Andrew Adds Insight To One Of My Posts

On By southwerkIn ethics

I posted a few days ago about listening and indirectly my lack of social skills. That earlier post may be found here.

My friend, Andrew, has some additional thoughts. They are quite thoughtful and I am pleased to share them with you.

Without further ado, I present Andrew –

For a question like this, I normally turn to Thomas Hobbes. His social contract theory of ethics seems, to me, to be the most practical way of determining the who/what/when/where/why of our moral responsibility to society.

I believe our moral responsibility to support the group and participate in its endeavors only extend to those activities which help maintain the existence and integrity of the group. For instance, its our moral responsibility to vote because that is how we elect our leaders and how we keep our system of government/society going.

So, taking this further, it seems that the action itself is not important. What is important, and determines the level of moral responsibility, is the purpose for the action. Lets take listening as an example.

Hypothetically, say you are the President of the United States (or any elected official for that matter). Part of your job is to listen to the needs and wants of your constituents. This is how we function as a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. If you, as an elected official, stop listening to the people, then the system cant work as designed, thus increasing the potential for the entire society to be put in jeopardy.

Next, consider any social event. In that setting, your ability or inability to listen to petty gossip and casual conversation is not overly detrimental to the group at all. You might not make any friends, but its not going to bring about the apocalypse either.

In the first case, I think its safe to say that it is your moral responsibility to listen. Whereas, in the second case, you are not morally obliged to listen.