▪ Equity is a core value (quality of being fair and just)
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Conceptual basis for virtue ethics

▪ Aristotle’s definitions of virtues (~350 BC):

• Habits that enable us to engage effectively in rational activities:
• Cardinal virtues:- wisdom, courage, temperance, justice
• The golden mean between too much & too little:
• Cowardice - Courage - Rashness
▪ Macintyre’s definition of virtues (20th century):
• Social practices that achieve public good, e.g:
• Professional responsibility in engineering
▪ Virtues are particularly valuable for group activity
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Issues in applying virtue ethics

▪ Virtues may contradict each other, e.g:

• Truthfulness & tact
• Loyalty to employer vs responsibility to the public
▪ Virtues provide general not specific advice:
• Most useful in establishing a general code of conduct
▪ Different societies rank virtues differently, e.g:
• Collegiality versus self-reliance
▪ Judgement is required in practical application:
• May have to rank virtues to resolve a moral dilemma

Virtues & professional responsibility
▪ Self-direction virtues:
• Moral autonomy & good
judgement
• Self-knowledge & self-respect
• Commitment & integrity
▪ Public-spirited virtues:
• Non-malfience
• do no harm
• Beneficence
• prevent or remove harm
• Generosity
• beyond normal expectations
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▪ Team-work virtues:
• Collegiality
• Respect for legitimate authority
• Communication skills
▪ Proficiency virtues:
• Mastery of technical skills
• Diligence (steady effort)
• Creativity
▪ Accountability virtues:
• Act responsibly
• Admit mistakes & accept an
appropriate share of blame
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Thank you
Keep
Ethics
in
Yourself