South 고등학교 2학년 Contemporary Society and Ethics
Chapters: 6
1. Ethics in modern life
What ethics is and types of ethics · Eastern and Western approaches
- Ethics: How to Decide What Is Right – Ethics (moral philosophy) asks what we ought to do and why. Values such as honesty, kindness, fairness and respect guide choices. Three main theories help: consequences (utilitarianism, Bentham and Mill: most good for most people), duty (Kant: act on rules you could want everyone to follow; treat people as ends, never only as means) and virtue (Aristotle: build good character; virtue is the mean between extremes). Conscience is our inner sense of right and wrong. Freedom brings responsibility. Meta-ethics asks what "good" means and whether values are universal or relative. Applied ethics deals with the environment, animals, work, friendship and peace.
2. Bioethics and ecological ethics
Life and death · Love, sex and gender · Views of nature
- Bioethics: Deciding What Is Right in Biology and Medicine – Bioethics asks whether we should do what biology and medicine now let us do. It uses four principles: autonomy (respect choice), beneficence (do good), non-maleficence (do no harm) and justice (fairness). Human dignity means a person is never only a means to an end, so informed consent is needed. Therapeutic cloning may be allowed under strict rules; reproductive human cloning is banned in most countries. Start-of-life and end-of-life questions are weighed as benefits against risks and values.
- Respect, Consent and Gender Equality: Sexual Ethics for Teens – Sexual ethics means treating your own body and other people with respect. Consent must be clear, free, informed and can change at any time. Pressure, fear or power make a "yes" invalid. Everyone has equal rights whatever their gender, and anyone can ask a trusted adult for help.
- Environmental Ethics: Who Deserves Our Care? – Environmental ethics asks what we owe to nature, animals and future people. Picture a circle of moral concern. Anthropocentrism keeps only humans inside; nature has instrumental value (useful to us). Sentientism (Singer, Bentham) adds animals that feel pain: animal welfare says reduce suffering, animal rights (Regan) says animals must not be used as mere tools. Biocentrism (Schweitzer, Taylor) gives every living thing value. Ecocentrism (Leopold's land ethic, deep ecology) values whole ecosystems. Many Eastern and Indigenous traditions see humans as part of nature. Intergenerational justice and sustainability add future people. Real cases (dams, forests, animal testing, climate) often bring these views into conflict.
3. Science and digital ethics
Ethics of research · ICT and new media ethics · Ethical AI
- Ethics in Science and Technology – Science and technology give great power, so we also ask "should we?" and not only "can we?". Science ethics means weighing benefit against risk, keeping people, animals and nature safe, being honest with data, taking responsibility for how results are used, and letting citizens share in big decisions about science.
- Digital Footprints and Netiquette – A digital footprint is the trail of data we leave online. Active footprints are shared on purpose (posts, comments, forms); passive footprints are collected without us noticing (cookies, browsing history, location, IP address). Footprints are hard to erase and can be seen by others later. We live in a digital society where learning, banking, shopping and government services are online; a responsible user of it is a digital citizen (netizen). Net etiquette means being ethical (respect copyright, share reliable information), respectful (privacy, diversity, no bullying) and responsible (avoid oversharing, don't feed trolls). Communication etiquette asks us to be precise, polite and credible; social media etiquette asks us to choose passwords and privacy settings wisely, think before uploading, and verify before sharing.
- AI Ethics: Using Artificial Intelligence Fairly and Safely – AI systems learn patterns from data and then make decisions. AI ethics asks whether those decisions are fair, safe and respectful. The main issues are bias (unfair data gives unfair results), privacy (personal data needs consent and protection), transparency (people should know why an AI decided something), accountability (a human stays responsible), safety and misuse (deepfakes, false information), and social impact (jobs, the digital divide, the environment). Responsible AI means checking all of these before and after an AI is used.
4. Democratic citizens and ethics
Work ethics · Individual and common good · Fair distribution
- Career Ethics and Work Ethics – Work ethics are the values that guide how we do our jobs: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect and safety. Work gives money, growth and a way to help others. Every profession adds special duties, such as a doctor keeping secrets or an engineer putting safety first. When a hard choice appears, a simple ladder helps: stop, find facts, see who is affected, list options, choose, and test.
- Civic Ethics: Common Good, Citizens and the State – Civic ethics asks how we should act as members of a community. My own good and the common good can clash, as with a shared well. Fair sharing keeps the resource alive for everyone. Citizens owe duties to neighbours and to a fair state; officials must be honest; and people may peacefully refuse an unjust law, which is called civil disobedience.
- Social Justice: Fair Shares for All – Justice means giving each person their due. Social justice is about fair sharing of goods, services and chances in society. Three principles guide fair sharing: equal treatment for equals, reward in proportion to effort and skill, and extra help for special needs. They must be balanced. John Rawls suggested choosing society's rules from behind a 'veil of ignorance', not knowing what position we would get; a rational person would then protect the worst-off. Pursuing social justice means first securing basic needs (food, water, housing, health, education, minimum wage) for everyone. People disagree on how: free-market supporters want open competition with a small state; others want the state to provide welfare. India uses a mix.
5. Culture and economic ethics
Art and morality · Consumption ethics · Multiculturalism
- Philosophy of Art: What Is Art, and Why Does It Matter? – The philosophy of art (part of aesthetics) asks: what is art, what is beauty, is taste only personal, what makes a creator, and can art show truth? Answers have changed from "art copies nature" to "art expresses feeling" to "the idea is the art".
- Ethical Consumption – Ethical consumption means choosing what to buy while thinking about the people who made it and the nature it uses. Fair trade pays workers a fair share, and buying less, second-hand or repaired things cuts the footprint. Many small choices change what shops sell.
- Cultural Diversity – Cultural diversity means many groups with different ways of life live together. Ethnocentrism judges others by your own culture; cultural relativism first understands a custom in its own setting. Prejudice and stereotypes block respect. Societies have a mainstream culture, subcultures and countercultures. Universal human rights set the limit: differences deserve respect, harm to people does not.
6. Ethics of peace and coexistence
Social conflict and integration · Unification and peace on the peninsula · International justice
- Peace Education: How People Build Lasting Peace – Peace is more than 'no war'. Negative peace means no fighting. Positive peace means fairness, trust and a good life for all. Violence can be direct (hitting, war), structural (unfair rules that keep people poor) or cultural (ideas that make harm look normal). Thinkers gave us tools: Mozi taught equal care for all and opposed attacking wars; Kant said fair governments, a league of free states and kindness to visitors can make peace last; Gandhi showed non-violent resistance. Conflicts are solved step by step: cool down, listen, find needs, think of options, agree. After division or war, reconciliation is built like a bridge: talks, truth, apology, trade, family meetings and shared projects. Germany (1990) and South Africa's truth commission are examples; divided peoples such as on the Korean peninsula still discuss how peaceful unification could happen.
- Global Justice: Fair Trade, Aid and Reducing Inequality – Global justice asks what is fair between countries and between people across the world. Incomes are very unequal. Fair trade gives producers a fair price, and development aid (ODA) helps poorer countries build schools, health and jobs. Real justice also needs peace, honest rules and a say for poorer countries.