Ethics: Foundations, Determinants, and Public Life

Every day, people face choices between what feels right and what feels convenient. But who decides what counts as “right”? Is there a fixed rulebook, or does the answer shift depending on who you are, where you live, and the era you belong to? Ethics sits at the heart of these questions.

What Ethics Really Means

At its core, ethics is about figuring out which behaviours are right and which are wrong. But here is the challenge: the standards used to judge right and wrong are not absolute and not universal. They change based on the person, the place, and the time. What a community in one part of the world considers perfectly acceptable might be seen as deeply wrong in another.

This makes ethics a living, evolving field rather than a fixed set of rules.

Two Sides of Human Nature

Every person carries two competing drives within them:

• The higher self — This is the part of you that acts for the benefit of others, lives according to deeply held ideals, and follows the voice of conscience (the inner sense that tells you whether an action is right or wrong). When you put someone else’s needs above your own comfort, you are acting from your higher self.
• The lower self — This is the part that prioritises personal pleasure, comfort, and happiness. It is not necessarily “evil,” but it is self-centred.

The tension between these two sides is what makes ethical decision-making a real struggle rather than an automatic process.

Where Do Ethical Standards Come From?

Ethical standards do not appear out of thin air. They are shaped by a range of sources that have shifted over time:

• Religious texts and institutions — For most of human history, religion was the primary authority on right and wrong. Holy texts and religious leaders defined the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
• Constitutions and the judiciary — In the modern world, the constitution of a country has become the ultimate guide for ethical behaviour. It sets out the values and goals that society aims for. Courts also play a key role. For instance, Supreme Court judgements on issues like stray dog management, Jallikattu (bull-taming), night shelters, and the rights of undertrials have expanded what society considers ethical conduct.
• Organisational codes — Both public and private organisations have formal Codes of Ethics and Codes of Conduct that define expected behaviour for employees and officials.
• Culture and tradition — The customs, practices, and shared values of a community shape what people consider right or wrong.
• Family and friends — Close relationships are among the earliest and strongest influences on a person’s moral outlook.
• Schools and colleges — Education institutions play a foundational role in teaching values and shaping ethical thinking.
• Rational thinking — The ability to reason, reflect, and evaluate situations logically is an independent source of ethical judgement.
• Personal experience — Life experiences, including mistakes and successes, shape each person’s understanding of right and wrong over time.

Good and Evil: Not as Simple as Black and White

People often think of good and evil as opposites, like light and dark. But the relationship is more nuanced than that:

• Complementary — Good and evil exist in relation to each other, much like black and white. You cannot fully understand one without the other.
• Relative — No person is completely good or completely evil. Everyone falls somewhere along a spectrum.
• Subjective — A poor person sees the world differently from a wealthy one. A powerful person defines good and evil differently from someone who is powerless. An educated person’s perspective differs from that of someone without formal education. Our own position in life colours how we perceive morality.
• Shaped by circumstances — The same person may behave differently in a government office compared to a private company. Context changes behaviour.
• Capable of change — As Oscar Wilde put it, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” People are not locked into permanent moral categories.

Six Factors That Shape Ethical Behaviour

Ethical behaviour does not emerge in a vacuum. Six key determinants influence whether an action is considered ethical or not:

• Person — A person’s mental makeup, deeply held attitudes, and internalised values all determine how they respond to ethical situations. Two people facing the same dilemma may respond very differently because of their inner moral framework.
• Place — The external environment, including family, school, and workplace, shapes ethical behaviour. As children, parents and teachers teach us not to steal. As adults, workplaces teach values like teamwork, punctuality, and responsibility. The place where we grow up and work moulds our sense of right and wrong.
• Time — Moral codes evolve over generations. Owning a slave was once considered acceptable; today it is universally condemned. Ethical standards are not frozen in history. They shift as societies mature.
• Object — Some actions are considered wrong in themselves, regardless of the situation. Lying is one such example: it is unethical no matter the circumstances, purpose, or intention. But here is an important twist: deliberately telling a truth with the intention of harming someone is also unethical, because the intention behind the truth is not pure.
• Circumstances — Context can soften or intensify an ethical judgement. Stealing is wrong, but a poor mother stealing to feed her starving children reduces the moral weight of the act. This is known as situation ethics (judging the morality of an action based on the specific circumstances rather than a fixed rule), and it introduces subjectivity into ethical evaluation.
• End purpose — The intention behind an action matters. Giving a donation to a poor person is good. But if the real reason for the donation is to manipulate that person into doing something for you, it becomes immoral. The same outward act carries different ethical weight depending on its true purpose.

Why Ethics Matters: The Real-World Consequences

Ethics is not just a philosophical discussion. It has practical consequences for individuals, organisations, and societies:

• A basic human need — For many people, being fair, honest, and ethical is not optional. It is a deep personal need and a source of inner peace.
• Building credibility — An organisation or individual driven by good values earns respect and trust in society. Credibility grows over time when people see consistent ethical behaviour.
• Strengthening leadership — An organisation that operates by clear values earns the respect and loyalty of its own employees, making it a stronger institution from within.
• Better decision-making — Decisions guided by ethical values tend to be more sustainable, equitable, fair, and just. Ethics acts as a compass when the right path is unclear.
• Long-term profitability — Ethical companies tend to be more profitable over the long run. The Tata Group is a well-known example of how value-driven business practices build lasting success.
• Safeguarding society beyond the law — Technology evolves at a pace that laws cannot match. By the time a regulation is drafted to address a new technology, that technology may already have changed form. Ethics fills this gap. Where laws have not yet caught up, ethical principles still guide behaviour and protect society.
• Self-realisation — Practising ethics helps a person critically evaluate their own choices and decisions, leading to greater self-awareness and personal growth.
• Sustaining democracy — A successful political system depends on trust and commitment from citizens. That trust is only possible when ethics is strong. Without it, the democratic fabric weakens.

Can Every Action Be Judged Ethically?

Not every human action falls within the scope of ethical evaluation. Six conditions determine whether an action can be meaningfully examined on ethical grounds:

• Free will — A person must have multiple choices and the freedom to pick between them. If someone has only one option available, we cannot call their action ethical or unethical. Free will is a prerequisite for ethical judgement.
• Knowledge — You cannot exercise free will ethically without understanding the consequences of your actions. A baby who breaks something is not acting unethically, because the baby has no knowledge of what it is doing or the consequences it causes.
• Fear — If someone tries to kill you and you kill them in self-defence, you are acting under the immediate fear of losing your life. This may be subject to legal scrutiny, but it falls outside ethical scrutiny because the action was driven by survival instinct rather than a moral choice.
• Pathological status — A person suffering from a mental disorder such as schizophrenia (a condition that causes distorted thinking, hallucinations, or loss of contact with reality) may mistreat others without awareness or control. Their action may face legal consequences, but it is beyond ethical evaluation because the person lacks both knowledge and free will. The example of a mentally unstable person accidentally falling into a tiger enclosure in Delhi also falls into this category.
• Habit — Deeply ingrained cultural habits shape behaviour in ways that cannot be ethically judged across cultures. Japanese people are trained from childhood to apologise profusely even for the slightest mistake or discomfort caused to another person. If an American working in Japan does not behave the same way, it cannot be called unethical, because that habit is simply not part of American upbringing.
• Value system — Cultural value systems create different moral expectations. A fallen Samurai, following the Bushido (the traditional code of honour of the Japanese warrior class) honour code, might prefer ritual suicide over suffering torture by enemies. If a fallen American soldier does not make the same choice, it cannot be evaluated on ethical grounds, because the two operate under fundamentally different value systems.

Ethics in Public Administration: The Standards That Apply

Public servants hold positions of power and trust. Because of this, they are held to a higher ethical standard than ordinary citizens. The key ethical expectations include:

• Legality — A public servant must never cut corners for the sake of efficiency. Following established rules and procedures is not optional. It is paramount.
• Justice and fairness — No discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, religion, or any other factor. Every citizen must be treated equally.
• Responsibility — A public servant is responsible not only for their own actions but also for the actions of all their subordinates.
• Accountability — Public servants answer to multiple stakeholders: the common people, ministers, courts, and media. Accountability means being answerable to all of them.
• Commitment — The level of commitment expected is total. Public servants are not allowed to run any private business, practise any profession, or take up social work on the side. Their full energy belongs to their role.
• Responsiveness — A public servant is on duty around the clock. They cannot refuse the requirements of the public at any time.
• Transparency — Decisions must not be opaque. A public servant should be able to explain the reasons behind any decision they take.
• Integrity — Personal involvement in corrupt practices is out of the question, and the same standard must be enforced among subordinates.
• Moral conduct — The highest level of moral conduct is expected in both personal and professional life. All conduct rules prescribed by the government must be followed. A public servant should not do anything that would embarrass the government.
• National interest — Public servants must not criticise government policies. Their role is to implement policy, not to publicly challenge it.