Thomas Aquainas

Five Easy Principles?

It's not enough to know what to do. Understanding why is important, too, so the Ethics Guy explores the deceptively simple guidelines that govern behavior

by Bruce Weinstein, PhD

Over the past four weeks, this column has looked at some ethical questions that arise in professional and personal life, such as the ethics of New Year's resolutions, whether it's O.K. to lie to help the company, and collecting for kids at the office. By now, you might be wondering, "On what are you basing your analyses, Ethics Guy?" After all, it would be easy for anyone to shoot from the hip and say what he or she feels is the right thing to do when presented with an ethical dilemma.

As a professional ethicist, however, my responsibility is not merely to explain what we ought to do, but, perhaps more importantly, to say why we ought to do it. My ethical obligation to you is to provide good reasons for how we ought and ought not to act.

For the next several columns, I will present an account of the five fundamental ethical principles that are the foundation of right conduct in any arena of your life. They are:

Ð'* Do no harm

Ð'* Make things better

Ð'* Respect others

Ð'* Be fair

Ð'* Be compassionate

These principles reveal the secret to living a rich, satisfying, and happy life, and we have known about them for more than 5,000 years. Every religious tradition in the world teaches them, as do parents in every country. Without them civilization would be impossible because there would be nothing but chaos everywhere. These principles have a transforming effect on who we are and where we go in life, and for that reason, we can rightly refer to them as "life principles."

Values We're Tempted to Ignore

You might wonder, "If these principles are so commonplace, why should I waste my time reading a column about them?" It's true that they're commonplace, but it's also true that in our hectic, overcommitted lives, we get so caught up in the details of getting through the day that it's easy to forget how important these principles are in everything we do. We're also tempted every day to ignore them and to place value on things that ultimately aren't that important. So taking a few steps back to consider these principles is a helpful thing to do.

Yes, they are simple, but too often we let fear, anger, or other negative emotions get us off track from following these principles, and it's sometimes difficult to get back to where we want to be. For example, how often do we really keep "Do no harm" in mind during our daily interactions with people? If a co-worker is nasty to us, aren't we tempted to return the nastiness and tell ourselves, "Serves them right?"

Do we always keep the principle of fairness front and center in our thinking? If so, how do we explain our choice at work to surf the Internet, make personal phone calls, and take a sick day when we're feeling fine?

On the face of it, the principles are about making a difference in the lives of other people. To this extent, taking them seriously seems like something we have to do, something we ought to do, something that, quite frankly, we'd rather not do.

Central to Happiness

What we'll discover, however, is that making ethics our central concern is actually the best way