Page 31 - The Ethics of ASEAN

CHAPTER
2

A Model of ASEAN Ethics

f the possibility of a regional ethics is answered by an aspiration rather than an
anthropological description of cultures in a geographical region, it does not follow that
Ia common aspiration is a sufficient ethical foundation. In ASEAN there are different
types of ethics that compete with each other when an ethical issue arises that requires
making a declaration or taking action.

Understanding the different types of Ethics in ASEAN

In explaining ASEAN ethics, I will propose a model of five different kinds of ethics
represented in the chart below. These different types of ethics are the sources of
1
fundamental debates and those making the arguments are often not aware that they are
not using the same ethical logic.
The first advantage is gaining clarity about the different forms of logic in ethics and
how ethical arguments are constructed. The second advantage is understanding double
standards in ethics. For example, why do some ASEAN countries promote gender equality
but also condemn gay rights? The third advantage of the model is that it helps understand
how ASEAN as a community has evolved in its ethics.
These five types of ethics in the model are: virtue ethics, rules-based ethics, results-
based ethics, leadership ethics and emerging ethics.
In philosophy, some of these ethical types are identified with the ideas the founding
philosophers. For example, rules-based ethics is linked to the universalism of Emmanuel
Kant while results-based ethics is linked to the utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham. This
book does not explore the archaeology of philosophical ethics which can be extremely
abstract. In any case the ethical insights of its founding philosophers require considerable
1 This model was first published in a LinkedIn article on 7 May 2022 “A Model for ASEAN Ethics” https://www.
linkedin.com/pulse/model-asean-ethics-dr-bob-aubrey/?trackingId=CFV9%2BZt9QDmp47uzqJlyRw%3D%3D
retrieved 12 August 2023

21