A Multicultural Approach to Practical Ethics

(Public Lecture, Applied Ethics Seminar, Silliman University, 2018)

Practical issues are often discussed or resolved using Western values, perspectives, and principles. This is not necessarily wrong, but it narrowly sees things and is somewhat dismissive of communal values. A plurality of values, in this way, is preferred, given the multicultural nature of society. Generally, ethics is not the catalog of right and wrong, or a set of moral prescriptions. Rather, it is a discipline that concerns with the rules and principles that determine some standard of moral reasoning. Moral reasoning, however, must go beyond theories. Larry May and Jill Delston suggest that people can begin with what is concrete – rules, codes, and social rules.