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8/6/2019 Phl5 - Notes - Intro Wit Sample Cases
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MORAL SITUATIONS
AN OVERVIEW
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How Should We Live as Individuals?
Every day we each face personal decisions on
how we should live.
We understand many of these decisionsmatter. We ask:
Am I doing the right thing?
How will this affect who I am? How might it
change me? Will it change me for the better?
How might it affect others?
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How Should We Live?
What isgoodand what is bad?
What actions are rightand what actions are
wrong? As individuals, and as a society, we are
continually facing such questions. We are, in
other words, continually having to makeethical (=moral) decisions.
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Some Ethical Challenges
In the novel SophiesChoice by William
Styron, Sophie is required at a Nazi
concentration camp to choose which of hertwo children the Nazis will execute. If she
refuses to choose, they will execute both
children.
What should Sophie do?
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Introduction
Some Ethical Challenges You are driving a trolley down a track. The
brakes fail. If you do nothing, the trolley will killten people crossing at the upcoming red-light.
There is fortunately a side spur you could turnthe trolley onto and spare the ten people.However, there is a child playing on the sidespur, and if you turn the trolley onto it, you will
kill the child. What should you do?
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Introduction
Some Ethical Challenges
You discover proof that your parents have
embezzled a large amount of money from the
company they work for.You have confrontedthem, but they deny the charge. If you report
them, they will go to prison and their lives will
be ruined. If you dont report them, the
company will be ruined. What should you do?
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Introduction
Some Ethical Challenges Your wife is dying of a rare cancer. A pharmacist in your town, after years of research,
has discovered a drug that will cure the cancer, andis charging 10 times the amount it takes tomanufacture it.
After borrowing from everyone you can, you havegathered only half the purchase price.
You go to the pharmacist, who refuses to sell the
drug to you for half-off, declaring that he discoveredthe drug and is entitled to make as much as he canfrom his discovery.
Should you steal the drug?
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Contemporary Moral Trends
Power is might; Might is right!
Morals are what society expects.
The individual is the measure of right and wrong.
Right is moderation
Right is what brings pleasure
Right is the greatest good for the greater number
Right is what is desirable for it's own sake.
Right/ wrong is situational.
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ETHICAL SYSTEMS (1)
RELATIVISM: all points of view are equally
valid
all truth is relative to the individual all moral positions, all religious systems,
art forms, political movements, etc., are
truths that are relative to the individual .
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Forms of Relativism
cognitive relativism (truth)- : no objective standard oftruth.
No God as absolute truth.
moral/ethical relativism - -all morals are relative tothe social group withinwhich they areconstructed.
situational relativism - thatethics (right and wrong) aredependent upon thesituation.
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Might is right
Superman Philosophy
Friedrich Nietszche
- anti- religion (Xty) - Anti- Virtue
- No God
Superior Race: Hitler:
Nazism
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Right is Indefinable It is
situational
Situation Ethics
Relativism
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Relativism
"anything goes" philosophy situation determines actions and if the situation changes,
lying or cheating is acceptable -- as long as you're not caught.
if all the things are relative, then there cannot be anythingthat is absolutely true between individuals
No common ground from which to judge right and wrong ortruth?
If all moral views are equally valid, then do we have the rightto punish anyone? Can we ever say that something is wrong?
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ETHICAL SYSTEMS (2)
SECULAR HUMANISM :
principles of ethical conduct are judged on their
ability to enhance human well-being andindividual responsibility (CouncilforSecularHumanism)
an attempt to function as a civilized societywith the exclusion of God and His moral
principles.
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SECULAR HUMANISM
based upon humanreason, actions, andmotives without
concern of deity orsupernaturalphenomena.
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UTILITARIANISM (3)
: the end of humanconduct ishappiness
: the discriminatingnorm whichdistinguishes
conduct into rightand wrong ispleasure and pain.
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Right is the greatest good for the
greater number Utilitarianism
Universal Hedonism
The greatest good or happiness for the greatestnumber of people.
SocialUtilitarianism (Altruism)
EgoisticUtilitarianism
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Right is what brings pleasure
Hedonism
Pain and sufferingare things to be
avoided
Short cut
Consumerism:
culture of having
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ETHICAL SYSTEMS (4)
CONSEQUENTIALISM
What is rightdepends on the
result.. Teleological Ethics
Greek telos: end orgoal.
Concerned with the end-point or results of anaction
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Ethical Absolutism
Gets some things right :
We need to make judgments (at least
sometimes)
Certain things are intolerable
Gets some things wrong, including:
Our truth is the truth
We cant learn from others
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Right is what is desirable for
it's own sake Deontology
The good is found in the action itself and notbased on its consequences or results.
Thus it is our duty to do the right action
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What is right is what is
legal Legalist Ethics ( Legalism )
What the law says
Nothing beyond what is written:
True meaning of justice??
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THEONOMOUS ETHICS (6)
rooted in the very natureof God.
FAITH requires the loveand service of onesfellow man as anessential expression ofthe service of God.
love of neighbor as anessential expression oflove for God
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Right is what God revealed
Christian Ethics : on life and words of Christ
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Right is moderation
Virtue Ethics
Happiness is achieved through the development ofgood habits: intellectual (for example knowledge)and practical action and emotion (for examplecourage).
Golden Mean neither excess nor deficiency.
Aristotle : Three natures of man : Vegetative
Rational Animal
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7/12/2011 Christian Ethics Part 1 29
EVALUATION
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Are there universal moral principles that apply to allpeople, regardless of the time or place that theylive?
1. Yes: Ethical Objectivism and Ethical Absolutism 2. No: Ethical Relativism
ConventionalEthical Relativism (Conventionalism): Moralprinciples and truths are purely a product of the culture.
Subjective Ethical Relativism (Subjectivism): Moral principles andtruths depend on the individual. Morality is in the eye of thebeholder.
3. No: Ethical Nihilism.
There are no ethical or moral truths.
Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismTerminology
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Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismCulture Relativism vs. Ethical Relativism
Ethical Objectivism and Ethical Absolutism donot deny that there is Cultural Relativism: Cultures vary widely and have different moral codes
which may: Include some ethical principles that are unique to the
culture and which are not universal,
Apply universal ethical principles in ways unique to theculture.
Ethical Relativism goes beyond CulturalRelativism by insisting that there are nouniversal moral principles or truths at all.
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Ethical Relativism vs. ObjectivismCulture Relativism vs. Ethical Relativism
Ethical Relativism that moral principles or
truths are relative, purely a product of the
culture -- would insist, for example, that:
Western society has no basis to condemn the practiceof female circumcision in Northern Africa (cutting offthe external genitalia)
Estimate: 4 to 5 million women suffer this each year.
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WHAT ARE THE UNIVERSALMORAL PRINCIPLES?
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Universal Moral Principles
How Many Principles?
Any Christian ethical system is a ethical
objectivism system, claiming that there are
universal moral principles that apply to alltime and all places.
But what are the universal moral principles?
How many are there?
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Universal Moral Principles
Multiple Principles
Other systems claim multiple universal
principles. Examples:
Christian ethical systems based on the TenCommandments and the Sermon on the Mount
The Moral Theology of the Roman CatholicChurch, based on:
Divine Law Natural Law
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DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICSVERSUS TELEOLOGICAL
ETHICS
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Deontological v. Teleological
Ethics For example: lying: In teleological systems (= consequentialist ethics), the
morality of lying would depend on the consequence oroutcome of the lie.
In deontological systems (= nonconsequentialist ethics),the very act of lying is seen as intrinsically wrong.
If the Nazis ask if you have Jewish refugees in yourhouse:
In a teleological approach, it is okay to lie to try to savethe refugees.
In a very strict deontological system (such as ImmanuelKants), the moral act is to tell the truth, because lying isan intrinsic evil.
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Deontological v. Teleological
Ethics The most common system of teleological
ethics is Utilitarianism: always act to bring
about the greatest amount of good and theleast amount of evil the greatest number of
people.
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ETHICS OF BEING VERSUSAN ETHICS OF DOING
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Ethics of Being vs. Doing
Thus far we have been talking about Ethics ofDoing (=Action-based Ethics =Ethics ofConduct), emphasizing the morality ofactions.
(What is the right action? ) Another approach to ethics is an Ethics of Being=Virtue-based Ethics =Aretaic (Greek arete,meaning virtue) Ethics.
Virtue-based ethics says that what isfundamental to ethics is the kind of person weare, our character and motivations. (What kindof person I want to become?)
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Ethics of Being vs. Doing
There is clearly a relationship between our character/ personal virtues, and our actions / conduct. Threeviews of that relationship can be described as: Ethics of Being (=Virtue based Ethics): virtues are what
is essential in ethics and have intrinsic value. UniversalPrinciples are derived from virtue.
Ethics of Doing (= Action based Ethics): Action-guidingprinciples are what is essential in ethics. These principlesbuild character and virtue.
ComplementarityEthics or Pluralistic Ethics: Virtue-based ethics and action-based ethical systems arecomplementary and both are necessary for a completeethical system.
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