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Ethics

Ethics. Introduction. 1. Why Study Ethics?. Human beings are moral beings. We make ethical decisions everyday. Ethical decisions determine one’s identity. Free will. 2. What is Ethics?. Moral Philosophy Examines right and wrong actions . Prescribes how one ought to behave.

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Ethics

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  1. Ethics Introduction

  2. 1. Why Study Ethics? • Human beings are moral beings. • We make ethical decisions everyday. • Ethical decisions determine one’s identity. • Free will

  3. 2. What is Ethics? • Moral Philosophy • Examines right and wrong actions. • Prescribes how one ought to behave.

  4. Three parts to Ethics • 1) Meta-Ethics • 2) Normative Ethics • 3) Applied Ethics

  5. Metaethics • Meta-ethics is concerned with whether there is a right or wrong. • Relativism, skepticism, pluralism and realism. • Concerned with the meaning of right and wrong and good and bad.

  6. Normative Ethics • Determining what is right and wrong and why it is right or wrong. • Theoretical Ethics: the construction of ethical theories that help determine what is right and wrong (e.g., utilitarianism, naturalism, Kant’s deontology, etc.)

  7. Applied Ethics • Applied Ethics: the application of ethical theories to concrete issues, such as euthanasia, abortion, etc.

  8. 3. Ethics and religion • Religion: Divine Command Bible/ Koran/ etc. • Religion also prescribes action (i.e., tells us how one ought to behave), but the support for these claims is divine revelation • Ethics: is based solely on experience and reason

  9. 4. Ethics and Other Evaluations Prescriptive Descriptive • Legal • Aesthetics • Religion • Law • Custom • Ethics • History • Anthropology • Sociology • Psychology

  10. Ethical Terms • Ethically Right Acts • Ethically Wrong Acts • Ethically permissible Acts • Morally good person • Morally bad person • Ought/Duty • Rights • Just/unjust/fairness

  11. 5. Reason and Emotions • One Position: Emotions ought to be separated from ethical evaluations • Second Position: Emotions should not be detached from ethical evaluations. • Third Position: Some emotions to a certain degree ought to be detached from ethical reasoning.

  12. 6. Ethical Reasoning and Arguments • A Claim • A Belief • A subjective claim • An objective claim • Evidence and justification • Basic claims/first principles

  13. Claim • A claim has a truth value, meaning that it is either true or false. • Subjective claims are about one’s emotions or feelings or sensations. They are ONLY about oneself. • Objective claims are about the world and not about one’s feelings. • We are interested in objective claims.

  14. Claims Objective Subjective • 1) It is 78 degrees Fahrenheit in the room. • 2) The soup has 2 grams of salt. • 3) What you did was ethically wrong. • 1) it is warm in the room. • 2) The soup taste salty. • 3) What you did embarrassed me.

  15. Arguments • An argument is a set of claims in which some are premises and one is a conclusion, and the premises support the truth of the conclusion.

  16. Evaluating and Constructing Arguments • The conclusion should be the controversial claim. • The premise(s) should be the claim(s) that are most commonly accepted. • Step1: The premises should support the truth of the conclusion. • Step 2: The premises should be true.

  17. Step 1: Determine if the argument is valid or invalid. • A valid argument is one in which, if the premises are true, the conclusion follows necessarily. • All x’s are y’s, and all z’s are x’s. Therefore, it follows necessary that all z’s are y’s.

  18. Invalid • An invalid argument is one in which, if the premises are true, the conclusion follows with some probability and not necessarily. • If the probability is greater than 50% then we call it an invalid strong argument. • Invalid strong arguments are good arguments.

  19. Step 2: Check to determine if the premises are true • All arguments, whether valid or invalid, must have true premises. • If just one of the premises is FALSE, then the argument fails. • A valid argument with all true premises is a SOUND argument. (BEST!) • An invalid strong argument with all true premises is a COGENT argument. (GOOD!)

  20. Two ways to refute an Argument • 1) Show that the premises do not support the conclusion, and therefore, the argument is neither sound or strong. We call these arguments Invalid WEAK arguments. • 2) Show that one or more of the premises is false or probably false.

  21. Evaluating Ethical Arguments • Facts • Concepts • Values

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