Ethics
On the 18th of March, Adesola posted about ethics. Before reading the post, ethics was something I thought I understood about myself. I thought I knew where I stood in certain situations and what I thought should be considered right or wrong. After reading and watching the videos attached, I realised that I was only scraping the surface of the topic.
At first glance, I would assume I would be a moral realist but once the topic was talked about in more depth, I discovered that I wasn't considering what that would mean on a wider platform. In the video created by CrashCourse on Youtube, they talk about it in more detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOoffXFpAlU
About four minutes and thirty seconds into the video, he describes what Moral Realism is. A definition of moral realism is:
'Moral Realism (or Moral Objectivism) is the meta-ethical view that there exist such things as moral facts and moral values, and that these are objective and independent of our perception of them or our beliefs, feelings or other attitudes towards them.'
(The Basics of Philosophy, 2019)
The definition states that our moral beliefs differ from person to person, culture to culture, etc. There is no one correct answer, but we accept that everyone has their own position on a given topic. As explained in the video by CrashCourse, this can seem great at first but if you look more closely, there are some flaws in the system. They explain that:
'If every culture is the sole arbiter of what's right for it, that means no culture can actually be wrong. It means nazi culture was right for the people living in that culture.'
(CrashCourse, 2016)
Of course with this understanding, moral realism doesn't seem as appealing. From all of what I've learned, I have discovered for myself that there is no one way of living. I personally, don't think I fall under just one umbrella of beliefs. People's beliefs will differ, depending on who they are and where they come from and that shouldn't be a problem. One key ethical skill is open-mindedness. Being open-minded doesn't mean that whatever someone else says is correct and you have to go along with it, it means that you hear what other people have to say and try to understand their viewpoint. At the end of the day, your beliefs are what make you unique but understanding what other people think and why they feel that way could change ethics in a large way.
A personal experience of my own is working with choreographers. There are a lot of times in a dancers life where they can be mistreated. Working with a choreographer is one of them. Sometimes you can work with someone who is creating a piece and they may be younger or the same age as you, which can cause some friction in the workplace if they are not treating you correctly. Moments like these are when your ethics are put to the test. At the end of the day, this artist is giving you the opportunity to dance and that can be taken away just as easily. All of this comes into consideration when in the studio with them. The way I have overcome these situations in the past is by understanding why they are acting like that. What are they feeling that is causing them to be this type of person. Maybe there is a lot of stress and pressure they are under and I haven't noticed. This was all correct and it allowed me to keep a good relationship with my colleague. I thought I really understood them but realised that until I choreographed for the first time I never truly understood their mindset. Literally, putting myself in their shoes was eye-opening and allowed me to fully comprehend what they were going through and gave me a skill for future collaborations.
The Basics of Philosophy (2019) Moral Realism, Available at: https://www.philosophybasics.com/branch_moral_realism.html (Accessed: March 2019).
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