2. General aims of teaching ethics
Teaching always means steering a student’s life. Although studying at
university is voluntary, there are restrictions within the studies, which affect the
lives of the students. The moral justification of all educational restrictions and
orders lies in their tendency to benefit students. This is also true about teaching of
ethics. As Elias Baumgarten (1980:183) writes, “teaching of philosophy should
benefit students”. According to him, “[t]he work of philosophy [and ethics]
teachers is thus a form of service to others, and it is open to ethical assessment
according to the degree to which it benefits students, “those who are subjected to
it”” (Baumgarten 1980:185).
Teaching ethics is beneficial to students for numerous different reasons.
Broadly taken, the ultimate aim of teaching ethics lies in helping students and
people related to them to lead happier and fuller lives (Caldwell 1995). This goal
may be attained in several different ways. First, students taking part in ethics
courses acquire new information. The courses provide knowledge of ethical
theories and criticism of those theories (Annis 1992:189). In short, teaching ethics
is beneficial because it extends the distribution of warranted beliefs among the
students. Of course learning new facts is not always beneficial. For example,
learning about efficient torturing methods may be harmful to the student and other
persons (McClennan 1976:123). However, knowledge about ethics is usually
considered beneficial – in practice and also as part of a comprehensive education
(Honkala 1999:25).
Not many ethics teachers would be willing to limit the objectives of their ethics
courses to knowing about different ethical theories. The common goal of ethics
studies – besides teaching students about philosophy – is to teach them to do
philosophy (Hare 1982:167). In other words, the aim of teaching ethics is to
provide students with intellectual skills (Honkala 1999:25, Martens 1995) through
which they can formulate reasoned positions (either as a guide to action or as a
response to wonder) (Baumgarten 1980:185). These skills include (a) the ability to
identify moral problems and formulate questions about ethics; (b) the ability to
reason carefully about moral issues: to think logically and critically about ethical
issues, to communicate clearly about ethical issues, to apply ethical concepts,
principles and theories to new and relevant situations; (c) and the ability to clarify
one’s own moral aspirations (Annis 1992:190, Bok 1976:28).
However, sometimes the aims of teaching ethics do not end here. According to
David B. Annis an ethics course can also have the objective
1 The claim about homogeneity is more carefully discussed in section 4.
280 Helena Siipi
[t]o help students improve their conduct and character when needed, to be
morally better people. This involves obvious elements such as their not stealing,
assaulting others etc, but also helping them to be more empathic, caring, and
compassionate people (Annis 1992:193).
James B. Gould and Ralph P. Forsberg agree. According to Gould (2002:1–2,
4), the ultimate aim of ethics courses is to make the students better people and to
develop their specific traits and behaviour. Forsberg (2001:157) states that ethics
is basically about character and excellence within a particular context. Morality is
not a matter solely of what one does or which rules one follows, but a matter of
what one is. Thus the objectives of teaching ethics should, according to him, be
related to character improvement.