Ethics
Chapter One
What is the Purpose of Morality?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 What is Moral?
– Webster says, “relating to, dealing with or
capable of making the distinction between right
and wrong in conduct”
 What is Morality?
– The character of being in accord with the
principles or standards of right conduct
– Principles of right and wrong conduct
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 What is Morality for?
– Is it to enable us to reach our goals in a socially
acceptable way?
– Is it to enable us to resolve conflicts of interests
fairly?
– Is it to develop certain kinds of positive
character?
– Is it to promote human happiness?
– Is it to enable society to survive?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– The significance of the book is that it illuminates
the need for and purpose of ethical codes
 Ralph is democratically chosen as the leader
and the leader has limited powers of the
group and appropriate rules are agreed upon
 They also recognize the necessity of
substantive and procedural rules
 There are symbols of authority (the conch)
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– What do you believe is the number one priority?
 Shelter?
 Food?
 Fire?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Soon this is tested
 The competition for power and status
–Ralph and Jack vie for leadership and a
bitter rivalry ensues
 Failure of public policy
–Challenges of leadership
–Speaking without the conch
–Then the conch is destroyed
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Soon this is tested
 Neglect of Social Responsibilities
–Jack’s hunters refuse to help build shelters
–Freeloading soon becomes a common
phenomenon
–Neglect causes the fires to burn out, which
results in not being rescued
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Soon this is tested
 Escalating Violence
–Breaking glasses
–Killing of pigs
–Mob behavior when killing pigs
–Painted faces creates deindividuation
–Sodomy of pigs
–Killing of humans
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Some Moral Behavior
 Piggy willingly give up his glasses to start the
fire
 But, since Piggy did not hunt should he be
allowed to eat
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Things Begin to Degenerate
 The fire, symbol of hope, is left unattended
 The conch, the symbol of orderly governance
is destroyed
 Ralph’s authority is challenged & undermined
which destroys the rational procedures
 Piggy’s glasses are stolen with impunity
(Jack knows he can’t do anything about it)
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Things Begin to Degenerate
 Still Piggy asks Jack to act morally
–I ask for my glasses back not as a favor
–I don’t ask for Jack to a sport
–I don’t ask because Jack is strong
–I ask because it is the right thing to do
–“Give me my glasses, because you have
to”
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Things Begin to Degenerate
 When Ralph and Jack fight do they both
know what they are doing is morally wrong?
–Each one taunts the other, wanting the
other one to make the first move
 Ralph tells Jack he has to give Piggy back his
glasses and reasons Piggy can’t see without
them (moral reasoning?)
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Things Begin to Degenerate
 Piggy again attempts to reason morally
–Isn’t it better to be sensible like Ralph,
than to be all painted up?
–Isn’t it better to have rules and agree than
to hunt and kill?
–Isn’t it better to have law and rescue than
hunting and breaking things?
–How do they react?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Things Begin to Degenerate
 How could they morally justify the deaths?
–More deaths?
–Would Jack stop at nothing to get what he
wanted (the death of Ralph and power)?
–Was Jack willing to destroy the whole
island to get what he wanted?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– What is the main idea about morality that you
get out of this selection
– When Piggy morally reasons with Jack to get
his glasses back what is Piggy presupposing?
 What is Jack’s response?
 What is Jack’s response to being called a
thief?
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What is the Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– What is Ralph’s understanding of morality?
 What is Piggy’s?
 What is Jack’s?
– What is the significance of the conch and how
do you interpret its destruction?
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 “The Coral Island”
– What happened on Coral Island?
 How is it the same as the “Lord of the Flies”
–Utopia
 How is it different than the “Lord of the Flies”
–Jack overthrows Ralph
–Jack overthrows the humane rules
–Jack hunts Ralph like a pig
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 “The Coral Island”
– What happened on Coral Island?
 How is it the same as the “Lord of the Flies”
–Utopia
 How is it different than the “Lord of the Flies”
–Jack overthrows Ralph
–Jack overthrows the humane rules
–Jack hunts Ralph like a pig
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 “The Coral Island”
– What happened on Coral Island?
 How is it the same as the “Lord of the Flies”
–Utopia
 How is it different than the “Lord of the Flies”
–Jack overthrows Ralph
–Jack overthrows the humane rules
–Jack hunts Ralph like a pig
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– The theme is to trace the defects of society
back to the defects of human nature
– The moral is that the shape of a society must
depend on the ethical nature of the individual
and not only any political system however
apparently logical or respectable
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– A delegation starts out hunting pigs for meat
and they enjoy the excitement, the violence, the
bloody destruction of the pig …
– The children painted themselves with colored
mud
– They then kill anyone in their way without
remorse
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– They symbolically kill the symbols of religion
(Simon) and philosophy (Piggy) which opens
the gates to hell
– The glasses are a symbol of our misuse of
technology to spoil the environment and our
ability to create weapons that will lead to global
suicide
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On the Nature & Purpose of Morality?
 The “Lord of the Flies”
– Coleen Zoller believes the “Lord of the Flies” is
a very male book
 Zoller believe women would act differently
 Women would stress cooperation and caring
for one another
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 Hobbes’s Account
– Nature has made us basically equal in physical
and mental ability
– Each of us has the ability to harm, even kill the
other either by ourselves or w/ the help of
others
– We all want to attain our goals, food, shelter,
security, power, wealth…
– These two facts, equal ability to harm and the
desire to attain our goals lead to an unstable
state
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 Hobbes’s Account
– Equality of ability gives use the hope of attaining
our goals
– If two people want the same object, they can’t
both possess the same object, so they become
enemies and they want to subdue or destroy
each other
– What are most fights in high school about?
(crime, jealousy)
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 Hobbes’s Account
– So, we exchange some of our liberty for a social
contract
 We elect a ruler
 Rules are set for us to follow
 Rules are enforced
– Within this contract is morality
 Where there is no enforceable law, there is
no right nor wrong
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 Hobbes’s Account
– So, morality is a form of social control
– We all opt for an enforceable set of rules and
are most are better off than if we had no rules
 The “Cold War” keeps us all in fear
 Without morality our existence would be an
unbearable hell
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 The Purpose of Morality
– Morality consists of a set of rules which if
followed by nearly everyone will promote the
flourishing of nearly everyone
– These rules restrict our freedom, but only in
order to promote greater freedom and well
being
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 The Purpose of Morality
– To keep society from falling apart
– To ameliorate human suffering
– To promote human flourishing
– To resolve conflicts of interest in just and orderly
ways
– To assign praise and blame, reward the good
and punish the guilty
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 On the State of Nature
– Thomas Hobbes
 Hobbes argues that people are all egoists
who always act in their own self interest, to
obtain gratification and avoid harm
 It is in our self interest to make a contract to
keep to a minimal morality of respecting
human life keeping covenants made and
obeying the laws of the society
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 On the State of Nature
– Thomas Hobbes
 Hobbes proposed a strong sovereign or
government to impose severe penalties on
those who disobey the laws
 What does it say about mankind when he
rides armed, when he locks his doors, when
he locks his chests
 Isn’t this an accusation by actions?
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 On the State of Nature
– Thomas Hobbes
 The Right of Nature-the liberty each man has
to use his own power as he will himself for
the preservation of his own nature
 Liberty-the absence of external impediments
 Law of Nature- a general rule found out by
reason that a man is forbidden to do that
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Why Do We Need Morality?
 On the State of Nature
– Thomas Hobbes
 Law of the Gospel-whatsoever you require
that others should do to you, that do ye unto
them
 There must be some coercive power to
compel men equally to the performance of
their covenants, by the terror of some
punishment greater than the benefit they
expect by the breach of their covenant
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