Deciding what is right?
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Rationalists:
◦ Objective Reality
◦ Knowledge is finding all properties of an object
(Plato’s forms)
◦ One reality, we need to find it
◦ We are born with the ability to reason
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Empiricists:
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Subjective reality- senses tell us
Knowledge is sensing/experiences
Multiple reality, we need an impression it
We are born a “blank Slate”
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Making ethical decisions
◦ Doing what is right for the right reasons
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Competing forces
◦ Individual– Moral Compass
 Moral values: most important
 What you think is good and what cost to you
 More reaon: Evidence? Justification?
◦ Society- Social Contract
 Moral sentiment: Common views or opinions
 Rules to live in a given society
 More emotional: Acceptance? Comfort?
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What do you do when no one is watching?
What would you do if there were NO consequences?
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Leaned moral values
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◦ When do you stop and change
◦ Seek justification over approval
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Means vs. Ends
◦ We want to be “good” (own sake)
◦ Good as an Ends (not to get something)
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Foundation of Moral Compass
◦ Makes our character
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Emotional intelligence
◦ Become aware of our values
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Empathy
◦ Know and respect other people’s options/values
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Open minded to other morals
Always question other options
◦ Best solution at the time?
◦ Flexible to change?
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Goal: Avoid moral tragedy
◦ Let influences trump moral compass
◦ Act against what we know is right
◦ Regret our decisions
Steps to our Moral Compass
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Morality is based off of you, what you were taught
or learned from others Disregard OTHER different
morality than your own
Morals are based on means to individual goals
 Morality is based on feeling good (emotion)
 Morals driven to avoid punishment and personal gain
 Self centered
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Usually moral compass has little or no outside
justification
◦ Based totally on moral values and not sentiment
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Egotistical
 What I think is right is right
ME
You
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Expect others moral code, but don’t defend your
moral code. A need to fit in trumps maorallity.
Please others whom you deem important
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Morality is based on fitting in and feeling comfort (emotion)
Maintain good relationships at all costs
Peer Pressure, family and friends
Others’ needs are more important
Maintain social norms
May lead to moral tragedy
◦ My reputation drives my moral compass
◦ Based totally on moral sentiment and not moral values
ME
You
Moral reasoning and social conventions must be
justified with moral compass. Not one size fits
all.
 Use moral compass and question the outcome
of each ethical situation AND the process by
which you find a solution
 Moral sentiment and moral values are well
balanced
 Allow reason to balance emotion.
Me and
You
See that everyone's basic rights need to
be safeguarded (freedom)
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Social contract must be fair to all (laws)
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Need to change and be flexible to suit most (majority)
Recognize the need to balance individual
needs and societal needs
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What are these basic right?
When do we sacrifice individual needs (freedoms) for
the good of society (laws)?
Need to reason through ethical dilemmas
Big Division
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Socrates:
◦ Discovering objective truth. Properties of objects created
by gods.
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Rationalists:
◦ Knowledge come from absolute objective truth
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Empiricists:
◦ Knowledge comes from differing subjective experience.
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Rousseau:
◦ Knowledge comes from society agreement of beliefs
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Kant:
◦ Two worlds objective (we can’t know) and subjective (our
perspective)
◦ Knowledge comes from understanding connection
Relativism: (subjective right)
create morality in context of our surrounding; furthermore,
different groups of people ought have different moral
standards for evaluating acts of right and wrong.
Universalism: (objective right)
morality is give to us and we need to live up to those rights
and responsibilities. Groups of people need to live up to the
moral code decided on by an outside entity (natural
science, God, judge)
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Socrates, 400 BC, ethic becomes education,
and teaching
◦ Reason becomes virtue
◦ Virtue becomes truth and morality
◦ No person wants to be bad
 just lack of knowledge on how to be good
Thus morality becomes an objective, universal
truth and each person must discover by being
taught ethics
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Christian Rule, 65 AD
◦ God rules are the 10 commandments
◦ Virtue becomes following these rules
◦ Bible gives you in guidance how to live in the
natural world
 Jesus is the Human God
◦ We will be judged by how well we lived up to
God’s laws on the “day of reckoning”
◦ Be rewarded by entry into heaven
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Descartes, 1500s
◦ Man is not a servant of God, but should act in a
Godly way.
 Virtue becomes a decided action
 Even if the outcome is bad, the process by which you
get there is good and virtuous
 God is the ultimate virtue, not demanded by his law
but discovered by man
 Man has freewill, must decide to be good
Virtue becomes acting on our best judgment and the
right use of free will.
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People are born with compassion and naturally will
continue to have it, but it is suppressed
◦ People are taught injustice and tyranny from others
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This forces people away from their true nature of
freedom, justice and self contentment.
As we grow (smarter) we build our conscience and
we learn by ourselves to respect social justice over
all else.
◦ Not by the teaching of others, but by self realization
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General Will:
When we learn to form morality on the rules that
are “general in application and universal in scope.”
◦ We are born with moral instincts (the self), but this lacks
moral reasoning (good of all).
◦ We deceive ourselves about how moral we are because we
start to believe our morality is the overall good.
◦ As we grow and learn we build our, Amore Propre, or
proper love, (balanced self-love vs. love of justice for all).
◦ Justice becomes equal to being moral. Justice when you
compare yourself to the rest of society
◦ “the right of the strongest” is not justice need to try to
balance between the individual and civil authorities.
“Always act in such a way that the maxim of your
action can be willed as a universal law of humanity.”
--Immanuel Kant
Through reason we come up with maxims, or our rules
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You have a personal duty to be good. There is
one right. You are commanded to do this.
Three Qualities
◦ Universality:
 Can I rationally will that everyone act as I propose to
act?
◦ Overall good:
 Does my action respect the goals of all human
beings rather than merely using them for my own
purposes?
◦ Treat morality as an ENDS:
 Do it for the good of itself and results don’t matter
Morality must be based on the categorical
imperative because morality is such that you are
commanded by it, and is such that you cannot
opt out of it or claim that it does not apply to
you.
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You create the maxims (rules)
They cannot be changed just to suite your
greed or needs as a means to an end.
Cannot be used to be rewarded
Cannot be used to manipulate results
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Personal opinion or feeling dictates moral code
What feels right is right.
Problems (Emotion is key)
◦ May exploits to suit own needs
◦ Insanity conclusions
 Hurt others if it FEELS right
 Rape people
 Kill babies
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Public opinion and societal norms develop
own personal moral code.
Socially approved customs and rules
Problems (acceptance is key)
◦ Peer pressure
◦ Do what the group says
 Slavery
 Hate crimes
 Nazism
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The best consequences for all
◦ Group happiness is the goal
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Greatest amount of happiness and the least
pain for the greatest number
◦ Utilitarian calculus: determines course of action by
giving the factors to the action.
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Problems:
 Only looks at
consequences
 Group Happiness
is all that matters
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Duty based Ethics
◦ Obligated moral code
 no matter what the consequences
 We have duties to do right
 “The Path” becomes important
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Problems
◦ Absolutes: lying is always wrong?
◦ Two maxims oppose each other
 Lying is always wrong and hurting someone's feelings
is always wrong?
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Every individual possess inalienable (cannot
be divorced) rights
◦ Moral rights, not legal
 For example a right to eat, may mean steal
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We respect all these rights in all people
Limited government– manage conflict
◦ Free Speech vs. Inflict harm
◦ Stealing to feed children
A wise and frugal Government, which shall
restrain men from injuring one another,
which shall leave them otherwise free to
regulate their own pursuits of industry and
improvement, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This
is the sum of good government…
- Thomas Jefferson
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Moral arguments have two premise:
◦ Prescriptive (moral) premise: What ought to be the case
◦ Descriptive (factual) premise: What is the case
◦ A conclusion: Either prescriptive and descriptive are same
or different
To be moral, I ought to be kind to everyone
I am not kind to everyone
------------------------------------------------Therefore, I am not moral.