Annual ethics conference at the Capitol

Today was the day of the biennial ethics conference at the State Capitol, which a number of other legislators and I attended.

The main speaker was Phillip Boyle, PhD, of Leading and Governing Associates, Inc. His program was very interesting. The most compelling part of his presentation was the idea that the basis of people's ethical values can be broken-down into three bases:

• Ends and Consequences
• Rules and Means
• Care and Compassion
  

Since this was at a Capitol conference, he presented these three motives as the basis of different people's political beliefs. Here is how he described what each of these means:

• "Ends and Consequences" says that:
• The most important thing is that policies have good outcomes.
• What is the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
• "Ends justify the means".
  
• "Rules and Means" says that:
• You cannot know with certainly what outcome will come from policies, so the most important thing is for create good rules and enforce them.
• Follow the "rule of law" - no matter what.
  
• "Care and Compassion" says that:
• The most important thing is actions are done for compassionate reasons.
• You cannot know with certainly what outcome will come from policies, so the most important thing is that the intentions are good.
  

Dr. Boyle points out that this breakdown does not mean that each person uses just one of these. Most people, he says, are motivated by all three. The question, he says, is which one is most important and least important of the three for you.

I found this analysis, and Dr. Boyle's discussion of them, to be interesting because it does help to have an understanding of the basis of different people's opinions and value systems.