- •Metaethics: where our ethical principles come from (for example, Social construction? Will of God?) and what they mean
- •Applied Ethics: examining specific areas (for example, business ethics) and specific controversial issues (for example, abortion, capital punishment)
- •1) Difficulty of proving Supernatural Existence
- •2) Religious people can be immoral.
- •4) Different religions promote different ethical systems.
- •In Aristotle’s ethics (arete) is “excellences of various types.”
- •Virtue ethics is about character (agent-centered)
- •1) Psychological egoism:
- •2) Ethical egoism
- •Values of Traditional Society:
- •Impartiality and equality
- •Intensity
- •In other words with his/her choice man is setting an example of what he/she thinks is the right thing to do
- •Niccolò Machiavelli
- •Is the corporation a moral agent?
- •Favored by just cause advocates: legally.
- •Favored by at-will advocates: through the promotion of a vibrant labor market in which jobs are frequently created and readily available.
- •It can create a climate of support for attitudes that harm women
- •Issues in Euthanasia:
- •Voluntariness and Non-consequentialism
- •Bioethics: stem cell research
- •1953: Watson and Crick determine the molecular structure of dna
- •2000: Human Genome Project
- •Individuals with rare genetic disorders
- •In 1992 in Orlando, Florida, 5% of the drivers were black or Hispanic, but they accounted for 70% of those who were stopped and searched.
- •Information, computer and roboethics
- •Intellectual property
- •Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics (1942, I Robot):
- •56 Nations are developing robotic weapons
Impartiality and equality
Everyone affected by some action is to be counted equally: there is no special privilege for anyone.
Bentham measures pleasure in terms of degree - intensity and duration
Intensity
All things, being equal, the more intense the pleasure, the better. We can imagine a scale of 1 to 10 degrees of intensity
Duration
Intensity is not enough, it may well be that the more serene pleasures last longer. So the longer lasting the pleasure, the better.
Likelihood
If before acting we are attempting to decide between two available alternative actions, we must estimate the likely results of each before we compare their net utility.
Differences between Bentham and Mill
Bentham VS Mill or Quantity VS Quality
Bentham: we ought to consider only the quantity of pleasure produced à the AMOUNT of pleasure. In his words, “quantity of pleasure being equal, pushpin [a game] is as good as poetry”);
Mill: the quality of pleasure counts as well. But pleasure =/= happiness.
There are hierarchies of pleasures: some better (or noble) than others. Intellectual pleasures are of higher order than physical pleasures
In his words, it is better “to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”.
Two types : Act Utilitarianism
1)Act Utilitarianism: We ought to do the act with the best consequences
we should consider the consequences of some particular act. If our action is right or wrong depends on our assessment of the consequences of that action. The focus is on each individual act itself.
2) Rule Utilitarianism: we ought to do what would be prescribed by the rules with the best consequences for people in society to try to follow
We should choose the action which conforms to a specific rule which would bring about the greater good for the greater number of people. When faced with a moral choice we must determine which rule would bring about the greater good. If an act is right or wrong depends on the consequences of a rule that requires that the act always be performed in similar situations.
ARGUMENTS FOR UTILITARIANISM
Egalitarian equality = going beyond our self-interest and considering the importance of other people
Good common sense
Reasons for action: produce some sort of good
It is wrong to choose the worse over the better
It suggests universal standard (vs. Cultural Relativism)
PREFERENCE UTILITARIANISM
Some philosopher think that is difficult to measure and compare human feelings of happiness or pleasure. Therefore they developed a new version of utilitarianism based on preferences.
Preference utilitarianism: the action that is best is the one that satisfies the most preferences, either in themselves or according to their strength or their order of importance.
One method for understanding people’s preferences is looking at what they say, they want or prefer (but there is the problem of how much informed people are)
Cost-benefit Analysis: one policy is better than the other if it is the least costly compared with the benefits expected. Often, the measure is money.
Ethics of Existentialism
Ethics of Existentialism holds that an authentic life is lived according to the free choices that you make
It is a philosophical movement that focuses on the uniqueness of each human individual.
Jean-Paul Sartre defined it as ‘existence precedes essence,’ meaning that humans create themselves through free choices and are responsible for who they are.
Look inward (not outward) to find the meaning of life
Theories of human behavior also have similar assumptions such as:
“people are born with certain basic instincts that influence how they behave”
“People are shaped by their environment, conditioned by their experiences to be the kind of people they are”
Atheistic Existentialism: there is at least one being whose existence comes before his essence – man or human reality
SATRE:
You have the capacity to make free and independent choices
You are completely responsible for choices
We create ourselves through our choices, and those choices are free: we are without excuse
Man is entirely responsible for his existence and responsible for all men: In choosing for himself he chooses for all men because to choose is to affirm the value of what is chosen.