Studying Ethics and Responsibility from a Sociological Perspective

Studying Ethics and Responsibility from a Sociological Perspective

SOC 120 addresses ethics and social responsibility, and while much of the material from this course is drawn from the perspective of Philosophy, we want to understand the social functions of ethics and the importance of responsibility in mitigating the negative effects of extreme inequality. While it is philosophers who most directly study and write about issues such as ethics, morality, and responsibility, these concepts are also important social concepts and are fundamental to how we interact with each other in social contexts. The topics of ethics and social responsibility provide a great opportunity to examine how our interaction with others both shapes and is shaped by our social structure, which is one of the fundamental insights of Sociology. How are individuals tied to their social settings? Ethics help us to understand a part of this connection.
Sociologists study social interaction, social structures and social change (how social structures evolve over time). Notice that the emphasis is on studying society―this means that sociologists do not write about their own feelings and beliefs; rather, sociologists study social interaction to develop theories (or explanations) about how and why people interact with each other in the ways that they do (Ragin, 1994). In this course, you will be provided with the opportunity to learn some of these theories, particularly those related to ethics, and will be able to apply these theories to real world situations.
In your posts to the Discussion Boards and in the papers you write for this course, you should strive to take a sociological perspective. That is to say, you should look at the topics as a sociologist would, not simply as someone who lives in society would look at things. For example, if the discussion asks you about a particular situation, you should aim to go beyond your own feelings and opinions, or even your own experiences interacting with others in different contexts. Instead, you should discuss the theories and ideas that you read about in the text, and apply these to the discussion and paper topics. Remember that you are not discussing the specific issue that is addressed in the writing prompt or paper topic; instead, you should focus on discussing the theoretical issues and concepts from the text, and use the topic to illustrate your points.

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Introduction to Ethics and Society
Ethics refers to a set of guiding principles that help individuals negotiate their way through social settings without disrupting social order and functions (Mosser, 2013). But when individuals interact they apply various ethical principles to help them understand their own social context and their actions within their context, as well as the consequences of their choices and actions. Many people think of ethics as an individual characteristic or individual choice (e.g. to act in a way that is either ethical or unethical), but ethics has a clear social dimension as well. For one thing, although people may have their own ethics, not every person is unique in this respect. In fact, we can identify patterns that represent different ethical views that people adhere to. These patterns are social phenomena, and are elements that link people to each other.
So, ethics is not wholly a matter of personal choice. Rather, ethics are embedded in social statuses and roles, and establish the link to responsibilities attached to those statuses and roles. Statuses and roles are elements of social institutions, such as family, economy, government, and schools. Statuses are the positions we hold within institutions; for example, statuses in a family might be mother, brother, or cousin. Roles are the expectations that others put on us based on a status. So in school, in your status as student, a teacher has expectations that you will pay attention to the lessons, that you will do your work and submit it on time, and that you will ask questions if you don’t understand something. All of these form the role of being a student. Institutions create the statuses and roles that we occupy in social life, and in so doing, institutions provide the basis for social order and a smoothly functioning society. The linkages and connections between vario