Philosophy Chapter 7

What is Ethics?
Page 456

Ethics is the study of morality. It is a branch of philosophy that tries to determine what things in life are morally good and which actions are morally right. So ethics deals with morality, but is not the same as morality.

Morality
Page 457

Morality consists of the standards that an individual or group has about what is right and wrong or good and evil. Generally speaking, moral standards deal with matters to which we attach great importance because they involve serious harm or injury to others or oneself.

Is Ethics Relative?
Page 458

Social sciences are concerned with how people in fact behave or what people in fact believe about moral right and wrong. Ethics, on the other hand, asks how people ought to behave or what people ought to believe.

Descriptive Relativism
Page 459

Affirms that societies differ in their moral standards.
It is generally accepted as true.

Ethical Relativism
Page 459

The view that what is morally right or wrong in depends on one's culture or society and there is no single correct set of moral standards that everyone should follow everywhere and always. It argues that because societies differ in the moral standards they accept, there is no single set of moral standards everyone should adopt; instead, people should follow the standards that their own society accepts.

Melville J. Herskovits

Page 460

Problems with Ethical Relativism
Page 461

1. Since ethical relativism claims that the moral standards of one's society determine what is right and wrong, it implies that those standards cannot be questioned.
2. From the fact that societies differ in moral standards that they accept, it does not follow that there is no correct group of moral standards.
3. If claims of right and wrong are claims about one's own society, then claims of right and wrong cannot disagree with each other.
4. There are some moral values that all societies must accept if they are to survive.

Do Consequences Make An Action Right?
Page 463

Consequentialist theory measures the morality of an action by how good its consequences are. Consequentialist ethical theories hold that a morally right action is one that produces more non-moral good or less non-moral bad consequences than any other action. Some consequentialists hold that intrinsic goods include not just pleasure but also knowledge, power, beauty, self-realization or love.

Hedonism
Page 464

The view that only pleasure or happiness is intrinsically good and that only pain or unhappiness is intrinsically evil. All other things, hedonists claim, are good to the extend that they bring us pleasure or diminish pain.

Ethical Egoism
Page 465

Claims that a morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences for oneself than any other action. Ethical egoism contends that we act morally when we act in a way that best promotes our own long term interests.

Harry Browne

Page 465

Problems of Ethical Egoism
Page 466

It is unclear what is morally right when people's interests conflict; ethical egoism is not impartial because it favors one's own interests, so it is not consistent with a moral point of view.

James Rachels

Page 466

Utilitarianism
Page 467

Claims that morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences for everyone than any other action. For traditional utilitarians, good consequences consist of pleasure or happiness, bad ones consist of pain or unhappiness.

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Page 467

According to Bentham...

The quantity of pleasure produced by an action is measured by its intensity, duration, certainty, likelihood to produce more pleasure, etc.

Act Utilitarianism
Page 470

Claims that the morally right action is the particular act that itself produces more pleasure and less pain for everyone. Act utilitarianism seems to sometimes require injustices and rights violations. Bentham was an act utilitarian.

Rule Utilitarianism
Page 470

Claims that the morally right action is one that follows those rules that will produce more pleasure and less pain if followed by everyone. Rule utilitarianism is supposed to not have the wrong implications that act utilitarianism does. Mill was a rule utilitarian.

Some Implications of Utilitarianism
Page 472

Richard Taylor and other act utilitarians argue that because all sexual activity - including incest, adultery and homosexuality - usually produces more pleasure than pain than any other action, all sexual activity can be morally right. To many, this seems overly permissive.

Do Rules Define Morality?
Page 474

Non-consequentialist theory maintains that the morality of an action depends on factors other than consequences. The 2 main types of non-consequentialist theories are those that propose a single rule to govern human conduct and those that propose multiple rules.

Divine Command Theory
Page 474

A non-consequentialist normative theory that says we should always do the will of God. There are 2 main kinds of these theories: those that hold that God's commands are found in sacred scriptures and those that hold that God's commands are found in human nature.

Scriptural Divine Command Theory

Page 475

Natural Law Ethics

Page 476

Aquinas on Natural Law Ethics

Page 478

John Finnis

Page 480

Donald Levy

Page 481

Kant's Categorical Imperative
Page 483

Kant claimed that autonomy is the heart of ethics. To let someone or something else decide what one will do is "heteronomy" and is wrong because moral action should depend on one's own will - one's own decision making ability. The will is a person's ability to make decisions on the basis of reasons; Kant argues that nothing is good without qualification except a good will; and a good will is one that chooses what is morally right because it is right and not because it is enjoyable or in one's self interest.

Kant Argued...
Page 484

(1) A person with a good will does what is right because he believes it is morally right to do it. (2) To believe it is morally right to do something, is to believe it is what all human beings ought to do. (3) Therefore, a person with a good will - a good person - is one who does what is right because he believes it is what all human beings ought to do.

Duty & The First Version of the Categorical Imperative
Page 485

Kant concludes that it is morally right for me to do something for a certain reason only if I could be willing to have everyone in a similar situation do the same thing for the same reason. Kant argues that committing suicide, making false promises, failing to develop one's talents, and failing to help those in need are all morally wrong because they are all actions that not everyone could do, or actions that I would not be willing to have everyone do even towards me.

A Second Version of the Categorical Imperative: Treating People as Ends
Page 487

Kant give a second version that says:
1. If every human being is an end in himself - a person whose capacity to choose for himself must be respected - so
2. we should not use people only as a means to achieve our own goals but should always at the same time treat them as ends in themselves - as persons who capacity to choose for themselves must be respected.
Basically, I should treat people only as they freely and knowingly consent to be treated, not merely use them as means to my own goals. Rules out deception, force, coercion, and manipulation, but it allows us to use people as means to our goals so long as they freely and knowingly consent to it.

Conflicts
Page 489

Critics say Kant's theory cannot deal with conflicts among duties; critics also claim that his theory implies certain acts, such as lying, are always wrong no matter what the circumstances might be and this implication seems mistaken.

Buddhist Ethics
Page 491

Buddhism considers volitional actions as supremely important because they contribute to a person's karma, which then determines a persons future; Buddhism also considers wisdom and morality to be closely related.

The Four Noble Truths
Page 492

1. Whatever is tied to our individuality, such as birth, age, disease, death and pain brings suffering.
2. We suffer because we crave things. Pleasures, life, power...
3. Only putting an end to our craving will end our suffering
4. Craving can be ended only by following the Noble Eightfold Path of right understanding, though, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

Is Ethics Based on Character?
Page 495

Alasdair MacIntyre argues that ethics should not be concerned with rules about what one should do, but with the virtues that make us morally good persons.

Aristotle's Theory of Virtue
Page 495

Aristotle's ethic of virtue says humans will achieve happiness - their ultimate end - only by fulfilling their specific purpose, which is to exercise their reason,and to do so in an excellent or virtuous way. Excellence in any field is achieved by hitting the mean and not by excess or deficiency. So being virtuous in our actions and feelings achieved by hitting the mean as determined by reason and avoiding excess or deficiency in our actions and feelings. Virtue is acquired by repeatedly being made to act virtuously until it becomes a habit. Vices are acquired by repeatedly acting viciously until it becomes a habit. According to the virtue theory of Janet Smith, one can evaluate the more quality of sexual behaviors by asking whether those behaviors develop by virtues or vice.

Love and Friendship
Page 499

Aristotle, who claimed that friendship is a virtue and is one of life's necessities, argued that two people are friends when each wishes good for the other, both are aware of this, and each does so because he believes the other is good, pleasurable or useful.

Three Traditional Kinds of Love
Page 501

Philia (Brotherly Love)
Eros (Intensely passionate love)
Agape (Love that God or a Christian has for every person even if there is nothing good, useful or pleasurable about that person)

Male and Female Ethics

Page 503

Carol Gilligan

Page 504

Nel Noddings

Page 505