Pewarta KBN tahun ke-3, Mei-Juni 2009

Dari meja penyunting

Rupanya tidak selalu ‘mengetahui’ dan ‘menguasai’ itu menjadi dasar dan panduan ‘berbuat’. Guru Besar yang bertahun-tahun mengajar moralitas dan (teori) etika tidak selalu menjalankan kehidupan profesionalnya sebagai ilmuwan mengikuti secara ketat norma etika yang diajarkannya. Artinya, ia (si pendidik) tidaklah berbeda dengan orang lain, dalam penerapan hidup beretika. Artinya pula, dalam mendidik dan mengajar murid-muridnya, seorang guru seolah-olah berpesan ‘berbuatlah sesuai dengan apa yang saya katakan, tidak sesuai dengan apa yang saya lakukan’. Aneh tapi nyata.
Ini informasi yang sampai di meja Penyunting Pewarta KBN ini, atas kiriman Prof M.K. Tadjudin, terima kasih: “According to a paper written by two philosophy professors, Eric Schwitzgebel of the University of California at Riverside and Joshua Rust of Stetson University, a college professorship in ethics does not necessary translate into moral behavior. At least, that’s what the people who work with ethicists say.
“One might suppose,” Schwitzgebel writes in the paper, which has been accepted for publication by the journal Mind, “that ethicists would behave with particular moral scruple (=keraguan). After all, they devote their careers to studying and teaching about morality. Presumably, many of them care deeply about it. And if they care deeply about it, it is not unreasonable to expect them to act on it.”
Most of the 277 survey respondents reported no positive correlation between a professional focus on ethics and actual moral behavior. Respondents who were ethicists themselves shied away from saying that ethicists behave worse than those outside the discipline – generally reporting that ethicists behave either the same or better – but non-ethicists were mostly split between reporting that ethicists behave the same as or worse than others.
Even those ethicists who did rank their peers’ behavior as better than average said their moral behavior is just barely better than average – hardly a ringing endorsement.
“If actually thinking about ethics philosophically does not help you behave any better, if that is the right conclusion to draw, I do find that disappointing,” Schwitzgebel said. “I would have to hope that philosophical moral reflection is morally improving … that it pushes you toward the good.”
“There are certain ways of teaching ethics and thinking about ethics philosophically that can lead to moral improvement,” Schwitzgebel said. He wants to find them. (dari K. Maternowski)”.[amruhn, 0609]