Ethics

1. Ethics Ethical Theory and Applied Ethics Part I

2. Introduction Part I Part II 1. The turn to applied ethics. 2. Morality, ethics and moral philosophy. 3. Theory and practice 4. Ethics and religion. 5. Ethics and law. 6. Ethics and policy. 7.Ethical nihilism and relativism. 8. Methods of resolving or understanding ethical questions. 9. Ethical theories 10. Utilitarianism 11. Kantian ethics 12. Communitarian ethics

3. 7.Ethical nihilism and relativism. • Ethical nihilism is the view that there are no true ethical or moral claims that are independent of the person making the claim. • When someone makes a moral claim, such as it is wrong to lie” they are not really saying anything about the world or reality. • The utterance is ONLY an attitude or a feeling the person express.

4. Moral Nihilism: An Attitude • There are 2 type of ethical nihilism. • (1) The first sees morality is a human construct that expresses an attitude a person has about something. • When people make ethical claims they are NOT stating anything about the world or reality; they are simply stating how they would like things to be (there preference or desire). • There is no difference When John saying, “Do not lie” and “Do not leave the door open”.

5. Moral Nihilism: An Emotion (2) The second sees morality as a human construct that expresses anemotiona person has about something. • According to this view, moral claims express a subjective feeling. As long as one does not lie about how one feels, moral claims can NEVER be wrong. • Moral claim according to this view are no different than claims taste. So there is no difference between Mary saying, “I dislike this soup” and “I dislike abortions.”

6. Moral Nihilism lead to Relativism • Relativism is the view that moral claims are RELATIVE to something, usually the individual (subjective relativism) or the culture (cultural relativism.) • Relativism denies that there are any transcendent, universal or absolute moral truths.

7. Cultural Relativism • Cultural relativism is very popular view. • Cultural relativism claim that morality is determined by cultural values and customs. • To determine what is right or wrong one only needs to look at a specific culture and observe their practices.

8. Why Cultural relativism is Wrong • Cultural relativism has some attractive ideas because it increases our openness and tolerance of other cultures and their values. • However, it also leads to absurd views. • If you are a cultural relativist, then you must accept the following: (1) All practices, no matter how horrific and terrible they might be, are morally acceptable in case they are practiced by some culture. (2) All social reformers, such as Jesus, Martin Luther King, and Muhammad Gandhi, are morally corrupt because they went against the culturally accepted practices.

9. Why Cultural relativism is Wrong (3) People we view as moral opposites would have to be treated has moral equals. For instance, Hitler would have to be considered as morally equal to Mother Theresa because they both practice customs that were socially acceptable among their cultures, Nazi’s and Christians, respectively. (4) No society can be viewed as morally improving, because what is morally right IS what the society accepts and practices at any given time. For instance, we would not be able to say that the US has morally improved insofar as it no longer permits slavery or denies women from voting.

10. Why Cultural relativism is Wrong (5) No society could ever pass judgment on any other society, no matter how unjust and harmful its practices may be. (6) No individual could ever reflect critically one the values and practices of its own culture. Finally, cultural relativist also have a hard time trying to define what constitutes a culture. Can a culture be made up of a small group within a society? If so how small? Can 5 people be considered a culture? If not why not?

11. Objectivism • A strong position is OBJECTIVISM which is in between the extremes of Absolutism and Relativism. • Objectivism claims that while there may not be Universal Absolute Moral Truths that hold for all people and at all times, there are some view that are definitely Wrong and other that are Right, irrespective of culture and time. • Objectivism is a moderate view that claims that we can make reasoned claims about ethics that apply to all people.

12. Objectivism • Objectivism makes distinctions between fundamental values (basic human rights) and more superficial traditions and customs (foods, clothing and rituals). • Nutritional Analogy: There is an objective difference between a good healthy diet and a bad unhealthy one. However, this does not mean that all healthy diets are exactly the same. Moreover, there is no ONE Absolute diet that is the True healthy diet. • Similarly, there is a difference between wrong actions and right actions but there is not one set of actions that are the True right ones.

13. 8. Methods of resolving or understanding ethical questions. 9. Ethical theories 10. Utilitarianism 11. Kantian ethics 12. Communitarian ethics

14. 9. Ethical theories Ethical theories are general abstract principles or rules that help one determine what actions are the right one. Ethical theories, therefore, are what help us choose and select our actions.

15. 10. Utilitarianism • Utilitarianism states that the right action is the action that produces the most happiness for the greatest number of people. • Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory because the value of the action is determined by the consequences of the action. • It is impartial because it takes into consideration all people equally.

16. Happiness • Happiness has been a central concept in ethics since Aristotle. • It is problematic because what makes people happy and vary from person to person. • There 2 main views on Happiness: (1) Bentham’s and (2) Mill. • Bentham argued that happiness was best measured by the physical pleasure and pain. • This view is also referred to as hedonism.

17. Happiness • (2) Mill argues that emotional and intellectual happiness was superior to physical pleasure and pains. • Therefore, according to mill will need to take into consideration how our actions will affect people not only physically but also psychologically.

18. 11. Kantian ethics • Kantian ethics is deontological because it emphasizes the value of the action itself. • We should keep promises because it is the right ting to do, and NOT because of the consequences it produces. • According to deontology some actions have intrinsic moral value and you ought to perform them regardless of the consequences. • We have a DUTY (deon) to tell the truth, respect others etc.

19. Kant • Kant referred to the actions that we had an absolute duty to perform as the categorical imperative. • First formulation: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law without contradiction.” • Second formulation: “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end.”

20. Communitarian ethics • The communitarian approach considers right and wrong action as it pertains to the group or community. • This is different than Utilitarianism and deontology that are concerned with morality from purely individualistic perspective. • Communitarians are interested in promoting and preserving shared values and the common good.

21. Liberals versus Libertarians • The conception of liberals can be traced to John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty where he argued that individuals should have as much liberty as possible. • This means that a government should never interfere with an individuals liberty. • The individual’s liberty ought to extend to the point at which it either harms another individual or it interferes with another’s liberty.

22. Liberals vs. Libertarians. • Liberals adopt this views for most social issues but not for economic issues. Instead liberals advocate a social-economic safety net for the more vulnerable in society. Therefore, they support government intervention and regulation in many aspects of society. • Libertarian adopt the the liberty principle consistently throughout and advocate NO or as little as possible government intervention. • In place of the government they argue that the market place ought to resolve societal issues.