The social construction of the concept of ethics, a legitimizing process for sustainable social development

FORMAT | Presented paper

LANGUAGE | English

HOW TO CITE| SANDU, Antonio (2019). The social construction of the concept of ethics, a legitimizing process for sustainable social development (Plenary Speaker). Prezentat în cadrul 13th LUMEN International Scientific Conference Communicative Action & Transdisciplinarity in the Ethical Society | CATES 2019 | 22-23 November 2019 | Targoviste, Romania.

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ABSTRACT:

Ethical values are the axiological foundation that make certain social behaviors necessary, respectively they constitute the attitudinal landmarks of the individual behavior, establishing its minimum acceptability, respectively the situation of excellence that the individual can achieve in the exercise of that behavior. The present study aims to identify the significance attributed to the concept of ethical value by the inhabitants of the NE region of Romania and is based on a quantitative empirical research through a questionnaire, applied in the counties of Iasi, Suceava, Botosani, Neamţ, on a number of 661 participants. Although there is a wide tendency to consider ethics as a series conduct rules that are mandatory to be followed, we notice that people assign rather an extrinsic, than an intrinsic value to secular ethical constructs. There is also a broad tendency to overlap ethics with religious morals. Negative phenomena, some of which are widely publicized in mass media, bare a major importance in the public consciousness, so there is a wide overlap between the meaning attributed to the concept of ethics and the fight against negative phenomena in society – such as corruption, bureaucracy, etc. All these are just separate perspectives within the social construction of the concept of ethics, but which emphasize the appropriate sanctioning of unethical behaviors, without highlighting the construction of a moral conscience, a phenomena that could have a negative long-term effect on the development of civic consciousness, as a basis of sustainable social development.

KEYWORDS:

ethical values, sustainable development, moral conscience, extrinsic values, intrinsic values, religious morals.