LESSON 4
ETHICS
Basic Questions: What is the good and the Moral
Is morality relative or objective?
What are the Norms of Morality?
Ethics is a practical science of the morality of human conduct. It involves learning what is right or wrong and then doing the right thing. Ethics includes the fundamental ground rules by which we live our lives.
Classical Ethical Theories
1. Platonism
a. if a man knows what the good life is,
he will not act immorally.
Thus evil is due to lack of knowledge
b. Absolutism-there is fundamentally one and only one good life for all men to lead- the objectivity of Moral Principle
2. Aristotle- Nicomachean Ethics
1. the doctrine of the mean
2. the good life is a life of happiness
3. happiness is an activity not a goal
4. men ought to behave so as to achieve happiness
Golden Mean: in order to achieve happiness, men must act moderately, they must act so as to be striving for the mean between two extremes
3. Epicurus-Hedonism
- pleasure is the sole good - to live pleasantly without suffering from any of the undesirable effects of such living
-dynamic pleasure-pleasure accompanied by pain
-passive pleasure- pleasure not accompanied by pain
a. Psychological Hedonism- a doctrine that states that men pursue pleasure and only pleasure in their lives
b. Ethical Hedonism- the view that men not only seek pleasure but that they `ought to do so since it is the only good
4. Cynicism-Diogenes
a. cynicism holds that all fruits of civilization are worthless
b. if salvation is to be found, it is in the rejection of society and a return to simple life, to a life of ascetic living
c. the world was fundamentally evil; in order to live properly a man must withdraw from participation in it
d. man must find it with-in itself. This is what virtue consists of
5. Stoicism- Zeno
a. learn to be indifferent to external influences
b. Epictitus- good or evil depends upon oneself
c. -virtue resides in the will, that only the will is good or bad
d. -a man who is indifferent is a free man- he becomes independent of the world
e. predestination- all happenings in the world are fixed by God according to some preconceived plan
f. virtue consists of a will which is in agreement with the happenings of nature
6. Christian Ethics
1. the view that there is a divine being who has laid down certain rules for moral behavior and that correct conduct consist in acting in accordance with these rules and incorrect conduct consists in violating them.
2. Authoritarianism-the church regard the moral code as an objective and infallible guide to correct behavior
7. Baruch Spinoza “the Ethics”
1. all things come to pass, according to the eternal order and fixed laws of nature-stoics’point of view
2. nothing is good or bad in itself but it is only in relation to someone-relativist
3. one should look at events as part of a larger system
8. Utilitarianism: Jeremy Bentham and J.S.Mill
a. an action is right in so far as it tends to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number
b. the consequence of a given action determines the rightness or the wrongness of an act not the motive for which it was done
c. the main tenet is to separate rightness or wrongness of an act from the goodness or badness of an agent who performs the action
9. Emmanuel Kant
a Kant divided actions into two:
-acts done from inclination-non-moral
-acts done from a sense of duty-moral
b. Morality is closely bound up with one’s duties and obligation
-acts in accord with duty-non-moral
-acts from duty-moral
c. Categorical imperatives
1. act only on the maxim that you can will that it should become
the universal law
2. act as to treat humanity as an end never as a means
Modern Ethics
1. Subjectivism and Objectivism
a. Objectivism-any theory that holds that ethical judgments are true or false
b. Subjectivism:
a. ethical judgments are neither true nor false
b. if the theory holds that ethical judgments are true or false but
they are always about the psychology of the person who utters
them and only that person then it is subjectivist
2. Naturalism, Non-naturalism, Emotivism
a. Naturalistic- holds that moral judgment are true or false and also that such judgments are reducible entirely to the concept of some natural science usually psychology
b. Non-Naturalistic-holds that those moral judgments are true or false but they are not reducible to any natural science
c. Emotivism-holds that moral judgments are neither true nor false but are mere expressions of the feelings of those who utter them and evocative of the feelings of those who hear them
3. Motivism, Deontological and Consequence Theories
a. Motivist- the rightness or wrongness of an action depends upon the motive from which the act was done. Ex. Kant’s ethics
b. Consequence theory-the rightness or wrongness of an action depends entirely upon the effects which the action has. Ex. Utilitarian
c. Deontological-the rightness or wrongness of an act depends neither upon the motive nor the consequence but solely upon what kind of act it was
Useful Ethical Principles
a. An agent is responsible for the evil effect of an act directly willed if the following conditions are present:
1. The agent must be able to foresee the evil effect at least in a general way
2. The agent must be free to refrain from doing that which is the cause of the evil effect.
3. The agent must be morally bound not to do that which is the cause of the evil effect.
b. One may perform an act not evil in itself from which flows two effects, one good, one evil if the following conditions are present:
1. The evil effect must not precede the good effect
2. There must be a reason sufficiently grave calling for the act in its good effect
3. The intention of the agent must be honest.
c. The end of the agent as a determinant of morality
1. A good act done for a good end takes on an added or a new goodness from the end, and from each good end that influences the act.
2. A bad act done for an evil end takes on an added or a new malice from the end, and from each evil end that influences the act.
3. A good act done for an evil end is wholly evil if the end is the complete motive
for the act or if the end, while only a partial motive, is gravely evil. A good act done for an end slightly evil and not the whole motive of the act, is only partially vitiated.
4. An evil act can never become good by reason of a good end
5. An indifferent act is good if done for a good end, evil for an evil end
d. Influence of circumstance upon morality of human acts.
1. An indifferent act becomes good or evil by reason of its circumstances.
2. A good act may become evil by reason of circumstances.
3. An act may become better or worse, or may take on a new goodness or evil by reason of circumstances.
4. An evil act can never be made good by circumstances
5. A gravely evil circumstance entirely vitiates a good act
6. A slightly evil circumstance does not entirely vitiate a good act
e. On duty
1. Common necessity never exempts from duty
2. No necessity exempts from a negative natural duty
3. Extreme or grave necessity exempts from affirmative natural duty, provided there is no involved violation of negative natural law
4. Extreme or grave necessity exempts from the prescription of positive law, provided there is no involved violation of negative natural law
f. On contract: The matter apt; the person fit; consent and a formal note of it
g. On prescription of ownership: Fit goods; good faith; a title, too; ue time- the thing belongs to you
h. On strike: conditions requisite for a just strike
1. That it be the only available means of reaching a just settlement of the difficulties between employer and employees
2. That the matter at stake be of an importance sufficient to warrant the hardship and damage that must be borne by the workers, the employers, the families of both, and the community at large
3.That there be a reasonable hope of success in obtaining the good for which the strike is called.
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