ETHICS

Philosophy 120Also known as

Religious Studies 120

Professor Marcella Norling

Philosophy 120Also known as

Religious Studies 120

Professor Marcella Norling

• “We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought live.”

Socrates, in Plato’s Republic

The Oxford English Dictionary definition of PHILOSOPHY:

• Use of reason and argument in seeking truth and knowledge of reality, especially knowledge of the causes and nature of things and of the principles governing existence

• Particular system or set of beliefs reached by this

Branches of Philosophy

• Epistemology: What is knowledge?

• Ontology: What is the nature of existence?

• Aesthetics: What is beauty?

• Ethics: What should I do?

Ethics, or moral philosophy, ask basic questions about the good life, about what is better and worse, about whether there

is any objective right and wrong, and about how we know it if there is.

An ethical theory is

• A systematic exposition of a particular view about what is the nature and basis of good or right

An ethical theory provides reasons or norms for judging acts to be right or

wrong and attempts to give a justification

DESCRIPTIVE: Factual, describes what IS

NORMATIVE: Evaluative, describes what SHOULD BE

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

EGOISM

You should act in your own best interest

UTILITARIANISM

You should act to create the greatest good for the greatest number

KANTIANISM

You should do your moral duty by following the Categorical Imperative:

• Form 1) Do only that which you would will to be a universal law

• Form 2) Treat all people as ends, never as merely means

VIRTUE ETHICS

You should be a good (virtuous) person

NATURAL LAW ETHICS

You should act in accordance with your human nature and with the natural laws of the universe

FEMINIST ETHICS

• Recognize and care for all people as equally human, and attend ethically to the full range of human experience however shaped by gender.

If NO objective truth exists:

• Relativism: Do what your society says is right

• Subjectivism: Do what you think is right

• Emotivism: Do what you feel is right

• Nihilism: Do whatever. Or not. Doesn’t matter.

DIVINE COMMAND

• Do what your religion says is right

What is ethical relativism?

• The view that ethical values and beliefs are relative to the various individuals or societies that hold them.

• The view that NO objective right or wrong exists.

Two forms of ethical relativism:

• Cultural ethical relativism

• Individual ethical relativism

Arguments FOR and AGAINST ethical relativism

• Moral Diversity

• Moral Uncertainty

• Situational Differences

Moral Diversity

• FOR ER:• There is no

agreement on basic moral principles

• AGAINST ER:• Disagreement does

not prove there is no truth.

• Some apparent disagreements are factual, not moral

Moral Uncertainty

• FOR ER• We just don’t know

for sure what is right, or if anything is right or wrong

• AGAINST ER• Maybe we just don’t

know YET• We may be unsure if we

can know, but not knowing does not prove we can’t know

• We act as if we believe some things are better than other things

Situational Differences

• FOR ER:• Times and places

are so different, one moral code could not possibly be right for all

• AGAINST ER:• There may be same

underlying values, just expressed differently

• Objective truth may exist without being absolute

Objective is not the same as absolute

• OBJECTIVISM: says truth exists,objectively

• Something may be right, good, true, but exceptions may exist in various contexts

• ABSOLUTISM:• Says rules or

principles have NO EXCEPTIONS

• Context and the particular are not considered

Some attempts to come up with a universal morality:

• Four Directives of the Parliament of the World Religions

• United Religions Initiative

• United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights

• Nuremberg Code

• Geneva Conventions

Declaration of the Parliament of the World’s Religions (1993)Four Irrevocable Directives

1. Commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life

2. Commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order

3. Commitment to a culture of tolerance and a life of truthfulness

4. Commitment to a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women.

Psychological Egoism

• The view that we all act in our own interest all the time

• Descriptive: It is a claim about how people ARE

• NOT an ethical theory, just a possible foundation for a theory

Psychological Egoism

• Is TRUE because:

– We do what we want so our actions are selfish

– Even ‘unselfish’ actions bring us pleasure

– People do what they can get away with

• Is NOT True because:

– We sometimes act out of a sense of obligation

– Our own pleasure may be a by-product of unselfish actions, not a motivation

ETHICAL EGOISM

• An ethical theory which claims that we all SHOULD act in our own interest

• NORMATIVE, makes a claim about how humans SHOULD act

Arguments for Ethical Egoism

• Psychological egoism is true; we all are selfish, therefore we all should act selfishly

• Since everyone else will be selfish you should be too or you will lose out

• Everyone will be better off if we each look after our own interests

Arguments against Ethical Egoism

• Psychological egoism is untrue

• If PE is true, it is superfluous (unnecessary) to tell us to act selfishly if we all do anyway

• Cannot get “Ought” from “Is” (if something IS a certain way, does not prove it SHOULD be that way)

Arguments against Ethical Egoism (cont.)

• We seem inhuman if we truly do not care about others; we ought not hurt them even in self interest

• It is inconsistent and contradictory for me to will you to act in your interest when it may not be in my interest that you do so

Famous Egoist: Thomas Hobbes

• Published “Leviathan” in 1651

• Without strong central government, Hobbes says we will be in a “war of all against all”

• Life in time of war is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”

Famous Egoist: Adam Smith

• Published “Wealth of Nations” in 1776

• Intellectual foundation of capitalism

• Claims everyone will be better off if we each act in our own interest

• “Invisible hand” of free market keeps balance

Famous Egoist: Ayn Rand

• Author, screenwriter • Emigrated to US

from USSR in 1926• Promoted egoism

which she called “objectivism”, or ‘rational self-interest’

• Wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness”

Hobbes’ LEVIATHANCh XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind Concerning

their Felicity and Misery

• Nature hath made man so equal in the faculties of the body and the mind…the weakest has strength to kill the strongest…by secret machination or by confederacy with others.

• As to the faculties of the mind…I find yet a greater equality among men, for such is the nature of men…they will hardly believe there be any so wise as themselves.

• From this equality of ability arises equality of hope in the attaining of our ends.

Hobbes’ LEVIATHANCh XIII Of the Natural Condition of Mankind Concerning

their Felicity and Misery

• Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war is of every man against every man.

• In such condition, there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain…no commodious building…no arts; no letters; no society; continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Hobbes’ LEVIATHANCh XIV Of the First and Second Natural Laws, and of

Contracts

• The Right of Nature is the liberty each man has to use his own power…for the preservation of his own…life.

• For as long as every man holds this right of doing anything he likes, so long all men are in the condition of war.

• Right is laid aside, either by simply renouncing it or transferring it…

• The mutual transferring of right is that which men call CONTRACT.

Hobbes’ LEVIATHAN CH XV Of the Other Laws of Nature

• But when a covenant is made, to break it is unjust: and the definition of INJUSTICE is no other than the non-performance of the covenant.

Hobbes’ LEVIATHANPart II: Of Commonwealth

Ch XVII Of the Causes, Generation, and Definition of a Commonwealth

• …covenants without swords are but words…• …the laws of nature… are contrary to our

natural passions…• The only way to erect…a common power…is

to confer all their power and strength upon one man or upon one assembly of men…

Utilitarianism

• We should act to create the GREATEST GOOD for the GREATEST NUMBER

• GGGN

Jeremy Bentham

• Godfather to JS Mill• Promoted utilitarian

ideas• Created the Hedonic

Calculus to measure pleasure

Bentham’s Hedonic Calculus

• The Hedonic Calculus is an instrument for measuring the amount of pleasure to be created by a particular act

• Intensity• Duration (length of time)

• Certainty (likelihood)

• Propinquity (proximity, nearness in space/time)

• Fecundity (fertility, ability to increase upon itself)

• Purity (pleasure minus the amount of pain )

• Extent (effects overall)

John Stuart Mill

• ‘Utilitarianism” 1861• Godson of Jeremy

Bentham• Raised on principle

of utility by Bentham and Mill Sr.

• Improved upon Bentham’s ideas on utility

• INTRINSIC good: Good in and of itself

• INSTRUMENTAL good: Good for getting to something else

• MILL said we must measure both QUANTITY and QUALITY when measuring pleasures

• MILL said there are

HIGHER and LOWER pleasures.

Humans can appreciate higher pleasures; pigs cannot.

• ACT Utilitarianism: Consider the consequences of this act alone

• RULE Utilitarianism: Consider the consequences of this act as a general practice (if most people did it most of the time)

Immanuel Kant

• 1785, published Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals

Kant’s Categorical ImperativeForm One

I. I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim should become a universal law

(Modern version: Do only that which you would will to be a universal law)

Kant’s Categorical Imperative

Form Two

II. So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as a means only

(Modern version: Treat all people, yourself included, as an end, never as merely a means)

Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a Good Will.

Even if it should.... lack power to accomplish its purpose... like a jewel, it would still shine by its own by its own light, as a thing which has whole value in itself

• Kant’s four examples of how to apply the Categorical Imperative:

1.Suicide

2. Lying Promise

3. Rusting Talents

4. Aid the Needy

• How to become virtuous, according to Aristotle:

• 1. Practice habits of virtueIntellectual virtues: can learn from a teacher

-Moral virtues: can only learn through experience and habit

2. Aim for the Golden Mean

The Golden Mean is the midpoint between extremes, between deficiency and excess

• An example of the midpoint is the virtue of courage:

• Too little=cowardly

• Courage= just enough (the mean)

• Too much=foolhardy

• 3. Strive for excellence (arete)

• Develop your character to be the best it can be

• The word “natural” can mean

• The Norm: characteristic of most members of a species

• Right purpose: Using something as intended, for its intended purpose

• Occurring in nature: not created artificially, happens on its own without human intervention

• Sociobiology:

Systematic study of the biological basis of all forms of societal behavior in all species

• St. Thomas Aquinas accomplished the GREAT SYNTHESIS

• Combining Aristotle with Christianity to produce a religiously based concept of the ordered universe with natural laws operating in it

Natural Law? Used and abused:

Social Darwinism: Applies biological principles to societal constructs; survival of the fittest; justified exploitation of workers by industrialists

Racism: Presumes biological inferiority of some groups; used to justify slavery, legal inequality, limit access to goods

Sexism: Woman and men “naturally” have different roles; used to justify unequal legal, educational, and economic rights

DO men and women reason differently about morality?

IF men and women reason differently about morality, WHY

might that be?• Explanations for a difference MIGHT

include:

• BIOLOGY

• SOCIAL TRAINING

• PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

BIOLOGICAL INFLUENCES

• Brain structure

• Hormones

• Physical strength/ body and muscle mass

• Being able to get pregnant

• Giving birth

SOCIAL/CULTURAL INFLUENCE

• Socialization from birth

• Education

• Expectations (vocational, familial)

• Role training as caregivers

PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

• Freud

• Male life task: differentiate from feminine, develop autonomy

• Female life task: seek similarity to, and relationship with, feminine

Traditional Ethical Perspectives

• FEMININE:• Responsibility• Relationship• Solidarity• Personal• Partial• Private• Natural• Feeling• Compassionate• Concrete

• MASCULINE:• Rights• Individual• Autonomy• Impersonal• Impartial• Public• Contractual• Reason• Fair• Universal

Traditional justice theories of Ethics see people as:

• Detached (digital, isolated units)

• Self-sufficient

• Equal in social power

• Calculators and planners

Traditional idea of rationality :

• Leaves out a lot

• Exaggerates the role of reason

• Is a highly abstract idealization

CARE ETHICS

• We are all embedded in a web of social relationships

• Ideal self of other theories is false, and it is not the only model

• Morally crucial work takes place in ‘private’ areas of lives