In this lesson we tackle the very debatable subject of whether our ethical intelligence is something that we're born with, or whether it is something that is developed through life. Ethical Reasoning is processed by a specific part of our brains. Scientists first learned this in 1848. When in a freak accident, Phineas Gage had an iron rod blow right through his skull, he miraculously recovered with a fully functioning mind and body, except that after the accident, he was unable to comprehend social dimensions of reasoning. Given this happened nearly two centuries ago, the full extent to which gauges ethical intelligence impairment was subject to differing accounts. However, what was observed was that the man Phineas Gage, was before the accident was not the same man.
He became after the accident. He went from being a thoughtful, well respected gentleman in December. One who is described as mean, constantly cursing, and some set more addiction prone. This is when scientists first started considering the extent to which our moral reasoning is a function of how well a certain part of our brain works. This argument supports while we have sociopath, this is the crux of the nature side of the argument of ethical intelligence. Another interesting finding in human psychology found that your brain is naturally wired to harmonize with the environment around you.
Your brains contain what are called mirror neurons, whose sole purpose is to reflect inside yourself actions you observe in others, and explains why we can't help yawning when we see someone else yawning or sometimes even talking about it. Or when someone smiles we smile, or how if someone tilts her head to talk to us, we also start tilting her head or if you stay in a place like Boston or new Finland, you start talking like a local after a few days. It's not conceptual reasoning that triggers these actions in you. It's a direct stimulation inside your brain that triggers these involuntary actions. You act by feeling not by thinking. This can be a dangerous reaction in ethically charged situations.
The emotional mind is prone to believe what it sees. It makes it an unreliable, yet very powerful tool when it comes to decision making. We react to what we perceive and operate with the belief that perception is reality. The foundation of ethical intelligence is to recognize our judgment traps, to recognize when we should slow down and avoid any snap judgments that immediately come to mind. Our minds can play tricks on us when our brains are inhibited through injury, disability or substance abuse our minds Allow us to rationalize bad behavior when the environment around us supports this behavior. Greek mythology tells the story of Odysseus who wanted to sail past an island inhabited by three sirens.
These sea NIMS lived on an island surrounded by treacherous rocks. The sirens had the body of birds and the heads of beautiful women. Their song was so enchanting that sailors were mysteriously drawn into the islands rocky shores, then their ship would wreck and all aboard would be killed. Odessa's decided to sail by the island. But recognizing his vulnerability, and that of his sailors, he decided to control his and their behavior. He ordered himself lashed to the mast so that he could not go to the wheel and steer it into the island.
He ordered that his sailors have their ears stocked with beeswax, making them incapable of hearing the sirens music with these safeguards in place. They safely navigated past the island. I guess it goes to show that attractive women make men do stupid things. In this way, Odessa was exemplifying ethical intelligence. He not only recognized his own fallacy, but put in place safeguards to protect his judgment and the judgement of those around him. As you'll learn about in this course, ethical intelligence requires conscious awareness of ethical principles, principles that become embedded in decision making to act as a safeguard.
In the modern world, ethical intelligence can be thought of as a professional competency, in the same way as strategic management and leadership. In this way, Blair and I are going to position ethical intelligence as competencies you can nurture through training, awareness and practice. And certainly after taking this course, you should be more adept. Ethical intelligence is emerging as another one of those must have soft skills in Korea. executives, just as emotional intelligence and social intelligence have gained recognition as must have soft skills, ethical intelligence is getting greater prominence, as evidenced by the CPA professions mandated requirement for four hours of ethics training each PD cycle. And you can achieve this by taking this series of courses.
Emotional intelligence is recognizing emotions in ourselves and others to guide our thinking and behavior and manage and or adjust our emotions according to the situation. social intelligence is how we build and manage our complex network of relationships and interact with others in social situations. Ethical intelligence, on the other hand, embodies emotional intelligence, but takes emotional intelligence a step further, because emotional intelligence doesn't address what you ought to do. Ethical intelligence God you Words the right thing to do. In the next lesson, we will learn more about what guides our decision making.