PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS TASTER SESSION Ethics 2020 WHAT

PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS TASTER SESSION Ethics 2020

WHAT IS ETHICS? Todays session you will be having a go at considering ethical dilemmas. Something we do all the time in the ethics side of the course. An ethical dilemma is when you have a situation in which you have to make a decision on what would be the most moral thing to do that produces the most moral outcomes. By moral I mean good. In an ethical dilemma there are usually two options that can be chosen.

ETHICAL THEORIES In ethics we will study ethical theories that provide ways to help us make decisions in these dilemmas. Below are summaries of theories we will study that you are going to have a go at applying to ethical dilemmas. Do the most loving thing The greatest good for the greatest number Act in accordance with God You must always act good, ignore the consequences

ETHICAL DILEMMAS For each of the summaries you need to apply them to the dilemmas to make your decision. So using that principle, you need to work out what to do. In order to do this you need to complete the table on the next slide. Instructions: Read each dilemma Fill in the table by saying what you should do in that dilemma according to that moral principle. So what would be the most loving thing to do in that situation, for example.

Moral Principle Do the most loving thing The greatest good for the greatest number Act in accordance with God You must always act good, ignore the consequences Dilemma 1 Dilemma 2 Dilemma 3

DILEMMA 1 Tony, a data analyst for a major casino, is working after normal business hours to finish an important project. He realises that he is missing data that had been sent to his coworker Robert. Tony had inadvertently observed Robert typing his password several days ago and decides to log into Robert’s computer and resend the data to himself. Upon doing so, Tony sees an open email regarding gambling bets Robert placed over the last several days with a local sports book. All employees of the casino are forbidden to engage in gambling activities to avoid any hint of conflict of interest. Tony knows he should report this but would have to admit to violating the company’s information technology regulations by logging into Robert’s computer. If he warns Robert to stop his betting, he would also have to reveal the source of his information. What does Tony do in this situation?

DILEMMA 2 In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $400 for the radium and charged $4, 000 for a small dose of the drug. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2, 000, which is half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying, and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said, "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make money from if. " So, having tried every legal means, Heinz gets desperate and considers breaking into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife.

DILEMMA 3 Joe is a fourteen-year-old boy who wanted to go to camp very much. His father promised him he could go if he saved up the money for it himself. So Joe worked hard at his paper route and saved up the forty dollars it cost to go to camp, and a little more besides. But just before camp was going to start, his father changed his mind. Some of his friends decided to go on a special fishing trip, and Joe's father was short of the money it would cost. So he told Joe to give him the money he had saved from the paper route. Joe didn't want to give up going to camp, so he thinks of refusing to give his father the money.

CONSIDERATIONS Obviously there are lots of things to consider when you make decisions in ethical dilemmas. Below are some things you may want to think about: Religious views Cultural differences Laws Opinions and preferences Emotions