Human Value and professional ethics Power

Human Value

1. Human Values & Professional Ethics (BAS- 11) Dr. Abhijit Mishra

2. “By their nature, all human relations and  behaviours are embedded in values.” R K Mukerji (1949) “Values are socially approved desires and goals that are internalized through the process of learning or socialization and that become subjective preferences, standards and aspirations.” R K Mukerji (1949) “A value is a belief that something is good and desirable.” M Haralambos (2000)

3. Values: - are general principles that regulate our day-to-day behavior and provide us the basis for all our actions. are ideas shared by a community of people about how something should be ranked in terms of desirability, worth or goodness. are basically broad preferences concerning appropriate course of actions. VALUES: WHAT DO THEY MEAN???

4. Values: - deal not so much with what is, but with what ought to be; in other words, they express moral imperatives. are expressions of the ultimate goal/ purpose of social action. serve as the basis of our judgments about what is desirable, beautiful, proper, correct, important, worthwhile, and good as well as what is undesirable, ugly, incorrect, improper, and bad. 

5. Values: - integrate and fulfill man’s basic impulses and desires in a stable and consistent manner. influence people’s behavior and serve as criteria for evaluating the actions of others. build up societies, integrate social relations. help in creating norms to guide day-to-day behavior. mould ideal dimensions of personality and range and depth of culture. FUNCTION OF VALUES

6. Integrity - Unity of character, consistency in what you feel, think and act, consistency in public and private life, practicing what you preach. Honesty - Being true in your thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Cooperation - Extending help to others by means of an idea, suggestion, assistance or physical help for a good cause. Caring - Feeling for others, protecting others, causing least damage to others. Sharing - Extending our resources to others for their good. Courage - Confronting dangers/risks and taking bold decisions in even in adverse situations. SOME IMPORTANT VALUES

7. Self-respect - Valuing oneself appropriately. Commitment - Strong belief in something, a promise to do something, enthusiasm, duty/responsibility. Empathy - The capacity to understand and imaginatively enter another person’s feelings. Loyalty - A feeling of strong support for someone or something. Justice - The quality of treating others in a fair and just manner. Equality - The quality or state of being equal; the quality or state of having same rights, social status etc. Liberty - The state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s behavior or political views. SOME IMPORTANT VALUES

8. There are three major systems of classification of values: - Relative vs absolute values: Relative values are those whose importance varies between people, and on a larger scale, between people of different cultures. On the other hand, there are values which are independent of individual or cultural views. Such are absolute values.   Extrinsic vs intrinsic values: The worth of extrinsic values lie in their capacity to serve to get something that is desirable. In contrast, intrinsic values are not important because of their utility in gathering something desirable. But because they are important in themselves. CLASSIFICATION OF VALUES

9. Individual vs collective (familial/societal/universal) values : Values related to the development of individual personality or individual norms of recognition and protection of the human personality are known as individual values. Some such values are honesty, loyalty etc. There are certain values which are related to the development of families, societies, and humanity itself. All such values are classified as collective values. CLASSIFICATION OF VALUES

10. When values, morals, and ethics all provide behavioral rules, then how do they differ? What separates them from each other? It may seem like splitting hairs, but the differences can be important when persuading others. Values are basically the rules by which we make decisions about right and wrong, good and bad. On the other hand, morals are defined as “ the motivation to behave in a certain way based on ideas of right and wrong. ”. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VALUES, MORALS, ETHICS

11. Morals tend to differ from values primarily in two ways- ( i ) morals have a greater social element as compared to values, and (ii) morals have a broader acceptance in comparison to values. Ethics is another term which is often confused with values and morals. Ethics is a codified formal system or set of rules which are explicitly adopted by a group of people. Ethics are internally defined and adopted, whilst morals tend to be externally imposed on other people. Thus, you have professional ethics but you seldom hear about professional morals. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VALUES, MORALS, ETHICS

12. Cross-cultural variations in Values

13. VALUE EDUCATION Dr. Abhijit Mishra

14. Value education may seem a vague term for all of us. Aimed at sensitizing with fundamental issues which are important for all- issues which directly relate to our happiness, welfare, aspirations, goals and success in life. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

15. Value education deals with: - what is valuable to all of us, and what is conducive to our individual and collective happiness and prosperity in a sustainable way. Value education enables us to be in harmony with ourselves, with other fellow human beings and with the rest of the nature. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

16. Understanding the need for values and value education is vital for successful conduct of our profession. Let us specifically investigate how value education helps us. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

17. Correct identification of our aspirations: We all aspire to become something (engineer, corporate professionals). We have various plans for our future, be it immediate or long-term. Such planning may include our personal lives, our families, our professions, and our social lives. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

18. But before we invest our time and energies to actualize our plans, it is important to realize what we basically aspire for. In other words, we need to identify our basic aspirations. Values help us to correctly identify our aspirations. Based on the correct identification of our aspirations, we can frame our plans and work for it. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

19. 2. Deciding appropriate methods/ways to fulfil our aspirations: Merely identifying our aspirations correctly is not enough. We also need to know how to fulfil our aspirations, how to go about actualizing our goals. Generally, we tend to pursue our goals in a variety of ways as per our appraisal and beliefs. We keep on experimenting, learning from these and improving our understanding. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

20. Complete understanding of human values guides us in choosing/deciding the ways in which we could fulfil our aspirations. Basically, values form the basis for all our thoughts, behaviour, and actions. Once we have known what is valuable to us, these values become the basis of, the anchor for our actions. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

21. We know what we are doing is right and will lead to the fulfilment of our basic aspirations. Without an appropriate value framework, we will not be able to decide whether a chosen action is desirable/undesirable, right, or wrong. Hence, there is a prime need for correct understanding of the value domain. Value education is the input necessary to fulfil this need. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

22. 3. Complementarity of values and skills: To fulfil our aspirations, two things are essential- ( i ) knowing what really is conducive to human happiness i.e. to set the right goals and to proceed in the right direction, and (ii) to learn skills to actualize this goal. Therefore, there is an essential complementarity between values and skills for the success of any human endeavour. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

23. Suppose we realize that health is the basic requirement for a human being. Then, we learn skill to judge what food would be healthy, what physical practices will keep the body functioning properly etc. All these fall under the domain of skills. Thus, both (values and skills) are important and these are complementary. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

24. 4 . Evaluation of our beliefs : We all hold beliefs about certain things and these beliefs are formed based on the information, be it right or wrong, we get from various sources. In fact, there is a whole body of beliefs which together constitute our worldview. Beliefs are not same for everybody. What we may believe may not be important for you and vice versa. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

25. In that case, when we interact, it may lead to conflicts and unhappiness. We face this problem because the values we hold are based on contradictory, conflicting, unstable, and incorrect beliefs about reality. In absence of correct understanding of universal human values, we are driven by such ad-hoc beliefs which cannot ensure happiness for all of us. NEED FOR VALUE EDUCATION

26. Let us have a look on certain effective and widely acceptable principles which should guide the process of value education in our system. GUIDELINES FOR VALUE EDUCATION

27. Universal: Whatever is taught as value education must be universally applicable to all human beings and be true at all times and places. Such content need not restrict itself to a certain sect, creed, gender, or nationality. GUIDELINES FOR VALUE EDUCATION

28. 2. Rational: - Value education should not be based on stereotypes, blind beliefs etc. Value education should be amenable to reasoning and should be based on a set of sermons or Do’s and Don’ts. GUIDELINES FOR VALUE EDUCATION

29. 3. Natural & Verifiable: - Values being taught should be close to the fundamental nature of human beings so that they are easier to adapt. Being natural means, it is acceptable in a natural manner to all human beings. The values being taught should be verifiable i.e. we should assume something just because it is being taught in textbooks, rather each of us will want to verify these to find out whether they are true for us. GUIDELINES FOR VALUE EDUCATION

30. 4. Leading to Harmony: - Finally, value education must enable us to be in harmony within and in harmony with others. Hence, when we live on the basis of these values, we start understanding that it will lead to harmony in us, and harmony in our interaction with other humans and the rest of nature. GUIDELINES FOR VALUE EDUCATION

31. Any course on value education must include ( i ) all dimensions- thoughts, feelings and actions; and (ii) all levels of human existence- individual, family, society, nature/existence of human living. Accordingly, the content of value education should enable us to understand: - ourselves, our aspirations, our happiness, the goal of human life, other entities in nature, the innate interconnectedness of various species, and the role of human being in this nature/existence. SCOPE OF VALUE EDUCATION

32. Hence, it must encompass understanding of harmony at various levels, namely, individual, family, society, nature and existence, and finally, learning to live in accordance with this understanding by being vigilant to one’s thought, behaviour and work. SCOPE OF VALUE EDUCATION

33. UNDERSTANDING BASIC HUMAN ASPIRATIONS: HAPPINESS & PROSPERITY Dr. Abhijit Mishra

34. In order to understand about our basic aspirations, just make a list of all that you want in your life. You may want :- to become a successful engineer/IAS/govt. officer to join the corporate sector to get the highest grade to be the first ranker in the examination to be the smartest guy in the crowd to earn enormous wealth to be the master of all trades and so on…………… OUR ASPIRATIONS

35. Now for each of these desires on the list, just ask a few basic questions like: - Why do you want this (your desire)? What would you get if those desires are fulfilled? Is there a more basic desire? If you ask these questions, you will find that there are few basic aspirations which encircle (cover) all your desires. These are your basic aspirations. You will also find that there are two basic aspirations: happiness and prosperity.

36. These basic aspirations are intrinsic to us that is, they are quite natural and inborn to us. We all are continuously working for our basic aspirations in different ways as pe r our understanding. Sometimes we succeed, many times we don’t. How successful we are today in achieving this is a matter of series exploration. But one thing is clear, happiness and prosperity are two basic human aspirations and if we want to ensure these, we need to have a clear and correct understanding of both.

37. Happiness may be defined as “being in harmony/synergy in the state/ situation that I live in”. Happiness :- is a state of liking; is a state of mind or feeling characterized by contentment, love, satisfaction, pleasure or joy; consists of positive emotions and positive activities; is of three kinds: pleasure, engagement, and meaning; freedom from want and distress; awareness of right order of things; assurance of one's place in the universe or society; a state of inner peace; and a state where we feel good in most of the walk of life HAPPINESS

38. The path to happiness starts from an understanding of the root causes of suffering. Buddha believed that suffering (dukkha) ultimately arose from ignorance and false knowledge. Buddha proposed the Eightfold Path for elimination of suffering (dukkha). HAPPINESS: ACCORDING TO BUDDHA

39. BUDDHA’s EIGHTFOLD PATH

40. Socrates had the following ideas about happiness: All human beings naturally desire happiness. Happiness is obtainable and teachable through human effort. Happiness is directive rather than additive: it depends not on external goods, but how we use these external goods (whether wisely or unwisely). HAPPINESS: ACCORDING TO SOCRATES

41. Happiness depends on the “education of desire” whereby the soul learns how to harmonize its desires, redirecting its gaze away from physical pleasures to the love of knowledge and virtue. Virtue and Happiness are inextricably linked, such that it would be impossible to have one without the other. The pleasures that result from pursuing virtue and knowledge are of a higher quality than the pleasures resulting from satisfying mere animal desires. Pleasure is not the goal of existence, however, but rather an integral aspect of the exercise of virtue in a fully human life. HAPPINESS: ACCORDING TO SOCRATES

42. In the recent years, there has been a dramatic upsurge in scientific studies on the science of happiness or to put it simply, discovering what makes happy people happy. Fortunately, many of these studies point to specific ways of thinking and acting that can strongly impact our sense of happiness and peace of mind.  Researchers have identified at least seven habits of happy people:- Express your heart . People who have one or more close friendships are happier. Try to develop the ability to express genuine interest in what people say, and respond in encouraging ways. It is a powerful way to enrich relationships and cultivate positive emotions. HAPPINESS ACCORDING TO CURRENT RESEARCH

43. Cultivate kindness . People who volunteer or simply care for others on a consistent basis seem to be happier and less depressed.  Regular physical activity . Regular exercise has been associated with improved mental well-being and a lower incidence of depression. Find your flow . If we are deeply involved in trying to reach a goal, or an activity that is challenging but well suited to our skills, we experience a joyful state called "flow." Many kinds of activities, such as sports, playing an instrument, or teaching, can produce the experience of flow.   HAPPINESS ACCORDING TO CURRENT RESEARCH

44. Discovering Meaning.  Studies demonstrate a close link between spiritual and religious practice and happiness. Spirituality is closely related to the discovery of greater meaning in our lives. Discover and use your strengths . Happiest people are those that have discovered their unique strengths (such as persistence and critical thinking) and virtues (such as humanity) and use those strengths and virtues for a purpose that is greater than their own personal goals. Show gratitude. Grateful people have been shown to have greater positive emotion, a greater sense of belonging, and lower incidence of depression and stress. HAPPINESS ACCORDING TO CURRENT RESEARCH

45. The feeling of having or making available more than required physical facilities is prosperity. Almost all of us feel that wealth alone means prosperity and try to explain this phenomenon on this nonexistent or half fact. We are trying to achieve happiness and prosperity by maximizing accumulation and consumption of physical facilities. It is becoming anti-ecological and anti-people, and threatening the human survival itself. PROSPERITY

46. For prosperity, two things are required- Identification of the required quantity of physical facilities. Ensuring availability / production of more than required physical facilities. We can be prosperous only if there is a limit to the need for physical facilities. If there is no limit what so ever be the availability the feeling of prosperity cannot be assured. Secondly, just assessing the need is not enough. We need to be able to produce or make available more than the perceived need. PROSPERITY

47. Prosperity is a feeling of having more than required physical facilities, it is not just physical facilities. Wealth is a physical thing . It means having money, or having a lot of physical facilities or both. Wealth is a part of prosperity. We mostly fail to make this distinction today. We keep working for wealth, without realizing that the basic desire is for the feeling of prosperity, to have a feeling of having enough. A person has lot of money, but does not want to share even a bit of it. The person 'has wealth' but feels 'deprived'. If one felt prosperous he/she would have shared what one has, since there is lot more than enough wealth anyway. PROSPERITY & WEALTH: THE DIFFERENCE

48. At the level of individual - rising problems of depression, psychological disorders, suicides, stress, insecurity, etc. At the level of family - breaking of joint families, mistrust, and conflict between older and younger generations, insecurity in relationships, divorce, dowry tortures, etc. At the level of society - growing incidence of terrorism and naxalism , rising communalism, spreading casteism, racial and ethnic struggle, wars between nations, etc. At the level of nature - global warming, water, air, soil, noise etc. pollution, resource depletion of minerals and mineral oils, etc. PROBLEMS OF WRONG UNDERSTANDING OF HAPPINESS & PROSPERITY

49. Physical facilities are necessary and complete for animals, while they are necessary but not complete for humans. Animals need physical things to survive, mainly to take care of their body. As long as animals have physical things, they are largely fine. They don't desire other things like knowledge or a peaceful animal society or getting a good MBA. Human beings are social and emotional beings. We do not have only material requirements. We have social and emotional requirements which cannot fulfilled merely by wealth or physical things. Therefore, for humans ‘Physical facilities are necessary but not enough’. WHY ONLY PHYSICAL FACILITIES ARE NOT ENOUGH?

50. Our basic aspirations are happiness and prosperity. Happiness is ensured by the relationships with other human beings and prosperity is ensured by working on physical facilities. We need to ensure the following things to fulfill basic human aspirations: - Right Understanding: This refers to higher order human skills - the need to learn and utilize our intelligence most effectively. Good Relationships: This refers to the interpersonal relationships that a person builds in his or her life - at home, at the workplace and in society. Physical Facilities: This includes the physiological needs of individuals and indicates the necessities as well as the comforts of life. It means the feeling of having or being able to have more physical facilities than is needed. FULFILLING BASIC HUMAN ASPIRATIONS

51. In order to resolve the issues in human relationships, we need to understand them first, and this would come from 'right understanding of relationship’. Similarly in order to be prosperous and to enrich nature, we need to have the 'right understanding’. The 'right understanding' will enable us to work out our requirements for physical facilities and hence correctly distinguish the difference between wealth and prosperity. With nature as well, we need to understand the harmony in nature, and how we can complement this harmony. FULFILLING BASIC HUMAN ASPIRATIONS

52. SELF EXPLORATION AND NATURAL ACCEPTANCE Dr. Abhijit Mishra

53. Self exploration is a process of investigating and judging within ourselves :- what is valuable to us? what is right for us? what is true for us? We get the value of ourselves through self exploration. It is a process of focusing attention on ourselves, our present beliefs and aspirations vis-à-vis what we really want to be. WHAT IS SELF EXPLORATION?

54. If there is no difference between what we are and what we want to be, then there is no problem. But if there is a difference, it implies we are living with a contradiction (of not being what we really want to be) which we need to resolve. In short, self exploration is a process of discovering the innateness and universality between all human beings. Self exploration enables us to look at the contradictions within us and resolve them by becoming aware of our natural acceptance . WHAT IS SELF EXPLORATION?

55. Content of self exploration is finding answers to the following fundamental questions of all human beings: The Desire/Goal: What is my (human) Desire/ Goal? What do I really want in life, or what is the goal of human life? Program: What is my (human) program for fulfilling the desire? How to fulfil it? What is the program to actualize the above? The two questions above cover the whole domain of human aspirations and human endeavour . Thus, they form the content of self- exploration. WHAT IS SELF EXPLORATION?

56. Self exploration requires two aspects :- Natural acceptance : unconditional and total acceptance of the self, people and environment; absence of any exception from others. Experiential validation : a process that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content; as a philosophy and methodology in which the direct experience and focused reflection of the individual helps to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarifies values. WHAT IS SELF EXPLORATION?

57. Self exploration helps in :- creating a dialogue between what we are and what we want to be. s elf evolution by self investigation. k nowing the entire existence through knowing oneself. recognizing one’s relationship with other units of existence and fulfilling it. PURPOSE OF SELF EXPLORATION?

58. Self exploration helps in :- knowing human conduct, human character and living accordingly. being in harmony in oneself and in harmony with entire existence. identifying our innateness and moving towards self organization and self expression. PURPOSE OF SELF EXPLORATION?

59. Natural acceptance implies unconditional and total acceptance of the self, people and environment. It also refers to the absence of any exception from others. It is way to accept the good things naturally. Learn everything that is good from others, but bring it in, and in our own way absorb it; do not become others. WHAT IS NATURAL ACCEPTANCE?

60. Characteristics of natural acceptance are :- Does not change with time . It remains invariant with time. For example our natural acceptance for trust and respect does not change with age. D oes not depend on the place . Whatever we have accepted, in our life, at any time of our age, does not change, even if we move from one place to another one. WHAT IS NATURAL ACCEPTANCE?

61. D oes not depend on our beliefs or past conditionings. No matter how deep our belief or past conditioning, as long as we ask ourselves the question sincerely, as long as we refer deep within ourselves, the answer will always be the same. Is 'constantly there', something we can refer to . Natural acceptance is always there. Whatever we do, this natural acceptance is within us, it is telling us what is right. WHAT IS NATURAL ACCEPTANCE?

62. Natural acceptance is the same for all of us: it is part and parcel of every human being, it is part of humanness . Though each one of us, may have different likes and dislikes and means to live and to react etc. but if we go deep in our mind the purpose of our work, behaviour , efforts etc. are based on common goals like need to be happy, need to be respected, need to get prosperity. So our basic acceptance remains the same. WHAT IS NATURAL ACCEPTANCE?