The Ethics and Critical Thinking Relationship
Keith A. Anderson
GEN/201
July 6, 2015
Kathy Prince

The Ethics and Critical Thinking Relationship
Before understanding the relationship between Critical Thinking and an individual’s Ethics we should first define what each of these items mean. According to "The Critical Thinking Community" (2013), “Critical thinking is that mode of thinking about any subject, content, or problem in which the thinker improves the quality of his or her thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities, as well as a commitment to overcome our native self-centeredness and sociocentrism. Ethics are a system of moral principles where the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture.” (A Definition).
There are six steps within the critical thinking process Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating. Each of these steps build off of the previous and empower the individual to ask vital questions, bring problems to light, and garner relevant information while using abstract ideas to decipher the information obtained. While utilizing these processes the individual thinks with an open mind and is able to recognize and differentiate between needs, assumptions, implications and consequences.
Ethics on the other hand can be described more as of your perception of the world and how those within it should act or behave. Consider it your moral compass. It is what we use to determine whether something is right or wrong.
According to the Ethical Lens Inventory (Ethics Game Resource Center 2015) my own personal blind spot is that I have “Unrealistic Role Expectations”. This means that: “Because you rely so strongly on the virtues associated with various roles, you run the risk of developing unrealistic role expectations. You will tend to rely too much on the virtues associated with a particular role, forgetting that individuals are fallible regardless of their role. Even those who live fully into the virtues required in their role may not be able to resolve all problems.” (“Ethics Game”, 2015) Also my preferred lens is “Reputation” which According to "Ethics Game" (2015), "I listen to my intuition to determine what character traits and virtues will best serve the community”.
So how does a person’s personal ethics influence their decision making? Using the previous examples above I apparently will base my decisions upon who, in fact, is providing me with the information. In following this I tend to believe a person with whose role in life is one of virtue. An example would be in asking questions of a priest, judge or police officer, I would expect their answers to be truthful and without bias.
Social responsibility is an ethical theory, where human beings are obligated to fulfill their civic duty. The actions of an individual must benefit the society as a whole. In this way, there must be equity between economic growth and the welfare of society and the environment.
Professional ethics “are a set of values that individuals should strive to follow. These values include kindness, compassion, integrity, responsibility, tact and follow-through. Companies can choose to include their interpretation of professional ethics in the employee handbooks or it can be an implicit expectation.” (Turner, 2014).