Ethics is a widely studied branch of philosophy that is commonly referred to as the “philosophical study of morality.”[1] It can be deduced from this definition that this field of study is chiefly concerned with analyzing the decisions people make every day and the reasons behind these choices. In common practice, ethics can appear to be a complex and ambiguous discipline, because the decision of what ends to pursue can often lead to heated and never-ending debates. Thus, it makes sense that ethics is also defined as the avenue within which competing claims and interests are arbitrated.[2] Notwithstanding the differences in opinions, what remains is that ethics is a discipline that asks questions that are so fundamental to the conduct of human life that practically every profession has in some way deliberated on whether there are ethical standards that might be proper to their respective fields.
Interestingly, while there is an appreciation that ethics is essential to the conduct of professional life, there are not many institutions built to instruct and train people in ethics. If anything, only the Church (together with other religious institutions) and the university[3] are considered to be places for such. The university plays a particularly important role in the cultivation of ethics; it is usually in the university and at the aegis of professors that lawyers, doctors, businessmen, and other professionals are taught and trained on ethical behavior.[4] Countless books, manuals, and training guides on professional ethics have been written and disseminated by these universities. The irony, however, is that the same cannot be said of ethics in the university itself.
In his book entitled University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics, James Keenan, SJ begins by making a comment on precisely this phenomenon. He observes that there seems to be a lacuna in scholarly research on the ethical conduct proper to a university. In citing many instances of misconduct among professors and students in U.S. universities, he notes that these transgressions are hardly ever seen as ethical problems, nor as made possible by a lack of accountability to ethical norms.[5] This seeming disinterest in university ethics is ironic (and also hypocritical) given that the university is the hub that spearheads the instruction of ethics in other fields. It is certainly awkward to see the university spearheading the training of other professionals on standards that it is not keen on imposing upon itself.
Keenan makes a similar observation in the Church and uses the backlash that it recently suffered from the sex abuse crisis to make a strong case for having a culture of ethics. Investigations into the many abuses committed by clergy reveal a similar myopia rampant in the university. Once again, an institution responsible for the instruction of parishioners on ethical behavior seems to overlook the importance of having the same training for its own priests and bishops.[6] Moreover, this lack of ethics is evident not only in the actions of the predatory clergy themselves, but also in their superiors who could have made critical decisions to stop the abuses, but chose to be silent instead.[7] According to Keenan, the reason why having a culture of ethics is important is that its absence creates a vacuum that is quickly occupied by other norms, values, and interests that can lead to catastrophic decisions.[8] Without a clearly defined set of standards with which to hold clergy accountable, decisions are made on the basis of other motivations.
This apparent lack of ethics in both the Church and the university is an anomaly that should make one question why it even exists. On the one hand, there is the notion that an institution that teaches ethics can be safely presumed to be ethical as well. After all, it stands to reason that an individual who is tasked to teach high school mathematics could be presumed to be good at math and is competent enough to do simple addition.[9] However, as demonstrated in the previous paragraphs, it seems that this logic does not hold up as well as could be expected. Moreover, Keenan cites the history of the university system itself as another probable cause for this lack of ethics. In order to appreciate the impact of this history, it would be useful to look at the work of another author, Theodore Benditt, as compiled and edited by Steven Cahn in Morality, Responsibility, and the University.
Theodore Benditt says that the modern university is patterned after the Cambridge and Oxford models, which were institutions of higher learning founded by religious denominations. It was in the interest of these religious groups to provide college education for their adherents in order to keep them from having to attend the universities of rival groups, which could ultimately risk their indoctrination into another church.[10] Having been founded by religious groups, it is thus understandable why the original curricula of these universities were designed almost exclusively for religious and moral instruction:
Through all of the nineteenth century, … professors were hired not for their scholarly ability or achievement but for their religious commitment. Scholarly achievement was not a high priority, either for professors or students. Colleges were concerned with supposedly inspired teaching aimed at molding young men of good character, young men who would become clergymen and statesmen. To this end, order and discipline, not inquiry, were considered essential…. It was assumed that the information content of the curriculum was adequate and appropriate-simple, indubitable truths purveyed by kindly, righteous professors and absorbed by dutiful and disciplined students. There was certainly no idea that students should use libraries or consult original sources rather than textbooks. Colleges had virtually no libraries at all, and those they had were limited mostly to religious books. And anyway, exposure to conflicting ideas would only undermine the inculcation of superficial truths students were meant to learn.[11]
The Age of Enlightenment, spurned by the increasing sophistication of and dependence on the physical sciences, brought with it an increasing suspicion for religious dogma and the institutions that proclaimed them. It quickly became out-of-fashion for universities to continue to teach about supernatural concepts and moral principles that seemed to have no immediate consequence for the lives of ordinary people. Thus, U.S. universities found value in redirecting themselves toward alternative trajectories that prioritized pursuit for hard facts and practical knowledge. Academic curricula thus gradually shifted away from religious instruction, resulting in the marginalization of moral discourses in the university.[12] In most universities today, ethics is considered adjunct to the core curriculum, at best.
Keenan proceeds to discuss a number of issues related to university ethics and the lack thereof. His discussion is comprehensive and covers issues such as cheating on tests and bullying in the classroom, to more profound issues such as discrimination based on gender and race. Whatever topic Keenan chooses to explore, his ultimate goal is to emphasize to the reader the necessity for university ethics. Lastly, Keenan dedicates an entire chapter to commodification. There has certainly been some research done on the commodification of scientific research, but the commodification of the university, and of higher education in particular, is a topic that piques the future interest of this researcher.
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[1] John Deigh, An Introduction to Ethics, Second (Cambridge University Press, 2025), 7.
[2] James G Speight, Ethics in the University (Scrivener Publishing, 2016), 2.
[3] The words “university” and “college” are often used interchangeably, and thus it becomes important to this study that the two be disambiguated. A university refers to an educational institution that offers undergraduate and undergraduate programs, which in other texts and cultures might be referred to as a college or an institution of higher education. For the sake of terminological precision, it must be clarified that “a college is a part of a university in which specific departments exist to forward the educational goals of the college.” Some examples include a College of Science, a College of Medicine, a College of Law and so on. The university is the larger institution that includes a number of different colleges. See Speight, Ethics in the University, 2.
[4] James F. Keenan, University Ethics: How Colleges Can Build and Benefit from a Culture of Ethics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), 9.
[5] Ibid., 1.
[6] Ibid., 12.
[7] Ibid., 13.
[8] Keenan, University Ethics, 13.
[9] Ibid.,12.
[10] Theodore M. Benditt, “The Research Demands of Teaching in Modern Higher Education,” in Morality, Responsibility, and the University: Studies in Academic Ethics, ed. Steven Cahn (Temple University Press, 2010), 94–95.
[11] Keenan, University Ethics, 94.
[12] Ibid., 25.