A recent article indicated that business schools were going to encourage the study of ethics as part of the curriculum. If graduate schools have to discover ethics, then we are truly in serious trouble. I no more believe that ethics can be taught past the age of 10 than I believe in the teaching of so-called creative writing. There are some things that you are born with, or they are taught by your parents, your priest or your grade-school teacher, but not in college or in graduate school. I believe that businesses should go back to basics in recruiting, should forget about the business schools and recruit the best young liberal arts students we can find. The issue of ethics, both in business and in politics, takes on a sharper focus in the money culture of a service economy than in our earlier industrial days. For the businessmen and the politicians, virtually the only discipline that can be applied is ethical. Financial scandals are not new, nor is political corruption. However, the potential profit, and the ease with which they can be made from insider trading, market manipulation, conflict-of-interest transactions and many other illegal or unethical activities are too great and too pervasive to be ignored. At the same time, those institutions that historically provided the ethical basis to the society—the family, the church and the primary school—are getting weaker and weaker. Hence, our dilemma. The application of ethics, as well as overall judgment, is made even more difficult by the increasing application of rapidly changing technology to major problems in our society. How does a layman deal with the questions raised by "Star Wars", genetic engineering, AIDS and the myriad issues relating to the availability and affordability of life-saving drugs and other medical technology? It is clear that one cannot abdicate to the technocrats the responsibility of making judgment on these issues. Two important risks accompany the discarding of our value system when dealing with a money culture and high technology. The first risk is that more people will turn to radical religion and politics. People always search for frameworks that provide a certain amount of support. If they do not find it in their family, in their school, in their traditional church or in themselves, they will turn to more absolute solutions. The second risk is the polarization of society. We have created hundreds of paper millionaires and quite a few billionaires. But alongside the wealth and glamour of Manhattan and Beverly Hills, we have seen the growth of a semipermanent or permanent underclass. The most important function of higher education is to equip the individual with the capacity to compete and to fulfill his or her destiny. A critically important part of this capacity is the ability to critically evaluate a political process that is badly in need of greater public participation. This raises the issue of teaching ethics in graduate schools. Ethics is a moral compass. Ideally, it should coincide with enlightened self-interest, not only to avoid jail in the short run but to avoid social upheaval in the long run. It must be embedded early, at home, in grade school, in church. It is highly personal. I doubt it can be taught in college. Yet what is desperately needed in an increasingly complex world dominated by technicians is the skepticism and the sense of history that a liberal arts education provides. History, philosophy, logic, English, and literature are more important to deal with today's problems than great technical competence. These skills must combine with an ethical sense acquired early in life to provide the framework needed to make difficult judgments. We most certainly need the creativity of great scientific minds. But all of us cannot be technical experts, nor do we need to be. In the last analysis, only judgment, tempered by a sense of history and a healthy skepticism of cant and ideology will give us the wherewithal to make difficult choices.

单选题 Why are ethical rules more difficult to apply today?

单选题 When people fail to get guidance from traditional ethical basis,________.

单选题 The author considers the polarization of society as________.

单选题 Which of the following does the author think is less important in dealing with today's problem?