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From the Afterlife to Actuarial Life: Lessons in Ethics from The Good Place
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From Aristotle’s quest for virtue to the dilemmas of modern actuarial work, navigating what’s right and wrong has never been simple. Inspired by The Good Place and centuries of philosophical thought, this article explores why real-world ethics isn’t about collecting points or following a script, but about dealing with uncertainty, building empathy, and striving to do better; one decision at a time.
Ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with moral principles – the fundamental questions of right and wrong that guide human behaviour. For actuaries, whose work directly impacts financial security and risk management for millions of people, understanding ethical frameworks isn't just an academic exercise. It's essential to professional practice.
The Actuaries Institute recognises this through our mandatory Professionalism Course and CPD requirements. Ethics forms a cornerstone of actuarial professionalism, embedded in our Code of Conduct and Professional Standards. But while compliance with Professional Standards is non-negotiable, truly ethical practice requires deeper understanding than rules alone can provide. The Institute's emphasis on ethics reflects the reality that our technical expertise must be paired with moral reasoning to serve the public’s interest effectively.
This article examines three major ethical frameworks that have shaped moral thinking for centuries, drawing on examples from the NBC series The Good Place (2016-2020), a sitcom I loved that made moral philosophy accessible. It follows characters in the afterlife grappling with ethical dilemmas, providing surprisingly sophisticated illustrations of complex philosophical concepts with a great cast and a lot of laughs.
I'll also reference insights from How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by the show's creator Michael Schur, who documented his journey through moral philosophy by answering questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” and “Do I have to return my shopping cart to the shopping cart rack thingy? I mean…it’s all the way over there”.
More importantly, I'll explore how these frameworks enhance our professional judgment beyond compliance and why ethical thinking builds essential capabilities like empathy, professional courage and integrity, strengthening both technical expertise and leadership effectiveness.
In his 2022 book, Michael Schur identifies three major ethical frameworks that have shaped Western thought for centuries and provided the backbone to The Good Place. Let's explore each one.
1. Virtue Ethics: Becoming Your Best Self
Aristotle, writing in ancient Greece, asked a different question than most moral philosophers. Instead of "what should I do?" he asked "who should I be?" Virtue ethics focuses on developing character traits that lead to human flourishing – things like courage, honesty, generosity, and wisdom.
In The Good Place, we see this through Eleanor Shellstrop, a character who begins the series as admittedly selfish and grows into someone capable of genuine sacrifice. Her transformation doesn't come from memorising rules but from repeatedly practicing better behaviours until they become part of who she is. As Schur discovered in his research, Aristotle believed we become virtuous the same way we become good at anything – through practice.
2. Deontological Ethics: The Rules Matter
Immanuel Kant, an 18th-century German philosopher, argued that some actions are inherently right or wrong, regardless of their consequences. His famous "categorical imperative" states we should act only according to principles we'd want everyone to follow. It's about universal moral laws.
The Good Place brilliantly illustrates this through Chidi Anagonye, a moral philosophy professor so committed to Kantian ethics that he literally gets stomach-aches from moral dilemmas. In one episode, he can't even tell a small lie to spare someone's feelings because lying is categorically wrong in Kant's system. Schur notes that while researching Kant, he found the philosopher's rigid framework both compelling and frustrating – it provides clear guidance but can lead to paralysis in complex situations.
3. Consequentialism: The Outcomes Game
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill developed utilitarianism, judging actions by their results: whatever creates the greatest good for the greatest number is the right choice. It's an appealing framework for the mathematically minded – just calculate the total happiness produced and minimise suffering.
The Good Place initially operates on this system. Every action gets scored by its consequences, giving to charity earns points, being selfish loses them. But the show reveals a problem that Schur highlights in his book - calculating all consequences is impossibly complex. In one episode, they discover that buying a tomato in the modern world involves so many ethical complications (labour practices, environmental impact, corporate structures) that the simple act becomes morally fraught.
Real ethical challenges rarely fit neatly into one framework. Consider this scenario: During a regular review, you discover a calculation error that has led to systematic under-pricing over several years. Correcting it immediately would cause sharp premium increases for thousands of policyholders.
This is where The Good Place's insights prove valuable. The show reveals that ethical perfection is impossible in complex situations. Instead, we must thoughtfully balance competing principles. Perhaps the solution involves graduated corrections, enhanced communication, hardship provisions, or regulatory consultation. The key is engaging seriously with each ethical dimension rather than defaulting to rules or calculations alone.
Schur describes this tension as the heart of ethical decision-making. The discomfort signals we're in genuine ethical territory. Like the show's characters learning to navigate moral complexity, we must accept that some decisions involve choosing between competing goods rather than finding perfect answers.
Engaging with ethical frameworks isn't just an intellectual exercise – it fundamentally builds our capacity for empathy. When we seriously consider different ethical perspectives, we must see situations through others' eyes.
The Good Place demonstrates this through Michael, a supernatural being who starts the series viewing humans as playthings for his entertainment. Through thousands of attempts to torture the main characters, he accidentally develops empathy by being forced to understand human moral reasoning. His transformation from demon to friend shows how sustained engagement with ethics changes us.
In his book, Schur emphasises that this transformation requires genuine engagement, not just academic study. We must care about the impact of our decisions on others. For actuaries, this means remembering that our work and actions affect real people.
But empathy is just one capability that ethical thinking develops. Engaging seriously with moral frameworks builds several essential professional skills:
The Good Place ultimately abandons its point system for something more human: the recognition that becoming ethical requires constant practice and genuine care for others. No cosmic accountant tallies points: instead, characters simply try to be better than they were yesterday.
Schur's research led him to a similar conclusion. We improve at ethics the same way we improve at anything else – through repetition with increasing complexity. For actuaries, this means:
Michael Schur spent years studying ethics to create a comedy show, ultimately concluding that perfect ethical behaviour might be impossible, but the attempt to improve is very human and very achievable. For actuaries navigating complex professional terrain, perhaps that's the most practical framework of all is not perfection, but the genuine, sustained effort to consider the impact of our work and decisions.
After all, as Eleanor Shellstrop learns, being good isn't about getting points – it's about genuinely caring whether our actions help or harm others. For a profession built on calculating risks and rewards, that might be the most important calculation of all.
