ETHICS

Dependency thesis

all moral principles derive their validity from cultural acceptance. Asserts that individual acts are right or wrong depending on the nature of the society in which they occur.

Aristotle quote about natural law theory

"Reason is the true self of every man, since it is the supreme and better part...This will be the life of Reason, since Reason is, in the highest sense, a man's self."

Subjectivism:

"So far about morals I know that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.. The bullfight is very moral to me because I feel very fine while it is going on.." -Ernest Hemingway -Hemingway may feel good about killing bulls but mother Teresa would feel opposite. -On the basis of subj., Adolf Hitler and Ted Bundy could be considered as moral as Ghandi. -Ted Bundy "Let me assure you young lady, there is no comparison between the pleasure I might take in eating ham and the pleasure in raping and killing you."

Herodotus

"custom is the king over all"

Deontological

"duty" these theories hold that something is inherently right or good about such acts as truth telling and promise keeping and inherently wrong or bad about such acts as lying and promise breaking. -10 commandments -golden rule *we have a duty to perform right actions and avoid bad ones

EO Wilson

"every culture has a concept of murder...these and many other moral concepts are altogether universal."

moral objectivism

(moderate objectivism) objections argue with absolutist that all moral norms are not always exceptionalness. They believe that no moral duty has absolute weight or strict priority; each moral principle must be weighed against other moral principles. -ex: the duty to tell the truth might be overridden in a situation where speaking the truth would lead to serious harm.

Kitty Genovese study

-attacked in NYC -attacked 3 different times -38 people watched and did nothing -finally a 70 yr old woman called and police came in 2 minutes. It raises questions such as: -what hsould these resppectable citizens have done? -is the genovese murder atypical situation, or does it represent a disturbing trend?

Action:

-examine the actions of both the attacker and the good neighbor *the term right has 2 meanings 1. obligatory (the right act) 2. permissible (its alright to do that) A right act is an act that is permissible for you to do. It may be either obligatory or optional. 1. obligatory: is one that morality requires you to do, it is not permissible for you to refrain from doing it. *the neighbor calling the police 2. optional: is one that is neither obligatory nor wrong to do. it is not your duty to do it, nor is it your duty not to do it. Neither doing it nor not doing it would be wrong. *whether you marry or remain single *writing a paper with pen or pencil *listen to rock or classical music

what is the relationship between morality and law? etiquette?

-morality and law should be very close, and morality should be the basis for law, but there can be both unjust laws and immoral acts. -etiquette consists in the customs of culture, but they're typically morally neutral in that the culture could flourish with a different code of etiquette.

story of seba

-seba's grandmother was told seba would go to france and go to school but was taken to be a slave instead -seba was beaten every day and mistreated and worked from 7 to 11 everyday the people who enslaved seba violated these 3 basic moral principles: 1. respect the freedom of rational beings 2. dont cause unnecessary harm or suffering 3. always treat people as ends in themselves

Ethic analysis

1. action 2. consequences 3. character 4. motive

the key divisions within the study of ethics are

1. descriptive morality 2. moral philosophy (ethical theory) 3. applied ethics

the key ideas of natural law tradition are:

1. human beings have an essential rational nature established by God, who designed us to live and flourish in prescribed ways (from Aristotle and Stoics) 2. Even without knowledge of God, reason, as the essence of our nature, can discover the laws necessary for human flourishing (derived from Aquinas) 3. the natural laws are universal and unchangeable, and one should use them to judge individual societies and their positive laws. Positive or actual laws of societies that aren't in line with the natural law are not truly law but counterfeits.

the DDE consists of 4 conditions:

1. nature of the act condition. The action must be either morally good or indifferent. Lying or intentionally killing an innocent person is never permissible. 2. means-end condition: the bad effect must not be the means by which one achieves the good effect 3. right intention condition: the intention must be the achieving of only the good effect, with the bad effect being only an unintended side effect If the bad effect is means of obtaining the good effect, then the act is immoral. The bad effect may be foreseen but must not be intended. 4. the proportionality condition: the good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to the bad effect. *used by roman catholic church to prohibit abortion *used by just-war theorist in defending strategic bombings in contrast with terrorist bombings

Moral principles features:

1. prescriptivity 2. universalizability 3. overridingness 4. publicity 5. practicability

two main forms of ethical relativism

1. subjective: all moral principles are justified by virtue of their acceptance by an individual agent him-or herself. 2. conventional: all moral principles are justified by virtue of their own cultural acceptance.

"In all the world and in all of life there is nothing more important to determine than what is right.. and other possible commitments which would be wrong and are to be avoided."

C.I. Lewis. -chapter 1

Thomas Aquinas objectivism and absolutism

His philosophy has 2 components: 1. he followed an objectivist approach called natural law theory 2. he was a moral absolutist, and he developed this theme in a theory known as the doctrine of double effect.

"ethical relativism is the doctrine that the moral rightness and wrongness of actions vary from society to society."

John Ladd

"ethical relativism is the doctrine that the moral rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society to society and that there are no absolute universal moral standards binding on all men at all times. It holds that whether or not it is right fort an individual to act in a certain way depends on or is relative to the society to which he belongs."

John Ladd quote 1. diversity thesis 2. dependency thesis

what is the nature of morality and why do we need it?

Morality concerns discovering the rules that promote the human good, as elaborated in the 5 traits of moral principles: prescriptivity, universalizability, overridingness, publicity, and practicability. Without morality we cannot promote good

what is the good, and how will we know it?

Whatever we decide on that fulfills human needs and helps us develop our deepest potential is the good that morality promotes

Ethics

a branch of philosophy that deals with how we ought to live with the idea of the good, and with concepts such as "right" and "wrong"

moral solipsism

a view that isolated individuals make up separate universes

Moral philosophy

also called ethical theory. refers to the systematic effort to understand moral concepts such as "right, wrong, and permissible." It explores possible sources of moral obligation, such as, God, human reason, or desire to be happy. It seeks to establish principles of right behavior that may serve as action guides for individuals and groups.

Philosophy

an enterprise that begins with wonder at the marvels and mysteries of the world; that pursues a rational investigation of those marvels and mysteries, seeking wisdom and truth; and that results in life lived in a passionate moral and intellectual integrity.

Melville Herkovits

argues that ethical relativism entails intercultural tolerance 1. if morality is relative to culture- then there is no independent basis for criticizing the morality of any other culture 2. if there is no independent way of criticizing any other culture, then we ought to be tolerant of the moralities in other cultures 3. morality is relative to its culture 4. we ought to be tolerant of the moralities in other cultures

Vices

bad character traits

Moral principles

concern standards of behavior; roughly speaking, they involve not what is but what ought to be. -how should I live my life? -what is the right thing to do in this situation? -is premarital sex morally permissible? -ought a woman ever have an abortion?

moral and ethics are interchangeable. both derive from the word meaning "____" normal behavior. Moral comes from the latin word: _____ and ethics comes from a latin word meaning _____

custom mores ethos

Applied Ethics

deals with controversial moral problems such as abortion, premarital sex, capital punishment, euthanasia, and civil disobedience.

Virtue theories

entire theories of morality have been developed from virtues and vices -Ex: Aristotle * many people know that cheating, gossiping, or gluttony are wrong but they are incapable of doing right. *virtuous people spontaneously do the right thing and may not even consciously follow moral rules when doing so.

teleological theories

ethical theories that focus primarily on consequences in determining moral rightness and wrongness. *utilitarianism- Jeremy Bentham and Mill -in Mills words "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

Virtues

good character traits

Supererogatory act

highly altruistic acts. These acts are neither required or obligatory, but they exceed what morality requires, going "beyond the call of duty." *the neighbor running outside to stop the attacker rather than just calling the police or yelling out of the window *may give to a donation but you would not be obliged to sell your car Set up: 1. Right Act (permissible) a. obligatory b. optional 1. neutral 2. supererogatory 2. wrong act

Consequences

if the consequences are on a balance positive, then the action is right, if negative, then the action is wrong. -the consequences of the responsible neighbor: yelled out of the window "hey you get out of here!" this would scare off the attacker. and what does the neighbor loose by doing this? Maybe a temporary moment of fear but she would probably experience that anyways *teleological theories

A Wrong act:

is one you have an obligation or a duty to refrain from doing: it is an act you ought not to do; it is permissible to do it.

Conventional Ethical Relativism

is the view that all moral principles are justified by virtue of their cultural acceptance.

Natural Law theory:

is the view that there exists an eternal moral law that can be discovered through reason by looking at the nature of humanity and society. -The idea first appeared among the Stoics, who believed that human beings within them had a divine spark that enables them to discover the essential eternal laws necessary for individual happiness and social harmony. -(Do and promote good and avoid bad.) -Aquinas combined the sense of cosmic natural law with aristotles view that human beings have a specific nature, purpose, and function. Humanity's essence or proper function is to live the life of reason.

problem with conventional ethical relativism

it undermines the basis of important values. -if conventional relativism is accepted, then racism, oppression of the poor, slavery, and advocacy of war are just as moral as its opposites. -example: If Mary is a member of the catholic church and has an abortion then she is wrong as a catholic but not wrong as an AMerican US citizen

Practicability

means that is must be workable and its rules must not lay a heavy burden on us when we follow them. -John Rawls : " strains of committments." -most ethical systems take human limitations into considerations

Overridingness

moral principles have predominant authority and override other principles. -Paul Gauguin may have been aesthetically justified in abandoning his family to paint pretty pictures, but morally he was not justified. -it may be prudent to lie to save your reputation, but it is morally wrong to do so- so you should probably tell the truth

Universalizability

moral principles must apply to all people who are in a relevantly similar situation -Golden rule: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." *this trait is an extension of the principle of consitency -If i say that X is a good Y, then I am logically committed to judge that anything relatively similar to X is a good Y.

Publicity

moral principles must be made public in order to guide our actions. Publicity is necessary because we use principles to prescribe behavior, give advise, and assign praise and blame.

whose to judge whats right and wrong?

we all are- every rational being on earth must make moral judgements and be prepared to be held responsible for ones own actions. Ayn Rand said "Judge and prepare to be judged."

Morality has a distinct action-guiding, or ____, aspect which it shares with other practices such as religion, law, and etiquette.

normative

Character

or virtue. -the attacker has a bad character trait -the neighbor has a good character trait

DDE (doctrine of double effect)

provides a tidy method for solving all moral disputes in which an act will have 2 effects, one good and the other bad.

main characteristic of philosophy

rational argument

The most important characteristic of ethics is grounding in ____ and ______

reason and human experience

Descriptive morality

refers to actual beliefs, customs, principles, and practices of people and cultures. Sociologists review them as "cultural facts" (Facts about what people in those countries eat or how they dress.)

what is the relationship between morality and religion?

religion relies more on revelation and morality relies more on reasoning, on rational reflection. But religion can provide added incentive for the moral life for those who believe that God sees and will judge our actions

philosophical reasoning is closely allied with ___ in that both build hypothesis and look for evidence to test those hypothesis with the hope of coming closer to the truth.

scientific reasoning

"we are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live."

socrates

"the unexamined life is not worth living."

socrates. philosophy leaves no aspect of life untouched by its inquiry

ethical nihilism

the doctrine that no valid moral principles exist, that morality is complete fiction

Ethnocentrism

the prejudicial view that interprets all of reality through the eyes of ones own cultural beliefs and values -eskimos allow their elderly to die by starvation, whereas we believe that is morally wrong -Greece believe stealing is morally right, we see it as wrong

Moral objectivism

the view that there are universal and objective moral principles valid for all people and social environments.

moral absolutist

they believe that there are nonoverrideable moral principles that one ought never violate. Moral principles are exceptionless in their eyes.

Indeterminacy of translation

this theory set forth by Willard Quine holds that languages are often so fundamentally different from each other that we cannot accurately translate concepts from one to another.

Motive

we can ethically examine situations by looking at the motive of the people involved -the attacker intended to kill the woman -the neighbor intended to save her and stop the attacker Consider this: john is pushing Mary off a ledge and causing her to break her leg a.) he is angry and intends to harm her b.) he sees a knife flying in her way and intends to save her life

Diversity thesis

what is considered morally right and wrong varies from society to society so there are no universal moral standards held in all societies. (also called cultural relativism)

Prescriptivity:

which is the practical, action-guiding nature of morality -"Do not kill" -"DO not lie" -"love your neighbor" *they are intended for use: to advise people and influence action *It is used to appraise behavior, assign praise and blame, and produce feelings of satisfaction or guilt

is it in our interest to be moral?

yes