USES OF ETHICS
Social Issues - Ethical theories are to be useful in practice,
Reviewer they need to affect the way human beings
behave.
- Philosophers argue that if a person realizes
Ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect
that it would be morally good to do
how people make decisions and lead their lives.
something, then it would be irrational for
Ethics is concerned with what is good for
that person not to do it.
individuals and society and is also described as
- Human beings often behave irrationally –
moral philosophy. The term is derived from the
they follow their ‘gut instinct’
Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit,
A. ETHICS CAN PROVIDE A MORAL MAP
character or disposition
- Most moral issues get us pretty worked up.
Ethics covers the following dilemmas: Because there are such emotional issues, we
often let our hearts do the arguing while our
• how to live a good life
brains just go with the flow.
• our rights and responsibilities
- Philosophers offer us ethical rules and
• the language of right and wrong principles that enable us to take a cooler
• moral decisions - what is good view of moral problems.
and bad? - Ethics provides us with a moral map that we
can use to find our way through difficult
Ethics is used in 3 different but related ways, issues.
signifying:
1. A general pattern or “way of life,” B. ETHICS CAN PINPOINT A DISAGREEMENT
2. Set of rules of conduct or “moral code,” and - Using the framework of ethics, two people
3. Inquiry about ways of life and rules of who are arguing a moral issue can often find
conduct that what they disagree about is just one
particular part of the issue, and that they
1st sense – Buddhist or Christian Ethics broadly agree on everything else.
2nd sense – Professional Ethics and of Unethical
Behavior C. ETHICS DOESN’T GIVE RIGHT ANSWERS
- Ethics does not always show the right
3rd sense – Ethics is a Branch of Philosophy that is answer to moral problems. For many of the
frequently given the special name of Metaethics. ethical issues, there is not a single right
answer, rather, just a set of principles that
can be applied to particular cases to give
those involved some clear choices.
SEARCHING FOR THE SOURCE OF RIGHT AND
WRONG
- At many times in the past some people
thought that ethical problems could be
D. ETHICS CAN GIVE SEVERAL ANSWERS
solved in one of two ways:
- People find moral ambiguity hard to live
By discovering what God wanted
with because they genuinely want to do the
people to do,
‘right’ thing.
By thinking rigorously about moral
principles and problems,
If a person did this properly, they
ETHICS AND PEOPLE
would be led to the right conclusion.
- Ethics is about the other.
- A concern about something or someone
other than ourselves and our own desires Now, philosophers are less sure that its possible
and self-interest. to devise a satisfactory and complete theory of
- Is concerned with other people’s interests, ethics, at least not one that leads to conclusions.
with the interests of society, with God’s
Modern thinkers often teach that ethics leads
interest, with “ultimate goods”
people not to conclusions but to decisions.
ETHICS AS A SOURC OF GROUP STRENGTH
- A problem with ethics is the way it is often
The role of ethics is limited to clarifying what is
used as a weapon. If a group believes that a
at stake in particular ethical problem.
particular activity is “wrong” it can then use
morality as the justification for attacking Philosophy can help identify the range of ethical
those who practice that activity. methods, conversations and value systems that
can be applied to a particular problem. But after
GOOD PEOPLE AS WELL AS GOOD ACTIONS
these things have been made clear, each person
- Ethics is not only about the morality of must make their own individual decision as to
particular courses of action, but it is also what to do, and then react appropriately to the
about the goodness of individuals and what consequences.
it means to live a good life.
- Virtue ethics is particularly concerned with
the moral character of human beings. NORMATIVE ETHICS
- Branch of moral philosophy or ethics, responsible for instilling virtues in the
concerned with criteria of what is morally young.
right and wrong.
- Includes the formulation of moral rules that
have direct implications for what human UTILITARIANISM
actions, institutions, and ways of life should
- A normative ethical system that is primarily
be like.
concerned with the consequences of ethical
-
decisions: therefore, it can be described as a
ANCIENT GREEK-PLATO teleological theory or consequentialist
theory, both having the notion that the
- Virtue Theory is one of the oldest normative
consequence of the act is the most
traditions in western philosophy.
important determinant of the act being
- Plato emphasized four virtues in particular,
moral or not.
which are later called cardinal virtues:
- Teleological reasoning takes into
o WISDOM
consideration that the ethical decision is
o COURAGE
dependent upon the consequences of the
o TEMPERANCE and
actions.
o JUSTICE - Consequentialist moral reasoning – where
- Other important virtues are: we locate morality in the consequences of
o FORTITUDE our actions.
o GENEROSITY - Consequentialist nature of utilitarianism is
o SELF-RESPECT the means to get to the ethical decision are
o GOOD TEMPER and secondary; the end result is that which must
o SINCERITY be considered before determining to the
- Virtue theorists hold that we should avoid morality of the decision.
acquiring bad character traits or vices such - HINMAN (2013) suggests there are four
as: principles, differences between PLEASURE
o COWARDICE and HAPPINESS:
o INSENSIBILITY o Happiness is related to the mind,
o INJUSTICE and whereas pleasure is related to the
o VANITY body.
- Virtual Theory emphasizes moral education o Pleasure is of shorter duration then
since virtuous character traits are developed happiness. Happiness is long-term,
in one’s youth. Adults, therefore, are focusing on the satisfaction of living
well, or achieving life goals.
o Happiness may encompass pleasure - Kant distinguished two types of duties:
and pain o Conditional or Hypothetical
o There is an evaluative element in Imperatives
happiness versus pleasure. A duty that is necessary to
accomplish a specific goal.
TWO FORMULATIONS OF UTILITARIANISM:
Banks (2013) uses the example of
- ACT UTILITARIANISM – concerns with the duty of a student to study
consequences of the first instance, where hard in order to get good grades.
the utility of that act is all that is regarded. o Categorical Imperatives
- RULE UTILITARIANISM – concerns the An unconditional rule or duty.
consequences of the majority of people
Regardless of the impact on you that the
following a certain rule that is immoral,
decision may cause, the duty remains the
which would be negative.
same and must be done.
-
Within the categorical imperative, Kant
DEONTOLOGY
(2006) states that “Every rational being
- Deontological theory, which is a Katian exists as an end in himself, not merely as a
Logic, is the most complex of all ethical means.”
systems.
We should never use people to attain our
- Came from the Greek word “deon”, meaning
desired end result; that we should treat
“obligation” or “duty”.
everyone with respect regardless of the
- An ethical system primarily concerned with
outcome.
one’s duty.
- Also known as ethical formalism or
absolutism.
EGOISM
- Formulated by Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
o Kant believed that the end result is not - Is a descriptive principle (Pollock, 2007) that
of primary importance; rather, the real does not tell us necessarily how we ought to
importance is in determining the moral behave, but rather why we behave the way
intent of a decision or action itself. we do.
o Further believed that we have duties - According to the tenets of egoism, the core
that are imperative and that these reason that someone does any action is self-
duties must never be abandoned. serving by bringing happiness or some other
benefit to him or herself.
NATURAL LAW criminal justice system, should strive for in a
criminal justice system.
- Espoused by Saint Thomas Aquinas, who
- Rawl envisions a society in which the
viewed the world as being created by God
principles of justice are founded in a social
and understood that humans are rational
contract.
beings capable of using their intellect to
- Rawl identifies problems with the social
comprehend the world.
contract that do not allow fairness and
- Aquinas viewed the first principle of natural
equality to exist among members of society
law as “Good is to be done and promoted,
and therefore proposes a social contract
and evil is to be avoided” (white, 2006,
which is negotiated behind a “veil of
p.29)
ignorance”
- Natural Law asserts that what is good is
- Ultimately, Rawls argues that the primary
natural and what is natural is good.
concern of justice is fairness, and within this
- Aquinas viewed humans as being naturally
paradigm.
inclined to do good rather than evil.
- Rawls identifies two principles:
- Viewed morality as universal set of rights
o “Each person is to have an equal right
and wrongs that are shared across cultures.
to the most extensive basic liberty
- He delineated two basic human inclinations:
compatible with a similar liberty for
o To preserve one’s own life
others” (Rawls, 2006, p63)
o To preserve the Human Species
o “Social and economic inequalities are
to be arranged so that they are both
(a) reasonably expected to be
everyone’s advantage, (b) attached to
RAWL’S THEORY OF JUSTICE positions and offices open to all.”
- John Rawls (1921 – 2002) was a META ETHICS
contemporary philosopher who studies
- Is the subdiscipline of ethics concerned with
theories surrounding justice.
the nature of ethical theories and moral
- His theories are not focused on helping
judgements.
individuals cope with ethical dilemmas;
- Major metaethical theories include:
rather they address general concepts that
o NATURALISM
consider how the criminal justice system
o NON-NATURALISM
ought to behave and function in a liberal
o EMOTIVISM
democracy.
o PRESCRIPTIVE
- Oriented toward liberalism and forms the
basis for what law enforcement, and the
- Naturalists and non-naturalist agree that - Field of ethics that deals with ethical
moral language is cognitive. questions specific to a professional,
- They disagree, however, on how this disciplinary, or practical field.
knowing is to be done. - Subsets of applied ethics include:
- Naturalists hold either that these claims can o MEDICAL ETHICS
be adequately justified by reasoning from o BIOETHICS
statements employing in nonmoral terms. o BUSINESS ETHICS
- Intuitionist deny both of these positions and o LEGAL ETHICS
hold that moral terms are sui-generis, that - Throughout the century various issues such
moral statements are autonomous in their as pollution, human rights abuses, abortion,
logical status. human cloning, poverty, and others raised
- Emotivists deny that moral utterances are pressing ethical questions and applied
cognitive, holding that they consists in ethics became an increasingly important
emotional expressions of approval or field of philosophy.
disapproval and that the nature of moral
reasoning and justification must be
reinterpreted to take this essential
characteristic of moral utterances into
account.
- Prescriptivists take a somewhat similar
approach, arguing that moral judgments are
prescriptions or prohibitions of action,
rather than statements of fact about the
world.
APPLIED ETHICS
