Objective:

Have students understand what we mean when we say that they have to have ethics. Know the people behind some of the common views of ethics. Have them understand that they are still developing their own ethics and that is why rules may seem so strict in school. This will help them become more valuable members of their community, and be able to interact within diverse situations.

Preset Activity: Recite the previous lesson; have students talk about if they think advertisements are ethical. First they must decide what ethical means, then decide if commercials have the qualities to be ethical.

Have the groups list what being ethical means on the board and whether they think commercials classify as being ethical. They don't have to give a reason why commercials would be ethical; that will be in the discussion about the different groups answers.
 

Lesson: Discuss what the groups came up with for answers. Have them describe how they came up with their answers. Tell them that defining what ethical is, is a process that had been taking place ever since Plato's time.

Lecture on what ethics is:

"Ethical issues focus on value judgement concerning degree of right and wrong. Persuasion as one type of human behavior, always contains potential ethical issues because:

1. It involves people trying to influence others beliefs, attitudes, values, and overt actions.
2. It involves conscious choices among ends sought and rhetorical means used to achieve the ends.
3. It necessarily involves a potential judge (the receiver of the message)" (Larson 2001, p.23).

Virtue according to Aristotle - Excellence, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual excellence in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching (for which reason it requires experience and time), while moral excellence comes about as a result of habit.

Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do excellences arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit.

John Stuart Mill's On Liberty: Everyone must have a say.

A person can not be overpowered in order to do something because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise or even right. These are good reasons for reasoning or persuading a person, but not for compelling a person.

If every person minus one agrees on something, it is not justifiable to keep the one person from stating their case. It is the duty of the government, and of the individual, to form the truest opinion they can.

Reflection: Complete the Quote about Persuasion worksheet.