2.6 The notion of ethics

Ethics and morality are not the same. Nevertheless the terms are closely related and are often used synonymously outside the discipline of scientific ethics or in everyday language. This mixing of the terms can also be seen in the example of mining principles presented above, which was discussed from the perspective of moral behaviour. Mining principles as the professional ethos of a mining industry, if you like, can be interpreted as a moral system. It is a value system that applies to the raw material engineering community. The mining principles therefore fulfil the definitional requirements of a moral system. However, whether it really is an ethic still needs to be determined at this point. To do so, it is necessary to clarify what ethics actually means.

While the moral system of a community has the character of something self-evident, of valid rules that the members of this community accept unquestioningly, ethics goes a fundamental step further. As we have already seen in our discussion of moral competence and of individual morality, conflicts can arise between value systems. This is when the small but very important question "Why?" arises. This is because the "why" question puts the advocates of a prevailing moral system into a sometimes very uncomfortable position. They have to justify the values and prohibitions that are under scrutiny in this community of values. Why should I act this way, why should I not be allowed to act differently? These "why" questions call into question the prevailing moral rules and therefore shake the foundations and convictions of the very community. For instance, the idea of economical linear growth being what modern societies strive for can be questioned by the debate about finite resources and sustainability. Then questions of how we can use resources in the most efficient way and what can we do to recycle material come to the fore.

Asking why means asking for reasons. And in this question, at least if it is asked seriously, lies the possibility for counter-reasons. Further questioning may reveal that the reasoning structure may be inconsistent. In other words, the logic regarding the values of a community and the associated ideas of right and wrong, of good and evil, may be inadequate. This scrutinising and questioning challenges the prevailing morals and subjects them to a stress test. What was previously unquestionable in a community becomes questionable, the self-evident becomes subject to justification.

Cita­tion

From: Manstetten (2005) Ma05, p. 94, authors‘ translation Original Quote

It is always an attack on established morality to ask: Why does this apply and not something else? Because this is an insinuation: What is valid does not have to be valid, another commandment could also apply.

In authoritarian communities in particular, in which the monitoring of morality is used as a means of power, ethical questioning cannot only be an attack on the prevailing morals but also an attack on power and power relations. Then they are called into question and come under pressure.

Ethics is the reflection on morality. While morality is a binding system of values, ethics is the reflection on a given morality. This also involves the search for better morals, better reasons and better ways of living together in the community. It is about finding reasons and counter-reasons for certain moral positions, which are reflected in norms and rules.

Cita­tion

From: Manstetten (2005) Ma05, p. 95, authors‘ translation Original Quote

But beyond this, ethics is also and above all concerned with ultimately arriving at a morality that is as well founded as possible, a morality that we can say is the best for a human being. In other words, the goal of any serious ethics is to find out what is good and just in such a way that it can also prove to be good and just in a convincing justification.

The term “ethics in mining” has been recently used more frequently in the public domain, e.g. a google search of “ethics in mining” in distinction to “data mining” delivers 37.900 results:

As is often initially assumed, this includes social and environmental responsibility and transparency in the raw material sector. Ethical mining practices aim to reconcile the increasing demand for and extraction of raw materials as well as new extraction technologies with the environment and society. Our society’s digitalization, electrification, and energy transition are shifting the demand for raw materials and presenting us with new fundamental ethical questions. From the general goal of ethics, namely to find out what can be convincingly justified as good and just, the question is posed: What is good and just for our coexistence in the context of socio-technological developments brought about by the extraction of raw materials.