The Ethics of PI: A Polemical Overview

Abstract

This article argues that HRD is in and of itself an ethical endeavour. HRD is defined as constituting deliberate and planned interventions in naturally occurring learning processes. Ethics is denned as the study of moral choices, or as attempting to answer the question, “what should one do?” The analysis and argument relies on an understanding of human behaviour drawn from developmental biology, which supports a view of both learning and answers to ethical questions being rooted in Darwinian evolution. However, the article argues against deterministic interpretations of Darwin's natural selection such as those associated with evolutionary psychology since, without human agency and the consequent freedom and necessity of choice, there would be no need for ethics to inform and guide behaviour. The analysis also rejects enlightenment arguments which do not allow for drawing normative statements from empirical descriptions. In doing so, the article provides a categorical imperative for HRD practice and practitioners which follows the view that what is ethical is what promotes human well being and happiness. In the specific case of HRD, this translates into helping individuals cope in and with a complex world, and to help in attempts to change the world into a place which promotes human well being.