Bioethics Forum Essay

In a World with Many Epsteins, Does Ethics Still Matter?

Between the two of us, we have logged about 100 years working on ethical issues in medicine and science. We have published thousands of books and papers on moral problems, taught countless undergraduate and graduate students at distinguished universities, and lectured at untold numbers of professional ethics gatherings and seminars. We each hold a doctorate in philosophy. 

So we should be able to answer a simple question that was posed to one of us recently by a smart high school student: Considering the epidemic of cruelty, corruption, lying, exploitation, abuse, and vulgarity in public life these days emanating from the highest levels of society, from Steve Wynn to Larry Summers, Kristi Noem to Cesar Chavez, both in the United States and other nations, why should anyone care about ethics? That question merits a serious response.

Over the last 50 years or so, those of us who opine on what’s right and wrong in practical affairs, from a secular point of view, have come to be called ethicists. The fact that professionals with that moniker don’t have a ready answer to why we should care about ethics or teach about it when facing all the nastiness, selfishness, bigotry, and greed of the world today bothers the heck out of us. 

We’re in good company. For thousands of years philosophers and just plain folks have been trying to figure out whether ethics really matters. As far back as Plato’s Republic Thrasymachus argued that “justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger.” Nietzsche and Marx both enthusiastically agreed. Unless we’re prepared to throw out all claims to right and wrong, good and evil, and simply opt for self-interest and power – an option that has been espoused by government officials and business tycoons – the place of morality in the cosmos is just about the most puzzling question there is. Without an answer, the world belongs to the most abusive, exploitive, deceptive, and hateful – guilt free. And as kids, including our recent inquisitor, see every day, there’s no shortage of such types. 

Why even bother to teach your children to be good or fret over how to advise them to behave toward their neighbors? Why correct your children when they say they want to emulate prominent politicians? Why challenge nascent bigotry?

Faith goes far as an answer, but not quite far enough. If it were all there is then we’d have to conclude that a supreme being ultimately decides – keeps your scorecard as he or she deems right, doles out the rewards and punishments – and leave it at that. But why would such a being command us to think reflectively about our actions and relationships? A completely arbitrary, preordained moral universe isn’t moral; it’s just a couple of opaque boxes. Goodness happens to be the label of one box, evil the label of the other. In this observation we’re actually affirming one of those endless footnotes to Plato, who discussed exactly this problem as his teacher Socrates faced it 2500 years ago as an unhappy citizen of Athens. And we’re in plenty of good company with thinkers from many religious and political traditions who doubt the basis for ethics.

The alternative to unreasoned acceptance through faith is that good and evil are part of the structure of reality. They exist, and certain beings – in particular, human ones, but perhaps also others (aliens, AI) – have access to them. How that works out in detail are the main chapters of the history of moral philosophy. Those specifics aren’t the main problem for today’s ethicists.  The main problem is that we can’t promise you a rose garden for being good, not now and maybe not ever. 

Another age-old observation made about our world is that, as one popular writer put it some years ago, bad things do happen to good people. There’s no sugar coating that. Ethics is not for those looking for an easy win.

Yet we continue to believe what wise traditions teach: that integrity, or at least striving for it, is the most important quality a person can possess. And that many of those who would exploit others’ weaknesses, frailties, and vulnerabilities are out of tune with the way the world fundamentally is, as long as it is true that that some are aligned with good and some aren’t.

You could say that all this fishing for meaning in ethics just makes us saps. Yet it’s notable that those who insist that the world is all about power, that strong leaders can make their own laws, no matter the price, excite such a strong negative reaction even among many of those who would otherwise identify with the short-term aims of such people. It’s not only that it’s rude to say such things in polite company. It also stimulates a visceral reaction to the very ugliness of might makes right.

Does the arc of reality bend toward justice? The trouble is, it’s a very long arc, and it is likely that no human being will see the end of it. But in the short run, for questions about the ethical treatment of a person or a group in a particular set of circumstances, well, the answers to those questions matter a lot.

Humans do need to learn morality. They are born with dispositions, sympathies, and preferences but these need to be shaped into character and agency. So, the answer to the high school kid, or your kid, or anyone who asks, no matter how successful or privileged, is that ethics is important both because it reflects basic truths about the world and because it is the only weapon we have against wickedness, evil, and inequity. We don’t have to agree about morality, but we do have to agree that for human beings it matters. We need to keep teaching about it.

Arthur Caplan, PhD, has taught ethics and medical ethics for 50 years, most recently at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He is a Hastings Center Fellow. @ArthurCaplan

Jonathan D. Moreno, PhD, has taught philosophy and bioethics for 50 years, most recently at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Hastings Center Fellow.