Ethical Theories

1
Ethical Theories

• Virtue Ethics ? Egoism ? Utilitarianism ?
  Deontology ? Relativism ? Virtue Ethics again?

2
What is morality about?
Importance!

• Good / Bad (value)

Right / Wrong (conduct)
Obligatory / Forbidden (conduct)
Virtue
Punishment
Duty
Honor
Reward
Vice
Fairness
Praise
Justice
Blame
Merit
So on
Desert
Cruelty
Mercy
Forgiveness
Kindness
Vengeance
3
Greek Philosophers (500BC 200BC) Timeline
The Great Three
Aristotle, 17, meets Plato, 62
Plato, 20, meets Socrates, 60
Plato (429 - 347)
500 BC
200 BC
Aristotle (384 - 322)
Socrates (469 - 399)
4
Ancient Medieval GoodnessPlato and Aristotle
through Aquinas
The Good Being God? Angels Humans Animals Pl
ants Rocks Mud? Formless Matter
The Great Chain of Being
Actuality
Potentiality
5
Moral Virtues (And One Intellectual Virtue)
Aristotle identifies 11 moral virtues, all
governed by one intellectual virtue,
prudencegood deliberationwhich brings the
virtues from potentiality to actuality or into
existence

• Courage
• Temperance
• Generosity
• Magnificence (generosity with wealth)
• Magnanimity (proper pride)
• Right ambition
• Good temper
• Friendliness
• Truthfulness
• Wit
• Justice

Actuality
Potentiality
6
How are Moral Virtues Acquired?

• We use prudence to find the mean, or
• the right amount of an action,
• the right time for an action,
• the right goal for an action,
• the right person for an action,
• the right manner of acting, etc.

7
Prudence Skillful Deliberation
8
Age of Discovery (1415-1700) Timeline
England
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
1400
1700
Columbus (1451-1506)
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)
Spain
Portugal
Prussia, Italy For comparison
Copernicus (1473-1543)
Galileo (1564-1642)
9
Hobbes Tries to Modernize Ethics

• Hobbes wants us to consider the relations that
  emerge among human beings in light of our common
  human nature, prior to there being any society or
  government imposing rules upon us. In doing this,
  he hopes to show
• why we need government
• the character that government must have
• what our duties are to our government
• In doing this, Hobbes is rejecting the Great
  Chain of Being and with it, the Divine Right of
  Kings as the rational basis for governmental
  authority.

10
The Sovereign

• Because we are all fundamentally selfish, the
  Social Contract must be enforced through terror!
• covenants of mutual trust, where there is fear
  of not performance on either part, are
  invalid.
• before the names just and unjust can have
  place, there must be some coercive power to
  compel men equally to the performance of their
  covenants, by the terror of some punishments
  greater than the benefit they expect by the
  breach of their covenant such power there is
  none before the erection of a commonwealth.

11
Egoism

• Read about Egoism at
• http//plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/
• Hobbes endorsed both these forms of Egoism
• Psychological Egoism Every human act is
  motivated solely by self-interest
• Ethical Egoism Every human act ought to be
  directed toward self-interest

12
Ethical Egoism underlies Social Contract Theory

• Ethical Egoism (EE) says every human act ought
  always to be directed toward self-interest.
• 4 Reasons to Accept Ethical Egoism
• Strongest possible connection between acting
  morally and acting rationally.
• EE, for Ayn Rand, Friedrich Nietzsche, others,
  focuses on the indignity of being subservient to
  others.
• Acting selfishly makes for a better world
  altruism creates dependency.
• Ethical Egoism does not really differ in content
  much from Standard Moral Theories (SMT)Mill,
  Kant, Aristotle

13
Ethical Egoism

• Reason 4 is defended with The Cooperation
  Defense
• Being kind, generous, friendly, etc., leads to
  long-term self benefits, and so EE is basically
  the same as conventional morality or SMTs.
• Ask yourself, on Ethical Egoist grounds,
• What reason do I have to give to the homeless
  person at the stop light?
• Why will I not cheat on my spouse?
• Etc.

14
Criticism of Ethical Egoism

• A failing of the cooperation defense
• You are rowing a boat to safety after your cruise
  ship sank and a desperate man a few yards off is
  calling for help. There are no other survivors,
  the man has no chance without you, and you have
  no interest in saving him. EE suggests you have
  no duty to save the man since any such duty would
  have to be grounded in your having a reason to
  act, and, as were supposing, you have no
  interest in saving the man.
• Could an ethical theory be correct and permit
  such an action to count as permissible?

15
England
Bentham (1748-1832)
Mill (1806-1873)
1700
1900
Mozart (1756-1791)
Kant (1724-1804)
Germany
America For comparison
Jefferson (1743-1826)
Lincoln (1809-1865)
16
Utilitarianism

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is the first notable
  figure endorsing the principle of utility. That
  principle states
• an action is right as it tends to promote
  happiness, wrong as it tends to diminish it, for
  the party whose interests are in question
• Bentham is famous for identifying happiness with
  pleasure, and providing a hedonic calculus for
  determining the rightness of an action.

17
Criticism 1 of Utilitarianism

• Does Utilitarianism do justice to Justice?
• The Marshall is chasing a man and his girl
  heading to the Mexico border. The man was
  desperate for money and shot the teller at the
  bank while robbing it. He is 50 yards from the
  border and the Marshall has to decide whether to
  let him go or shoot him from a distance. If the
  Marshall lets the man go, lets suppose the man
  will live a good life, raise a family, and be a
  good husband. The killing was out of character,
  and the money will allow him to live well with
  his neighbors. What should the Marshall do?
• According to Utilitarianism, the act with the
  best consequences seems to be letting the man go.
  Everyone will be happy
• the Marshall doesnt enjoy killing,
• the man wants to live,
• the woman loves him,
• the Teller had no family, no one much liked him
  anyway.
• Is it right to let the man go? What of Justice
  for the Teller?

18
Criticism 2 of Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism seems to require that we violate
  peoples rights on occasion.
• A car crash sends five Nobel Prize winners to the
  emergency room, each needing a different vital
  organ to survive. The doctor looks at you or me,
  in for a hangnail. Should he or she put us under
  and remove our organs for the Prize winners?
• That action, if it can be done in secrecy, seems
  to clearly be the best option in terms of
  producing the most good for the greatest number.

19
England
Bentham (1748-1832)
Mill (1806-1873)
1700
1900
Mozart (1756-1791)
Kant (1724-1804)
Germany
America For comparison
Jefferson (1743-1826)
Lincoln (1809-1865)
20
The Categorical Imperative

• The Moral Law
• Act only on that maxim whereby you can at the
  same time will that it should be a universal law
• Kant offers the Humanity Formula to connect
  this very abstract moral law to our feelings

21
Humanity Formula
Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your
own person or that of another, always as an end
and never as a means only

• How do we treat the cashier as an end and not
  merely or only as a means?

This formulation resulted in a common phrase used
in moral reasoning often today Respect for
Persons
22
Respect for Persons

• Does Respect for Persons permit the marshal to
  ignore the Justice owed to the teller?
• Does it permit the doctor to take your organs for
  the Prize Winners?

23
Criticism of Kant

• Justice claims and Individual Rights claims dont
  seem to always succeed

Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness all are
commonly thought to be alienable in various
circumstances _______________________ ________
_______________ _______________________ ________
_______________
24
Ethical-Cultural Relativism

• Ethical-Cultural Relativism Moral rules are
  valid only for the society in which they emerge,
  and it is the societys approval or disapproval
  that makes something right or wrong,
  respectively.
• ECR is a theory of morality that developed as
  Anthropologists noted the diversity of moral
  practices around the world. Text books suggested
  (and many still do) that disagreement about
  morality around the world shows that no one is
  right or wrong in their moral views moral
  views are cultural.

25
Culture / Society seems an Arbitrary Source of
Value
Ethical-Cultural Relativism Moral rules are
valid only for the society in which they emerge,
and it is the societys approval or disapproval
that makes something right or wrong, respectively.

• What is special about cultures / societies?
• Why not make the relevant social group conferring
  value a club?
• Why not make it the family?
• Why not make it a gang?

26
ECR Makes Moral Advance Definitionally Impossible
Ethical-Cultural Relativism Moral rules are
valid only for the society in which they emerge,
and it is the societys approval or disapproval
that makes something right or wrong, respectively.

• If only societys norms make actions right or
  wrong, then trying to improve society makes no
  sense (look again at the definition of ECR).
• Every violation of a current rule is wrong.
• The end of slavery was no advance.
• The end of the holocaust was no advance.

27
On ECR, Moral Disagreement within a Culture
Removes All Morality and Immorality
Ethical-Cultural Relativism Moral rules are
valid only for the society in which they emerge,
and it is the societys approval or disapproval
that makes something right or wrong, respectively.

• What constitutes right action when there is no
  consensus?
• Without consensus, child murder, rape, torture of
  innocent people, as well as kindness, love, and
  friendship all are neither good nor bad one
  is as good as another

28
ECR Justifies Intolerance
Ethical-Cultural Relativism Moral rules are
valid only for the society in which they emerge,
and it is the societys approval or disapproval
that makes something right or wrong, respectively.

• ECR is often credited with supporting or
  encouraging tolerance. If, however, a given
  culture does not approve of tolerance, tolerance
  literally has no value there.

29
Aristotle Anyone?