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 don’t share the principles
/ What if Tom doesn’t 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 COUNTRY’S 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 man’s
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 country’s 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 God’s 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
Abraham’s 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 God’s 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: UTILITARIANISM“MAXIMIZE 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 Hood’s actions morally right?
• Isn’t 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 everyone’s 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)
• No qualitative differences
in terms of pleasure.
• Therefore it is possible for
a lonely person to be
happy.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• 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 don’t 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 mom’s
birthday. Mom is so impressed “you’re the greatest
daughter ever”. Here is some money.
• Was Penelope’s 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
KANT’S 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: KANT’S 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?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
CONSTRUCT ARGUMENTS TO
SHOW WHAT OUR DUTY IS WITH
REGARD TO EACH OF THE
FOLLOWING:
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 don’t 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 don’t like them
/ How does this differ from the self interest theory?
APPEAL OF KANT’S
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 CAN’T 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
/ Doesn’t 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?
/ Don’t 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
Kant’s 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 don’t
“. To what extent does this response
undermine Kant’s 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-uncle’s 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 mother’s day?
• Why does the utilitarian call mom for mother’s 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 Amanda’s backpack. He calls the
principal and Amanda is expelled from
school. Goodbye Amanda, hello
happiness!
VALUES AND DIGNITY
/ Can one sacrifice one’s individual life for the
greater good?
/ Computer vs life
/ Why is one replaceable and the other not?
/ Do animals have dignity?