This paper will include questions to test the candidates’ attitude and approach to issues relating to integrity, probity in public life and his problem solving approach to various issues and conflicts faced by him in dealing with society. Questions may utilise the case study approach to determine these aspects. The following broad areas will be covered.
1. Ethics and Human Interface: Essence, determinants and consequences of Ethics in human actions; dimensions of ethics; ethics in private and public relationships. Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; role of family, society and educational institutions in inculcating values.
2. Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion.
3. Aptitude and foundational values for Civil Service , integrity, impartiality and non-partisanship, objectivity, dedication to public service, empathy, tolerance and compassion towards the weakersections.
4. Emotional intelligence-concepts, and their utilities and application in administration and governance.
5. Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and world.
6. Public/Civil service values and Ethics in Public administration: Status and problems; ethical concerns and dilemmas in government and private institutions; laws, rules, regulations and conscience as sources of ethical guidance; accountability and ethical governance; strengthening of ethical and moral values in governance; ethical issues in international relations and funding; corporate governance.
7. Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.
8. Case Studies on above issues.
General Reading
Ethics — 2nd ARC report
Read Ethics book by Chronicle publications — Very well written — Topic wise compilation
Notes in the Website in the GS4 section. – Compilations from IGNOU and other good open sources
Not just an Accountant — Vinod Rai
Ethics for Dummies – Textbook
The Britannica Guide to Ethics – Thinkers and theories in Ethics
References:
- Practical Ethics — Peter Singer
- Ethics — Contemporary reading – Harry J.Gensler
- Gaurav Agarwal’s notes on Ethics
- Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Ethics, as a subject, can be challenging. Everybody, at a basic level understands what ethics is. But ask somebody what it is and most will be unable to put what they know in their mind into words. It is this challenge that we have to address while preparing for this paper.
You can looks at this paper as having been divided into two parts:
- Theoretical ethics
- Case studies
Theoretical ethics is a bit different from Practical ethics. Let me explain.
Theoretical ethics is all about semantics — Meaning of words. While reacting to situations in real life, you would hardly wait and think where you are drawing your energy to react from — whether it is moral/emotional/ethical or whether they are simply values that have been ingrained. Theoretical ethics is all about helping you distinguish between each of these terms. It also helps you set a basic framework for your own morals, values, behavior, ethics and so on. Try to enjoy reading it and understanding the difference rather than simply mugging up terms. Ethics book by Chronicle publications is compiled beautifully.
Case studies will form the backbone of your ethics paper. Try to write as many as answers and compare it with other students. Build a framework to write answers. Solve as many case studies as possible. Case studies is all about discussion.
To write effective answers, it is necessary to read a number of theories associated with ethics. You should further explore the ancient Indian thought on ethics, Western classical thought from the 1600s and the modern contemporary thought on ethics. Read a bit about the influential thinkers on ethics and understand their line of thought. The books suggested above cover all of these aspects; particularly, read The Britannica Guide to Ethics – Thinkers and theories in Ethics for this section.
While writing answers you will have to integrate all of the above and come up with effective answers.
Quite as importantly, while writing answers for case studies questions, you will have to know the role, working, powers, rules, laws, code of conduct etc, governing various institutions, bodies and Offices. You should make an effort in this direction if you want your answers to be technically sound in terms of the route that needs to be taken in case of an ethical dilemma in the line of duty.
Case studies questions will be updated for answer writing practice. Before that, make sure you write answers for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Ethics questions papers. Do not just read the questions. Please write answers.