Popular Approaches to Ethics
I Do What I think, Winter 2011
Write as many issues as you can think of that people disagree about—whether they’re world issues,
difficult personal decisions, problems with friends, politics, religion, etc.
Be specific:
Ethics
Definition
Deontology
Consequentialism
Virtue Ethics
Pragmatism
“Do not kill”
Advantages
Disadvantages
A Quick Overview (of Ethics)
Deontology (Deontological Ethics) “What is right to do depends only on the rightness of the act itself.”
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Emmanuel Kant: (The Categorical Imperative) We must act from a sense of duty, and the
motives behind why we act matter more than what actually happens. We should…
o “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should
become a universal law” (Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals, by Emmanuel Kant)

John Rawls: Imagine everyone is on a level playing field before we being to participate in the
world, that no one knows their place in the future society, and they all have equal say in how the
society will be setup. Rawls thinks two things will be agreed upon:
1. Everyone will be guaranteed basic rights and liberties to pursue many different
versions of “the good.”
2. Everyone will have equal opportunity for educational and employment to enable fair
competition.
(A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls)
Consequentialism (Consequentialist Ethics) “What is right depends on the actual results of our actions.”
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Utilitarianism: The right/wrongness of an act consists in maximizing happiness and minimizing
suffering.
o Total utility: total happiness is what matters—the more happiness, the better.
o Average utility: the average happiness of a population is what matters—the higher
percentage of the population that’s happy, the better.
(Reasons and Persons, by Derek Parfit)
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Teleology: The right/wrongness of an act is determined by whether or not it achieves its purpose
(telos).
o Intrinsic finality: The view that there is a “natural good” for all things and that the
fulfillment of this is good. (e.x., “a pencil is meant to be written with”)
o Extrinsic finality: The view that the purpose that a thing works for is an a good that is
external to the thing. (e.x., “animals exist for the use of humans.”)
(Metaphysics: Book Theta, by Aristotle)
Virtue Ethics: “What is right depends on the moral character of the actor.”

Plato:
o Virtue: a “morally valuable” character trait—not a tendency to act a certain way.
(Honesty, compassion, etc.)
o Practical Wisdom: (phronesis) the knowledge of how to be effective in virtuous activity.
o Eudaimonia: The happiness that is achieved by way of virtue.
(Euthyphro, by Plato)
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Confucius: The strength of the 5 relationships is the most important: (1) parent-child, (2) olderyounger sibling, (3) husband-wife, (4) elder-junior, and (5) ruler-subject. The chief virtue is
honesty/fidelity (Li’) and it is right to apply this to the 5 relationships as best as possible.
Pragmatist Ethics: “Instead of trying to figure out what’s ‘universally right,’ we should focus on doing
what is helpful in particular situations.”
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John Dewey: There is no qualitative difference between what is morally right (e.x., not killing)
and what is simply helpful (e.x., starting a fire before trying to boil water). Rather, the difference
is in the amount of disagreement about which option is best.
William James: We can’t always be sure of our decisions: “Moral questions immediately present
themselves as questions whose solution cannot wait for sensible proof. A moral question is a
question not of what sensibly exists, but of what is good, or would be good if it did exist” (in The
Will to Believe).
Richard Rorty: We need to replace the idea of truth with the idea of hope. We can’t say anything
about what “true” actually means, so we need to focus on how our dealings with the world are or
aren’t helpful. Epistemology (study of knowledge) transforms into ethics (study of how we
should act).
(Philosophy and Social Hope, Richard Rorty)
Changing Conceptions of Philosophy
Some of you have asked what philosophy is—while there’s no easy answer to this, there are two very
broad and very different traditions to be aware of:
Traditional Philosophy: “Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental [theoretical] problems, such
as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.” (Wikipedia)
Pragmatist Philosophy: “What matters for pragmatists is devising ways of diminishing human suffering
and increasing human equality, increasing the ability of all human children to start life with an equal
chance of happiness” (Richard Rorty).
Questions? NPSchmitt@gmail.com