Ethics and Ethical Theories Herman T Tavani Ethics

Ethics and Ethical Theories Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology, Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.

Morality and moral systems • Rules of conduct • Rules for individuals • Rules for social policies • Principles of evaluation

Justifying rules for moral systems • Religion – teachings of religious leaders • Philosophical ethics – appeals to reason • Law – codes determined by constitutions and legislation

Discussion stoppers • People disagree on solutions. – They also agree on many things. • Who am I to judge? – Sometimes we have to make judgments. • Ethics is a private matter. – Morality is essentially a public system. • Morality is a matter for individual cultures. – Do in Rome as the Romans do.

Why ethical theories are needed • Follow the golden rule. – Doesn’t cover when others have different desires. • Follow your own conscience. – Some people think it all right to fly airplanes into towers.

Consequence based ethical theories • Bentham (1748 -1832) and Mill (18061873) • What results from an act • The ends justify the means • Principle of social utility measured by the resulting amount of happiness

Utilitarianism • Act utilitarianism – Act is good if it results in the greatest good for the greatest number. – What happens to minority? • Rule utilitarianism – Act is good if it comes from following rules that bring good to greatest number. – Should we base ethics on happiness and pleasure?

Duty-based ethical theories Deontological theories • Kant (1724 -1804) – Duties and obligations that people have to one another. • People have rational natures • People should never be treated as means to the ends of others • Each individual has the same moral worth as every other.

Rule deontology Kant’s categorical imperative • Rules that all individuals should be treated as ends in themselves and not means to an end. • Rules that can be universally binding for all people. • One person or group should not be privileged over all others.

Act deontology • Ross (1930) - Problem if two conflicting moral duties • When conflict, consider individual situations • Prima facie (self-evident) duties. – Honesty, justice, helpfulness • Actual duty – What to do when have conflicts. – Use rational intuitionism. • Weigh evidence to decide course of action in particular case

Contract-based ethical theories • Hobbes(1588 -1679) – Premoral state – state of nature where all free to do as like • People establish formal legal code • In each person’s self-interest to develop system with rules • Objections – Depends only on formal legal rules • Difference between ‘doing no harm’ and ‘doing good’.

Rights-based contract theories • Jefferson (1776) and Aquinas (1225 -1274) – Natural rights or inalienable and self-evident rights • Legal rights – positive rights and negative rights • Negative rights – Privacy, no interference in right to vote • Positive rights – Education (in US through 12 th grade)

Character-based ethical theories • Virtue ethics - Plato (427? -327 BCE) and Aristotle (384322 BCE) • Development of good character traits and habits • Be a moral person rather than just follow rules • Agent-oriented rather than action or rule-oriented • Develop character traits such as kindness, truthfulness, honesty, trustworthiness, helpfulness, generosity, and justice • More likely to work in homogeneous societies rather than our pluralistic one • Consequences often should be taken into account

Single comprehensive theory • Rawls (1971) and Moor (1999) – Just-Consequentialist Theory • Start with core values – ‘Do no harm’ • Support justice, rights, and duties – ‘Do your duty’ • Settle conflicts – two steps – Consider situation impartially without regard to specific case – choice between ethical vs. unethical policies – Consider consequences of specific case – choice between better vs. worse policies • Consider whether problem is disagreement about facts rather than value differences

Moor’s ethical framework • Deliberate from an impartial point of view – Does it cause any unnecessary harm? – Does it support individual rights, duties? • Select the best policy from the set – Weigh the good and bad consequences – Distinguish between disagreements about facts vs. disagreements about values