The Three I's for Ethics as an Everyday Activity - Integration, Intrinsic Valuing, and Intersubjectivity

Oct 15, 2026

An essay argues for making ethics a daily practice centered on preventive ethics rather than emergency-driven, interventional ethics. Preventive ethics aims to sustain viability and wellbeing for all members of the earth community by treating life-phenomena as interconnected and interpenetrating. In contrast, interventional ethics responds to accumulated bio-social-psychic harm caused by everyday neglect. The essay proposes three linked practices: integrate mind and body, learn to value the world intrinsically, and cultivate intersubjectivity to resist objectifying others.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryReligion & Spirituality

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Why Ethics as an Everyday Activity

Preventive vs. interventional ethics

Ethics as preventive moral care

# The Three I's for Ethics as an Everyday Activity:Integration,Intrinsic Valuing,and Intersubjectivity Heesoon Bai,Simon Fraser University,Canada ## Abstract In addressing the theme of ethics as an everyday activity,this essay makes acase for the primacy of preventive ethics over interventional ethics.Preventive ethics aims at creating a condition of viability and wellbeing forall members of the earth community,an ethical ideal that follows from thethesis that all life-phenomena are interconnected and interpenetrating.Bysharp contrast,interventional ethics functions to redress the alreadyaccrued harm and damage that results from not paying attention,on aneveryday basis,to the community members'bio-social-psychic conditions ofwellbeing.This essay suggests three interlinked practices for preventiveethics.First,we must integrate the mind/body,selflother;and subject/object.Second,we must learn to value the world intrinsically,as we do in aestheticappreciation.Third,we must cultivate the art of intersubjectivity in order tocounter the prevailing habit of objectifying the other. Resumé Cet article porte sur la pratique quotidienne de Péthique et fait valoir la pri-mauté de Péthique préventive sur Iéthigue d'intervention.L'éthique préven-tive vise à creer un état de viabilité et de bien-etre pour tous les habitants dela planete,un ideal déontologique qui découle de la theorie selon laquelletoutes les matieres vivantes sont intimement liees et interdépendantes.Encontraste absolu,Iethique d'intervention cherche aredresser les torts et lesdommages cumulatifs infligés par la negligence quotidienne au bien-etrephysique,social et affectif des membres d'une collectivite.Je suggère troispratiques liees en matiere d'éthique preventive.Nous devons d'abord intégr-er la relation de Pesprit et du corps,du soi et de I'autre,et du sujet et detobjet.Deuxiemement,nous devons apprendre a valoriser le monde defacon intrinseque comme nous lefaisons lorsqu'il s'agit d'une critique sur leplan esthétique.En dernier lieu,nous devons cultiver 'art de I'intersubjec-tivité afin de contrer I'habitude courante d'objectiver I'autre. ## Why Ethics as an Everyday Activity The theme of this seminar is making ethics an everyday activity.This is atheme that still comes up too infrequently in philosophical discourse,although fortunately that is changing.In part,ethics has traditionally beenidentified with difficult,out-of-the-ordinary contexts when decision andaction are necessitated by instances of transgression,harm,and neglect.Inother words,ethics steps in interventionally when there is a breach of socialnorms and expectations.When we witness a moral transgression,our usualresponse is moral outrage:“That's just unforgivable.We should not let themget away with this.They should be punished."But in many of these trans-gressive circumstances,the offenders may have "chosen"their particularcourse of morally culpable action because,when they came to this desper-ate point,the "choices"they faced were between lesser or greater ills or evilsIn these situations,damage control may be the most one can do,but evenfor that,knowledge and skills,not to mention personal virtues,are required.But,if people were knowledgeable,skillful,and virtuous to begin with in fac-ing the world and its multifaceted,complex challenges,would they have got-ten to the desperate point of seeing no choices other than those between dif-ferent ills and evils? The consequence of making ethics an interventional affair requiringextraordinary effort to deal with difficult,hard-to-resolve life problems,likemoral dilemmas,is that,often,the only options left are emergency measuresthat make everyone feel compromised and traumatized.Acrimonious blamegets passed around,and everyone is upset that the matter at hand was notdealt with sooner and in better ways."How on earth have we come to this?Why didn't she straighten herself up sooner?Why did we let him fall apartlike this?He should have more responsibil

FAQs

What does the essay claim about preventive ethics versus interventional ethics?

The essay argues that preventive ethics should have primacy over interventional ethics. Preventive ethics focuses on enabling wellbeing before harm accrues, while interventional ethics mainly redresses already accrued damage.

Why does the author think ethics should become an everyday activity?

The author maintains that ethics is often treated as only necessary in transgressive, exceptional situations. Making ethics everyday helps prevent people and situations from deteriorating into crises requiring emergency intervention.

What are the three interlinked practices proposed for preventive ethics?

The essay proposes integrating mind and body (self and other, subject and object), valuing the world intrinsically as in aesthetic appreciation, and cultivating intersubjectivity to counter the habit of objectifying the other.

Oct 15, 2026

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