Propriety, ethics & freedom

[GirlinContempt]

Poll question: Propriety, ethics & freedom

Are propriety & ethics antagonistic in relation to 'freedom'?
Why/Why not?

[GirlinContempt]

1. Why/why not?

[WCGreen]

2. It seems to me that propriety is an off shoot of ethics..

Being that ethics would tend toward setting the parameters of society and propriety would be e measure of how well those ethics are followed...

And of course they restrain freedom since the collective almost always sets the tone for ethical behavior.

There are many stages of ethical behavior. In my profession, accounting, the idea of ethics stops, always, at the code set up to protect the profession.

To explain this, I will give you true example of what I mean.

You are required, as an accountant, to embrace confidentiality at all times when it comes to your relationship with a client. Not as strong as the client attorney relationship, but enough to instill the trust of your client in you in order to get the job done...

I can see that.

So, in our auditing class, two classes away from graduating, the class was presented with a series of hypothetical cases where the profession's ethics could be called into question...

The first case was about what would you do if you discovered via your audit that the company was releasing a pollutant into the environment as part of cost saving. If you knew this was border line illegal, what would or should you do?

My response was that I would talk to the company owner and let him know that I had discovered this problem. And ask him if he was aware.

His response back to me was yes he was aware and had weighed the cost of compliance with the fines that could be levied and determined that it was cheaper, in the long run, to keep on polluting.

What would I do then....

I answered I would tell him he was in the wrong and that I would report him to the authorities....

t was then that I learned what the professional guidelines considered to be ethical. I was to excuse my self from the audit and walk away without telling any one about the pollution. This action would preserve the integrity of the profession.

It was then that I decided I could not be a CPA and so my freedom to make a lot more money in my career was restricted by the ethical boundaries set up by the profession I wished to join...

[billyskank]

3. Yes, of course

You can't do whatever the hell you want, because some things are wrong to do. :hi:

[In_The_Wind]

4. To a morally correct individual they should work together.

Propriety is conformity to recognized standards of conduct or appearance, socially correct behavior, decorum, etiquette, good form.

Ethics are the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the conduct of the members of a profession.

I don't see how propriety or ethics could be in opposition to freedom unless the freedom you are speaking of is a freedom to act wantonly without regard to the results of those actions.

[GirlinContempt]

5. THANK you

:)

[billyskank]

6. Well if you're gonna define "freedom" to mean

"everything except those things I think are wrong to do," then yeah...

[GirlinContempt]

8. what about

ensuring other peoples comfort and protecting their freedom, within limits?
Another, more accurate, way to phrase it

[billyskank]

9. Right

so we're recognising the difference between "freedom to" and "freedom from," and that there is constant tension between the two. Unrestricted "freedom to" is the law of the jungle; animals have that, and no-one claims that animals have a more developed society than humans (should) have. Therefore we recognise that to make a society livable requires certain "freedoms from" which necessarily means some restrictions on individual liberties. For example the freedom to pollute, which is antagonistic to another's ability to live free from pollution.

So let us not fetishize freedom as many in the United States do (forgive me; I know you are Canadian) and recognise that unrestricted freedom is not a way of organising a human society and that liberty requires some proscription.

[GirlinContempt]

10. So, you agree with me

good :)

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. To an extent, yes.

But then, for humans to live and work together effectively as a society, it's necessary that there be certain self-imposed limitations on what one is free to do; one's freedom only extends to the point where it begins to infringe upon others, and total freedom is anarchy and chaos.

[SOteric]

11. By themselves, no.

Propriety and ethics are ways we use to guarantee the maximum amount of freedom is available to all. They are methods for determining where freedom begins and ends not just for oneself but for others as well.

If I steal from someone, I maybe expressing my own freedom to take, but I impinge on someone else's freedom to have.

In short, they're a triad that teaches the lesson:






Of course, some overly compulsive types make take even ethics and propriety to the level of tyranny. I firmly believe that's against the better nature of mankind.