Ethics and Ethical Theories
Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology,
Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.
Morality and moral systems
• Rules of conduct
• Rules for individuals
• Rules for social policies
• Principles of evaluation
Justifying rules for moral systems
• Religion – teachings of religious leaders
• Philosophical ethics – appeals to reason
• Law – codes determined by constitutions
and legislation
Discussion stoppers
• People disagree on solutions.
– They also agree on many things.
• Who am I to judge?
– Sometimes we have to make judgments.
• Ethics is a private matter.
– Morality is essentially a public system.
• Morality is a matter for individual cultures.
– Do in Rome as the Romans do.
Why ethical theories are needed
• Follow the golden rule.
– Doesn’t cover when others have different
desires.
• Follow your own conscience.
– Some people think it all right to fly airplanes
into towers.
Consequence based ethical theories
• Bentham (1748-1832) and Mill (18061873)
• What results from an act
• The ends justify the means
• Principle of social utility measured by the
resulting amount of happiness
Utilitarianism
• Act utilitarianism – Act is good if it results
in the greatest good for the greatest
number.
– What happens to minority?
• Rule utilitarianism – Act is good if it comes
from following rules that bring good to
greatest number.
– Should we base ethics on happiness and
pleasure?
Duty-based ethical theories
Deontological theories
• Kant (1724-1804) – Duties and obligations
that people have to one another.
• People have rational natures
• People should never be treated as means
to the ends of others
• Each individual has the same moral worth
as every other.
Rule deontology
Kant’s categorical imperative
• Rules that all individuals should be treated
as ends in themselves and not means to
an end.
• Rules that can be universally binding for
all people.
• One person or group should not be
privileged over all others.
Act deontology
• Ross (1930) - Problem if two conflicting moral
duties
• When conflict, consider individual situations
• Prima facie (self-evident) duties.
– Honesty, justice, helpfulness
• Actual duty – What to do when have conflicts.
– Use rational intuitionism.
• Weigh evidence to decide course of action in
particular case
Contract-based ethical theories
• Hobbes(1588-1679) – Premoral state
– state of nature where all free to do as like
• People establish formal legal code
• In each person’s self-interest to develop
system with rules
• Objections – Depends only on formal legal
rules
• Difference between ‘doing no harm’ and
‘doing good’.
Rights-based contract theories
• Jefferson (1776) and Aquinas (1225-1274)
– Natural rights or inalienable and self-evident
rights
• Legal rights – positive rights and negative
rights
• Negative rights
– Privacy, no interference in right to vote
• Positive rights
– Education (in US through 12th grade)
Character-based ethical theories
• Virtue ethics - Plato (427?-327 BCE) and Aristotle (384322 BCE)
• Development of good character traits and habits
• Be a moral person rather than just follow rules
• Agent-oriented rather than action or rule-oriented
• Develop character traits such as kindness, truthfulness,
honesty, trustworthiness, helpfulness, generosity, and
justice
• More likely to work in homogeneous societies rather than
our pluralistic one
• Consequences often should be taken into account
Single comprehensive theory
• Rawls (1971) and Moor (1999) – Just-Consequentialist
Theory
• Start with core values – ‘Do no harm’
• Support justice, rights, and duties – ‘Do your duty’
• Settle conflicts – two steps
– Consider situation impartially without regard to specific case –
choice between ethical vs. unethical policies
– Consider consequences of specific case – choice between better
vs. worse policies
• Consider whether problem is disagreement about facts
rather than value differences
Moor’s ethical framework
• Deliberate from an impartial point of view
– Does it cause any unnecessary harm?
– Does it support individual rights, duties?
• Select the best policy from the set
– Weigh the good and bad consequences
– Distinguish between disagreements about
facts vs. disagreements about values