An

Introduction to
Ethics

ESP Adornado, MPA

1
2 What is right and wrong?

– A 12-year-old girl was taken in marriage in the village of

Lohutok, S. Sudan. Is that good or bad? Why?
– Should the death penalty apply for a man or woman
engaged in consensual homosexual acts?
– Is it good for a husband to donate his sperm to his infertile
wife, so that she can be artificially inseminated and
perhaps bear their child?
3 Religion
Philosophy

– Founded upon revelation – Founded upon reason

– Concerned with morals – Concerned with ethics
– Morals are absolute. – Ethics are relative. (School of
– Have to do with person- to-God Morals?)
– Are person-to-person
– Concerned with
“supranature” – Not concerned with nature,
but with “metanature”
– Miracles are a part
(science concerned with
– Goal is to find God nature)
– Arthur A. Custance, Noah’s – Miracles are irrelevant
Three Sons, p. 29. – Goal is to find truth
4 Ethics (Moral Philosophy)
Defined

– It concerns the nature of the right [deontology] and the

nature of the good [utility].
– Theories of the good are of two basic types:
– Theistic ( based upon the assumption of a God)
– Philosophical/anthropological (based upon reason)
5 Theistic ethics

– Monotheistic (believing in one god) religions, such as

Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believe that one God
exists, can be accessed, and is in control of earthly events.
– Their holy books provide detailed guidance as to what God
considers to be right and good.
– This guidance is taken as absolute, and may be in the form of
commands.
6 Absolute and Relative Theistic
Ethics

– Some theists believe in moral absolutes—that certain acts,

thoughts and failures to act are always wrong. Absolutes
are contained in books believed to have been transmitted
from God.
– Other theists consider “absolutes” more as guidelines and
would consider absolutists as presumptuous or even
arrogant.
7 Indo-European Origins of
Philosophy

– Indo-European tribes conquered India from the northwest

from about 1800-1500 BC. They produced the Vedas
(“knowledge”) which are the oldest of Hindu sacred books.
(Noss & Noss, p. 73-74).
– The Greeks are another branch of these tribes. (Noss, p. 73).
– “Only Indo-Europeans have continually returned to the
fundamental problems of metaphysics, the Aryans in India
(giving rise to Hindu Philosophy), the Greeks in Greece….”
Arthur A. Custance, Noah’s Three Sons, Zondervan, 1975, p. 31.
8 Hindu/Buddhist philosophy

– “The gods of the early Indo-Europeans were gods of light,

but this light was not moral light but rather the
illumination of the mind or understanding.”
– Philosophy can be defined as “strictly rational speculation,
concerned with the ultimate nature and meaning of reality,
apart from revelation, to satisfy a purely intellectual
need…” Custance, p. 30.
9 3 Stages in the History of Ethics

– First stage: moral authority shifted from above humans (the

divine), to humans.
– Second stage: extending the belief that humans are
responsible only to humans
– Rise of nihilism and relativism
– Third stage: focus shifting from individual to public ethics—
toward utilitarianism.
– Applied ethics is popular
– Virtue ethics is gaining ground
– From J. B. Schneewind, “Modern moral philosophy,” ch. 12 in A
Companion to Ethics, Peter Singer, ed. ISBN: 0631187855
10 Philosophical ethics--
Assumptions

– Assumes that humans are basically good, and can be more

ethical.
– Reason is a sufficient basis for developing ethics.
– Humans are accountable only to other humans.
11 Philosophical ethics--
Assumptions

– Carl F.H. Henry noted these assumptions:

1. “nature is the ultimate reality”

2. Humans are essentially animals.
3. “truth and right are intrinsically time-
bound and changing”

Carl F. H. Henry, Christian Personal Ethics, 1957, p. 23

12 Locating Ethics Within
Philosophy

Meta-ethics “What is
(philosophical goodness?”
questions) How are good and
bad determined?
Normative ethics “What should we
(“moral” do?”
questions) Deontology
Ethical theory Utility, Virtue,
 
13 Theological/philosophical
Monotheistic
Philosophical/ Animistic
worldviews
Anthropological/
Utopian

Kingdom Divine Kingdom is Political, social Balancing between

coming human & spirits

God Is sovereign We are the gods God is gone

Power Is God’s & delegated Is ours, by reason, Belongs to the spirits

majority, force

Goal Please God Please people or self Please spirits

People Sinful (Islam--less so) Basically good-- Basically good

optimistic

Accountable To God To people To spirits

14 Moral Facts [Truth]

– Ethicial philosophers can be classified in one of two ways:

– (1 those who believe that moral facts exist, and
– (2 those who either deny that moral facts exist, or, if they exist,
deny that they can be known.
15 Schools of Those Who Accept
Moral Truth

– A further division--for those who have come so far as to

believe that moral good exists--is among those who
emphasize
– what is right (deontologists)
– what is good (utilitarians or consequentialists)
– virtue or character as the basis for ethics.
Ethical
Theories:
16 MoralTheories
Truth Exists: of Moral Truth
Moral Truth Doesn’t Exist:

Cognitivism (“moral facts” can be Non-cognitivism (“Moral facts” are just

discovered by reason expressions of desire.)
Descriptivism (“Moral judgments can be Non-descriptivism (Moral judgments are
true or false.”) neither true or false.)
Sources in , A
Companion to
Intuitionism (We know right and wrong Projectivism (We project our values upon a
Ethics, Peter innately—”moral sense theory.”) world that has none.)
Singer, Ed.
“Relativism” by
David Wong, pp.
Naturalism (Moral facts are found in Nihilism (Moral facts don’t exist and morality is
442-450 nature and are scientific or social scientific.) false.)

Realism”, Michael
Smith, p 399-410
Absolutism (Bible, Prescriptivist) Relativism (Morality is a function of culture and
(There is one truth-- two sides can’t be history—it isn’t absolute.)
right.)

“Intuitionism” by
Jonathan Dancy,
Moral Realism (moral facts validated by Irrealism (There are no moral facts.)
pp. 411-419 the consensus of behavior and
bycircumstances—”
“Universal
Prescriptivism”, by
Consequentialism (Try to find the most Error theory (“denies that moral sentences
R.M. Hare, pp. good for the most people.) express propositions”) Wikipedia “Ethical Naturalism”
451-463
Moral Deontological (of Consequential (of Virtue, Character
theories: the “Right”) the “Good”)
17 Theories that “right” exists
Basis: Absolutes Consequence Character

Activity: Obeying Weighing Being

Example: Universal Utilitarianism Greek (Plato)

prescriptivism Aquinas
(Kant)
Natural law Egoism Humanistic
Hedonism Franklin

Naturalism Biblical
18 Arguments against absolutes:
Diversity

– Because moral standards differ so much among cultures, morality

derives from local ethics, not from innate moral absolutes
– But diversity can say nothing about what is right and wrong, only
about what is.
– Diversity does not rule out absolutes. One system can still be right.
– An overall pattern or morality is there, despite differences in
details. Generally, stealing and murder within the in-group and
adultery are wrong, while penalties differ. (Ethics: Approaching
moral decisions. Arthur F. Holmes. 2nd ed., 2007, ISBN: 978-0-
8308-2803-6, p. 136)
19 Arguments against absolutes:
Diversity

– Local moral standards have been transformed by Christian

teaching, reducing diversity. Examples are slavery and
cannibalism. (Holmes, citing William Frankena, p. 20)
– Other examples are killing twins and albinos in Africa, and burning
widows (sutee).
– "[T]he relativist cannot consistently reject all intolerance. In
tolerating other moralities than his own, he must tolerate their
intolerance....Further, at least one virtue, tolerance, is then not
entirely relative; and at least one moral belief, the belief that
we ought to be tolerant, is taken to be true." (Holmes, p. 23)
20 Argument against absolutes:
Dependency (determinism)

– Humans are socialized into accepting moral/ethical

practices, which they must accept.
– People cannot believe otherwise—beliefs are determined by
environment.
– If so, how do non-conformists, reformers and prophets arise?
– Determinism is not a view that can be chosen, since those who
believe it have no choice but to believe it. If so, the determinist
cannot say that this view is independently better than another.
(Holmes, p. 139)
21 Argument against absolutes: Dependency
(determinism)

– The Holy Spirit, by the power and grace of God, can

overcome any environmental upbringing and social norms,
as well as ethics generated by sin.
22 Lack of consensus among philosophers

– Moral philosophers tend to pull down one another's

theories, while confidently highlighting their own. You find
that few agree as to what moral facts there may be, and
some cannot even agree that moral facts are possible. Even
if such facts could somehow be discovered by reason
alone, ethicists would probably not rally around them.
They have been trying for at least 2500 years, but have
reached no consensus.
23 Human value in Hinduism

– Hinduism: everything is one (monism), so humans have no

special value.
– One creation account reads: “In the beginning this [universe]
was the Self alone—in the likeness of a man.” “He was afraid,”
and lonely, so he created a woman. Self split into man and
woman and then had intercourse, creating human beings.
Further relations produced the animals. “He knew that he was
[the whole of] creation, for he had brought it all forth. Hence
he became [all] creation.” Brihadaranyaka Upanishad I, iv:1-5
24 Human value in Buddhism

– The first step on the Eightfold Path is “anatta”—there is no

“self” or “atman.”
– The corollary is that all is an illusion--“maya.”
– Individuality is ignorance. Bentley-Taylor, p. 172-173
– However, since Buddha claimed no special revelation, he
went on to propose an extremely difficult ethic, based
upon his reasoning. E.A. Burtt, p. 27
– How can one follow step two, renouncing lust and ill-will, if the
self is illusory?
25 Human value in Islam

– Individual value seems to be based upon performance and

obedience to Allah.
– Allah loves those who do right, but does not love the
transgressor or prodigals (Surah 2:195, 222; 5:87). Human
worth is conditional, not based upon God’s grace.
26 Evolutionary ethics

– If the material universe is the product of nothing, plus

time, plus chance, or if matter itself is eternal, there is no
necessary value to that universe, or anything in it.
– Ethics becomes a matter of personal choice, plus culture, plus
a point on the time spectrum.
– Right and wrong are defined by the majority and enforced by
sanctions.
27 Valentine (March 2010)

– He is a physics student in a European university.

– He accepts no absolutes, not wanting anyone to tell him what to do.
Religion is used to control people, he believes.
– He repeated several times that he didn’t know the difference between right
and wrong, and used those terms as if they had definable content. I
suggested that he would not want me to steal his wallet or to abduct his
sister, with whom he was traveling. He thought that in some circumstances
taking his money would be justified [situation ethics], but did not respond
to the abduction statement.
– Individuals had value because they formed communities. He seemed to be
concerned for minorities. A weakness of utilitarian ethics is that minorities
are not protected, if good is defined by doing the most good for the
greatest number.
END
28 Valentine

– He claimed that the UN hurt developing peoples by providing

free commodities, hurting businesses providing these items,
revealing concerned for small business people.
– He advocates going to a tribe or people to help them to clarify
their own values, for each individual to determine what is right
and wrong.
– How each person formulating his own ethical system would foster
community he did not say. This seems instead to be the worst
possible foundation for community.
– The person has no intrinsic worth.
– So is the terrible task of defining good and evil for one’s self,
with its inevitable inconsistencies.