Ethical Frameworks Flashcards
What do ethical frameworks attempt to accomplish? What are 4 well known ethical frameworks?
Ethical Frameworks Attempt to provide a systematic answer to the fundamental ethical question:
How should human beings live their lives?
- Utilitarianism > Consequences
- Deontology (Kantianism, Rights, Justice & Fairness) > Principles
- Virtue Ethics > Personal character
- Distributive Justice
What type of theory is Utilitarianism? Who were the father of the framework?
Teleological theories:
> “Telos” means ends, consequences, results
> Moral worth of an action, practice, policy, etc. determined by the consequences
> Acts do not have intrinsic value, What matters is their impact/ potential impact
Jeremy Bentham: “Greatest good for the greatest number.”
John Stuart Mill:
What is the goal of Utilitarianism? how are decision therefore evaluated?
Goal is happiness
Things that promote happiness = ethically good (they lead to pleasure or they alleviate pain and suffering)
Evaluate actions, and decisions on the basis of their impact on society:
> When faced with a decision:
- Consider the available options
- Estimate the good (pleasure) and the harm (pain) that arise from each option
- Select the option that produces better consequences (best net utility) than the other alternatives
The best option promotes human well-being by maximizing benefits and minimizing harms for those affected (i.e., has best net utility)
What are some challenges in applying a Utilitarian approach?
- Common units? Problem of quantifying happiness, pain, pleasure, etc.
- Impossible to quantify certain things, e.g., human life, dignity, time with loved ones
3 The decision maker may have limited knowledge to make accurate measurements of others’ good/ preference.
- The potential benefits and costs of an action cannot always be reliably predicted.
- Scope? How many people to consider in assessment? All people alive? Future generations?
- Ignores motivation/ intent
What are some criticisms in applying a Utilitarian approach?
> It Emphasizes the consequences – what is ethical is based on the end result; means, motivation not considered
> Issues of rights - greatest good for society may involve infringing on certain individuals’ rights
> Issues of justice – greatest good for society may involve unfair treatment of some
What are two forms of Utilitarianism?
Traditional (Act) Utilitarianism:
Act/ situation specific
> Act to promote the general welfare in any given situation
Rule Utilitarianism: (In response to criticism about Utilitarianism)
> Does moral rule underlying an action produce more pleasure than pain for society in the long run?
Follow moral rules that tend to promote the general welfare
Note: the fact that an action would maximize utility in one particular occasion does not show that it is right from an ethical point of view
What is the best approach to assessing an ethical problem using utilitarianism?
1, Create a matrix
- the stakeholders go down the left heading
- the decision alternatives go on the top, dividing the matrix into section
- Under the decisions, create two sub sections. a) harms/pains, and b) benefits/Pleasure
- Use the matrix to asses the impact of each alternative on each stakeholder party
- Asses Which option minimizes the harms and maximizes the good for society (i.e. which leads to the greatest overall happiness for society)?
> This is the best alternative
What are Deontological theories based on?
Principles
Deontological theories are principle-based
Deon > duty, obligation
> There are some principles or rules that we ought to follow even if doing so prevents good consequences or results in bad consequences.
> Rules or principles create duties that bind us to act or decide in certain ways
What rules or principles should we follow in application of a deontological rules/principles approach?
What rules or principles should we follow?
- Legal rules
- Rules derived from various institutions in which we participate, or from various social roles that we fill –
- Role-based rules (Business) – employee, manager
- Professional rules – lawyers, accountants, auditors, financial analysts, bankers
What is a rights based deontological approach?
A right is a person’s entitlement to something is the rule to follow:
“X has the right to do or have Y”
> Legal rights
Human rights – U.N. Declaration, Universal – in all places; equal; non-transferable
In a rights based deontological approach what are negative and positive rights?
Negative rights = to not interfere with right holders
E.g. Privacy, life, speech, assembly, religion
> A duty or obligation to not interfere in certain activities of the person who holds the right <
Positive rights = to provide to right holders
E.g. Education, medical care, life
> A duty or obligation to provide the holder of the right with whatever he or she needs to freely pursue his or her interests. <
What are challenges to a rights approach to ethics?
> Proliferation (rapid increase) of claims to rights
> Absence of a hierarchy of rights
> Conflict among various claims
Who is the father of Kantianism? how is it derived? What two fundamental rights emerge from this approach?
Immanuel Kant - Humans are rational beings capable of making decisions regarding right and wrong
> Humans have a fundamental human right of autonomy, or self-rule.
They do not act only out of instinct and conditioning; they make free choices about:
> How they live their lives
> Their own goals or ‘ends’
Two related rights have emerged as fundamental:
- If humans have the right to autonomy —– then the freedom to make our own choices is a basic right.
- Since all humans possess this fundamental right, equal treatment and equal consideration is also a fundamental right.
What is the fundamental principle of Kantianism? How is is determined whether an act or decision is moral?
Fundamental principle = Respect the dignity of each individual human being
In determining whether an act or decision is moral:
> Consider the motive one must recognize the duty to act in a certain manner
> An act is moral if it is done for the right reason (moral obligation, i.e. recognition of a duty to act)
In Kant’s view, what is a hypothetical imperative as compared to a categorical imperative?
a hypothetical imperative applies to many facets of life; things you SHOULD do but are optional. ie. if you want good grades you should study. if you want money you should get a job.
A categorical imperatives are applied less often but they dictate the manner in which one MUST act. They are moral obligations derived from pure reason.
