Alacrity

I've been reading The Ethicist at the New York Times for a while, as one of my profs kept mentioning it, and it sounded interesting. For a while I thought he just told everyone that what they did was ethical. Finally, this week he told someone they were unethical for submitting bogus receipts so they could tip their maids and skirt a misogynistic company policy.

"Your action may well be less unethical than your department's policy, and it is no doubt less unethical than much done by the late Idi Amin, but the ability to name a bigger villain than yourself does not justify your own misdeeds. So perhaps you should argue the point and petition your company to amend this policy, but you should not file fake receipts or eat the flesh of your political rivals."


(BTW, you need to register with the Times to read The Ethicist... but it's free)