During the Ethics in Economic Society classes led by Professor Satoshi Yoshii, our students learn ethics by analyzing real life cases related to economy. The course is aimed at freshmen, who are supposed to develop the following skills:
- Basic skill (learning skill): the ability to actively acquire knowledge, which is going to be the foundation for other actions;
- Practical thinking skill: the ability to apply acquired knowledge in problem finding and problem solving;
- Proactive communication skills (the ability to connect to people): an aptitude for creating good relationship with all people concerned.
Let’s ponder three cases on interfering in other people’s lives
Case 1: The rise of incessant complainers: thinking about selfish society
What is the mentality of people who like making unreasonable complaints for their personal gain (most commonly represented by so called helicopter parents, who do it in their children’s stead)? Why do people make claims in the first place? Moreover, what should we about consumers and their lack of knowledge to prevent those incredulously stupid, yet increasingly popular lawsuits for insufficient instructions on how to use a product or insufficient warnings about it?
Case 2: Should we ban “Merry Christmas!”? – Multiculturalism vs traditional culture
Nowadays, if you greet somebody with a “Merry Christmas!” in New York, you’ll get frowned upon and criticized for lack of consideration towards people of different religious backgrounds, but if we are too considerate about others, our own national culture may be destroyed as well. Shouldn’t we stick to the rule “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”?
Case 3: Can people living on welfare go to pachinko parlors? What are the standards of wholesome and cultured living?
People living on welfare are heavily criticized for going to pachinko parlors, keirin cycle racing tracks or other places associated with gambling. Why is it bad? What are the minimal standards of wholesome and cultured living?
Understand other person’s perspective through discussion
Through small-group discussions and following general class discussion on the aforementioned topics, the participants can understand various perspectives on given problems. Professor Yoshii also put his two cents to the topic no. 2, mentioning that since Japan is an island country and its values are to some extent common and easy to assimilate, it is not a real problem here, but there are many multiethnic countries in the world which are dealing with similar problems right now, and the more ethnicities there are in such a country, the more complicated these problems get and more difficult they are to solve. It is a rather hard concept to grasp for Japanese, nevertheless the students were actively voicing their differing opinions and contributed much to today’s heated discussion.