ethical theories- lec 1

Question 1

What are
Ethics?

Answer 1

Ideas of right and wrong,
and “the good life”
* Moral intuitions inherited
from simian life
* Shaped and filtered by
modern religious and
political ideas

Question 2

Principles of the
Enlightenment

Answer 2

1. Autonomy of reason from
   faith and authority
2. Human perfectibility and
   social progress
3. Empirical optimism:
   sapere aude! (Dare to know)
4. Legitimacy of government
   based on free association
5. Tolerance of diversity, freedom of thought
6. Ethical universalism – beyond nationalism, racism, sexism

Question 3

Enlightened vs. Pre-Enlightened

Answer 3

Enlightened

• Harm/care
• Fairness/reciprocity

Pre-Enlightenment

• Ingroup loyalty
• Respect for authority
• Purity/sanctity

Question 4

The Age of Enlightenment
*

Answer 4

Heavily influenced by the
Scientific Revolution in Europe
during the 1600s
– Scientific Revolution: the time
period where scientists in
Europe began to observe,
hypothesize, and experiment
to reach conclusions about the
natural world
* Challenged prevailing religious beliefs
and the Catholic Church’s authority on
all things relating to the natural world:
* Ex Galileo was excommunicated from the
Church for arguing that the Earth revolved
around the sun (Helio-centered universe)
instead of other way around * Developed the Scientific

Question 5

Philosophes

Answer 5

Enlightenment philosophers
who met to discuss reason,
logic, rationale, and how to
solve social problems

• believed in using the
  scientific method to solve
  social problems
• were against Divine Right
  and believed the people are
  the source of government’s
  power
• met in underground clubs
  called Salons

Question 6

Pre-Enlightenment Medical
Ethics

Answer 6

• Professions develop
  codes of ethics to
  rationalize their power
  and special privileges
• The code of the healer
• Hippocratic oath

Question 7

Contemporary Ethical Theories

Answer 7

Deontology – There are clear rights and wrongs

• Virtue theory – Intention of the actor is most
  important
• Consequentialism – Greatest good for greatest
  number
• Principlism – There are general ethical principles

Question 8

Deontology

Answer 8

From the Greek word for ‘duty’

• rules, which express our duties

– E.g. killing someone to give their organs to
someone else may ignore our duty to

respect that person’s right to life.

• Somewhat associated with religious ethics.

Question 9

Kantian Deontology

Answer 9

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is the
most influential deontologist.

• Rejecting Consequentialism: “A good
  will is good not because of what it effects
  or accomplishes.” Even if by bad luck a
  good person never accomplishes anything
  much, the good will would “like a jewel,
  still shine by its own light as something
  which has its full value in itself.

Question 10

Deontology def

Answer 10

Deon = duty
* Right conduct is prescribed by
absolute moral rules
* Morally praiseworthy actions are
those that arise not out of self-
interest, but out of duties that are
rationally defensible
- Not hedonistic, but rational
- Justification must be available to defend
moral
judgment and action
- Duties do not arise from intuition, emotion,
or in
view of their consequences (contrary to

Question 11

Problems of Deontology

Answer 11

Always following rules of conduct can lead to
negative consequences
– Sometimes the rules are vague
– Sometimes the rules conflict

Question 12

Virtue Theory

Answer 12

Focus on the intent of the
agent of action, rather than
on rules or consequences

• Problems:
  – People with good intents
  can do things that have
  terrible consequences

Question 13

Virtue Ethics

Answer 13

Other moral systems ask
after the nature of right
action from the standpoint
of developing a system for
judging right from wrong
actions

• Aristotle thought that right
  actions emanate from good
  people, so his question was,
  ‘what makes a good
  person?’
• Virtues are “traits of
  character, manifested in
  habitual action, that it is
  good for a person to have”

Question 14

virtue theory characterisitcs

Answer 14

Candidates: benevolence, civility, honesty, self-reliance,
tolerance

• Virtues enable people to fare better in a life that is
  dominated by social interaction and which requires

rational negotiation
* Provides an unproblematic account of motivation for
moral acts (compare with duty)

• It addresses doubts about the moral requirement of
  impartiality

Question 15

problems with virtue theory

Answer 15

One problem is that the virtue of a person may not lead directly to an account of what they ought to do

• That is, it is an account of individual character traits, not an account of reason
• Moral situations may be so numerous that a limited number of the virtues,
  without application rules, will not address all moral situations
• Conversely, if we have a virtue for all possible situations demanding action,
  we’ll have too many virtues to account for

Question 16

Consequentialism

Answer 16

Utilitarianism is sometimes called
consequentialism
- right acts are those which bring
about the best consequences
- the right consequences would be in
line with the GHP

Question 17

Consequentialism

Answer 17

Everyone’s happiness is equivalent

• Judgment that an action is right or wrong requires an assessment of what action will bring about the most good
• Utilitarian calculus
• Cost-benefit analysis

Question 18

What is Good?

Answer 18

• Mill: happiness
• Hedonism: how things make us feel
  (pleasure)
• intrinsic goods are considered important –
  pleasure, friendship, aesthetic enjoyment (ideal
  utilitarianism)
• Preference Utilitarianism: people’s preferences,
  whatever they may be

Question 19

Consequentialism pros vs. cons

Answer 19

• Good: what is likely to produce more good than bad consequences.
• Bad: what is likely to produce more bad than good consequences.
  – E.g.: utilitarianism: good is what produces the greatest utility
  (usually understood in terms of ‘happiness’) for the greatest
  number.
• Often used for resource allocation issues: how can we
  promote the largest amount of happiness with limited
  resources?

Question 20

Problems of Consequentialism

Answer 20

Problems:
– Can we know the likely consequences
of our actions? What if there is great
uncertainty?
– Impartial moral theory  Some would
say that we have a duty to be partial.
– Certain rules may be ignored (yet some
forms of consequentialism take some
deontological principles into
consideration)

Question 21

4 principles of principlism

Answer 21

Autonomy
 Right of self-determination
 Related to ‘informed consent’
 In order to give consent: autonomy/competency/
capacity must be possessed.
◦ Beneficence – to do well, to promote well-being
◦ Non-maleficence – to do no harm, to avoid doing
harm
◦ Justice – treat like alike

Question 22

Antiprinciplism

Answer 22

• Prompted by expansive technological changes and
  associated ethical dilemmas
• Opponents of principlism claim principles:
  – are too conceptual, intangible or abstract,
  – disregard or do not take into account a person’s
  psychological factors, personality, life history, sexual
  orientation, religious, ethnic and cultural background.

Question 23

Why Morality is Important

Answer 23

1. Moral life is unavoidable
   - social life is preferable to solitude, yet social life will always involve conflicts
   - if the desirable aspects of social
   life are to endure, we need to
   resolve our conflicts

2.. Everyone encounters moral problems
- decisions must be made to solve
problems, and these decisions
affect other people

Question 24

Problems With Moral Expertise

Answer 24

The fallacy of authority: claims of expertise
should only influence our moral judgement if the
expertise lies in facts that are directly relevant to
the moral problem under consideration
e.g. Should the janitor’s opinion be consulted if
someone’s in a PVS and should be allowed to
die?

Majority Fallacy: the majority may
hold views or desire actions that are
not in fact morally defensible
e.g. The majority of Canadians once
thought cigarette smoking is not
harmful

Question 25

Naturalistic Fallacy

Answer 25

The IS doesn’t tell us
what SHOULD be

• We each need to decide
  what ethics make the
  most sense for us
• But science can
  illuminate why we feel
  that way

You cannot go against
nature

Because when you do
Go against nature
It’s part of nature too