Contributions of moral thinkers from India and the world

Moral thinkers Rabindranath Tagore The centre of Tagore’s philosophy was man of god. Even his concept of God was influenced by the humanism inherent in his outlook. The supreme reality thus according to Tagore, essentially human and could be realised only through love of man. Love of God was thus translated into love of human. … Read more

Political attitude

Political attitude Political Attitude means the beliefs and values which underpin the operation of a particular political system. These attitudes were seen as including knowledge and skills about the operation of the political system positive and negative judgments about the system. These attitudes determine how people participate, whom they vote for and which political parties … Read more

Aptitude

Aptitude An aptitude is a component of a competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Outstanding aptitude can be considered “talent”. An aptitude may be physical or mental. Aptitude is inborn potential to do certain kinds of work whether developed or undeveloped. Ability is developed knowledge, understanding, learned or acquired … Read more

Impartiality and Non-partisanship

Impartiality and Non-partisanship Impartiality and Non-partisanship Impartiality is a norm of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective standards, instead of on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the advantage to one person over another for unsuitable reasons. Impartiality is acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving equally … Read more

Foundational values for civil services

Foundational values for civil services Values are the standards on which, we evaluate things. For every situation we don’t have time to ‘test’ the case on ethics theories such as utilitarianism. Values provide time saving short-cut in such situation. Under New public management (NPM), the concept of public services is fast changing. Bureaucrat has become … Read more

Dedication to public service

Dedication: Definition   Dedication suggests voluntary commitment rather than rigidity.  Dedication is calm and measured. There is no element of harshness or punishment in dedication. If discipline is the stick, then dedication is a voluntary willingness and desire to reach for the carrot without the threat of that stick. Dedication implies a level of mastery. … Read more

Empathy

Empathy: Definition The term “empathy” is used to describe a wide range of experiences. Emotion researchers generally define empathy as the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. Contemporary researchers often differentiate between two types of empathy: “Affective empathy” refers to the sensations … Read more

Compassion towards the weaker sections

Compassion: Definition Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” Among emotion researchers, it is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective … Read more

Integrity

Integrity   Integrity means that the moral agent acts according to the inner convictions of a person. His conducts should be free from hypocrisy and deception. His actions should be in conformity with his stated values. But it is hard to follow high morals which one proclaims. The British historian GM Trevelyan has commented on … Read more

Tolerance

Tolerance: Definition Tolerance is the willingness to accept actions we believe to be inappropriate or even wrong because it would be worse to take action against them. Tolerance is community-oriented. Ideally, all bad behavior should cease, but it is unrealistic to think that society could succeed in enforcing this ideal. Tolerance understands this. Determining what … Read more