lecture 1 Flashcards
What’s the difference between Ethics and Morality?
Morality is the distinction between right and wrong, and ethics provide the steps/guidelines/framework one needs to follow to determine what is right or wrong.
Morality
What governs relationships between people, how we live in harmony, what is right/wrong?, assumes others are worthy of respect, requires empathy,
Ethics
The discipline that provides language and guidelines for studying morality, analyzing and resolving a moral dilemma: “what, all things considered, ought to be done in a given situation?” code/rules of moral behavior
values
what a person deems is important
ex: love, education, justice, freedom, etc.
duties
moral obligations
rules
regular ways of doing things agreed upon in societ
socialization
how we learn common rules or “norms”
dogmatism
the tendency to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others.
Divine Command Theory
Right= what god commands
ask yourself: WWJD?
problems: is something wrong if god forbids it, or does he forbid it because it is wrong (God is either arbitrary or powerless)
are non-believers unethical?
how do we know what God commands?
ex: adults making decisions for minors’ health
Virtue Ethics
Right= virtuous (generosity, courage, kindness, politeness, honesty)
wrong= vices (dishonesty, selfishness, cowardliness)
ask: what kind of person would I be if I …..?
problems: virtues become obsessions, virtue must be cultivated (it’s not just given), a virtuous person can make a mistake (they’re human)
Greek philosophers, Ben Franklin
Kantian Ethics
Right=Duty, treating others with respect and as people (not things), what is good for one is good for all, moral worth of an act lies in its motivation
ask: “What if everyone did that?”
problems: conflict of duties (don’t lie, but don’t harm someone)
duty towards whom? (one or many?)
people can have the best of intentions and still do harm
Immanuel Kant
Utilitarianism/consequentialism
right=act is right if it brings about the best overall outcome for the most people (think train on 2 tracks, one kills more peeps)
ask: what benefits the most people?
probs: no crystal ball, used to justify immoral acts, hard for us to imagine good for all vs. good for one
J Bentham and JS Mill
Contract Ethics
right=civil society, with burdens and benefits shared equally
wrong= discrimination, lack of freedom
ask: is that just? Provide liberty? Discriminatory?
probs: we are born with advantages/disadvantages (think White privilege)
Hobbes and Rousseau and Rawls
Care Ethics
Right= each of us in need of love and care, emotional attachment, treating things individually/within context
wrong= rational detachment
probs: sometimes impartiality is best, feminists think it promotes stereotypes (female should care/nurture)
Carol Gilligan
moral relativism
ethics are relative, 3 men and elephant, morals aren’t objective, can’t prove moral judgments
probs: there has got to be some absolutes (slavery=wrong, world is round)
