Page 102. Connect to the Topic. Part B. TUNE IN

Unit 11

page 102

connect to the topic

part B: tune in

welcome to our talk show, campus connections; today our guest is moona asiri, a professor in the philosophy department; thank you for coming.

my pleasure!

on this show, we interview professors in different fields and professor asiri, you are a professor of ethics so our first question is “what exactly is the field of ethics? , what do you study?”

ethics is a set of rules that we can use to decide what is right and wrong.

can you give an example?

take the issue of stealing; let me ask you.

do you think stealing is right or wrong? is it right or wrong to take something from a store without paying?

Wrong; of course.

so that’s an ethical rule: stealing is wrong.

Okay?

Okay; but let’s say you have a child; your child is very sick and needs medicine.

she needs medicine or she’s going to die, okay?

but the medicine, it’s very expensive and you don’t have enough money, so is it right or wrong to go to the store and steal the medicine?

in order to save your child.

Well, I think I’d steal the medicine.

Why? why is that okay, if stealing is wrong?

Well, it’s wrong to steal but it’s worse to let my child die.

okay then; so your ethical rule has changed because the situation is not so simple; the situation is more complicated.

now your rule is this: stealing is wrong except if my child is dying, then it’s okay for me to steal.

You are right, it changed!

so that’s an example of the kind of issue we discussed in ethics.

that’s so thought-provoking…