By Donald Huntley
“Never underestimate the impact you can have.”
—Anonymous
Descartes Before the Horse
There’s a pervasive view that philosophy and ethics are, for a certain type of person, specialized in long form essays, ancient Greek and Latin, and generally aloof to how the world actually works. Just weeks ago, I got into a heated debate with a former colleague who claimed that philosophy is just a lesser form of science, too high level or abstract to be useful. As a teacher, he is instructing teenagers on history, civics, and film. He covers topics such as the suffragette movement, civil rights, and civic duties.
We’ve had long conversations about his work. He is concerned about how he can best serve his students, providing them with better lives and helping them become better people. He is frustrated with his school and the ways it attempts to support him and his students, often having his own ideas that, obviously to him, are better than how his organization goes about business.
The irony, in case you haven’t caught it yet, is that he is a practicing ethicist. He may not have the title or formal training, but in practice he is attempting to ask and answer the same questions philosophers have been tackling for thousands of years. What tools do people need to live happy lives? What knowledge do people need to do “good”? Possibly the most important and ubiquitous: What should we do and how should we do it?
When we’re first introduced to philosophy in school, we’re introduced to fantastic characters from the ancient and “modern” eras. Plato and Aristotle, Descartes and Hume, Confucious and Lao Tsu. While we’re separated from these historic figures by centuries of time and cultural barriers, there’s a case to be made that our contemporary era has produced more Aristotles and Humes, hidden in plain sight. I don’t mean people like Cornel West and Judith Butler, who are philosophers by trade. I mean experts in their field, communicators, and ultimately you and me. By better understanding them, it’s easier to see that you and I today can more intentionally think and behave like ethicists in our field. Let’s review some examples.
Our Heroes Are Like Us
Genichi Taguchi, an engineer and statistician, has been so vital to experimental design as to have modern design of experiments named after him, the Taguchi Method. He also tried to shift people’s perspective of efficiency in terms of cost to the company in favor of defining it in terms of cost to society. This has obvious ethical implications.
W. Edwards Deming, known as the father of quality management, taught a set of management principles around empowering and rewarding low level employees. He encouraged investing in employees’ education and morale, while highlighting the flaws in meritocracy and an authoritarian approach to management. Deming was an industrial engineer and statistician.
Paul Farmer is an anthropologist and physician who is considered a champion of global health. He helped bring medical services to millions of impoverished people around the world. He has influenced countless doctors and other medical professionals.
Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson are famous science communicators, with much of their career spent teaching the public about physics and other sciences. They’ve since shifted to active campaigns against misinformation, with the explicit goal of lessening the suffering of others.
These kinds of individuals exist in every field, helping to shape the way people think about the consequences of their trade and what kinds of duties they have to those in their field and beyond. They’ve tried to answer the big philosophical questions around ethical practices for individuals and organizations. A couple of them may have had to take a class or two on business ethics, but none of them are philosophers by trade as we might think of one. Their education and training are focused on management, engineering, math, medicine, and agriculture. These all have ethical dimensions but are not philosophical subjects per se. While we all might benefit from studying more philosophy, you don’t have to read Plato and Aristotle to have deeply held beliefs about ethics and morality. Whatever you study or do, you can try to ask or answer the question “how do we do more good?”.
You Are Greater Than You Think
That brings me to my next point: that your work matters. For now, I’m only going to cover the context of students and paid professionals. Just keep in mind that the ideas being presented can be applied to other areas of your life.
It might be discouraging that the above examples are successful, high-profile people with bestselling books. They have become giants, symbols, or paragons, but they are ordinary people like you and me. Most of us are not going to publish books or give seminars, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have profound impacts on those around us.
For some people, it’s obvious how their work is important or can influence others. If you’re a teacher or medical professional, you probably don’t need convincing. If you’re studying criminal justice or civics, you’re probably aware of the ethical dimensions of your study, and it may even be what attracted you to your field. For others it can be more challenging. Pew Research Center data shows that half of Americans say their job is just what they do for a living.
Let me put it plainly and unambiguously. You matter and your work matters. What you do, the fact that you do it, and how you do it matters. At the most fundamental level, someone is paying you money and thus by definition, what you’re doing is valuable. More broadly, any job, whether manufacturing, retail, or service, is part of a culture, and directly impacts individuals.
I have three favorite examples. New Englanders have strong opinions about pizza, leading to debate, pride, and prestige. This pride doesn’t come from a single cook or company. It comes from a culture built and sustained by countless cooks, chefs, and small businesses over the course of generations.
When my hairdresser cuts my hair, they make me feel good about myself, helping me develop and maintain my sense of identity. They’re also giving me confidence that I use in many other areas of my life.
Lastly, every single thing I own was made possible by a lot of individuals with specialized jobs. Even the mass-produced things, people build and maintain the machines, deliver the products, build the infrastructure. Our modern lives require an incredible amount of work, and that work is done by normal people.
Regarding areas of study, I could tell you that if there’s an entire degree around a subject, it’s clearly important, which is true. Instead, I’ll recommend that you ask any of your professors how the subject itself has impacted the lives of people and how ethics is implicated in the study itself. They’ll know how and I’m sure they’ll love to tell you.
From the Bottom-Up
It’s also important to make the case that we can participate in and influence how our organizations deal with morality. This is a daunting concept, but we can take lessons from civics. We’ve all probably learned that by voting and communicating with representatives, we can help steer our democracy. The same is true for businesses and schools. Modern management structures try to account for society as an interested party to the operations of the organization. You are a part of that society.
In the way that you can easily email your mayor, complaining about something in your town, you can reach out to your boss and ask them if they want to participate in fundraising campaigns. Email your school administrators and ask how diversity and inclusion have improved over the years or why we don’t get Veterans’ Day off. If you work for a corporation, reach out to HR and find out what percentage of management is women and how they’re addressing that. Starting a dialogue and raising awareness is often a good first step to becoming more involved in how an organization functions and what kinds of decisions it makes.
The modern internet has changed how we spread information and ideas. For better or for worse, it has created the opportunity for anyone to reach a large or focused audience with a message. Whether through LinkedIn or reddit or countless other sites, you can connect with peers and start contributing your ideas and philosophies to those in your field. You might find that you’re not alone and be able to better organize change. Or you may find that your ideas are novel to many people and begin influencing how your peers think and approach their work.
There are also more direct methods, but they come with greater risk. Labor unions are started by regular people advocating for more rights at the cost of significant risk of losing their jobs. Any time you read about a whistleblower in the news, you’re reading about someone who decided the ethics of their work outweighed some amount of their own safety and security. I’m not inclined to encourage any specific person to risk their own livelihood for any specific cause. However, you should consider your own risks, values, and opportunities.
Carpe Diem
Hopefully, I’ve made the case that you personally have tools to influence how your field operates. It’s important, though, that you believe you should. It’s possible you’ve gotten this far and still think none of this matters, or that it’s too hard or unrealistic, or that you as an individual can’t make any significant difference. You still should. If your organization is using any resources to accomplish any goal, then there are consequences to how it operates and what it does. As a part of that organization, you should care about those consequences because you help realize them.
Inaction is itself a form of action. Indecision is itself a decision. If you skip an opportunity to make a change you believe in, you have failed for that cause by demonstrating complacency for the status quo. Behaving as a practicing ethicist may often come down to careful consideration of consequences.
Trying to make a difference through your work, your employer, or your school will sometimes be incredibly challenging and maybe even scary. People are generally resistant to change, and organizations can be powerful. Maybe you don’t have the time or mental capacity to champion some cause. Most of us don’t. However, that makes it more important to take action when you have a real opportunity. In the way that you would want others to make a difference when they can and you can’t, others may be waiting for you to keep an eye out for that chance.
For all these reasons, I believe you and I and everyone has a duty to act. You have some sense of how things ought to be. That much is in our nature. I ask that you embrace the idea of a practical ethicist, someone who takes steps to make things closer to how they ought to be. Be more aware of your beliefs, your actions, and your environment, starting with your work or school. Watch for opportunities and, when possible, create them. More than anything else, know that you can make a difference and what you do matters. If you believe that, you’re on your way to do great things.
Donald Huntley studies engineering science at CT State Tunxis.
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