Lesson 1

Morality

 Morality is the system through which we determine right and wrong conduct -- i.e., the guide to good or right conduct.

Moral Theory

 A moral theory explains why a certain action is wrong -- or why we ought to act in certain ways.
 In short, it is a theory of how we determine right and wrong conduct.

Are moral theories descriptive or prescriptive?

 In presenting a moral theory, are we merely describing how people, in their everyday 'doings' and 'thinking,' form a judgement
about what is right and wrong, or are we prescribing how people ought to make these judgements?

Theories of Morality

1. Moral Subjectivism
a. Right and wrong is determined by what you -- the subject -- just happens to think (or 'feel') is right or wrong.
b. Moral subjectivism amounts to the denial of moral principle of any significant kind, and the possibility of moral criticism
and argumentation.
2. Cultural Relativism
a. Right and wrong is determined by the particular set of principles or rules the relevant culture just happens to hold at the
time.
3. Ethical Egoism
a. Right and wrong is determined by what is in your self-interest. Or, it is immoral to act contrary to your self-interest.
4. Divine Command Theory
a. Claims that religion is necessary to motivate and guide people to behave in morally good way, most take the claim of the
necessary connection between morality and religion to mean that right and wrong come from the commands of God (or
the gods). This view of morality is known as Divine Command Theory
5. Virtue Ethics
a. Right and wrong are characterized in terms of acting in accordance with the traditional virtues making the good person
6. Feminist Ethics
a. Right and wrong is to be found in womens' responses to the relationship of caring.

7. Utilitarianism
a. Right and wrong is determined by the overall goodness (utility) of the consequences of action.
b. Utilitarianism is a Consequentialist moral theory
c. Utilitarianism-Other key points:
d. For Utilitarians, no action is intrinsically right or wrong.
e. No person's preferences or interests (including your own, your relatives, friends, neighbors, etc.) carry a greater weight
than any other person's.
f. Usually, we cannot make the required utilitarian calculation before acting. So, in most situations, following 'rules of thumb'
will produce the best consequences.
g. Democratic and economic principles reflect Utilitarianism.
8. Kantian Theory
a. Right and wrong is determined by rationality, giving universal duties.
b. Kantianism is a non-consequentialist moral theory
c. Basic ideas: That there is “the supreme principle of morality. Good and evil are defined in terms of Law/ Duty/ Obligation.
9. Rights-based Theories
a. We are to act in accordance with a set of moral rights, which we possess simply by being human.
b. Right-based views are connected to Kantianism and are Non-consequentialist. The basic idea is that if someone has a
right, then others have a corresponding duty to provide what that right requires.
10. Contractarianism
a. The principles of right and wrong (or Justice) are those which everyone in society would agree upon in forming a social
contract.

Determinism

 In this view, all of reality is already in a sense pre-determined or pre-existent and, therefore, nothing new can come into existence
 It is the theory that everything in the universe is governed by casual laws
 That is everything in the universe is entirely determined so that whatever happens at any given moment is the effect of some
antecedent cause.
 B.F. Skinner, an extremely influential behavior psychologist from Harvard, is one of those who advocated the idea of determinism
that human freedom is merely an illusion and all our behavior is controlled by a network of environment, psychological and
sociological stimuli.
 According to Baron Henri d’Holbach, “the actions of man are never free; they are always the NECESSARY CONSEQUENCE of
temperament, of the received ideas, and the notions, either true or false, which he has formed to himself of happiness.”
 All moral precepts would in such case be meaningless – Walter Space

The Comprise Between Free Will and Determinism

 John Kavanaugh
o Extremes of determinism, states that “if we are all absolutely determined, then we all must be deluded at the very heart of
our primary experience, for it seems that almost all normal experience some degree of freedom in choosing or being able
to say something about their own actions.

What is Ethics?

 It is the study of right and wrong

 It refers to the systematic endeavor to understand moral concepts and justify moral principle and theories.
 It undertakes to analyze such concepts as right, wrong, permissible, ought, good and evil in their moral context.
 Philosophical sense, the sense that concern us, ethical is two-sided discipline.
o Metaethics, examines ethical system to appraise their logical foundation and internal consistency.
o Normative Ethics, answers specific moral question, determining what is reasonable and therefore what people should
believe.

Ethics and Religion

 Religion is a set of organized beliefs, practices, and systems that most often relate to belief and worship of a controlling force such
as a personal.
 Religion is a by-product of cultural Evolutionism.” – Robert Wright, The Evolution of God, 2009
 Religion is not simply an institutionalization of man’s assent to spontaneous divine revelation; it is also an apparent off-shoot of his
constant adaptation to both his and his surrounding’s ever changing needs. – Edward Taylor
 “Morality may be closely bound up with religion, and moral behavior is typically held to be essential to the practice of religion.”
 According to Pojman, both ethics and religion basically seek the same thing- the establishment of a vivid foundation and virtuous
parameter for the conducts and affair of human being.
 For instance, on the issue of capital punishment or death penalty, arguments would normally towed the line of the 5th
commandment engraved in the well-known tablets found in the book of Exodus – “Thou shalt not kill”

Catholicism and Capital Punishment

St. Augustine writes in The City of God:

 The same divine law which forbids the killing of a human being allows certain exceptions, as when God authorizes killing by a
general law or when He gives an explicit commission to an individual for a limited time. Since the agent of authority is but a sword
in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" to wage war at
God's bidding, or for the representatives of the State's authority to put criminals to death, according to law or the rule of rational
justice.
 The purposes of criminal punishment are rather unanimously delineated in the Catholic tradition. Punishment is held to have a
variety of ends that may conveniently be reduced to the following four: Rehabilitation, Defense against the criminal,
Deterrence, Retribution.

Ethics and Law

 The law is a system of rules that a society or government develops in order to deal with crime, business agreements, and social
relationships.
 Law can promote well-being and social harmony and can resolve conflict of interest, just as morality does.

Lesson 2

Ghetto

 The term ghetto refers to an urban area with low property values and relatively little public or private investment.
 Ghettos are also characterized by high unemployment, high rates of crime, inadequate municipal services, and high drop-out rates
from schools.

Ethical Relativism: Who we are to judge?

 is the doctrine that the moral rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society to society and that there are no absolute
universal moral standards binding on all men at all times, accordingly, it holds that whether or not is relative to the society to which
he belongs.” Citing John Ladd, Ethical Relativism, Pojman, Philosophical Traditions 420.

Types of Relativism

Cultural Relativism

 Describes the simple fact that there are different cultures and each has different ways of behaving, thinking and feeling as its
members learn such from the previous generation.

Descriptive Ethical Relativism

 Describes the fact that in different cultures one of the variants is the sense of morality: the mores, customs and ethical principles
may all vary from one culture to another.

Normative Ethical Relativism

 Is a theory, which claims that there are no universally valid moral principles. Normative ethical relativism theory says that the moral
rightness and wrongness of actions varies from society to society and that there are no absolute universal moral standards binding
on all men at all times.

EGOISM: Why should I be concerned?

 Egoism is the philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or ego, as the motivation and goal of one's own action.

ETHICAL EGOISM

1. Common-sense Egoism

 According to this view, egoism is a vice. It involves putting one’s own concerns over those of others. One’s behavior is egoistic if it
involves putting one’s own interests over those of others to an immoderate degree.

2. Psychological Egoism

 Argument For: Human agents always, at least on a deep-down level, are all egoists insofar as our behavior, explainable in terms of
our beliefs and desires, is always aimed at what we believe is our greatest good (Baier, 1991, p. 203).
 Objection: The psychological egoist confuses egoistic desires with motivation. An agent may act contrary to his desires and what is
in his own best interest.

3. Egoism as a Means to the Common Good Argument For

 According to the economist, Adam Smith, when entrepreneurs are unimpeded by legal or self-imposed moral constraint to protect
the good of others, they are ble to promote their own good and, as a result, provide the most efficient means of promoting the good
of others (Baier, 1991, p. 201; see MacKinnon, p. 24). Such a view leads to the doctrine that, “if each pursues her own interest as
she conceives of it, then the interest of everyone is promoted” (Baier, 1991, p. 200).
 Objection: Apart from positing an “invisible hand” guiding the market processes, the common-good egoist makes the fallacy,
ascribed to J.S. Mill, that if each person promotes her own interest, then everyone else’s interests are thereby promoted. “Clearly,
this is a fallacy, for the interests of different individuals or classes may, and under certain conditions (of which the scarcity of
necessities is the most obvious), do conflict. Then the interest of one is the detriment of the other” (Baier, 1991, p. 200).

4. Rational Egoism

 Rational egoism is concerned with reasonable action.

 Strong Rational Egoism: It is always rational to aim at one’s own greatest good, and never rational not to do so (Baier, 1991, p.
201).
 Weak Rational Egoism: It is always rational to aim at one’s own greatest good, but not necessarily never rational not to do so
(Baier, 1991, p. 201).

RATIONAL EGOISM Argument For

 When doing something does not prima facie appear to be in our interest, our doing said act requires that we justify our action by
showing that it is in our interest, thereby justifying our action.
 Objection: Such an approach to justifying actions in our own interest may be abused if we do not have criteria established to
determine what the interests of agents amount to. If such criteria are established, such actions may be reasonable so long as they
do not result in conflicts between agents. In such cases, creative middle ways are called for.

5. Ethical Egoism
 Coupled with ethical rationalism—” the doctrine that if a moral requirement or recommendation is to be sound or acceptable,
complying with it must be in accordance with reason”—rational egoism implies ethical egoism (Baier, 1991, p. 201).
 Strong Ethical Egoism: It is always right to aim at one’s own greatest good, and never right not to do so (Baier, 1991, p. 201).
 Weak Ethical Egoism: It is always right to aim at one’s own greatest good, but not necessarily never right not to do so (Baier, 1991,
p. 201).
 Argument For: If we accept rational egoism, and if we accept ethical rationalism, then we must accept ethical egoism. This is the
case because if acting in one’s own self-interest is reasonable, then it is a moral requirement that one acts in one’s own self-
interest.
 Objection: Ethical egoism is incompatible with ethical conflict-regulation. Consider the following example from Kurt Baier, regarding
the problem over whether it would be morally wrong for me to kill my grandfather so that he will be unable to change his will and
disinherit me (1991, p. 202)

Three Types of Ethical Egoism

1. Personal Ethical Egoism

 Personal egoists maintain that they are going to act in their own self-interest and that anything else is irrelevant to them.
2. Individual Ethical Egoism
 The difference between personal egoism, and individual egoism is that the latter does make a claim about how other people ought
to act.
3. Universal Ethical Egoism
 Whereas individual ethical egoists think all people ought to act in their own self-interest, universal ethical egoists think that each
individual ought to cat in his or her own self-interest.

Utilitarianism

 Utilitarianism is a philosophical view or theory about how we should evaluate a wide range of things that involve choices that
people face.
 Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism because it rests on the idea that it is the consequences or results of actions, laws,
policies, etc. that determine whether they are good or bad, right or wrong.
 Utilitarianism appears to be a simple theory because it consists of only one evaluative principle: Do what produces the best
consequences.