phl5 - notes - intro wit sample cases

8/6/2019 Phl5 - Notes - Intro Wit Sample Cases

1/43

MORAL SITUATIONS

AN OVERVIEW


2/43


3/43

How Should We Live as Individuals?

Every day we each face personal decisions on

how we should live.

We understand many of these decisionsmatter. We ask:

Am I doing the right thing?

How will this affect who I am? How might it

change me? Will it change me for the better?

How might it affect others?


4/43

How Should We Live?

What isgoodand what is bad?

What actions are rightand what actions are

wrong? As individuals, and as a society, we are

continually facing such questions. We are, in

other words, continually having to makeethical (=moral) decisions.


5/43


6/43

Some Ethical Challenges

In the novel SophiesChoice by William

Styron, Sophie is required at a Nazi

concentration camp to choose which of hertwo children the Nazis will execute. If she

refuses to choose, they will execute both

children.

What should Sophie do?


7/43

Introduction

Some Ethical Challenges You are driving a trolley down a track. The

brakes fail. If you do nothing, the trolley will killten people crossing at the upcoming red-light.

There is fortunately a side spur you could turnthe trolley onto and spare the ten people.However, there is a child playing on the sidespur, and if you turn the trolley onto it, you will

kill the child. What should you do?


8/43

Introduction

Some Ethical Challenges

You discover proof that your parents have

embezzled a large amount of money from the

company they work for.You have confrontedthem, but they deny the charge. If you report

them, they will go to prison and their lives will

be ruined. If you dont report them, the

company will be ruined. What should you do?


9/43

Introduction

Some Ethical Challenges Your wife is dying of a rare cancer. A pharmacist in your town, after years of research,

has discovered a drug that will cure the cancer, andis charging 10 times the amount it takes tomanufacture it.

After borrowing from everyone you can, you havegathered only half the purchase price.

You go to the pharmacist, who refuses to sell the

drug to you for half-off, declaring that he discoveredthe drug and is entitled to make as much as he canfrom his discovery.

Should you steal the drug?


10/43

Contemporary Moral Trends

Power is might; Might is right!

Morals are what society expects.

The individual is the measure of right and wrong.

Right is moderation

Right is what brings pleasure

Right is the greatest good for the greater number

Right is what is desirable for it's own sake.

Right/ wrong is situational.


11/43

ETHICAL SYSTEMS (1)

RELATIVISM: all points of view are equally

valid

all truth is relative to the individual all moral positions, all religious systems,

art forms, political movements, etc., are

truths that are relative to the individual .


12/43

Forms of Relativism

cognitive relativism (truth)- : no objective standard oftruth.

No God as absolute truth.

moral/ethical relativism - -all morals are relative tothe social group withinwhich they areconstructed.

situational relativism - thatethics (right and wrong) aredependent upon thesituation.


13/43

Might is right

Superman Philosophy

Friedrich Nietszche

- anti- religion (Xty) - Anti- Virtue

- No God

Superior Race: Hitler:

Nazism


14/43

Right is Indefinable It is

situational

Situation Ethics

Relativism


15/43

Relativism

"anything goes" philosophy situation determines actions and if the situation changes,

lying or cheating is acceptable -- as long as you're not caught.

if all the things are relative, then there cannot be anythingthat is absolutely true between individuals

No common ground from which to judge right and wrong ortruth?

If all moral views are equally valid, then do we have the rightto punish anyone? Can we ever say that something is wrong?


16/43

ETHICAL SYSTEMS (2)

SECULAR HUMANISM :

principles of ethical conduct are judged on their

ability to enhance human well-being andindividual responsibility (CouncilforSecularHumanism)

an attempt to function as a civilized societywith the exclusion of God and His moral

principles.


17/43

SECULAR HUMANISM

based upon humanreason, actions, andmotives without

concern of deity orsupernaturalphenomena.


18/43

UTILITARIANISM (3)

: the end of humanconduct ishappiness

: the discriminatingnorm whichdistinguishes

conduct into rightand wrong ispleasure and pain.


19/43

Right is the greatest good for the

greater number Utilitarianism

Universal Hedonism

The greatest good or happiness for the greatestnumber of people.

SocialUtilitarianism (Altruism)

EgoisticUtilitarianism


20/43

Right is what brings pleasure

Hedonism

Pain and sufferingare things to be

avoided

Short cut

Consumerism:

culture of having


21/43

ETHICAL SYSTEMS (4)

CONSEQUENTIALISM

What is rightdepends on the

result.. Teleological Ethics

Greek telos: end orgoal.

Concerned with the end-point or results of anaction


22/43


23/43

Ethical Absolutism

Gets some things right :

We need to make judgments (at least

sometimes)

Certain things are intolerable

Gets some things wrong, including:

Our truth is the truth

We cant learn from others


24/43

Right is what is desirable for

it's own sake Deontology

The good is found in the action itself and notbased on its consequences or results.

Thus it is our duty to do the right action


25/43

What is right is what is

legal Legalist Ethics ( Legalism )

What the law says

Nothing beyond what is written:

True meaning of justice??


26/43

THEONOMOUS ETHICS (6)

rooted in the very natureof God.

FAITH requires the loveand service of onesfellow man as anessential expression ofthe service of God.

love of neighbor as anessential expression oflove for God


27/43

Right is what God revealed

Christian Ethics : on life and words of Christ


28/43

Right is moderation

Virtue Ethics

Happiness is achieved through the development ofgood habits: intellectual (for example knowledge)and practical action and emotion (for examplecourage).

Golden Mean neither excess nor deficiency.

Aristotle : Three natures of man : Vegetative

Rational Animal


29/43

7/12/2011 Christian Ethics Part 1 29

EVALUATION


30/43


31/43

Are there universal moral principles that apply to allpeople, regardless of the time or place that theylive?

1. Yes: Ethical Objectivism and Ethical Absolutism 2. No: Ethical Relativism

ConventionalEthical Relativism (Conventionalism): Moralprinciples and truths are purely a product of the culture.

Subjective Ethical Relativism (Subjectivism): Moral principles andtruths depend on the individual. Morality is in the eye of thebeholder.

3. No: Ethical Nihilism.

There are no ethical or moral truths.

Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismTerminology


32/43

Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismCulture Relativism vs. Ethical Relativism

Ethical Objectivism and Ethical Absolutism donot deny that there is Cultural Relativism: Cultures vary widely and have different moral codes

which may: Include some ethical principles that are unique to the

culture and which are not universal,

Apply universal ethical principles in ways unique to theculture.

Ethical Relativism goes beyond CulturalRelativism by insisting that there are nouniversal moral principles or truths at all.


33/43

Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismCulture Relativism vs. Ethical Relativism

Ethical Relativism that moral principles or

truths are relative, purely a product of the

culture -- would insist, for example, that:

Western society has no basis to condemn the practiceof female circumcision in Northern Africa (cutting offthe external genitalia)

Estimate: 4 to 5 million women suffer this each year.


34/43


35/43

WHAT ARE THE UNIVERSALMORAL PRINCIPLES?


36/43

Universal Moral Principles

How Many Principles?

Any Christian ethical system is a ethical

objectivism system, claiming that there are

universal moral principles that apply to alltime and all places.

But what are the universal moral principles?

How many are there?


37/43

Universal Moral Principles

Multiple Principles

Other systems claim multiple universal

principles. Examples:

Christian ethical systems based on the TenCommandments and the Sermon on the Mount

The Moral Theology of the Roman CatholicChurch, based on:

Divine Law Natural Law


38/43

DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICSVERSUS TELEOLOGICAL

ETHICS


39/43

Deontological v. Teleological

Ethics For example: lying: In teleological systems (= consequentialist ethics), the

morality of lying would depend on the consequence oroutcome of the lie.

In deontological systems (= nonconsequentialist ethics),the very act of lying is seen as intrinsically wrong.

If the Nazis ask if you have Jewish refugees in yourhouse:

In a teleological approach, it is okay to lie to try to savethe refugees.

In a very strict deontological system (such as ImmanuelKants), the moral act is to tell the truth, because lying isan intrinsic evil.


40/43

Deontological v. Teleological

Ethics The most common system of teleological

ethics is Utilitarianism: always act to bring

about the greatest amount of good and theleast amount of evil the greatest number of

people.


41/43

ETHICS OF BEING VERSUSAN ETHICS OF DOING


42/43

Ethics of Being vs. Doing

Thus far we have been talking about Ethics ofDoing (=Action-based Ethics =Ethics ofConduct), emphasizing the morality ofactions.

(What is the right action? ) Another approach to ethics is an Ethics of Being=Virtue-based Ethics =Aretaic (Greek arete,meaning virtue) Ethics.

Virtue-based ethics says that what isfundamental to ethics is the kind of person weare, our character and motivations. (What kindof person I want to become?)


43/43

Ethics of Being vs. Doing

There is clearly a relationship between our character/ personal virtues, and our actions / conduct. Threeviews of that relationship can be described as: Ethics of Being (=Virtue based Ethics): virtues are what

is essential in ethics and have intrinsic value. UniversalPrinciples are derived from virtue.

Ethics of Doing (= Action based Ethics): Action-guidingprinciples are what is essential in ethics. These principlesbuild character and virtue.

ComplementarityEthics or Pluralistic Ethics: Virtue-based ethics and action-based ethical systems arecomplementary and both are necessary for a completeethical system.

phl5 - notes - intro wit sample cases

Documents