Philosophy 224

Ethical Theory: A Primer

Some Important Questions

Ethical Theories attempt to provide systematic answers to general moral questions like these.– What makes an act right or wrong?– What is it about persons that makes them the

proper objects of moral praise or blame?– How can we be confident that we’ve come to

acceptable solutions to our moral quandaries?

The Aims of Ethical Theory

There are two basic aims of Ethical theory.1. Practical Aim: identify a decision procedure that

can be used to guide correct moral reasoning about matters of moral concern.

2. Theoretical Aim: identify the features of actions or persons that make them right or wrong, good or bad.

These aims are generally understood to be interrelated; satisfying one depends on and makes reference to the other.

The Role of Moral Principles

For philosophical ethics, moral principles are general ethical statements that establish conditions under which moral evaluation can proceed.– An action is obligatory if and only if God commands

it (Divine Command Theory). Moral principles are the point of contact

between the practical and theoretical aims of an ethical theory. They both specify the theoretical features and serve as the basis of a decision procedure.

Categories of Moral Evaluation

Right or Wrong and Good or Bad are the basic categories of moral evaluation.

Philosophical ethics divides these basic categories in to two groups:

1. Categories of Deontic Evaluation;

2. Categories of Value.

Deontic Categories

Deontic categories are used primarily to evaluate the rightness or wrongness of action.

Typically, philosophers have identified three basic deontic categories:

1. Obligatory: we ought to act; we have a duty to act;

2. Wrong: we ought not to act; we have a duty to avoid acting;

3. Permissible: an action is neither obligatory or wrong.

Value Categories

Value categories are used to assign the predicates good, bad or neutral to persons or things.

Something can be valuable in one of two ways:1. Intrinsically: a thing is valuable in and of itself;2. Extrinsically: a thing is valuable by reference to some

intrinsically valuable thing. In philosophical ethics, theories about value are

theories of intrinsic value. The basic value categories are thus:

1. Intrinsically good;2. Intrinsically bad;3. Intrinsically neutral.

Structure of an Ethical Theory

Given these two basic categories of moral evaluation, it should not be surprising that philosophical ethical theories typically exhibit:– A Theory of Right Conduct in which the

deontic categories are fleshed out;– A Theory of Value in which an account of

intrinsic moral (and often nonmoral) value is spelled out.

The Role of a Theory of Human Nature

As we’ve already noted, philosophical ethical theories rely on an account of human nature.

Such a theory should and does play a key role in specifying both the theory of right conduct and the theory of value.

Evaluation of these elements of an ethical theory requires evaluation of the theory of human nature on which they rely.

Evaluating Ethical Theories

In addition to a consideration of the adequacy of the theoretical foundations of a particular theory, there are a number of intratheoretical features which a successful ethical theory must exhibit.

1. Consistency (of moral verdicts).2. Determinacy (or moral verdicts).3. Intuitive Appeal (correspond to our intuitions).4. Internal Support (for and from our considered moral

judgments).5. Explanatory Power (why we have the intuitions and

judgments we do).

Natural Law Theory

TV: Some thing or state of affairs is intrinsically good iff its realization is part of what perfects human beings; intrinsically bad iff it involves the destruction of what perfects human beings; neutral iff it is neither perfecting nor destroying.

TRC: An action is obligatory iff failing to perform it would result in the violation of the goods required for human perfection; wrong iff performing it would be violative; permissible iff performing or failing leaves the basic goods untouched.

Utilitarianism

TRC: An action is obligatory iff it has a higher utility than any other alternative action an agent could perform; wrong iff it has less utility than another alternative; permissible iff it has as high a utility as any other alternative.

TV: For utilitarianism, the TV is essentially a definition of utility. Some historical examples include: pleasure, happiness, desire fulfillment.

Kantian Ethical Theory (Deontology)

Categorical Imperative: “So act that you use humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end, never merely as a means.” (The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)

TRC: an action is obligatory iff failing to perform it would fail to respect humanity; wrong iff performing it would fail to respect humanity; optional iff neither performing it nor failing to perform it would fail to respect humanity.

TV: Respect for humanity amounts to respect for the capacity in oneself and others to freely choose one’s ends.