Unit 3: Approaches to Ethical Issues and Ethical Decision Making

Question 2

What are the three common approaches to ethical issues?

Answer 2

1. Consequentialism
2. Deontology
3. Virtue

Question 3

What is consequentialism?

Answer 3

A way of working through the consequences of a decision.

Question 4

In consequentialism, what would be considered the right decision?

Answer 4

The one that achieves the best outcome (or benefit) with the least amount of harm (or cost).

Question 5

In utilitarianism, what would be considered a right decision?

Answer 5

One that maximises the ‘utility’ the benefit, good, pleasure or happiness - and minimises the disutility – the disadvantage, pain or unhappiness.

Question 6

Which ethical approach is utilitarianism a subset of?

Answer 6

Consequentialism

Question 7

True or false: Consequentialist ethics tends to regard everybody’s happiness or unhappiness as equally valid.

Answer 7

True

Question 8

What is an often-mentioned implication of consequentialist thinking?

Answer 8

You start thinking that the means justify the ends.

Question 9

What is deontology?

Answer 9

An approach that believes that the right thing to do is your duty, regardless of whether you want to.

Question 10

What is another name for Deontology?

Answer 10

Kantian ethics (after German philosopher Immanuel Kant)

Question 11

True or false: the idea behind duty-based ethics is there is a set of rules that you follow, and you would expect everybody else to also follow.

Answer 11

True

Question 12

What is a key difference between consequentialism and deontology?

Answer 12

In consequentialism, people make different decisions when faced with similar circumstances due to different views of positives/negatives of a decision; in deontology, people are expected to make similar decisions because there is a set of rules to be followed.

Question 13

In deontology, what are the two basic ‘rules’ to promote a well-ordered ethical society?

Answer 13

1. Anything that might ‘will’ for yourself, you must be prepared to ‘will’ for everybody else. No exceptions. In other words, you have to ask, “What if everybody did this?” and “Could I accept this being imposed on me?”
2. You cannot use people as a means to an end – they deserve more respect
   than that.

Question 14

What is the ‘virtue’ approach to ethics?

Answer 14

Virtue ethics is a practice that starts with the idea that we can identify what it would be like if we lived up to our own standards, and every decision we made moved us towards being the best version of ourselves

Question 15

What is another term for virtue ethics?

Answer 15

Character-based ethics.

Question 16

What is the basis of virtue ethics?

Answer 16

Decisions are made based on questions such as “If I choose to do X, will that reflect me being the best person that I can be?” or “What effect
will my decision have on the character of the people involved in this issue – does this help
them to be the best versions of themselves?”.

Question 17

Is virtue ethics about being morally superior, perfect, telling others what to do, or making moral judgements?

Answer 17

No

Question 18

Why is virtue ethics more flexible than deontology ethics and consequentialist ethics?

Answer 18

There are no universal ‘rules’ to apply
when making a decision (unlike deontology ethics) nor do you have to focus on weighing up
the positive and negative consequences (unlike consequentialist ethics)

Question 19

Who put forward the idea of the Golden Mean?

Answer 19

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle

Question 20

How did Aristotle describe virtue through the Golden Mean?

Answer 20

The right formula for doing something sits on a continuum halfway between two extremes or ‘vices’. For example, courage sits between cowardice and foolhardiness; modesty lies between shamelessness and shyness. This sweet spot, where we get the balance of things right is a ‘virtue’.

Question 21

What is metacognition?

Answer 21

Thinking about thinking

Question 22

What are the the benefits of metacognition?

Answer 22

It helps us to plan, assess and improve our
thinking.

Question 23

How does the following influence our decision making: Intuition (gut feel)?

Answer 23

Intuition causes confirmation bias - we form an intuitive judgement and then look for facts to support and explain our intuitive conclusion.

Question 24

How should we deal with intuition in the decision making process?

Answer 24

Rather than suppress intuition entirely, it is probably best to simply recognise it for what it is, recognise the impact it may have on your decisions and not rely
on it entirely.

Question 25

How does the following influence our decision making: Fast and slow thinking?

Answer 25

• Fast thinking helps us to do tasks that seem automatic, like eat a hamburger.
• Slow thinking is more deliberate and requires more effort e.g. performing a complex mathematical calculation or when trying to park
  your car in a very tight parking space.

A common tendency is to substitute fast thinking when we should be using slow thinking.
We try to shortcut the difficulty of thinking and have trouble recognising new patterns or
the significance of information

Question 26

How does the following influence our decision making: Expediency?

Answer 26

We often make the easy decision rather than the best possible decision.

Question 27

How does the following influence our decision making: Doing nothing?

Answer 27

Individually we can simply deny or convince ourselves that no decision needs to be made.

In group situations we often do nothing but pretend to be doing something by having lots
of activity that fills in time but does not confront what might be difficult or uncomfortable.

Question 28

How does the following influence our decision making: Framing?

Answer 28

Framing helps us to remove ‘the noise’ from an issue to allow us to see the problem
for what it is.

For example, is recreational drug addiction a criminal issue or a health issue or
some other issue? Should we frame offering customer’s an increase on their credit card limit
as ‘customer service’ or as ‘encouraging debt’?

Question 29

How does the following influence our decision making: Group conformity?

Answer 29

As humans we are social creatures and we recognise that there is a risk in being placed
outside of our social group.

Question 30

How does the following influence our decision making: Not thinking

Answer 30

One of the biggest influences on how we make decisions is the temptation to simply do
what has been done before. We don’t question whether ‘this is what we normally do’ or
‘everyone else is doing it so we should too’ are the best courses of action.

Question 31

What are the word associations to easily remember the different kinds of ethics?

Answer 31

1. Consequentialism = consequence or cost.
2. Deontology (Kantian) = Duty
3. Virtue = Version (best version of yourself)