Some historical milestones in ethical thought: thinkers and theories

1
Some historical milestones in ethical thought
thinkers and theories

• Andres Soosaar
• http//biomedicum.ut.ee/andress

2
Socrates (470-399 BC)

• Father of philosophy in ancient Athens
• No his own publications and ideas are fixed
  through writings of his students
• The works of Plato are the most important
  collection in that sense
• Available on Internet http//classics.mit.edu

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image395.htm
3
Socrates (470-399 BC)

• Interest to understand human nature
• Gnothi seauton Nosce te ipsum Know Thyself
  iseennast
• Knowledge comes through discussions, refutations,
  and solving of contradictions.
• What is justice?

4
Hippocrates (450-380 BC)

• The set of his works called Corpus Hippocraticum
• Writings on medical sciences
• Writings on ethics and conduct
• The Hippocratic Oath is the classical piece and
  prototype of professional ethics
• To be a professional needs special training,
  acceptance by society, and taking of
  responsibility for professional activities.

5
The Hippocratic Oath (1)http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/n
ova/doctors/oath_classical.html

• I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and
  Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods and
  goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will
  fulfil according to my ability and judgment this
  oath and this covenant

6
The Hippocratic Oath (2)

• To hold him who has taught me this art as equal
  to my parents and to live my life in partnership
  with him, and if he is in need of money to give
  him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring
  as equal to my brothers in male lineage and to
  teach them this art - if they desire to learn it
  - without fee and covenant to give a share of
  precepts and oral instruction and all the other
  learning to my sons and to the sons of him who
  has instructed me and to pupils who have signed
  the covenant and have taken an oath according to
  the medical law, but no one else.

7
The Hippocratic Oath (3)

• I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of
  the sick according to my ability and judgment I
  will keep them from harm and injustice. I will
  neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked
  for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this
  effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an
  abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will
  guard my life and my art.I will not use the
  knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will
  withdraw in favor of such men as are engaged in
  this work.

8
The Hippocratic Oath (4)

• Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the
  benefit of the sick, remaining free of all
  intentional injustice, of all mischief and in
  particular of sexual relations with both female
  and male persons, be they free or slaves.What I
  may see or hear in the course of the treatment or
  even outside of the treatment in regard to the
  life of men, which on no account one must spread
  abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such
  things shameful to be spoken about.If I fulfil
  this oath and do not violate it, may it be
  granted to me to enjoy life and art, being
  honored with fame among all men for all time to
  come if I transgress it and swear falsely, may
  the opposite of all this be my lot.

9
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

• Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the
  Great
• Obviously the biggest genius in science through
  all times
• He created the first concepts for many sciences,
  some of them are valid today.
• Sometimes all Western philosophy has taken as set
  of comments on Platos and Aristotles ideas
• http//classics.mit.edu and other sources on the
  web give possibility to read his works in English
  

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image14.htm
10
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

• His most important work in ethics is Nikomachean
  Ethics
• Main concepts are human wellbeing, happiness
  (eudaimonia), and virtue and virtuous
• The Golden Mean for morality is the right
  amount principle, i.e. every feeling, desire or
  activity should be at the right time, in the
  right way, to the right degree.

11
The Bible and Christianity

• Christianity became influential to the end of 4th
  century.
• Putting aside the content, the Christianity is a
  giant agreement of millions of people which has
  tremendous influence to personal and social life
  in the Western world.
• Christinanity has like other religions important
  part of moral rules and principles, for example
  the Ten Commandments (Decalogue)
• The Bible online, e.g. http//etext.lib.virginia.e
  du/rsv.browse.html

12
Decalogue (Exodus, chapter 20 )

• 1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 "I
  am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the
  land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3
  "You shall have no other gods before me. 4 "You
  shall not make for yourself a graven image, or
  any likeness of anything that is in heaven above,
  or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
  the water under the earth 5 you shall not bow
  down to them or serve them for I the LORD your
  God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
  the fathers upon the children to the third and
  the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6
  but showing steadfast love to thousands of those
  who love me and keep my commandments.

13
Decalogue (Exodus, chapter 20 )

• 7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your
  God in vain for the LORD will not hold him
  guiltless who takes his name in vain. 8
  "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9
  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work
  10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD
  your God in it you shall not do any work, you,
  or your son, or your daughter, your manservant,
  or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the
  sojourner who is within your gates 11 for in
  six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea,
  and all that is in them, and rested the seventh
  day therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day
  and hallowed it. 12 "Honor your father and your
  mother, that your days may be long in the land
  which the LORD your God gives you.

14
Decalogue (Exodus, chapter 20 )

• 13 "You shall not kill. 14 "You shall not
  commit adultery. 15 "You shall not steal. 16
  "You shall not bear false witness against your
  neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your
  neighbor's house you shall not covet your
  neighbor's wife, or his manservant, or his
  maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything
  that is your neighbor's."

15
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5)

• 33 "Again you have heard that it was said to the
  men of old, You shall not swear falsely, but
  shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.'
• 34 But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either
  by heaven, for it is the throne of God,
• 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or
  by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great
  King.
• 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot
  make one hair white or black.
• 37 Let what you say be simply Yes' or No'
  anything more than this comes from evil.

16
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5)

• 38 "You have heard that it was said, An eye for
  an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
• 39 But I say to you, Do not resist one who is
  evil. But if any one strikes you on the right
  cheek, turn to him the other also
• 40 and if any one would sue you and take your
  coat, let him have your cloak as well
• 41 and if any one forces you to go one mile, go
  with him two miles.
• 42 Give to him who begs from you, and do not
  refuse him who would borrow from you.
• 43 "You have heard that it was said, You shall
  love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'
• 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
  for those who persecute you,

17
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 7)

• 1 "Judge not, that you be not judged.
• 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will
  be judged, and the measure you give will be the
  measure you get.
• 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your
  brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is
  in your own eye?
• 4 Or how can you say to your brother, Let me
  take the speck out of your eye,' when there is
  the log in your own eye?
• 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your
  own eye, and then you will see clearly to take
  the speck out of your brother's eye.
• 6 "Do not give dogs what is holy and do not
  throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample
  them under foot and turn to attack you.
• 7 "Ask, and it will be given you seek, and you
  will find knock, and it will be opened to you.

18
The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 7)

• 12 So whatever you wish that men would do to
  you, do so to them for this is the law and the
  prophets

19
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• He spent all his life at Königsberg
• He created a giant philosohical system, the main
  work is probably is the Critique of Pure Reason
  (1781)
• The hypothetic and categorical imperatives

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image269.htm
20
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• Main works in ethics are The Groundwork of the
  Metaphysics of Morals (1785) and the Critique of
  Practical Reason (1788)
• The categorical imperatives
• I ought never to act except in such a way that I
  can also will that my maxim should become a
  universal law
• Act in such a way that you always treat humanity,
  whether in your own person or in the person of
  any other, never simply as a means, but always at
  the same time as an end

21
Deontological or rule-based morality

• Rule-based morality proposes that an action is
  right if it conforms with a proper moral rule
  where that rule does not necessarily refer to the
  consequences of action. (Brody,1983, p. 24)
• This type of ethical theories concerns itself
  directly to personal features and capacities.
• Finally deontological and consequentialist
  approach may coincide in several aspects

22
Types of moral rules (Brody, 1983)

• Prohibiting or limiting rules
• Rules making reference both to the character of
  the action and to the relation between the actor
  and the parties affected, e.g. honor ones
  parents
• The general rule to do those actions which
  produce the best consequences

23
Origins of moral rules

• Theological origin
• Moral rules come from God
• Societal origin
• Moral rules come from society
• Consequentialist origin
• Moral rules come from the consequences or result
  of an action
• Intuitionist origin
• Human mind has a special intuition to detect and
  understand moral rules

24
On the social contract

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) developed an idea about
  the social contract. Given the predominantly
  self-centred nature of humankind, government is
  necessary for society. Governments role is to
  stabilize social cooperation. By exercising
  enforcement powers, government provides each with
  the assurance that everyone else will abide by
  cooperative rules, thereby making it rational for
  all to cooperate. To fulfil this stabilizing
  role, Hobbes argued that it is rational for each
  individual to agree to authorize one person to
  exercise absolute political power.
• The tradition of thinking connected to social
  contract issue is contractarianism.

25
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

• Main work Du contrat social (1762).
• Man is naturally good, and only by insitutions
  is he made bad
• Man is born free, and everywhere he is in
  chains
• Liberty, Equality, Fratenity

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image374.htm
26
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

• Father of modern utilitarinanism
• An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
  Legislation (1789)
• Utilitarianism is described as the ethical theory
  that seeks to provide the greatest happiness for
  the greatest number of people
• Nature has placed mankind under the governance
  of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It
  is for them alone to point out what we ought to
  do, as well as to determine what we shall do.

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image44.htm
27
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

• Main works in ethics On Liberty (1859),
  Utilitarianism (1863)
• The only part of conduct of any one, for which he
  is amenable to society, is that which concerns
  others. In the part, which merely concerns
  himself, his independence is, of right, absolute.
  Over himself, over his own body and mind, the
  individual is sovereign.
• The only purpose for which power can be
  rightfully exercised over any member of a
  civilised community, against his will, is to
  prevent harm to others.
• Clear position against sexual inequality

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image319.htm
28
Consequentialism

• The basis idea of consequentialism is the issue
  that the rightness or wrongness of an action is
  based solely on the consequences of performing
  it the right action is that which leads to the
  best consequences (Brody, 1983, p.10)

29
Types of consequentialism 1

• Two problems to estimate the best consequences
  (i) by what standards we decide that one set of
  consequences is better than another and (ii)
  Whose interests we take into account when we
  evaluate the consequences?

30
Types of consequentialism 2

• Egoism (individualism) holds that persons
  interests are most important
• Hedonism says that the best consequences are the
  most pleasureable ones
• Altruism holds that interests are more important
• Utilitarianism is the most important form of this
  type of consequentialism

31
A comparison of big ethical perspectives

• Every perspective makes contribution to certain
  aspect of human behaviour
• Virtue ethics centers on human being or subject
  of behaviour
• Deontological ethics centers on act of behaviour
• Consequentialist ethics centers on consequences
  of behaviour.
• As human behaviour is so complex and every
  perspective tries to certain aspect somehow
  special, the result will be that one perspective
  analysis of behaviour may often be in unsolvable
  problems.

32
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

• God is dead and new values are absolutely
  needed.
• Nietzsche was convinced that traditional values
  represented a slave morality, a morality
  created by weak and resentful individuals who
  encouraged such behavior as gentleness and
  kindness because the behavior served their
  interests. He claimed that new values could be
  created to replace the traditional ones, and his
  discussion of the possibility led to his concept
  of the overman or superman.
• His overman is a creator of values, a creator of
  a master morality that reflects the strength
  and independence of one who is liberated from all
  values, except those that he deems valid.
• All human behavior is motivated by the will to
  power
• http//www.connect.net/ron/nietzsche.html

http//www.thoemmes.com/gallery/image338.htm
33
Humanism in the first half of the 20th Century

• A reaction to the two world wars, new very
  powerful weapons, big totalitarian political
  systems etc
• A group famous intellectuals (scientists,
  philosophers, writers, artists etc) expressed
  very clear humanistic position and supremacy of
  human dignity attitude
• Albert Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Mahatma
  Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer among others were
  members of that movement

34
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

• Humanism and the doctrine of nonviolent protest
• Ahimsa (noninjury) view
• Satyagraha (truth force ) view
• New wave of connections betweem East and West

http//www.gandhiinstitute.org/
35
Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

• Theologist, organist, and physician
• Since 1913 he worked as a doctor in Lamberene,
  Africa.
• Reverence for life

http//www.schweitzer.org/
36
Universal Declaration of Human Rights(1948)http/
/www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm

• Preamble
• Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and
  of the equal and inalienable rights of all
  members of the human family is the foundation of
  freedom, justice and peace in the world,
• Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights
  have resulted in barbarous acts which have
  outraged the conscience of mankind, and the
  advent of a world in which human beings shall
  enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom
  from fear and want has been proclaimed as the
  highest aspiration of the common people,
• Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be
  compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to
  rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that
  human rights should be protected by the rule of
  law,
• Whereas it is essential to promote the
  development of friendly relations between nations

37

• Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in
  the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental
  human rights, in the dignity and worth of the
  human person and in the equal rights of men and
  women and have determined to promote social
  progress and better standards of life in larger
  freedom,
• Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to
  achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations,
  the promotion of universal respect for and
  observance of human rights and fundamental
  freedoms,
• Whereas a common understanding of these rights
  and freedoms is of the greatest importance for
  the full realization of this pledge,

38

• Now, therefore,
• The General Assembly,
• Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human
  Rights as a common standard of achievement for
  all peoples and all nations, to the end that
  every individual and every organ of society,
  keeping this Declaration constantly in mind,
  shall strive by teaching and education to promote
  respect for these rights and freedoms and by
  progressive measures, national and international,
  to secure their universal and effective
  recognition and observance, both among the
  peoples of Member States themselves and among the
  peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

39

• Article 1
• All human beings are born free and equal in
  dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason
  and conscience and should act towards one another
  in a spirit of brotherhood.
• Article 2
• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
  freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
  distinction of any kind, such as race, colour,
  sex, language, religion, political or other
  opinion, national or social origin, property,
  birth or other status.
• Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the
  basis of the political, jurisdictional or
  international status of the country or territory
  to which a person belongs, whether it be
  independent, trust, non-self-governing or under
  any other limitation of sovereignty.
• Article 3
• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
  security of person.
• Article 4
• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude
  slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited
  in all their forms.

40

• Article 5
• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,
  inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• Article 6
• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere
  as a person before the law.
• Article 7
• All are equal before the law and are entitled
  without any discrimination to equal protection of
  the law. All are entitled to equal protection
  against any discrimination in violation of this
  Declaration and against any incitement to such
  discrimination.
• Article 8
• Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by
  the competent national tribunals for acts
  violating the fundamental rights granted him by
  the constitution or by law.

41

• Article 9
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest,
  detention or exile.
• Article 10
• Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair
  and public hearing by an independent and
  impartial tribunal, in the determination of his
  rights and obligations and of any criminal charge
  against him.
• Article 11
• Everyone charged with a penal offence has the
  right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty
  according to law in a public trial at which he
  has had all the guarantees necessary for his
  defence.
• No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence
  on account of any act or omission which did not
  constitute a penal offence, under national or
  international law, at the time when it was
  committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed
  than the one that was applicable at the time the
  penal offence was committed.

42

• Article 12
• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
  interference with his privacy, family, home or
  correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour
  and reputation. Everyone has the right to the
  protection of the law against such interference
  or attacks.
• Article 13
• Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
  residence within the borders of each State.
• Everyone has the right to leave any country,
  including his own, and to return to his country.
• Article 14
• Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in
  other countries asylum from persecution.
• This right may not be invoked in the case of
  prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political
  crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and
  principles of the United Nations.
• Article 15
• Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his
  nationality nor denied the right to change his
  nationality.

43

• Article 16
• Men and women of full age, without any limitation
  due to race, nationality or religion, have the
  right to marry and to found a family. They are
  entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during
  marriage and at its dissolution.
• Marriage shall be entered into only with the free
  and full consent of the intending spouses.
• The family is the natural and fundamental group
  unit of society and is entitled to protection by
  society and the State.
• Article 17
• Everyone has the right to own property alone as
  well as in association with others.
• No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his
  property.
• Article 18
• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
  conscience and religion this right includes
  freedom to change his religion or belief, and
  freedom, either alone or in community with others
  and in public or private, to manifest his
  religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship
  and observance.

44

• Article 19
• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
  expression this right includes freedom to hold
  opinions without interference and to seek,
  receive and impart information and ideas through
  any media and regardless of frontiers.
• Article 20
• Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful
  assembly and association.
• No one may be compelled to belong to an
  association.
• Article 21
• Everyone has the right to take part in the
  government of his country, directly or through
  freely chosen representatives.
• Everyone has the right to equal access to public
  service in his country.
• The will of the people shall be the basis of the
  authority of government this will shall be
  expressed in periodic and genuine elections which
  shall be by universal and equal suffrage and
  shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent
  free voting procedures.
• Article 22
• Everyone, as a member of society, has the right
  to social security and is entitled to
  realization, through national effort and
  international co-operation and in accordance with
  the organization and resources of each State, of
  the economic, social and cultural rights
  indispensable for his dignity and the free
  development of his personality.

45

• Article 23
• Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of
  employment, to just and favourable conditions of
  work and to protection against unemployment.
• Everyone, without any discrimination, has the
  right to equal pay for equal work.
• Everyone who works has the right to just and
  favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and
  his family an existence worthy of human dignity,
  and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of
  social protection.
• Everyone has the right to form and to join trade
  unions for the protection of his interests.
• Article 24
• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
  including reasonable limitation of working hours
  and periodic holidays with pay.
• Article 25
• Everyone has the right to a standard of living
  adequate for the health and well-being of himself
  and of his family, including food, clothing,
  housing and medical care and necessary social
  services, and the right to security in the event
  of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood,
  old age or other lack of livelihood in
  circumstances beyond his control.
• Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special
  care and assistance. All children, whether born
  in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social
  protection.

46

• Article 26
• Everyone has the right to education. Education
  shall be free, at least in the elementary and
  fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be
  compulsory. Technical and professional education
  shall be made generally available and higher
  education shall be equally accessible to all on
  the basis of merit.
• Education shall be directed to the full
  development of the human personality and to the
  strengthening of respect for human rights and
  fundamental freedoms. It shall promote
  understanding, tolerance and friendship among all
  nations, racial or religious groups, and shall
  further the activities of the United Nations for
  the maintenance of peace.
• Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of
  education that shall be given to their children.
• Article 27
• Everyone has the right freely to participate in
  the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the
  arts and to share in scientific advancement and
  its benefits.
• Everyone has the right to the protection of the
  moral and material interests resulting from any
  scientific, literary or artistic production of
  which he is the author.
• Article 28
• Everyone is entitled to a social and
  international order in which the rights and
  freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be
  fully realized.

47

• Article 29
• Everyone has duties to the community in which
  alone the free and full development of his
  personality is possible.
• In the exercise of his rights and freedoms,
  everyone shall be subject only to such
  limitations as are determined by law solely for
  the purpose of securing due recognition and
  respect for the rights and freedoms of others and
  of meeting the just requirements of morality,
  public order and the general welfare in a
  democratic society.
• These rights and freedoms may in no case be
  exercised contrary to the purposes and principles
  of the United Nations.
• Article 30
• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as
  implying for any State, group or person any right
  to engage in any activity or to perform any act
  aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and
  freedoms set forth herein.

48
John Rawls (1921-2002)

• Peateos A Theory of Justice (1971)
• Two principles of justicefirst, that each person
  should have the most liberty compatible with like
  liberty for others and, second, that social
  inequalities should be organized so as to
  advantage the worst-off
• Each person possesses an inviolability founded on
  justice that even the welfare of society as a
  whole cannot override. Therefore, in a just
  society the rights secured by justice are not
  subject to political bargaining or to the
  calculus of social interests."

http//www.policylibrary.com/rawls/
49
References

• Brody B. Ethics and Its Applications. Harcourt
  Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1983
• Magee B. The Story of Philosophy. Dorling
  Kindersley Limited, 1998
• Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy.
  Routledge, 1996. First published 1946.
• Almost unlimited number of resources on Internet