ETHICS

Are there moral truths?

MORAL CHARACTER
Pick three individuals from the video and identify
moral character traits they exhibited? Back up your
trait with an example it.
Character, trait, example

WHAT IS YOUR MORAL

CHARACTER?
Reflect on the nature of your own moral character:
How do you think others view you? Identify ten
moral character terms that you think others might
use to identify you. (ex. Friendly, compassionate,
loyal, courageous, altruistic, just, patient etc)
Describe a moral situation in you had the opportunity
to display these qualities.

WHAT IS THE TROUBLE WITH

THESE KINDS OF QUESTIONS?
Is abortion ever justified?
Should drugs be legalized?
Are there limits to free speech?
Is there such a thing as a justified war?
What do our moral intuitions tell us?

IS THERE SUCH A THING

AS MORAL KNOWLEDGE
Or is a statement like abortion is
acceptable/abortion is unacceptable on par with I
like spinach/ I do not like spinach?

WHEN WE ARGUE ETHICS, WE TYPICALLY

APPEAL TO A COMMONLY AGREED MORAL
PRINCIPLE
Cheating on a test is wrong
Tom cheated on the test
Therefore what Tom did was wrong

J: ETHICAL QUESTIONS
Consistency
Facts

CONSISTENCY
To what extent do you think the following individuals are
morally inconsistent?
An anti-abortionist who supports the death penalty
A vegetarian who buys leather shoes
A socialist who educates his children at a private
school
A politician who advocates family values and has an
extra-marital affair
An environmental activist who drives an SUV
Someone who thinks stealing is wrong but makes
illegal copies of music

FACTS
Pros/cons to death penalty?
Effective deterrent?
What if we agree that it is a deterrent, is it possible we
can disagree whether society should use the death
penalty

MORAL REASONING
Moral principle
Fact
Value-judgement
Cheating is wrong
There is evidence Tom cheated
Tom may be willing to admit what he did
was wrong

CHALLENGE TO MORAL
REASONING
If we all share the same underlying moral principles, there
is likely to be plenty of scope for moral reasoning.
What if we dont share the principles
What if Tom doesnt think there is nothing wrong
with cheating?
What if a politician thinks it is OK to take bribes/
What if Jane approves of racism?
J:Do our values have no ultimate justification?
Are morals similar to grammatical rules of the language
we speak?
FFT 2

CHALLENGE # 1:
MORAL RELATIVISM
Our values are determined by the society we grow up
in, and there are no universal rules
Moral values are simple customs or conventions that
vary from culture to culture.
Examples:

ARGUMENTS FOR
MORAL RELATIVISM
Diversity argument
In the eye of the beholder

J: Do you think there is a difference between moral

values and customs or conventions?

WHICH ARE MORALLY WRONG AND

WHICH WOULD YOU SAY ARE
SIMPLE MATTERS OF CONVENTION?
List activities

YOU SHOULD NOT

BURN YOUR COUNTRYS
FLAG

A MAN SHOULD NOT GO TO

WORK WEARING A DRESS

A WOMAN SHOULD NOT HAVE

MORE THAN ONE HUSBAND

YOU SHOULD NOT

TORTURE THE
INNOCENT

YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE

SEX WITH AN ANIMAL

YOU SHOULD NOT USE DEAD

PEOPLE FOR DOG FOOD

YOU SHOULD NOT

EXECUTE ADULTERERS

YOU SHOULD NOT

EXECUTE MURDERERS

YOU SHOULD NOT EAT

MEAT

LACK OF FOUNDATIONS
Is there an independent moral reality against which we
can test our values to see if they true or false
Gap between is and ought
Some people in the world are starving
I have more food than I need
Therefore, I ought to give some of my food to the
starving
Some people in the world are starving
I have more food than I need
There, lucky me!

WHAT IS THE APPEAL

OF MORAL RELATIVISM
Antidote to cultural imperialism

MORAL RELATIVISM
Imagine that you arrive in a democratic
country in which adult women have the vote but
men have no political power. When you
interview them, the men tell you they are quite
happy with situation, that public life is for
women, and a mans place is in the home. To
what extent would you try to re-educate the men
and make them see the extent to which they
have been indoctrinated?

CHALLENGE TO MORAL
RELATIVISM
J:What is the potential problem of Moral Relativism?

CULTURAL RELATIVISM
List five activities that are perfectly acceptable in the
United States, but completely unacceptable in
another culture

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING CULTURAL

PRACTICES SHOULD WE TOLERATE AND
WHICH SHOULD WE SEEK TO HAVE BANNED?

Punishing adultery by stoning to death.

Punishing murder by lethal injection
Female genital mutilation
Infanticide
Imprisoning terrorists without trial
Discriminating against minority groups.

PROBLEMS WITH
(CULTURAL RELATIVISM)
Cultural relativism does not necessarily lead to a
peaceful cooperation between cultures. Ex: Vikings
How does it explain moral critics? Ex MLK
How does it explain moral development? Ex Slavery

MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Besides our countrys changing moral on stance on
slavery, can you think of other developments in
American society that might be considered moral
progress?
What are some current cultural practices that future
generations might consider barbaric and immoral?

MORAL DEVELOPMENT
Can we judge the Vikings as bad? Slave holders as
bad people?
At what point can we hold people accountable for
their actions we now deem immoral?

ARE CULTURAL VALUES REALLY

DIFFERENT OR IS SOMETHING
ELSE GOING ON?
Inuit tribe example:
Encourages older members to walk away from camp
and subsequently freeze to death in the open.
Do the Inuit have a different moral belief on the
treatment of old people?

SURVEY
Compare your answers. Agreements/disagreements?

MORAL CODES
How much do moral codes of world religions overlap?
Which five values would you say have the best claim
to be universal and why?
Why do some moral codes cross all cultural divides?
Is the statement random torture is wrong at least as
obvious as 2+2=4

MORAL RELATIVISM
Moral vs Immoral vs Amoral
Give a brief philosophical argument against moral
relativism.
Why is appealing to intuition as a general way of
justifying our moral beliefs problematic?

ANOTHER THREAT TO UNDERMINE

OUR VALUES? SELF-INTEREST
Definition: human beings are always and everywhere
selfish.
Is anybody truly altruistic?
Mother Teresa vs Donald Trump
What is the difference?
Self-regarding desires vs other-regarding desires

SELF INTEREST
Evolutionary- Are we naturally selfish in order to
survive?
What about empathy?

Hidden benefits
If you went of your way to help someone in trouble,
would it bother you if they showed no gratitude?
If you gave a lot of money to charity, would you rather
your knew what you had done, or would you rather
they did not?

SELF-INTEREST
Fear of punishment- What keeps us from doing
wrong is What if I get caught?
Ring of Gyges
J: If you discovered the ring of Gyges, how,
if at all, would it affect your behavior?
Are there things most people would not
do?

SELF INTEREST
CONCLUSION
Are people basically good but corrupted by society
-orAre people basically bad and need society to keep
them in line
What does the article suggest

THEORIES OF ETHICS
Some values may be relative and often people are
selfish.
However we do not have to conclude all values are
relative nor are people always selfish.
If this is true then there is room for moral knowledge
Intuitively guessing on moral truths is not a sound
foundation

ETHICS
What are right actions? How do we determine how to
act? Constructing an ethical theory.

THEORIES OF ETHICS
Systematic and coherent (reasoned) approaches to
makes sense of our morals beliefs and institutions

RELIGIOUS ETHICS
Authoritative rule book to show what moral
principles we should live by
Which text to follow?
How do we interpret the text? Apply the rules?

RELIGIOUS ETHICS
Plato response:
Is something good because God says it is good, or
does God say that it is good because it is good?
What does this suggest?

Can religious ethics satisfy all beliefs and/or non

beliefs?

RELIGIOUS ETHICS
Since the Pope condemns birth control,
can a person still be a good Catholic if
they practice birth control?
Can religious texts give us moral
guidance on the use of genetic
engineering and other technologies that
were unheard of when the texts were
written?
If God is dead, everything is permitted
comments?

A CASE FOR GOD

Moral rules are

independent of
subjective preferences &
cultural norms.
Provides a compelling
motivation to be moral
A sense of security

A CASE FOR
GOD
Phil the bank robber who gets away with the crime
and lives a life of luxury
How would divine command judge him?
Does it matter what Phil thinks?
What will happen to Phil?
Was Phil unclear of Gods expectations?

ABRAHAM AND ISAAC

According to the Bible, God
commands Abraham to kill his
son Isaac. Although God
eventually interferes and
prevents Abraham from killing
his son, the question arise of
whether killing a child can
become morally right when God
commands it to be done.
What do you think?
How would you have
responded if you were in
Abrahams situation?

PROBLEMS FOR DIVINE

COMMAND
Who wrote the rules?
Who is right?

Would it be morally right to torture babies if God

commanded it?
Why are Gods commands morally right?
Logic problem

UTILITARIANISM
Not one single and uniform theory ethical theory, but
rather a group of ethical theories that are based on
two key ideas:
Human happiness is the ultimate moral good.
Actions should be evaluated in the light of their
consequences.

UTILITARIANISM AND
HAPPINESS
Is it possible to desire something although we do not
think that it makes us happy? If yes, give an
example. If no, does this establish that happiness is
the most important good in life?

J: UTILITARIANISMMAXIMIZE
HAPPINESS!

One simple supreme principle: we

should seek the greatest happiness of the
greatest number of people.
The only goal that is good in itself is
happiness and actions are right in so far
as they tend to increase happiness and
wrong in so far as they tend to decrease it

ROBIN HOOD

Are Robin Hoods actions morally right?

Isnt he breaking the law?
What would a utilitarian say?
What would the rich say?
Is Robin Hood morally justified to make
some people happy but others
miserable?

UTILITARIANISM
Simple. Allows for a simple way to solve
moral dilemmas.
Democratic- allows each individual to
determine what makes them happy
Rational- incorporates both short term
and long term consequences
Egalitarian- how is everyones happiness
affected? Positives minus negatives exjustifies redistribution of wealth

UTILITARIANISM AND
HAPPINESS
We need to be able to measure and compare the
degree to which our actions make people happy.
What is this happiness?

UTILITARIAN HAPPINESS
Traditionally utilitarians measure happiness in terms
of pleasure and pain.
Hedonists: Philosophers who believe that happiness is
a result of how much pleasure and pain we experience.

HEDONISTS
Blog
Are you a hedonist or do you believe that there is
more to happiness than maximizing pleasure and
minimizing pain?
If yes, what is the hedonist missing?

Can you give a description of a happy life that is not

also a very pleasant life?

UTILITOMETER: HEDONISTIC
CALCULATOR (BENTHAM)

-20

20

BATTLE OF THE UTILITARIAN

HEDONISTS: CALCULATING
PLEASURE
Jeremy Bentham (17481832)

John Stuart Mill (18061873)

No qualitative differences in terms of pleasure.

Therefore it is possible
for a lonely person to
be happy.

Mill disagrees. Many simple pleasures will not

amount to a happy life.

Pleasures differ in both quantity and quality.

PLEASURES
Can we all agree on what pleasures are qualitatively
higher?

APPLY UTILITARIANISM
How might a utilitarian try to justify or criticise the
following actions?
Eating ice-cream every day
Smoking pot every day
Wearing seat-belts in cars
Forcing a reluctant child to learn the piano
Voluntary euthanasia
Moral dilemmas. What problems arise when using
greatest happiness principle.
When calculating happiness, should animals be
included?

HIGHER PLEASURES
Mill survey #8\

UTILITARIANISM :
ANIMAL WELFARE
The pig that want to be eaten
Peter Singer
According to him what is a person?
What do you think?

How should people treat animals?

Why is he controversial?
How does he apply utilitarianism?

UTILITARIANISM GOOD DAY FOR

VILLAGE, BAD DAY FOR FREDDIE
So a teacher, an engineer and the Mayor of a remote
village walk into a doctors office
Teacher needs a lung, the engineer a kidney, and the
mayor a liver.
Without them the town will not make it
But then there is antisocial Freddie who needs his
tonsils taken out.
What is a good utilitarian doctor to do?
Blog: General welfare

UTILITARIANISM- THE
DARK SIDE
Can you think of other situations in which maximizing
general welfare requires us to perform actions that
according to common-sense morality are immoral?

UTILITARIANISM PROBLEMS:
RESPECTING RIGHTS
The case of the undetected peeping tom Tom.
Tom secretly photographs his neighbor Penelope in
various stages of undress.
He shows the photos to no one and uses them entirely
for his own amusement.

What is the consequence of his action?

What problem does this pose for a utilitarian?

UTILITARIANISM
PROBLEMS: PROMISES
I promise to pick up my friend Bill at the airport.
However, on the way I see a homeless man in need
and take him to the hospital. I do not pick up Bill.
According to a utilitarian what should I do?
What does that do to promises?

UTILITARIAN PROBLEMS
SURVEY #1

UTILITARIANISM PROBLEM:
LAZY SUNDAY

If I stay at home all Sunday and sit on the

couch am I maximizing the greatest
amount of happiness to the maximum
number of people?

What about old man Jenkins at the veterans home who

would love to play cards with me?
Is staying home, lazing about all day immoral?

What kinds of obligations are demanded of

me by utilitarianism?

WHICH ACTION FIT THE SITUATION REGARDING

OLD MAN JENKINS AT THE VET HOME?

Some actions are obligatory: actions that are morally

required
Some actions are supererogatory: actions that are
praise worthy but not strictly required.

UTILITARIAN PROBLEMS
SURVEY #2
Obligatory vs supererogatory
Survey #3

THEORETICAL
OBJECTIONS:
Bad pleasures
Malicious pleasures: pleasure derived from the
suffering of others
Sadist meet the masochist
Empty pleasures: pleasures that dont help us develop
our potential, or flourish as human beings
SOMA
What problems does the idea that some pleasures are
better than others create for utilitarianism? How might a
utilitarian try to respond to these problems?
Besides pleasure and happiness are there other things
that are inherently good?

UTILITARIANISM:
SUMMARY
Summarize: the utilitarian ethical theory
According to utilitarianism the correct moral action is
. Such as. . The appeal of utilitarianism is
However the theory is not without its problems.
Some objections include such as..

PRACTICAL OBJECTIONS
TO UTILITARIANISM
How do measure/quantify happiness?
Pleasure and happiness are not one in the same.
Do really know what you want? What makes you happy?
Can consequences to our actions be predicted?

Which would you prefer? A world in which you earn

$50,000 a year and all your friends earn $25,000 or a
world in you earn $100,000 and your friends earn
$250,000? What does this suggest about the nature
of happiness?

DUTY ETHICS
How do rights and duties go together?
You have a duty not to steal
You have a right to property

Imagine that you and a group of colonists have

just arrived on a fertile and uninhabited planet
and decide to make a ten-point declaration of
rights. What rights would include in your
declaration? How would you justify your choice?
What determines our duties?
Intuition? Bible?

IMMANUEL KANT (17241804)

Deontological: motive is the judgment

CONSEQUENCES CANNOT EXPLAIN

WHY OUR ACTIONS ARE MORALLY
GOOD OR BAD
Penelope is a 21 year old college student short of cash.
I know, I will make a surprise visit to see my mom. She
will be so happy, she is bound to give me some money
Unbeknownst to Penelope, it happened to be her moms
birthday. Mom is so impressed youre the greatest
daughter ever. Here is some money.
Was Penelopes action moral?

MORAL ACTION
Morally wicked actions can lead to good
consequences.
Kant thinks an action that leads to bad consequences
might be morally good.
Can you think of examples

KANTS GOLDEN RULE

Act only on that maxim through which you can at
the same time will that it should become universal
law
What is he saying?

J: KANTS APPROACH
Duties should be objective and determined through
reason.
Good will is the key factor in moral judgments
The way to decide if something is your duty is to see
whether or not you can consistently generalize it.
Why is it our duty to not cut in line?
What if everyone did it?

CONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS TO SHOW

WHAT OUR DUTY IS WITH REGARD
TO EACH OF THE FOLLOWING:

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.

Stealing
Cheating on tests
Polluting the environment
Voting in elections
Plagiarizing

How convincing are these arguments?

GOOD WILL
When exactly can we be sure that our will is good?

CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE
Act only on that maxim through which you can at the
same time will that it should become universal law
Which fits?
Always keep your promises even if you do not feel like
fulfilling them.
Keep your promises unless you have a headache.

An ideal in how we ought to act.

SURVEY #1 KANT

WHY THE NEED FOR SUCH

CONSISTENCY
Do the duties apply to us?
Special pleading: our natural egoism says
the rules should generally be respected, we
are special and they do not apply to us.
The lie

VEIL OF IGNORANCE
J :Dual conception of ourselves- me and one among
others. No preferential treatment for yourself.
Reason requires objectivity: Veil of ignorance
Person X does action p to person Y. You are either
person X or Y but you dont know. What action should
be taken?

HOW DOES VEIL OF

IGNORANCE HELP?
Never treat people as a means to an end.
What does that mean? examples

ROBIN HOOD UNDER

THE KANTIAN
MICROSCOPE

What principle (maxim) is Robin Hood operating on?

Is it moral?
The Categorical imperative lens

Can we want the this principle to become universal law?

The veil of ignorance lens?

SURVEY #2 KANT

KANT: MOTIVE OVER

CONSEQUENCE
To be truly moral you should be motivated by reason not feeling.
Why? Is feeling to fickle?
3 different motives for doing good:
Expect something in return
Sympathy
Duty
Action only has moral value only if you act on motive
Who deserves more praise:
A person who helps another person because they like them, or
a person who helps another person even though they dont
like them
How does this differ from the self interest theory?

APPEAL OF KANTS
ETHICS (DUTY ETHICS)
Based on reason
True independent of experience: binding for all
humans regardless of time and place
Strict duties provide clear and unambiguous
moral directions especially when we are
unsure
Shows us that human beings have infinite
worth.
Supports the idea we are born with
fundamental rights

KANT CANT ALWAYS BE

RIGHT?
Moral absolutism
Certain moral principles should always be followed
irrespective of context.
Counter?

Rule worship
Blindly following a moral rule without regard to
consequences

Doesnt context matter? (Golden Rule)

SPECIAL CASES
Which of the following is a special case that
justifies breaking generally accepted rule?
Murder is wrong, but it would have been ok to
assassinate Hitler in 1942
-orMurder is wrong, but it would be OK to kill
someone planning a terrorist attack
Other examples?

CONFLICTS OF DUTY- HOW

WOULD KANT RESOLVE THEM?
If a person has been unfaithful to their partner,
should they confess and make their partner
unhappy, or say nothing and deceive them?
If your wife is dying of a rare disease and you
cannot afford to buy the drugs that will cure her,
are you justified in stealing the drugs?
If your grandma and a world-famous doctor are
trapped in a burning building and you only time
to rescue one of them, which one do you rescue?

KANT- IS THERE NO ROOM

FOR FEELINGS? UMM, NO
Moral Coldness:
Why were people so outraged with Nazi war
criminals?
Inhumanity or inconsistency

Does the torturer mind being called

irrational?
Dont feelings connect us, whereas reason
detaches us?

The hand of compassion was faster than

the calculus of reason

J:MORAL COLDNESS
The advantage of following moral rules is that it
helps to avoid special pleading; the disadvantage is
that it leads to rule worship. What role do you think
rules should play in moral reasoning?

MORAL COLDNESS
Relevance of following Shaw quote to
Kants moral philosophy
When a stupid man is doing something he is
ashamed of, he always declares that it is his
duty

What if everyone did that? But they

dont . To what extent does this
response undermine Kants approach to
ethics?

THEORETICAL
OBJECTIONS
An action is right if increases happiness and wrong if
it decreases it. Problems?
Most legal systems punish attempted murders less
severely than actual murder. Do you think this is
right?
What would a Kantian say? A utilitarian?

OBLIGATIONS AND
RIGHTS
Imagine that you are at a dinner party
and the food is awful. Your host asks you
if you are enjoying your meal. What
would you reply?
If someone asks you what think of them,
how honest would you be in your
response? How honest should you be?

THE GOLDEN RULE

CLARIFIED
What problem to the golden rule is posed in the short
story?

RULE UTILITARIANISMBEST OF BOTH

WORLDS?

We should judge the rightness or wrongness of an

action not by whether it promotes general happiness
but by whether it conforms to a rule that promotes
general happiness.

Imagine that you are the sole heir to your

great-uncles fortune of $5 million. On his
deathbed, he makes you swear to use the
money to establish a butterfly farm. After
his death, and without telling anyone, you
decide to ignore your promise and give
the money to an AIDS charity. Is your
action right or wrong?

WHAT LIGHT CAN THE MORAL THEORIES WE HAVE LOOKED AT IN

THIS UNIT SHED ON THE QUESTIONS WE RAISED IN THE BEGINNING?

Is abortion ever justified?

Should drugs be legalized?
Are there limits to free speech?
Is there such a thing as a just war?

ANOTHER OPTION
Both utilitarianism and duty ethics have something in
common
Both try to develop general and universal criteria that
allow us to classify actions as either morally good or
bad.
Action or rule.

What about the role of the decision maker (agent in

deliberations)?

VIRTUE ETHICS: A
DIFFERENT APPROACH
Suppose you have to explain to a child why lying is
morally wrong.
Utilitarianism: lying is bad because it leads to bad
consequences
Duty ethics: lying is wrong because it we would not
want to be lied to
Virtue ethics: lying is wrong because lying tends to
corrupt our character.

VIRTUE ETHICS:
CHANGING THE ?
The question is not What ought I do? Instead the
question is What sort of person ought I be?
Therefore the moral life is the one in which we strive to
improve our moral character.
No need to look for universal laws but rather what type
of moral character is praiseworthy
Virtues are character traits that allow agents to act
habitually well.

NICOMACHEAN ETHICS
Happiness vs pleasure
The goal is eudaimonia : happiness, or ?
Moral virtues are character traits that are a mean
between to vices.
The morally virtuous always chooses to act
according to the golden mean.
Courage is the mean- rashness is one extreme and
being a coward the other
Examples
Does every action have a mean? Spite, adultery, murder

How does one become morally virtuous?

Through habit

VIRTUE ETHICS
What are some virtues?
How long is the list?
Why is this advantageous?
What function do role models provide?
Survey 2 (Virtue Ethics)

ROBIN HOOD : WOULD A VIRTUAL

ETHICAL THINKER APPROVE?
Opposes the new King
Virtue: Loyalty (not rebelliousness)

Gives to the poor

Virtue: compassion

Humorous and gentle

Good friend
Courageous leader

VIRTUE ETHICS: THE

APPEAL
Morality is a practical affair
Meshes well with common sense
Moral motivation:
Why does the Kantian call mom for mothers day?
Why does the utilitarian call mom for mothers day?
The virtuous person calls because.

Does not require impartiality. Ex child or stranger

drowning choice

VIRTUE ETHICS:
PROBLEMS
The other theories help provide answers to
specific moral questions.
We want to know whether it is morally right to
execute dangerous criminals or whether it is
morally required of us to help a terminally sick
patient to die.
Virtue ethics recommends we do what a
completely virtuous person would do?
1. How can we identify a completely virtuous
person?
2. How does the role model know what to do in
difficult ethical situations.

VIRTUE ETHICS:
PROBLEMS
Is there such a thing a universally virtuous person?
Or is it culturally dependent?
What if virtues conflict?
The honest thing to do is not always the most prudent
or courageous.
How does one weigh virtues against each other?

ETHICS- REFLECTION
Ethics is inescapable
Can we be certain we are doing the right thing?
Does this mean ethics is insoluble?

AT WHAT COST?
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
Imagine Tom, who is an orphan with no
family and few friends, is in the hospital
for a cataract operation, and that the
man in the bed on his left is dying of
kidney failure, and the man in the bed on
his right is dying of heart failure.
What do you think the a utilitarian would say
you should do in this situation, and what
difficulties does this create for utilitarianism?

HOW MIGHT A UTILITARIAN

RESOLVE THE FOLLOWING?
Amanda is a malicious individual who
devotes her time to making life as difficult
as possible for everyone in your class.
Mr. Conlon is a good utilitarian and one
day decide that it is time to do something
to increase happiness. He hides some
crack in Amandas backpack. He calls the
principal and Amanda is expelled from
school. Goodbye Amanda, hello
happiness!

VALUES AND DIGNITY

Can one sacrifice ones individual life for the
greater good?
Computer vs life
Why is one replaceable and the other not?

Do animals have dignity?