• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

SafetyRisk.net

Humanising Safety and Embracing Real Risk

  • Home
    • About
      • Privacy Policy
      • Contact
  • FREE
    • Slogans
      • Researchers Reveal the Top 10 Most Effective Safety Slogans Of All Time
      • When Slogans Don’t Work
      • CLASSIC, FAMOUS and INFAMOUS SAFETY QUOTES
      • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
      • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
      • COVID-19 (Coronavirus, Omicron) Health and Safety Slogans and Quotes for the Workplace
      • Safety Acronyms
      • You know Where You Can Stick Your Safety Slogans
      • Sayings, Slogans, Aphorisms and the Discourse of Simple
      • Spanish Safety Slogans – Consignas de seguridad
      • Safety Slogans List
      • Road Safety Slogans 2023
      • How to write your own safety slogans
      • Why Are Safety Slogans Important
      • Safety Slogans Don’t Save Lives
      • 40 Free Safety Slogans For the Workplace
      • Safety Slogans for Work
    • FREE SAFETY eBOOKS
    • Free Hotel and Resort Risk Management Checklist
    • FREE DOWNLOADS
    • TOP 50
    • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS
    • Find a Safety Consultant
    • Free Safety Program Documents
    • Psychology Of Safety
    • Safety Ideas That Work
    • HEALTH and SAFETY MANUALS
    • FREE SAFE WORK METHOD STATEMENT RESOURCES
    • Whats New In Safety
    • FUN SAFETY STUFF
    • Health and Safety Training
    • SAFETY COURSES
    • Safety Training Needs Analysis and Matrix
    • Top 20 Safety Books
    • This Toaster Is Hot
    • Free Covid-19 Toolbox Talks
    • Download Page – Please Be Patient With Larger Files…….
    • SAFETY IMAGES, Photos, Unsafe Pictures and Funny Fails
    • How to Calculate TRIFR, LTIFR and Other Health and Safety Indicators
    • Download Safety Moments from Human Resources Secretariat
  • Social Psychology Of Risk
    • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
    • Safety Psychology Terminology
    • Some Basics on Social Psychology & Risk
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk – Prof Karl E. Weick
    • The Psychology of Leadership in Risk
    • Conducting a Psychology and Culture Safety Walk
    • The Psychology of Conversion – 20 Tips to get Started
    • Understanding The Social Psychology of Risk And Safety
    • Psychology and safety
    • The Psychology of Safety
    • Hot Toaster
    • TALKING RISK VIDEOS
    • WHAT IS SAFETY
    • THE HOT TOASTER
    • THE ZERO HARM DEBATE
    • SEMIOTICS
    • LEADERSHIP
  • Dr Long Posts
    • ALL POSTS
    • Learning Styles Matter
    • There is no Hierarchy of Controls
    • Scaffolding, Readiness and ZPD in Learning
    • What Can Safety Learn From Playschool?
    • Presentation Tips for Safety People
    • Dialogue Do’s and Don’ts
    • It’s Only a Symbol
    • Ten Cautions About Safety Checklists
    • Zero is Unethical
    • First Report on Zero Survey
    • There is No Objectivity, Deal With it!
  • THEMES
    • Psychosocial Safety
    • Resiliencing
    • Risk Myths
    • Safety Myths
    • Safety Culture Silences
    • Safety Culture
    • Psychological Health and Safety
    • Zero Harm
    • Due Diligence
  • Free Learning
    • Introduction to SPoR – Free
    • FREE RISK and SAFETY EBOOKS
    • FREE ebook – Guidance for the beginning OHS professional
    • Free EBook – Effective Safety Management Systems
    • Free EBook – Lessons I Have Learnt
  • Psychosocial Safety
    • What is Psychosocial Safety
    • Psychological Safety
      • What is Psychological Health and Safety at Work?
      • Managing psychosocial hazards at work
      • Psychological Safety – has it become the next Maslow’s hammer?
      • What is Psychosocial Safety
      • Psychological Safety Slogans and Quotes
      • What is Psychological Safety?
      • Understanding Psychological Terminology
      • Psycho-Social and Socio-Psychological, What’s the Difference?
      • Build a Psychologically Safe Workplace by Taking Risks and Analysing Failures
      • It’s not weird – it’s a psychological safety initiative!
You are here: Home / Ethics / Tackling Ethics in Risk, A Philosophical Challenge

Tackling Ethics in Risk, A Philosophical Challenge

June 24, 2023 by Dr Rob Long 6 Comments

Originally posted on January 30, 2020 @ 3:49 PM

One of the reasons Safety does so poorly in understanding Ethics is because by nature, Ethics is a philosophical discipline. Philosophy is a discipline one benefits in learning through a Transdisciplinary approach to critical thinking  https://safetyrisk.net/transdisciplinary-safety/  ).

Transdisciplinarity is a disposition that seeks to know and think ‘across’ the disciplines rather than assuming that one’s own knowledge culture (eg. safety) is all one needs to know. These days if I see safety as an adjective of something eg. ‘safety’ ethics, its fairly reliable that the discussion that follows is narrow, closed and ill-informed.The discipline of Philosophy is a discipline of seeking wisdom, this is the meaning of the word – ‘philo’ love of ‘Sophia’ – wisdom.  Wisdom is not discussed in the Safety industry and has no mention in the AIHS BoK on Ethics. It is however central to the development of critical thinking, particularly in Ethics. Wisdom is not about finding ‘fixes’ but much more about not finding ‘fixes’. Safety also doesn’t want to know much about Wicked Problems (https://safetyrisk.net/risk-and-safety-as-a-wicked-problem/)
but Ethics is one of those Wicked Problem can-of-worms. Stenberg’s book on
Wisdom is certainly a good starting point.

One of the skills of Philosophy is that of defining terms and understanding assumptions. This is often undertaken by applying critical questions to a text using hermeneutical skills and focusing on how power, anthropology, personhood, methodology and culture are defined. Head-in-sand thinking or parrot–training are not learning and if one wants to understand Ethics one doesn’t get much from any safety text. Even confusing and not defining the language of morality and ethics, ethos and ethic demonstrate a poor understanding of Ethics. No wonder Safety thinks Zero is a good ideology!Most of the time we have a disagreement with someone, it is often about worldviews. Worldviews are often not declared and people in safety are rarely trained in how to discern worldviews. In this way people in safety often put forward various ideas and have little idea of the worldview (ideology) hidden in such discourse (The Bradley Curve is a classic example).

My map of safety
schools of thought (https://safetyrisk.net/a-great-comparison-of-risk-and-safety-schools-of-thought/)
was an attempt to show how worldviews are implicated for an understanding of risk. So in order to help understand Ethics I developed a similar map to help illustrate the various schools of Ethics (Figure 1. Schools of Ethics) and their implications for decision making.If you wish to understand an Ethic of Risk you are more than welcome to join us next week in Canberra in the two day workshop, An Ethic of Risk: https://spor.com.au/home/one-week-intensive-2-modules-february-2020/

Figure 1. Schools of Ethics.

Download a pdf copy here: Schools of Ethics 2

Behaviourist Care
Feminist
Existential
Dialectic
Deontological Natural Law Normative
Constructive
Pragmatic Situational
Relative
Utilitarian Virtue
View of Humans Sum of inputs and outputs As Beings under power Humans as Intersubjective Humans under divine command Humans under god’s law Humans as instruments Humans as rational, logical Humans as not absolute, antinomian Humans as utility Humans as actors
Agents Skinner
Watson
Carol Gilligan
Nel Noddings
Jacques Ellul
Merleau-Ponty
Kantian Ethics Aquinas
Hobbes, Locke
Combination of any ethic of
consequentialism
John Dewey Joseph Fletcher
R.M. Hare
Richard Rorty
Bentham
J.S.Mill
Peter Singer
Alasdair MacIntyre
Language Positive and negative reward Social action, rationality,
embodied experience
Interconnectivity
Interaffectivity
Obligation, duty, compliance Jurisprudence
self-evidence
What is moral? Science
objectivism
moral ecology
Response to context, meta-ethics Ends justifies the means Human flourishing
­Culture Modification of behaviours.
Science of action and controls
Vulnerability to power Ethics as experiences of worldview
and ‘the other’
Motives, things intrinsically
‘good’
Human rights are natural and
known, social contract
Categorical imperatives, binding
forces
Inquiry and truth, rationality and
good for society
Greatest good for greatest number Happiness for the majority Exercise of skills and knowledge
of virtue
Key Question What is the behaviour? Where is benevolence? What and who is personhood? What is the rule? What should I do? How should one act? What is good for society? What is good in time? What is best for the majority? What is virtuous?
Focus Based on the
assumption that humans as objects are the sum of inputs and outputs. A
mechanistic ethic that has a trajectory of dehumanising others.
Centers on
interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue. Feminist,
post structuralist and awareness of power in relations.
Founded in
the dialectic between being, embodiment and not being, consciousness and
unconsciousness. An experiential ethic established in i-thou and intersubjectivity
Emphasizes
generalizable standards, duties, rules and impartiality. Founded in the myth
of verifiable scientific objectivity and Positivism. Consequentialism
Based on the
so called ‘laws of nature’ this ethic proposes an objective standard of being
that all humans share (universal) and is ‘god given’.
Based on
rationality and what is deemed ‘normal’.
Based on what
people do. Therefore, an ethic is validated on what is dominant at the time
of analysis. So, society by its actions declares morality.
Takes into
account the social-psychological and cultural context. This approach argues
that there is no objective moral or universal standard.
Decision
based on the utility of the moment. Tends to view humans as objects in a
system. The most common mantra for utilitarian ethics is ‘the end justifies the
means’.
Emphasis on ‘virtues’ and moral
character. To be virtuous is to possess a certain mindset or disposition in
relation to the world.
Solutions Increase and decrease rewards Make care normative Living ethically through
interconnectivity
Make rules clear Love god and obey His laws Being disposed to moral good The collective good What is best moves in time,
context and society
Focus on happiness for the
majority
Be of good character

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
  • More about Rob
Dr Rob Long

Dr Rob Long

Expert in Social Psychology, Principal & Trainer at Human Dymensions
Dr Rob Long

Latest posts by Dr Rob Long (see all)

  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety - September 24, 2023
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health - September 23, 2023
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk - September 23, 2023
  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety - September 21, 2023
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk - September 20, 2023
Dr Rob Long
PhD., MEd., MOH., BEd., BTh., Dip T., Dip Min., Cert IV TAA, MRMIA Rob is the founder of Human Dymensions and has extensive experience, qualifications and expertise across a range of sectors including government, education, corporate, industry and community sectors over 30 years. Rob has worked at all levels of the education and training sector including serving on various post graduate executive, post graduate supervision, post graduate course design and implementation programs.

Please share our posts

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Ethics, Robert Long Tagged With: ethics in risk

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. bernardcorden says

    February 13, 2020 at 6:43 PM

    It is quite fascinating to apply transdisciplinarity to the Hillsborough stadium disaster and the subsequent campaign for justice.

    The Hillsborough Families Support Group was initially established and became embroiled in conflict with legal technicalities, objectivism and positivism. Indeed, it inadvertently generated a hierarchy of grief and several bereaved families were rusticated from the support group.

    The campaign stagnated for almost a decade until the involvement of Reverend James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool). The Hillsborough Justice Campaign was eventually established and embraced a transdisciplinary approach with remarkable results.

    It focussed on Basarab Nicolescu’s fecund hidden third between the object and the subject. This dynamic mediating force provided lubrication between internal and external worlds via the Hillsborough Independent Panel. Its impact was quite profound and the original coronial inquest findings of accidental death were quashed by the High Court and following a further inquest under coroner Sir John Goldring in 2016 a jury returned findings of unlawful killing.

    Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena – Wilhelm Reich

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      February 13, 2020 at 8:48 PM

      Bernard, an interesting observation.

      I think the hidden third is an important dynamic as is made clear through phenomenology, existentialism, semiotics and transdisciplinarity. Not surprised that a theologian would make a good emissary for justice, fallibility is essential for empathy, just as Zero is the enemy of suffering. As long as Safety is locked into positivism it has no Hope.

      Reply
  2. bernardcorden says

    February 13, 2020 at 6:43 PM

    I am rather surprised that the AIHS BoK Ethics and Professional Practice publication did not include Nicola Gobbo as a technical advisor.

    Reply
  3. bernardcorden says

    February 4, 2020 at 7:27 PM

    I am rather surprised that the AIHS BoK Ethics and Professional Practice publication did not include Nicola Gobbo as a technical advisor.

    Reply
  4. bernardcorden says

    January 31, 2020 at 10:50 AM

    It is quite fascinating to apply transdisciplinarity to the Hillsborough stadium disaster and the subsequent campaign for justice.

    The Hillsborough Families Support Group was initially established and became embroiled in conflict with legal technicalities, objectivism and positivism. Indeed, it inadvertently generated a hierarchy of grief and several bereaved families were rusticated from the support group.

    The campaign stagnated for almost a decade until the involvement of Reverend James Jones (Bishop of Liverpool). The Hillsborough Justice Campaign was eventually established and embraced a transdisciplinary approach with remarkable results.

    It focussed on Basarab Nicolescu’s fecund hidden third between the object and the subject. This dynamic mediating force provided lubrication between internal and external worlds via the Hillsborough Independent Panel. Its impact was quite profound and the original coronial inquest findings of accidental death were quashed by the High Court and following a further inquest under coroner Sir John Goldring in 2016 a jury returned findings of unlawful killing.

    Scientific theory is a contrived foothold in the chaos of living phenomena – Wilhelm Reich

    Reply
    • Rob Long says

      February 1, 2020 at 7:22 AM

      Bernard, an interesting observation.

      I think the hidden third is an important dynamic as is made clear through phenomenology, existentialism, semiotics and transdisciplinarity. Not surprised that a theologian would make a good emissary for justice, fallibility is essential for empathy, just as Zero is the enemy of suffering. As long as Safety is locked into positivism it has no Hope.

      Reply

Do you have any thoughts? Please share them belowCancel reply

Primary Sidebar

Search and Discover More on this Site

Never miss a post - Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,511 other subscribers.

FREE eBOOK DOWNLOADS

Recent Comments

  • Matthew Thorne on The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • Rob Long on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Matt Thorne on Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Rob Long on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Rosa Carrillo on Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Brent Charlton on Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Anonymous on What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Rob long on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Anonymous on Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • Joseph D Zinobile on Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Jason Martell on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Peter Collins on Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Chiara on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Rob Long on Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious

RECOMMENDED READING

viral post – iso 45003 and what it cannot do

Introduction to SPOR – FREE!!

Psychosocial Safety and Mental Health Series

If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health

Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk

7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden

Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health

If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking

Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work

CLLR Newsletter July 2023

Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous

STOP ‘BREAKING’ PEOPLE! The notion of Psychological Safety

Learning to Learn Socially

More Posts from this Category

NEW! Free Download

Please take our 2 minute zero survey

Footer

Top Posts & Pages. Sad that most are so dumb but this is what safety luves

  • CATCHY and FUNNY SAFETY SLOGANS FOR THE WORKPLACE
  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • BIGGEST COLLECTION of WORKPLACE HEALTH and SAFETY SLOGANS 2023
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk
  • Free Safety Moments and Toolbox Talk Examples, Tips and Resources
  • Road Safety Slogans 2023
  • FREE RISK ASSESSMENT FORMS, CHECKISTS, REGISTERS, TEMPLATES and APPS
  • 15 Safety Precautions When Working With Electricity
  • Free Risk Assessment Template in Excel Format

Recent Posts

  • The Global ‘Zero Event’, This is Safety
  • If You Can’t Manage Fallibility, You’ll Never Tackle Psychosocial Health
  • Embodiment, Myth and Psychosocial Risk
  • Embodied Enactivity in Safety
  • The Meaning of Myth in Risk
  • Myth Making and Why it Matters to Safety
  • Icebreakers and Games that Safety Trainers Play
  • The Power of Safety Myths
  • What Do You Mean By Performance?
  • Hopkins-Dekker on Reason and Other Laughs
  • Perfection is Safety Child’s Play
  • Podcast – Dr Rob Long With John Morlan and The Risk Matrix
  • What’s Funny About Safety?
  • Zero Hour part 6 Knowing Yourself
  • Free Videos, Podcasts and Books on Zero
  • Don’t Be Dumb Like Me, the Typical Safety Keynote
  • If You’re Happy in Safety, Clap Your Hands
  • Safety Cops and Safety’s Adoration of Power
  • Zero Hour Part 5 – Surfacing the Unconscious
  • Zero Hour Part 4 – Zero and the Unconscious
  • Auditing the 7 Golden Rules of Zero, A Miserable Fail
  • 7 Golden Rules that are NOT Golden
  • The Non-Golden Rules for Leadership in Zero
  • Seven ‘Golden’ Rules for Zero and Yet No Ethic
  • Why Zero Vision Can Never Tackle Mental Health
  • Is this Your Safety?
  • SPoR Workshops Canberra 18-21 September
  • The Dominance of Zero as the ‘Common Denominator’ of Safety
  • Zero Hour Episode 3
  • Goal Setting and Zero
  • Zero as a Worldview
  • If Psychosocial Health Matters, Stop Hot Desking
  • Book Launch – “Zero, The Great Safety Delusion” – Free Download
  • Breach of Faith and Psycho-Social Risk
  • Zero Harm is Never Zero Harm
  • Why Would You Want to be a Safety “Geek’ or Hero?
  • The Mental Illness of Identifying as Safety
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a place holder
  • Zero Hour – Zero as a Philosophy
  • CARING ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY
  • Care is NOT a Factor and Yes, Your Model Matters
  • Care Ethics and the Ethics of Care, in Risk
  • FEAR AND CONTROL – Dialogue in a technological society
  • Of Course, Method Matters in Safety
  • Day 12 SPoR in Europe
  • Free Study Module Following-Leading in Risk August-September
  • Effective Strategies in Mental Health at Work
  • CLLR Newsletter July 2023
  • Playing With Mental Health in Safety is Dangerous
  • The Sacred and Profane, Rituals and Semiotics, A Lesson for Safety

VIRAL POST!!! HOW TO QUIT THE SAFETY INDUSTRY

FEATURED POSTS

Safe Work Australia Continues to Perpetuate Safety Mythology

By What Measure? Safety?

Talking Risk Videos – Humanising Workers Compensation

A Picture Tells a Thousand Lies in Safety

Four Indicators of Toxic Safety Culture

The Will To Be and Do

The Soul of Mental Health

Thinking About Harm

The Tension of Opposites and Binaries in Risk

Safety is an Art

How I Feel About Risk

Training Workshops CLLR April to July 2020

Consciously Safe, Unconsciously Unsafe or Head in the Sand Safety

OnLine Learning Modules with CLLR

Turning Neuroscience into Behaviourism

The Curse of Cognitivism

Censorship and Taboos in Safety

Free Books – 66 Downloads for Tackling Risk

Framing Risk Through Regulation

The New Enemy of Safety – The Unconscious

Unthinkable

The Safety Control Delusion

Transdisciplinary Safety

Wisdom, Discernment and an Ethic of Safety

The Seduction to Simplify Safety

The Strange Challenge of Unlearning in Safety

Is Safetyism Destroying a Generation?

Risk and Safety Matrices and the Psychology of Colour

Framing Your World

There is Another Ethic than Zero Accidents

Safety – Learning by Doing and Learning by Theory

How do we mourn?

Predictably Arational, Safety as a Superstition

Focus on ‘Meeting’ people, not legislation – a path to risk maturity

The Mystery and Paradox of Being an Individual in a Social World

No Gurus, No Stars, No Heroes Needed in Safety

Prepositions for Risk and Safety Leadership

It’s the –ism That Matters

How Groupthink Works

Understanding Risk

More Posts from this Category

VIRAL POST – The Risk Matrix Myth

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address and join other discerning risk and safety people who receive notifications of new posts by email

Join 7,511 other subscribers.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

What is Psychological Safety at Work?


WHAT IS PSYCHOSOCIAL SAFETY