Can ethics be taught?

Abstract

The main question of this article, ‘Can Ethics be Taught?’, is a critical reflection on the years I spent in association with Prozesky developing and presenting ethics training modules to a broad cross-section of professional and other groups. It describes the component parts of the workshops, comments on the rationale behind them, and also provides an analysis of both strengths and weaknesses. In a sense this is a critique of the discipline of Applied Ethics, yet at the same time it offers a possible pedagogy for what Prozesky and I would call ‘ethics at the coalface’.

Keywords: ethics, ethics training, workshops, strengths, weaknesses, Applied Ethics, pedagogy, integrity, moral/ morality, integrity, authority, culture, religion, case study