The primary source that we develop our ethics from is the people we hang out with. We develop them because we tend to conform to the norms of the crowd that we are around. During studies, if everyone else gives the same wrong answer before the naive person answers, the naive person will also answer incorrectly the majority of the time (Shaw 22). In addition, those who go to the same church receive teachings from the same religion. Those teachings often tell people how they should worship and have social relationships (Shaw 11). As a result, those people tend to develop similar ethics based off of those teachings.
Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017.
1 Comment for “M1 – Swedberg”
rjlawton
says:While I agree that social groups and how a person fits in with them are a primary source for how we develop our ethics, I wouldn’t say that is the definitive primary source. I did see how you broke that down as you mentioned religion, but I think religion could be its own primary source as it can differ a lot from social groups. As mentioned in the book “Although inspiring, such religious ideals are very general and can be difficult to translate into precise policy injunctions” (Shaw 11). There is a lot more context in how religious groups develop their ethics as opposed to social norms of the general population.
Shaw, William H. Business Ethics. 8th ed., Cengage Learning, 2014.