As I drifted off to sleep last night, I came to the realisation that the difference between being ethical and having a conscience is that ethics are principles that you will use as a replacement for having a conscience when you have set your emotions aside in the name of a pursuit.
For example, medical scientists and surgeons are often desensitised to rather gruesome sights due to the nature of their work. They regularly do things that resemble violence to their subjects and patients, such as cutting them open and sticking needles in them. Before a surgeon can enter the surgery room, he has to leave his emotions at the door. If he doesn’t have an ethical code — a set of harm-reducing principles that he acts according to — he could easily be led astray once he has entered the cool and composed mental state that is necessary for performing the work. The history of medicine is littered with stories of doctors who went too far because they weren’t guided by ethics when they operated.
Ethics, then, are rules you operate according to — quite literally so if you’re a surgeon! It would not surprise me the least if I were to learn that this is in fact why performing surgery is called “operating” in the first place.
This modus operandi isn’t unique to medicine however. World-class athletes enter the same state of mind when they compete. Musicians enter it when they perform. Politicians when they make decisions. This is what we call a flow state. The better you are at entering and maintaining a pure flow state, the better you will perform in almost any situation. If you learn to enter a flow state when you interact with people, you will develop confidence, in which social interactions become a matter of improvisation, almost as if playing a musical instrument.
In terms of the neurochemistry, dopamine and noradrenaline levels are elevated, causing the prefrontal cortex to light up and your alertness to heighten, allowing you to act in an efficient and organised manner.
People who suffer from ADHD have difficulty entering and maintaining this state of mind, and when they do, the elevation in noradrenaline levels can trigger anxiety. It can, however, be induced pharmacologically in a more controlled way by administering a stimulant-and-beta-blocker combination such as bupropion and propranolol. The stimulant serves to elevate dopamine and noradrenaline levels, improving concentration and encouraging goal-directed behaviour. The beta blocker will block the noradrenaline receptors, lowering blood pressure and suppressing anxiety.
I think you will find that a large number of successful people are either naturally inclined to entering a state of flow — having won the genetic lottery of neurochemistry — or are employing some combination of relaxation techniques and/or medications to help them enter it.
If you are an emotional person, you have little need for ethics because your fear of hurting others is already keeping you in check. Notice how the word “fear” snuck in there? You’re afraid of hurting people. Your conscience manifests as anxiety, but it’s a healthy anxiety to have if you’re not guided by any ethical principles.
Freeing yourself from anxiety is to free your mind, because almost any worry or desire you have is will manifest as anxiety. You’re anxious to go to work. You’re anxious to catch the news. You’re anxious to see your lover. Notice how we so casually use the word “anxious” to mean “eager”? It’s because they manifest as the same feeling. You’re not eager to go to work — just afraid of being late. You’re not eager to catch the news — just afraid of missing out. You’re not eager to see your lover — just afraid of being lonely.
The more you free your mind, the more fear you will lose, and the more important it is to adopt a code of ethics. Traditional universities taught ethics for a good reason: The people who studied at them tended to be rather bold and intelligent people who had a clear need for such guidance.
Ethics aren’t of much use unless your mind is free enough to adopt a set of them that isn’t always in agreement with your emotions. If you make your decisions based on ethics and not your conscience, this makes you virtuous, because you have the choice of causing harm, but you choose to do otherwise.