ethical theories- lec 1 Flashcards
What are
Ethics?
Ideas of right and wrong,
and “the good life”
* Moral intuitions inherited
from simian life
* Shaped and filtered by
modern religious and
political ideas
Principles of the
Enlightenment
- Autonomy of reason from
faith and authority - Human perfectibility and
social progress - Empirical optimism:
sapere aude! (Dare to know) - Legitimacy of government
based on free association - Tolerance of diversity, freedom of thought
- Ethical universalism – beyond nationalism, racism, sexism
Enlightened vs. Pre-Enlightened
Enlightened
- Harm/care
- Fairness/reciprocity
Pre-Enlightenment
- Ingroup loyalty
- Respect for authority
- Purity/sanctity
The Age of Enlightenment
*
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
Philosophes
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
Pre-Enlightenment Medical
Ethics
- Professions develop
codes of ethics to
rationalize their power
and special privileges - The code of the healer
- Hippocratic oath
Contemporary Ethical Theories
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
Deontology
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.
Kantian Deontology
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.
Deontology def
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
Problems of Deontology
Always following rules of conduct can lead to
negative consequences
– Sometimes the rules are vague
– Sometimes the rules conflict
Virtue Theory
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
Virtue Ethics
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”
virtue theory characterisitcs
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
problems with virtue theory
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
Consequentialism
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
Consequentialism
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
What is Good?
- 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
Consequentialism pros vs. cons
- 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?
Problems of Consequentialism
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)
4 principles of principlism
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
Antiprinciplism
- 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.
Why Morality is Important
- 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
Problems With Moral Expertise
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
Naturalistic Fallacy
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
