Title: How to avoid the hard work of moral decision-making:
1How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Stick with what you knowafter all, other people
with better minds have thought about these things.
2How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Think in bumper-stickers...
- It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.
- People kill people. Guns dont kill people.
3How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Rationalize...
- Rationalize
- Rationalize
4How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Practice morality by tummy-ache
- Passion above reason
5How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Antidote
-
- Dont believe everything you think!
6How to avoid the hard work of moral
decision-making
- Any moral opinion is as good as the rest....
7PHIL 2525Contemporary Moral IssuesLec 3
- What are We Talking About?
- What is Morality? Rachels Chapter 1
8Singular Moral Judgments vs. Moral Principles...
9The Death of SocratesJacques-Louis David
10General moral principleor not?
- Hurting a friend is wrong.
- The Bible says that thou shalt not kill.
- Shoplifting might get you into trouble.
- Stealing is ok.
- Helping others helps ourselves.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you. - Honour thy father and thy mother.
11General moral principleor not?
- Hurting a friend is wrong.
- The Bible says that thou shalt not kill.
- Shoplifting might get you into trouble.
- Stealing is ok.
- Helping others helps ourselves.
- Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you. - Honour thy father and thy mother.
12- Conflicting principles...
13So, back to our arguments...
- Premise 1 states the case (the way the world is)
- Premise 2 appends a moral principle
- ------------------------------------------
- The conclusion follows from the interplay
14Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion
- We describe the case the way the world is
- We append a moral principle
- ------------------------------------------
- We conclude based on the interplay
151.1 The Problem of Definition
- Moral philosophy is the attempt to achieve a
systematic understanding of the nature of
morality and what it requires of us - Socrates We are discussing no small matter,
but how we ought to live
161.2 Baby Theresa.....Anencephaly
171.2 Baby Theresa dilemma...
- Parental request allow her organs to be
harvested to benefit other newborns. - Legal resolution "Florida law does not allow the
removal of organs until the donor is dead."
18Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion
- The parents
- Transplanting Baby Theresas organs would benefit
other children without harming her. - If we can benefit someone, without harming anyone
else, we ought to do so. - --------------------------------------
- Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs.
19Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion
- Anonymous ethicists
- Transplanting Baby Theresas organs would be
using her as means for anothers ends. - It is wrong to use people as means.
- --------------------------------------
- Therefore, we ought not transplant the organs.
20Moral arguments are arguments with a moral
judgment as the conclusion
- One more argument
- Taking Baby Theresa's organs would be killing her
to save another. - It is wrong to kill one person to save another.
- -------------------------------------------------
----------------------------- - Therefore, we ought not to take her organs for
transplantation.
21On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
- Dr. Norman Fost, director of the University
- of Wisconsin's medical ethics program
- The problem is almost entirely one of a slippery
slope... - We have to be careful who we take organs from,
because there are a lot more than anencephalic
infants out there.
22On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
- Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University
- of Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics
- There's a refusal to accept the reality of death
at work in this... - ...and an overvitalistic understanding of
personhood, one dependent on biological
functions."
23On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
- Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University of
- Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics
- ...what makes us human is what goes on upstairs
in the brain, not downstairs in the brain.
241.3 Conjoined Twins
- Siamese Twins
- Chang and Eng
- Born in 1811
- Travelled with the circus
- Married two sisters
- Fathered 21 children
- Died in 1874
2513 Jodie and Mary
26Jodie and Mary
- Pro-separation
- Separating the twins will save the one otherwise
both will die. - When it's a choice between saving one of two
people or letting both die, we should save the
one. - -------------------------------------------------
--------- - . The twins should be separated.
27Jodie and Mary
- Anti-separation
- Mary is an innocent human being and the
separation will kill her. - It's wrong to kill an innocent human being.
- -------------------------------------------
- . The twins shouldn't be separated.
281.4 The Latimer Case
29Mercy or Murder?
- 12 year old Tracy Latimer, killed by her father
in 1993 - Quadriplegic and severely mentally disabled, she
functioned at the level of a three-month old and
was in constant pain
301.4 The Latimer Case
- Argument against Latimers action
- Killing Tracy was discrimination against the
handicapped. - It is wrong to discriminate against the
handicapped. - --------------------------------------
- . Tracy's father did wrong he shouldn't have
killed her.
311.4 The Latimer Case
- Rachels response
- Discrimination against the handicapped?
- Its discrimination only if there is no good
reason for the different treatment....
321.4 The Latimer Case
- Euthanizing Tracy was "opening the doors to other
people to decide who should live and who should
die." - It is wrong to do things which would open the
doors... - --------------------------------------------------
---- - . Euthanizing Tracy was wrong and shouldn't have
been done.
331.5 Reason and Impartiality
- Moral judgments must be backed by good reasons.
- Morality requires the impartial consideration of
each individuals interests.
341.5 Reason and Impartiality
- We describe the case the way the world is
- We append a moral principle
- ------------------------------------------
- We conclude based on the interplay
35Impartiality...and emotion...
36Impartiality...and emotion...
37Impartiality...and emotion...
38Impartiality...and emotion...
39The morally right thing to do...
- is always whatever there are the best reasons for
doing...
40Jane Addams,founder of Hull House
- The essence of immorality is the tendency to make
an exception of myself.
411.6 The Minimum Conception of Morality
- The effort to guide ones conduct by reason...to
do what there are the best reasons for doing...
42Suicide and Euthanasia
- What is the difference?
- What good reasons are there in favour?
- What good reasons are there against?
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