No matter how difficult an issue is to be viewed through the lens of ethics, knowing the basics is most important. In reference to Ethics, Aptitude, and Integrity (GS Paper 4), understanding values is crucial not only for your exams but also for life in general. When it comes to aspiring for civil services, the foundational values of civil services should not be overlooked by an aspirant. And so, in today’s Ethics Simplified of the UPSC Essentials, we return to the basics.
While searching for cardinal values in human life and governance, one often wonders whether they are different from each other — or if human life is somehow separate from the life of a civil servant. But before diving into this deeper question on ethics, one must start with the basics, no matter what stage of life (or exam) one is at.
Fundamental questions on human values
Let’s begin with some fundamental questions on ethics. What are Human Values? Why should they be part and parcel of one’s personality? In civil service, do we need a cluster of values? And in life, are values factors of sentient existence too?
Why we need to be measured through human values
Values are fundamental human feelings, beliefs, and notions that are considered conducive to individual as well as collective human happiness and harmonious living in society. Values characterise our relationship with other human beings and with the rest of nature. Values also enable us to define our purpose correctly.
And so, for collective happiness as well as survival, for relating truly with others, and for defining our goals and purpose correctly, we need to be measured through human values only. Any other measurement criteria, such as profile value, money value, or brand value, would disconnect and disregard the civil service, creating an apocryphal rather than authentic image of a civil servant. Ultimately, human values add that premiumness which always has a positive bearing on the self and society.
Universal Human Values as the foundation of ethics
There are Universal Human Values, and one must begin from there only. The pursuance of these universal values forms the prime basis of ethical human conduct. Examples of such universal human values are promise, trust, love, non-violence, compassion, empathy, service, truth, etc. Some values indeed appear to change with time, place, and communities. However, these are only derivatives of these fundamental human values, expressed in the specific context of time and place. Therefore, sometimes these values appear to be changeful. Nevertheless, the fundamental human values never change. Whenever any doubt arises about the authenticity or appropriateness of any value, one has to take reference from the foundational universal human values only.
How to begin: From promise to trust to care and other core values of ethics
So how should one begin? Simply by feeling the weight of words or gratefulness, which can be valued through promise. Following promise over time begets trust, where nothing needs to be revalidated—neither the action nor the person. Promise and trust are the founding bricks of values. And that trust paves the way for a caring personality. Because care examines and brightens the horizon of responsibility, an individual starts realising that there are so many known as well as unknown persons who are directly or indirectly dependent on one’s existence and deeds. So, if a district collector has visited two hundred villages in his district and still three hundred more villages remain, then even the last person of the last village would be thinking with hope about the distribution of benefits. And realising those unknowns’ existence and dependability on oneself brings about impartiality in decision-making.
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The pandemic period is the greatest testimony to the values of promise, trust, care, and objectivity in decision-making. Objectivity is where duties overpower rights and prejudices regarding caste, class, religion, and behavioral biases. Objectivity minimises all kinds of prejudices, and the individual does not spend his or her time with those biases but tries to belong to those responsibilities. That belongingness carves that steadfast relationship which is everything in governance.
However, the values of empathy, compassion, the spirit of service, commitment, and courage are also Universal Values, and they further influence values like objectivity, non-partisanship, tolerance, and perseverance. Connecting all the dots of universal human values brings forth that colossal image of values — i.e., Integrity — a kind of wholesome value.
Values in Governance and Public Life
We must remember that governance is nothing but decision-making, and ethics in governance is ethical decision-making. So, the presence of these cardinal values helps us in making ethical decisions. The private, professional, and public image of a person or a civil servant generally depends on that ethical alignment, which is based on the question: “What kind of a person is he or she?” And the values-driven answer to that question roots the person in their private image. Those cardinal values are needed in the professional and public image as well, but values like promise, trust, and care, more or less, hold significance for the person individually. That is the alignment of the panoramic and the particular.
Stay tuned for Part 2
Post-Read Question:
How are universal human values foundational to civil services as well? Discuss two such values with examples from the life of a civil servant.
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(The writer is the author of ‘Being Good and Aaiye, Insaan Banaen’, ‘Ethikos: Stories Searching Happiness’ and ‘Kyon’. He teaches courses on and offers training in ethics, values and behaviour. He has been the expert/consultant to UPSC, SAARC countries, Civil services Academy, National Centre for Good Governance, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Competition Commission of India (CCI), etc. He has PhD in two disciplines and has been a Doctoral Fellow in Gandhian Studies from ICSSR. His second PhD is from IIT Delhi on Ethical Decision Making among Indian Bureaucrats. He writes for the UPSC Ethics Simplified fortnightly.)
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