What is ethics?

At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions
and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is
also described as moral philosophy. The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which
can mean custom, habit, character or disposition.

Ethics covers the following dilemmas:

 how to live a good life

 our rights and responsibilities
 the language of right and wrong
 moral decisions - what is good and bad?

Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They
infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct.

Approaches to ethics

Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three areas: metaethics, normative
ethics and applied ethics.

 Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and
meaning of ethical principles.
 Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria
for what is right or wrong.
 Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital
punishment

What use is ethics?

Ethics needs to provide answers.

If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect the way human beings
behave. Some philosophers think that ethics does do this. They argue that if a person realises
that it would be morally good to do something then it would be irrational for that person not
to do it. But human beings often behave irrationally - they follow their 'gut instinct' even
when their head suggests a different course of action. However, ethics does provide good
tools for thinking about moral issues.

Ethics can provide a moral map

Most moral issues get us pretty worked up - think of abortion and euthanasia for starters.
Because these are such emotional issues we often let our hearts do the arguing while our
brains just go with the flow.

But there's another way of tackling these issues, and that's where philosophers can come in -
they offer us ethical rules and principles that enable us to take a cooler view of moral
problems. So ethics provides us with a moral map, a framework that we can use to find our
way through difficult issues.
Ethics can pinpoint a disagreement

Using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral issue can often find that
what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that they broadly agree on
everything else.

That can take a lot of heat out of the argument, and sometimes even hint at a way for them to
resolve their problem. But sometimes ethics doesn't provide people with the sort of help that
they really want.

Ethics doesn't give right answers

Ethics doesn't always show the right answer to moral problems. Indeed more and more
people think that for many ethical issues there isn't a single right answer - just a set of
principles that can be applied to particular cases to give those involved some clear choices.

Some philosophers go further and say that all ethics can do is eliminate confusion and clarify
the issues. After that it's up to each individual to come to their own conclusions.

Ethics can give several answers

Many people want there to be a single right answer to ethical questions. They find moral
ambiguity hard to live with because they genuinely want to do the 'right' thing, and even if
they can't work out what that right thing is, they like the idea that 'somewhere' there is one
right answer.

But often there isn't one right answer - there may be several right answers, or just some least
worst answers - and the individual must choose between them.

For others moral ambiguity is difficult because it forces them to take responsibility for their
own choices and actions, rather than falling back on convenient rules and customs.

Ethics and people

Ethics is about the 'other'

Ethics is concerned with other people

At the heart of ethics is a concern about something or someone other than ourselves and our
own desires and self-interest. Ethics is concerned with other people's interests, with the
interests of society, with God's interests, with "ultimate goods", and so on. So when a person
'thinks ethically' they are giving at least some thought to something beyond themselves.

Ethics as source of group strength

One problem with ethics is the way it's often used as a weapon. If a group believes that a
particular activity is "wrong" it can then use morality as the justification for attacking those
who practice that activity.
When people do this, they often see those who they regard as immoral as in some way less
human or deserving of respect than themselves; sometimes with tragic consequences.

Good people as well as good actions

Ethics is not only about the morality of particular courses of action, but it's also about the
goodness of individuals and what it means to live a good life. Virtue Ethics is particularly
concerned with the moral character of human beings.

Searching for the source of right and wrong

At times in the past some people thought that ethical problems could be solved in one of two
ways:

 by discovering what God wanted people to do

 by thinking rigorously about moral principles and problems

If a person did this properly they would be led to the right conclusion. But now even
philosophers are less sure that it's possible to devise a satisfactory and complete theory of
ethics - at least not one that leads to conclusions. Modern thinkers often teach that ethics
leads people not to conclusions but to 'decisions'.

In this view, the role of ethics is limited to clarifying 'what's at stake' in particular ethical
problems. Philosophy can help identify the range of ethical methods, conversations and value
systems that can be applied to a particular problem. But after these things have been made
clear, each person must make their own individual decision as to what to do, and then react
appropriately to the consequences.

Are ethical statements objectively true?

Do ethical statements provide information about anything other than human opinions and
attitudes?

 Ethical realists think that human beings discover ethical truths that already have an
independent existence.
 Ethical non-realists think that human beings invent ethical truths.

The problem for ethical realists is that people follow many different ethical codes and moral
beliefs. So if there are real ethical truths out there (wherever!) then human beings don't seem
to be very good at discovering them.

One form of ethical realism teaches that ethical properties exist independently of human
beings, and that ethical statements give knowledge about the objective world.

To put it another way; the ethical properties of the world and the things in it exist and remain
the same, regardless of what people think or feel - or whether people think or feel about them
at all.

On the face of it, it [ethical realism] means the view that moral qualities such as wrongness,
and likewise moral facts such as the fact that an act was wrong, exist in rerum natura, so that,
if one says that a certain act was wrong, one is saying that there existed, somehow,
somewhere, this quality of wrongness, and that it had to exist there if that act were to be
wrong.

R. M Hare, Essays in Ethical Theory, 1989

Four ethical 'isms'

When a person says "murder is bad" what are they doing?

That's the sort of question that only a philosopher would ask, but it's actually a very useful
way of getting a clear idea of what's going on when people talk about moral issues.

The different 'isms' regard the person uttering the statement as doing different things.

We can show some of the different things I might be doing when I say 'murder is bad' by
rewriting that statement to show what I really mean:

 I might be making a statement about an ethical fact

o "It is wrong to murder"
o This is moral realism
 I might be making a statement about my own feelings
o "I disapprove of murder"
o This is subjectivism
 I might be expressing my feelings
o "Down with murder"
o This is emotivism
 I might be giving an instruction or a prohibition
o "Don't murder people"
o This is prescriptivism

Moral realism

Moral realism is based on the idea that there are real objective moral facts or truths in the
universe. Moral statements provide factual information about those truths.

Subjectivism

Subjectivism teaches that moral judgments are nothing more than statements of a person's
feelings or attitudes, and that ethical statements do not contain factual truths about goodness
or badness.

In more detail: subjectivists say that moral statements are statements about the feelings,
attitudes and emotions that that particular person or group has about a particular issue.

If a person says something is good or bad they are telling us about the positive or negative
feelings that they have about that something.

So if someone says 'murder is wrong' they are telling us that they disapprove of murder.
These statements are true if the person does hold the appropriate attitude or have the
appropriate feelings. They are false if the person doesn't.

Emotivism

Emotivism is the view that moral claims are no more than expressions of approval or
disapproval.

This sounds like subjectivism, but in emotivism a moral statement doesn't provide
information about the speaker's feelings about the topic but expresses those feelings.

When an emotivist says "murder is wrong" it's like saying "down with murder" or "murder,
yecch!" or just saying "murder" while pulling a horrified face, or making a thumbs-down
gesture at the same time as saying "murder is wrong".

So when someone makes a moral judgement they show their feelings about something. Some
theorists also suggest that in expressing a feeling the person gives an instruction to others
about how to act towards the subject matter.

Prescriptivism

Prescriptivists think that ethical statements are instructions or recommendations.

So if I say something is good, I'm recommending you to do it, and if I say something is bad,
I'm telling you not to do it.

There is almost always a prescriptive element in any real-world ethical statement: any ethical
statement can be reworked (with a bit of effort) into a statement with an 'ought' in it. For
example: "lying is wrong" can be rewritten as "people ought not to tell lies".

Where does ethics come from?

Philosophers have several answers to this question:

 God and religion

 Human conscience and intuition
 a rational moral cost-benefit analysis of actions and their effects
 the example of good human beings
 a desire for the best for people in each unique situation
 political power

God-based ethics - supernaturalism

Supernaturalism makes ethics inseparable from religion. It teaches that the only source of
moral rules is God. So, something is good because God says it is, and the way to lead a good
life is to do what God wants.
Intuitionism

Intuitionists think that good and bad are real objective properties that can't be broken down
into component parts. Something is good because it's good; its goodness doesn't need
justifying or proving.

Intuitionists think that goodness or badness can be detected by adults - they say that human
beings have an intuitive moral sense that enables them to detect real moral truths.

They think that basic moral truths of what is good and bad are self-evident to a person who
directs their mind towards moral issues.

So good things are the things that a sensible person realises are good if they spend some time
pondering the subject.

Don't get confused. For the intuitionist:

 moral truths are not discovered by rational argument

 moral truths are not discovered by having a hunch
 moral truths are not discovered by having a feeling

It's more a sort of moral 'aha' moment - a realisation of the truth.

Consequentialism

This is the ethical theory that most non-religious people think they use every day. It bases
morality on the consequences of human actions and not on the actions themselves.
Consequentialism teaches that people should do whatever produces the greatest amount of
good consequences. One famous way of putting this is 'the greatest good for the greatest
number of people'.

The most common forms of consequentialism are the various versions of utilitarianism,
which favour actions that produce the greatest amount of happiness. Despite its obvious
common-sense appeal, consequentialism turns out to be a complicated theory, and doesn't
provide a complete solution to all ethical problems.

Two problems with consequentialism are:

 it can lead to the conclusion that some quite dreadful acts are good
 predicting and evaluating the consequences of actions is often very difficult

Non-consequentialism or deontological ethics

Non-consequentialism is concerned with the actions themselves and not with the
consequences. It's the theory that people are using when they refer to "the principle of the
thing". It teaches that some acts are right or wrong in themselves, whatever the consequences,
and people should act accordingly.
Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics looks at virtue or moral character, rather than at ethical duties and rules, or the
consequences of actions - indeed some philosophers of this school deny that there can be
such things as universal ethical rules.

Virtue ethics is particularly concerned with the way individuals live their lives, and less
concerned in assessing particular actions. It develops the idea of good actions by looking at
the way virtuous people express their inner goodness in the things that they do.

To put it very simply, virtue ethics teaches that an action is right if and only if it is an action
that a virtuous person would do in the same circumstances, and that a virtuous person is
someone who has a particularly good character.

Situation ethics

Situation ethics rejects prescriptive rules and argues that individual ethical decisions should
be made according to the unique situation. Rather than following rules the decision maker
should follow a desire to seek the best for the people involved. There are no moral rules or
rights - each case is unique and deserves a unique solution.

Ethics and ideology

Some philosophers teach that ethics is the codification of political ideology, and that the
function of ethics is to state, enforce and preserve particular political beliefs. They usually go
on to say that ethics is used by the dominant political elite as a tool to control everyone else.

More cynical writers suggest that power elites enforce an ethical code on other people that
helps them control those people, but do not apply this code to their own behaviour.

Are there universal moral rules?

One of the big questions in moral philosophy is whether or not there are unchanging moral
rules that apply in all cultures and at all times.

Moral absolutism

Some people think there are such universal rules that apply to everyone. This sort of thinking
is called moral absolutism. Moral absolutism argues that there are some moral rules that are
always true, that these rules can be discovered and that these rules apply to everyone.

Immoral acts - acts that break these moral rules - are wrong in themselves, regardless of the
circumstances or the consequences of those acts. Absolutism takes a universal view of
humanity - there is one set of rules for everyone - which enables the drafting of universal
rules - such as the Declaration of Human Rights.

Religious views of ethics tend to be absolutist.

Why people disagree with moral absolutism:

  Many of us feel that the consequences of an act or the circumstances surrounding it
are relevant to whether that act is good or bad
 Absolutism doesn't fit with respect for diversity and tradition

Different cultures have had different attitudes to issues like war ©

Moral relativism

Moral relativists say that if you look at different cultures or different periods in history you'll
find that they have different moral rules. Therefore it makes sense to say that "good" refers to
the things that a particular group of people approve of.

Moral relativists think that that's just fine, and dispute the idea that there are some objective
and discoverable 'super-rules' that all cultures ought to obey. They believe that relativism
respects the diversity of human societies and responds to the different circumstances
surrounding human acts.

Why people disagree with moral relativism:

 Many of us feel that moral rules have more to them than the general agreement of a
group of people - that morality is more than a super-charged form of etiquette
 Many of us think we can be good without conforming to all the rules of society
 Moral relativism has a problem with arguing against the majority view: if most people
in a society agree with particular rules, that's the end of the matter. Many of the
improvements in the world have come about because people opposed the prevailing
ethical view - moral relativists are forced to regard such people as behaving "badly"
 Any choice of social grouping as the foundation of ethics is bound to be arbitrary
 Moral relativism doesn't provide any way to deal with moral differences between
societies

Moral somewhere-in-between-ism

Most non-philosophers think that both of the above theories have some good points and think
that

 there are a few absolute ethical rules

 but a lot of ethical rules depend on the culture

Ethics - Charity: Introduction

4-5 minutes

An introduction to the ethical issues that come up when discussing charity work.

Introduction

A number of ethical issues come up regularly when discussing charity work.

Who benefits from charity?

  The person who receives it
 The giver
 The alternative funder

Ethical issues

 Priorities are emotional, not ethical

o Charity may focus on big disasters or attractive projects rather than on real
chronic need
o This can result in giving too much to some causes while others go short

...within a society, international philanthropy can lead to skewed distribution of resources. It

is not the neediest regions, causes or organizations which get the support but those most
visible or most savvy at fund raising.

Pushpa Sundar, Sampradaan Indian Centre for Philanthropy

 Charities fund work that should be done by governments

o It's often argued that some of the work done by charity should be funded by
the state, and thus that some charitable donations actually benefit government
as much as the recipient.
 Wrong motivation
o Charity is sometimes driven by compassion and guilt, not by a wish to
transform the world through the most effective long-term development
programmes
o But does this matter? If the need is dealt with, and the recipient helped, does it
matter what motivated the donor?
 Gifts with strings
o Governments and corporations often impose conditions on their donations that
suit the donor's purposes rather than the recipient's need
 Lack of coordination
o Charities haven't always worked efficiently together to address particular
needs, although nowadays they have a great focus on coordination
 Too much amateurism
o Some charity work is criticised for being done by amateurs - but if it wasn't, it
might not be done at all
o Too much professionalism can discourage the donor base
 Limited worldview - limited accountability
o Most charity decision making is done by the donor organisations (and
ultimately by the donors choosing what to give to)
o The decision makers may have a very different worldview to those who need
their help
o Charity decision-making can thus be insufficiently driven by the wants and
needs of the recipients
o Charities don't always hold themselves directly accountable to those they aim
to serve

Ethical philanthropy would require the donor to respect the dignity, capacity and aspirations
of the people it seeks to help and therefore give at least equal, if not larger weight to the
values and vision of the people to whom the philanthropy is directed-Pushpa Sundar
Lack of accountability and strong reporting systems

o This continues to improve

 Dubious fundraising practices
o Many charities now abide by clear codes of conduct
 Corporate charity issues
o Corporate charity is often inspired by PR needs rather than altruism, or by the
wish to use particular tax benefits for charity
o Corporations may impose strings on their gifts

Religious charity issues

Religious charities may give rise to some extra discussion topics:

 Tied to specific religious goals rather than need

 May be limited by ethical principles of the religion rather than recipient need
 May involve missionary work that weakens indigenous culture and tradition
 Likely to promote specific social policies