Ethics in the heat of battle

1
Ethics in the heat of battle

• Dr. Henrik Syse
• Senior Research Fellow, PRIO (Intl Peace
  Research Institute, Oslo)
• Head of Corporate Governance, Norges Bank
  Investment Management
• (e-mail henrik_at_prio.no)
• Oslo, March 20, 2007

2
The challenge of ethics

• The challenge of sustaining ethics in the heat
  of battle.
• Ethics Reflection and theory about right human
  action.
• What is the connection between our ethics and
  our morals between what we think and who we
  are?
• Ethics is more than just legality it challenges
  us as acting human beings to use our judgment.

3
What ethics offers

• Perspectives and justifications
• Duty ethics
• Consequentialist ethics
• Virtue ethics
• Concrete criteria derived from these
  perspectives, related to the task at hand

4
Performing ethically in practice

• Preparation and integration
• Certainty about basic principles, yet willingness
  to be open and discursive
• Willingness to be original and different
• Willingness to accept and shoulder a variety of
  responsibilities
• Identification of good role models and the
  willingness to be one!