+
“ I do not agree with the view that
to be moral, the motive of ones
action has to be benefitting others.
Morality does not have to be
defined in relation to
others…People like me want to
…satisfy our hearts to the full, and
in doing so we automatically have
the most valuable moral codes. Of
course there are people and
objects in the world, but they are
all there only for me.”
The History of Ethics/
Our Morality
+
How can we justify our moral
judgement?
Moral taste?
Emotions and moral
judgment.
moral reasoning
(value judgments)
Based on
assumptions?
Is their such thing as moral
knowledge?
+

Morality is as old as humanity, and there have been many
different kinds of morality across the millennia.

Both individually and in social interaction the human species
evolves mature moral conscience and character.

The concept of morality - Where did it come from?
+
There are three basic spheres or
levels of Ethics; they are Applied,
Normative and Meta-ethics.

At its most practical, moral philosophy is about what we ought
to do in any given situation.
Is the government intervention in Aboriginal communities right?
Is euthanasia morally wrong? Can we justify our treatment of
farmed animals?

Applied ethics - most ethical discussions in the media are at
this level.
+
There are three basic spheres or levels
of Ethics; they are Applied, Normative
and Meta-ethics.

Normative ethics is the rational inquiry into the standards of
right and wrong, good and bad, in respect of character and
conduct, which ought to be accepted by a class of individuals.

This class could be mankind at large, but we can also think of
medical ethics, business ethics, etc. as a body of standards
that the professionals in question ought to accept and observe.

Main aim is to formulate valid norms of conduct and of
evaluation of character.
+
There are three basic spheres or levels
of Ethics; they are Applied, Normative
and Meta-ethics.

Meta-ethics is so called because it treats ethical concepts,
propositions and belief systems as objects of philosophical inquiry. Is
is about the general nature and structure of ethics.

It analyses concepts or right and wrong, good and bad, in respect of
character and conduct, and related concepts, e.g. moral
responsibility, virtue, rights. Deals with the status of moral claims in
general. E.G when someone says it is wrong to kill any creature that
has the capacity to decide its own future and has not chosen to be
killed, what kind of claim are they making?

True or false, or are they just expressing an opinion? Are they saying
something which applies to everyone, or only to people from a
particular culture or historical period? What is the basis of what they
say? Is morality rooted in nature, human nature, God or do we create
it ourselves?
+
What is morality based on?
Is ethics based on pure reason, mutual agreement or emotion?

Kant – Moral Absolutism

Bentham - Utilitarianism

Aristotle – Virtue Ethics

Nietzsche – Ego ethics??

Sartre -
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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

For Kant, the key issue is how to discover a rational basis for
one’s sense of duty, and from that to devise a principle by
which one could distinguish between right and wrong.

Asserted that morality is based on pure reason,

but begins with the recognition that we all understand what it
is to have a sense of moral obligation. “...the starry heavens
above me and the moral law within me.”

This moral understanding is a priori, it is known without
appeal to experience; it exists in the mind prior to, and
independent of, experience.
+
Kant continued

Kant places the ‘good will’ at the centre of ethics.

We do something because we feel we have a duty to do so, not
because we are compelled by others.

Where do we get these imperatives from? Each of us is a rational
agent and each of us is able to will (to desire and choose) freely and
autonomously. Moral rules are derived when we use our rationality
to guide our wills.
+
Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill (1806-73) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

Based on the principle of utility which is that, in any situation
where there is a moral choice, one should do that which
results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people. The assumption is that we all want to be happy and
have a good life. (A logical assumption?)

Consequentialist theory – that one must do that which has the
best consequences.
+
Utilitarianism continued...

This theory has a rational basis. We reason what the best
outcome will be, we assess, deliberate and provide
justification for the action or decision that will achieve the
greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Peter Singer, a contemporary Australian philosopher, is a
prominent Utilitarian. As well as acknowledging that this
approach is predominantly based on reason, he accepts that
emotion is a part of the process.

To be human, we cannot leave our emotions aside.
Nevertheless, it is important to provide rational justification
for ethical and moral decisions.
+
Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Virtue ethics

Eudaimonia – well being, happiness

For Aristotle, happiness is about life going well, but also
about one behaving well. This is not about pleasure.

“Every craft and every investigation, and likewise every
action and decision, seems to aim at some good; hence the
good has been well described as that at which everything
aims.” Nicomachean Ethics

By ‘good’ here is meant a goal or purpose, something that is
wanted for its own sake.
+
Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Had a religious upbringing so familiar with Christianity and
the view that man is fallen.

Rejected religious thinking and other philosophies; in fact
distrusted systems of thought.

Like some others of his time (and preceding), he did not see
man as fixed but in a process of becoming.

God is dead.
+
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL
Friedrich Nietzsche

Anything great that we have achieved or become has been the
result of a strict obedience in one particular direction over a
long period of time.

Nietzsche bemoaned the "slave revolt in morality," which
considered the rich, violent, and sensual to be evil, while
considering the poor holy.

We have come to see everything healthy, dangerous, and
passionate about ourselves as pathological. This morality of the
"herd" claims in the name of "happiness" that we should avoid
our darker instincts.

Nietzsche despised moralizers precisely because they
generalised on matters that depend greatly on the individual.
+  There have always been more people obeying than
commanding, but as he said ‘simply because the majority is
suited to submissiveness we should not conclude that this is a
general principle that all should obey’.

Nietzsche suggests that our moral valuations are based
largely on fear.

In a community that is safe from external threats, any
aggressive members of that community come to seen as a
threat. Thus, our morality condemns all that is lively,
preferring the safety of a tamed, mediocre mass.

This morality of the "herd" then proclaims itself as the only
true morality (other moralities are "immoral") and as the
savior of the herd.
+ Nietzsche sees all drives as resting ultimately on the will to
power;

My beating up my neighbour and my giving my neighbour a gift
are both expressions of my will to power. But how is it that two
totally opposite deeds can ultimately boil down to the same will?
Nietzsche suggests that we learn to sublimate our will to power;
we channel it and redirect it in order to give it a refined, more
subtle, and higher expression.

Beating up my neighbour is about as unsubtle an expression of
power as there is.

However, if I give my neighbour a gift, I will have sublimated my
will to power.

I.E Now I will feel my neighbour is in my debt and will have a
greater, longer- lasting, and more sublime feeling of power than
if I had just beaten him up.
+

If we contrast what Nietzsche considers worth pursuing with
other moralities, we can understand why he so bitterly despises
utilitarianism, democracy, and other "taming" forces.
Tell the truth… Do not vandalize property … Have courage …
Do not have sex before marriage … Keep your promises …Do not
cheat.
Treat others as you want to be treated …Be trustworthy …Respect
others
Keep your self control …Have respect for yourself …Be tolerant
of differences
Seek justice … Have humility … Serve mankind

Nietzsche calls this "herd" morality because it speaks to our
herd instincts. It assumes that we are all the same and should all
follow the same rules.
+

Some of us were simply born to be mindless slaves,
according to Nietzsche…

What worries Nietzsche is that the minority that is potentially
great has been seduced by the preaching of the herd and has
attempted to follow the same rules as everyone else.

These rules, Nietzsche claims, exist in large part precisely to
keep these freer, more dangerous spirits in line.

Democracy is just one more attempt to force us all to be
equal.
+
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Existence precedes essence.

Sartre took the view that human beings, in what they do and the
choices they make, shape their own lives. There is no fixed
‘essence’ of me that I must discover and live up to. Rather, ‘I’ am
something that will develop a particular character, an essence,
as I go through life.

The existential task is to develop and take in new experiences,
shaping oneself all the time. Life is a challenge and a project. In
practice, however, Sartre took the view that one should allow to
everyone else the freedom that one wished for oneself, thus
creating a basis of mutual respect between oneself and other
people. This approach provides the framework within which the
self is to be developed.
+
Sartre continued...

For Sartre, the fact that God does not exist and that we are
free to make our own choices does not provide mankind
with an easy option. A person has to accept responsibility for
his or her decisions, and the implication of such freedom is
that it should allow the same freedom to others. Thus it would
be inconsistent to reject conventions that other people might
want to impose on me, but at the same time seek to impose
them on others.