30^th April 2021

Ethics: The Foundation for a Stable and Sane Society

Globethics.net Executive Director, Obiora Ike participated in the United People Global Learning Lab with an intervention entitled ‘Ethics: The Foundation for a Stable and Sane Society' on 29 April 2021. He focused on the philosophical and ethical frameworks and foundation of our human experience, after defining sanity in the context of mental health and well-being, and associating stability with balance. Dr Ike observed that we are living in a time of great confusion and disorientation, with an increased lack of happiness noticeable in all spheres of life.

Freedom allows humans to share, to be able to make a choice and to act from free will. However, he noted the decline of freedom, and that "even in democracy, people want to opt out". Freedom is lacking, in every day life, at work, in social constructs and even in gender relations. Many people believe more money is equivalent to more freedom, and he aptly pointed out that "those who have acquired a lot of wealth sleep with one eye open, and those who lack wealth sleep with both eyes open looking at the other". Money does not buy happiness nor does it ensure freedom, it does not solve mental or spiritual poverty, or wash away the experience of emptiness or a lack of meaning and purpose. "We are living in contradictions of ideological co-existence; there's no balance", he said.

At Globethics.net, we believe that integrating ethics into higher education is part of the solution, enabling people to engage with self-leadership. Dr Ike drew attention to the role of education in cultivating the mind, and allowing people to act in freedom. Ethics is a subject concerned with "what we ought to do", based on principles and values. Ethics is a subject that is about doing the right thing, making the right choices and protecting the common good. Integrating ethics in educational pursuits remains integral in enabling future generations to foster ethical questioning and critical reflection in decision-making, to ask the right questions and to build a world that is better.

Dr Ike concluded by saying that ethics remains a useful component for humanity and by extending the invitation to participants to "register with Globethics.net today and join us in our mission of integrating ethics in higher education".