The ‘Ethics of Responsibility’ refers to the moral obligation to consider the wellbeing and interests of future generations when making decisions or taking actions in the present, with the aim of ensuring the long-term sustainability of human life on Earth. In other words, it is built on a system of ethics, in which decisions and actions must be ethically validated before proceeding. If the action or decision causes harm to society or the environment, then it would be considered to be socially irresponsible.
Moral values that are inherent in society create a distinction between right and wrong. In this way, social fairness is believed (by most) to be in the “right”, but more frequently than not, this “fairness” is absent. Every individual has a responsibility to act in a manner that is beneficial to society, and not solely to the individual.
Moral values that are inherent in society create a distinction between right and wrong. In this way, social fairness is believed (by most) to be in the “right”, but more frequently than not, this “fairness” is absent. Every individual has a responsibility to act in manner that is beneficial to society and not solely to the individual.
The ethicist Jonathan Sacks makes the crucial distinction between the urgent and the important as he brings the notion of social responsibility to the individual level which is critical at this juncture of our history. He noted that “In praise of someone who had died, no one ever spoke about the car they drove, the house they owned, the clothes they wore, the exotic holidays they took. No one’s last thought was ever, “I wish I had spent more time in the office.” The things we spend most of our time pursuing turn out to be curiously irrelevant when it comes to seeing the value of a life as a whole. They are urgent but not important, and in the crush and press of daily life, the urgent tends to win out over the important.
“Happiness, as opposed to pleasure, is a matter of a life well lived, one that honours the important, not just the urgent. This has been confirmed by many recent research studies. One showed that life satisfaction increased 24 percent with a person’s level of altruistic activity. Another discovered that those who had more opportunities to help others felt 11 percent better about themselves. Several studies have shown that the best predictor of happiness is the sense that you have a purpose in life. Those who hold strong spiritual beliefs are typically satisfied with life, while those who have no spiritual beliefs are typically unsatisfied. People who feel responsible for their lives express one-third more life satisfaction than those who feel they lack control. When subjects were asked to choose any of 20 different factors contributing to happiness, there was only one no one chose: financial status. People who own the most are only as happy as those who have the least, and half as happy as those who are content with what they have. The desire to give is stronger than the desire to have. This alone is enough to defeat cynicism and fatalism about the human condition.
“Happiness is the ability to say: I lived for certain values and acted on them. I was part of a family, embracing it and being embraced by it. I was part of a community, honoring its traditions, sharing its griefs and joys, ready to help others, knowing that they were ready to help me. I did not only ask what I could take; I asked what I could contribute. To know that you made a difference, that in this all-too-brief span of years you lifted someone’s spirits, relieved someone’s poverty or loneliness, or brought to the world a moment of grace or justice that would not have happened had it not been for you—these are as close as we get to the meaningfulness of a life, and they are matters of everyday rather than heroic virtue.”
