My image of myself as an honest, hard-working, patient, kind, reflective adult is important to me and I hope an image that those around me recognize as me when I paint it in quick, brief strokes this way. I am struck, though, as I begin to read discussions of ethical questions for this course that what I am describing here are personal, moral qualities that I hope I possess and display to the world, but I'm not sure they are really ethics. I have either been taught that these qualities are important or I have known their importance innately via some sort of internal moral compass. I think that my ethical sense is something different though, because it is not so constant in definition as those qualities listed above. I think it is more situational. I do not mean when I say that my ethics are not constant that I think it is fine to steal if I'm sure I won't get caught, or that I think it is OK to be mean to someone just because they've been mean to me first. What I mean is that I am many different people in the world and that the ethical rules for the different situations I find myself in are not always the same. If ethics are the choices I make about interacting with other creatures, then I must recognize that those choices are not always the same. We are discussing issues of privacy in data sharing in our readings and this is a perfect example of what I mean. There are different limits, different decisions, to be made about privacy in different situations in life and each is "right" in its own sphere. The level of personal disclosure I make to fellow students and instructors in an online course is different than the level of personal disclosure I might make to my spouse. Yet each different offering can be correct, and ethical, in its context.
"Für Toleranz" by Hans-Peter - originally posted to Flickr as für toleranz. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F%C3%BCr_Toleranz.jpg#/media/File:F%C3%BCr_Toleranz.jpg
