UNIT I: CONCEPTUAL CONSIDERATIONS

(TEACHER’S NOTES)

UNIT I INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS IN ETHICS

I:MEANING AND DEFINITION OF ETHICS: What is Ethics?

Moral Philosophy/Ethics (as a branch of philosophy)

1. Rational/systematic attempt to understand moral , statements, principles, and theories.
2. Rational way to determine the best course of action in the faceof conflicting values and choices
3. Set of moral principles/obligations,rights,beliefs,attitudes concerning morality

II. ETHICS AND MORALITY

1.MORALITY-(Latin “Customs”), precepts and practices that are good/bad and wrong/right
2.Values put into practice
3.It has to do with how people ought to act and is made by society
III.QUESTIONS OF ETHICS
1.What is right or wrong?and how can we determine it?
2.What makes something right or wrong?
3.What does it mean to say that an action is morally wrong/good ?
4.Do objective values exist somewhere in space and time?or relative (i.e., place/time/group)
5.What are the grounds of morality (God,culture,person,laws etc.)
IV:NATURE OFETHICS

1.A normative science-determines standards in human conduct

2.A science-systematic explanation of R/W
3.A regulative not practical science(teaching how to live a moral life)
ETHICS IS NOT:
1.Feelings-may provide info for our ethical choice but not reliable
2.Religion-adresses right stds but notall moral problems
3.Law-incorporate ethical stdrs but can delineate from ethical and slow to address moral problems
4.Culture- other cultures are immoral and corrupt

V.ETHICSAND (, LAW, ETIQUETTE, VALUE AND SYSTEM OF RELIGION)

A.LAW
1.Represents the minimum acceptable behavior of a particular group.
2.Assessment: Legal/illegal
3.Basis: The authority of the lawmakers.
4.Punishment: Fines, prison terms, exile, death, torture, etc
5.Rewards: Typically none.

CONSIDERATIONS:.What is (un)ethical is not necessarily (il)legal, and vice versa:

EX: Ethical and legal: donating money to charity.
EX: Ethical and illegal: hiding Jews in Germany during WWII.
EX: Unethical and legal: slavery (years ago in America).
EX: Unethical and illegal: first degree murder
NOTE: What is common ,both attempt to control the behavior of individuals .The distinction lies in the severity of the punishments
associated with each kind of violation. Societies more tolerant of moral violations than of violations of the law
B. ETIQUETTE
1.Represents the broadest possible set of behavioral expectations of a society.
2.Assessment: Polite/impolite, proper/improper, rude.
3.Basis: Social agreement, custom, etiquette authorities.
4.Punishment: Social disapproval. Rewards: Social approval.
5.Can be immoral to ignore etiquette.Things required by etiquette might be immoral.
C.VALUE
1.A measure of worth; includes both moral and non-moral worth.
2..Important basis of moral code
3.Tells/motivates what we want to achieve/do
4.Affects perception and decisions
5.Cancollide,conflict
6.Shape by experienced,ividual and vary in culture
7.May be Positive /Negative .
8.May be Extrinsic : (value comes from something else./Extrinsic: valuable in itself.(money/persons)

D. SYSTEM OF RELIGION
 1.A normative system, i.e., it tells people how to behave.
2.Often used as the basis of morality.
3.Extensive overlap: religion raises many moral issues and morality raises many religious issues.

NOTE: Analysis of morality difficult (different normative social systems overlap ).EX,nion-payment oftax(illegalbut not immoral)

VI.MAIN BRANCHES/TYPES OF ETHICS

A.DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS:
 Psychological, anthropological, or sociological explanations, with the goal of attaining empirical knowledge of the morality of
accepted moral views. The views could be current or past moral views.

QUESTIONS OF DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

 Why did we as a culture accept slavery, as a practice? Why does this person have these views of abortion

B.NORMATIVE ETHICS-
 Deals with questions relating to the prescription of norms i.e. it attempts to offer a theory that explains what one ought todo .
Deals with the content of moral judgment.Deals with the criteria of R/.W
QUESTIONS OF NORMATIVE ETHICS
 Which action isconsideredas good?
C.METAETHICS -
 Deals with the nature of of moral judgments and its justification
QUESTIONS OF METAETHICS
 Are there any moral facts?
 What is good?

D.APPLIEDETHICS-
 Deals with what the person is obligated todo in a specific situation
 Application of normative philosophical principles to moral issues in society.(Abortion, Euthanasia, Capital punishment, poverty)
 Useful in determining publicpolicy and code of ethics
 Useful in moral reasoning and decision-making
QUESTIONS OF PRACTICAL/APPLIED ETHICS
 What is the correct moral course of action?

VII:SUBJECT MATTER AND SOURCE OF ETHICS/MORALITY

1.Voluntary human actions-these are carried consciously,willingly .Acts that are controlled and purposive
1.ACharacteristics of voluntary acts
1.B. Distinction between acts of man and human act
2.Ethical behavior-accepted behavior as G/R in the context of a governing moral code
2.A. Distinction moral , non-moral, amoral and immoral acts
A.1.Non-moral acts-areas of action where moral categories cannot be applied
Ex.wearingsocks,factualstatements,scientificstatements,nonintentionalacts,reflexes,accidental acts
A.2.Immoral acts-moral categories apply
Ex.evil,bad,wrong,sinful acts0accordint to some standards that are violated(telling a lie,murder)
A.3.A-moral act-an act that exhibits indifference.
Does not abide by the moral code of society(acts of sociopath/children
They are value-free
Neither moral nor immoral(taking a sip of water

VIII:FUNCTIONSAND GOALS OF ETHICS

1.Guide us by offering ethical principles which helps us to decide which course of action to take
2.Helpsus to make informed decision
3.Helps usto think and act ethically and make better choices
4.Helps us to avoid arbitrariness and caprice in our decisions and actions
5.Helps us to make clear and strong moral awareness and foundation
6.Helps us resolve moral issues
7.Helps us justify moral judgments
8.Purges popular morality of errors and false assumptions

IX:METHODS OF ETHICS

A.CRITICAL THINKING
 Art of thinking and judging.
 Deals with what to believe and what to do
CHARACTERISTICS OF A CRITICAL THINKER
  Strives to understand knowledge and truth rightly
 Presents and clarifies claims
 Draw conclusions from the basis

ACTIVITIES OF A CRITICAL THINKER

 Questioning,inquiring
 Testing claims
 Analyzing claims
 Justifying
 Inferring

SUBJECT MATTER OF CRITICAL THINKING

ARGUMENTS-
 Sets of statements.
 Some statements are called reasons(premise)statements that prove or justify
 Some statements are called claims(conclusion)statement that needs to be proven

DIIFERENT QUESTIONS AS CHALLENGES TO C.T.

 State the meaning of concepts
 State ones’ basis and justify it
 State the causes and implications
 State some important distinctions
 State some comparisons and contrast
 State implications of altered conditions
 State one’s judgment and its justification
 State some conclusions

EFFECTS OF CRITICAL THINKING

 Provide good reasons for changing one’s wrong or inconsistent moral beliefs.
 Helps clarify moral beliefs that are based upon non-moral belief that turn out to be false.
EXAMPLE :Abortion is always wrong because, there is an immaterial soul present in human beings from conception.

X:OTHER METHODS USED IN ETHICS

B.SOCRATIC METHOD-teaching by asking not telling/lecturing

CHARACTERISTICS:
 Dialogic
 Open-ended
FOCUS:
 Evaluate beliefs and claims
 Examine contradictions/misconceptions
 Derive implications
GOALS:
 Expose misunderstanding through testing
 To arrive at genuine understanding of the issue

C.CASE ANALYSIS METHOD-take perspective/analyze positions

GOALS:
 Offer different approaches to the situation
 To be sensitive to the context
 To see which approach is most fitting

D.THOUGHT- EXPERIMENT METHOD

GOALS:
 To test which feature is most important
 To open to several alternatives
 To expose wrong assumptions
 To offer new insights

EXAMPLE: PLEASURE MACHINE

 Machine experience any kind not different from real life
Challenge? Will you choose the machine or real life
a. If yes state your reasons
b. If no state your reasons
E.MORAL DILEMMA METHOD-

GOALS:
 Application of moral principles to cases/situations
 To resolve conflicting principles/duties
 To determine proper solutions considering details
EXAMPLE: HEINZ’S DILEMMA
1.Wife dying of cancer/chemist has the cure drug/expensive/COH only half
CHALLENGE:
 .Will Heinz steal the drug or not?If yes give reasons/if no give reasons
 Should he be punished yes/no
 If the act is against the law is it immoral?
 Why is it important to avoid breaking the law?
 What is the benefit of obeying all laws?
 Can man violate the laws and yet avoid punishment?

XI:ETHICS AND THE NEED FOR MORAL EDUCATION

ASSUMPTIONS:
1.Desirability of Moral Education is based on human nature
 If humans are good by nature, relatively easy (refinement and guidance).
 If humans are naturally inclined towards goodness keeping people on the right track
 If humans are naturally neutral challenging involve directing people towards goodness.
 If humans are naturally inclined towards evil, methods that pushed people away from evil
 If humans are naturally evil, very difficult and would require powerful methods
ASSUMPTIONS:
2.Learning to read,write,learn is not enough
3.To become law abiding and successful is not enough
4.Man has a deep desire to know what is right and wrong
5.Most people have some ethical system, taken from different sources. (brings inconsistency )
6.We need to develop our our moral well-being
ARGUMENT: why despite moral education(corruption,murder,evil,abuse exist)
REASON:lacking moral ground/foundation
HENCE: good moral education will strengthen moral foundation and help build one’s character