Abstract:
This paper attempts to examine the interwoven contradictions of ethics in politics from corporate
and personal ethics. The application of political play often leaves many in the fields of
governance, public policy, and by large International Relations in dilemma. Many utter; “Politics
ought to be ethical yet in many instances it depicts contradictions”. Whether the statement
uttered has truth or not is questionable and answerable to the extent of epistemological
dimensions through a microscopic scholarly view herein undertaken. This paper anchors itself
on a qualitative approach by opening written thoughts of selected philosophers for readers and
practitioners (business and political) to make informed perspectives of ethics. Based on
generalizations; this paper argues on key themes relevant to the topic, finding role of ethics in
societal ecology, then narrowing down to ethical theories and their applications to personal and
business ethics and whether contradictions exist in politics. This discussion concludes that there
exist positive and negative contradictions of ethics in politics. Contradictions of ethics in politics
are majorly construed to; it’s being relativity concept, being application based, and its
epistemological dimensions. Similarly, its contradiction emanates from immoral citizenry – the
breeding ground of political elite thus the output of unethical practice in politics.
