Sex appeal advertising has been loosely controlled, much to the disappointment of moralists. The issue is not so much the ethical dilemma it poses but rather the careful application, sensitivity, selectivity, and sense of responsibility that marketers should have. If sex appeal advertising is taken as an issue of communication rather than an ethical debate, a certain scientific and cultural level will be attached to it. Science and culture can be more materially measured, as opposed to ethics and morals. When the time comes that sex appeal in advertising is generally viewed within the realm of marketing communications, and taken out of the context of ethics and morals, it will be the chance for this phenomenon to be more ‘moral’ and ‘ethical.’

Sex appeal advertising has been a raging debate for quite some time now. Nothing monumental has been done for the satisfaction of those who oppose it. Sex appeal advertising is here to stay because it has been made into an ethical debate that only makes the fight against it lame. When this kind of advertising ceases to be an ethical issue and starts to be a sociological one, then the elements of prurience and gender insensitivity may be weeded out finally. The ethical debate has only managed to render it with a moralistic stance.

Morality turns off most people because those who police morality are not appreciated in their self-avowed and self-serving mission to be arbiters of what are good and bad. People do not generally like other people who take a more superior opinion of themselves.

If sex appeal advertising is taken as an issue of communication, a certain scientific and cultural level is attached to it. Science and culture can be more physically and materially measured, as opposed to ethics and morals.

This sense of measurement comes with the component of evaluation. Evaluation precedes measurement, and these can only result in concrete and measurable recommendations for change. When the time comes that sex appeal in advertising is generally viewed within the realm of marketing communications, and taken out of the context of ethics and morals, it will be the chance for this phenomenon to be more ‘moral’ and ‘ethical.’

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Via campaign

Acting on a Taliban mandate, some 400 private schools in Pakistan’s northwest Swat Valley were closed down, ending the education of more than 40,000 students. The Swat Valley is yet another one among Taliban-controlled places where basic human rights are trampled upon.

The academe is a place where minds are wrought, reasoning skills are honed, and convictions are taught to be sharpened. In school, students learn basic moral principles. These are universal truths of good and bad that not even the critical thinker will tinker with. The critical thinker may weigh ‘moralistic’ dictum but will adhere to home truths in ethics and morality. The critical thinker will surely waste his time if he decides to investigate such universal moral truths as justice, human rights, ending ignorance, ending hunger, ending slavery and exploitation, etc. These are general moral principles.

The academe can teach the student to be a critical thinker towards solving the problems that impede the success of these general moral principles. Ethics says that justice should be universal and unconditional just as human rights should be. The critical thinker will not challenge that moral truth. Instead, he will investigate the facts as to why injustice and human rights violation exist, analyze what he discovers in his inquiry, formulate a scientific and scholarly conclusion, and come up with recommendations on how to better instill these moral truths.

True pillars of moral thought do not advocate indoctrinated thinking. They want people to accept moral ethics after they have processed these in their minds, and have come to the conclusion that these are, indeed, necessary for a better world. Students, therefore, need to hone their skills and train on moral reasoning so that indoctrination does not prosper. The world needs sound moral principles, not moral dogma. The academe is the best venue where the students can apply their filtered and processed judgments to eventually formulate insight into what genuine morality is as opposed to blind indoctrination and pseudo-morality that abounds in this world.

It is of utmost importance to hone students in analytical and critical thinking, as well as moral values. Students who come from an environment where these aspects are present are people with conviction, intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence, professional attitude, and serious approach to life. Ethics and critical thinking combine best to make students be concerned with the wide world outside themselves, and selflessly beyond themselves – while constantly improving the self. These discerning individuals will surely advocate fairness and justice in life. The academe is the place where people learn about themselves and their environment before stepping into the big wide world of professional and organizational responsibility.

Critical thinking, when infused into ethics, will make the students realize that there are several factors, levels, layers, and variables in moral judgment. The students learn about the social, economic, cultural, and other aspects to be considered before anyone can truly apply moral principles on a situation that needs to be critically evaluated. Crime, social degradation, gender inequality, and racial discrimination are just some of the examples of immoral situations that need critical thinking to investigate and judge. With critical thinking in ethics, students learn to be people who will choose the future wisely.

These are precisely the reasons why the Taliban will not allow education to the people they aim to control.

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Via DUNIYALIVE/Thaindian News

Ethics implies the application of morals. It deals with the concepts of right and wrong. Accepting morality, without ever evaluating it, is no longer just goodness or righteousness. It may just be blind faith and obedience. Here lies the pivotal role of critical thinking in the realm of ethics. Ethics without the element of critical thinking is indoctrination. This is Talibanization in ordinary, everyday lives.

Ethics easily falls into the trap of making people follow the ethical rules with complete obedience and without questioning. These ethical rules have been handed down from an origin of viewpoint. It is the role and function of critical thinking to always challenge existing views, reinvestigate them in a scientific manner, evaluate the facts, and produce a conclusion that is inherently fresh, new, and can be different from the existing view.

Critical thinking simply does not accept the moral perspective that already exists – right away. This does not mean, though, that critical thinking only serves to debunk given beliefs. There are instances when, after the careful investigation of facts through critical thinking, it comes up with a conclusion that agrees with the given perspective.

There has always been a debate on the potentially destructive role of critical thinking in the established beliefs behind ethical tenets. They seem never to complement each other. The intellectually discriminating mind might always disagree with instituted ethical sensibilities. The very essence of their existence serves to contradict each other. Not necessarily so, though. Nowhere is this more readily necessary to be challenged than in the academic environment.

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Via Web Newswire/freeminds/Thaindian News