Introduction to Ethics

1. Introduction to Ethics Theories of right and wrong Dan Turton Victoria University of Wellington

2. Teaser Questions • Do you generally know (morally) right from wrong? • When you disagree with people about a moral issue – what are you really disagreeing about? • Are you ever unsure if an act is morally wrong or not?

3. Morality vs. Ethics • What is the difference? • Some important questions related to ethics • Why do we think certain acts are right/wrong? • Why be moral? • What makes an action morally right or wrong?

4. The Key Question for Moral Theories Q1: What makes right acts right and wrong acts wrong? (A theory’s answer = its moral criterion) Terminology ‘Wrong’ = Morally Forbidden ‘Right’ = Narrow: Morally Obligatory = Wide: Morally Permissible (includes should do and can do)

5. Example: Pushing In Is pushing in generally wrong? What makes pushing in wrong? Is pushing in ever morally permissible? What can make it (morally) OK?

6. Moral Theories • Not-so-good moral theories • Better moral theories

7. Divine Command Theory Right acts are right because… They are the actions that God commands we perform Problem: The Euthyphro Dilemma…

8. The Euthyphro Dilemma Either (1) The act is right only because God commanded that we do it Or (2) God commanded that we do it because the act is right for independent reasons (1)= morality and God’s commands are arbitrary (2)= abandon Divine Command Theory

9. The Law Wrong acts are wrong because… They break the law Problem: Do we always feel like we have done something morally wrong when we break the law?

10. Cultural Relativism Right acts are right because… your culture approves of them Four Problems: • Can’t criticize other cultures • Can’t criticize your own culture • No moral progress • It’s just not how we decide in the hard cases

11. The Golden Rule Right acts are right because… they are the ones you would want done to you Problems: • People like different things (e.g. Masochists) • Is it how we decide in the hard cases?

12. Utilitarianism • Type of consequentialism • What makes right acts right? • The right act is the one that, out of all of the alternatives, is most likely to maximize the overall utility • Utility is: • happiness / the absence of suffering, or • preference-satisfaction / not dissatisfaction

13. An Example: Euthanasia • Assess the options: • 1) Leave them in pain • 2) Help them to die • 1 results in less net happiness than 2 • Therefore, Utilitarianism asserts that 2 is the right choice

14. Kantianism • Type of deontological view • What makes right acts right? • An act is right if its maxim treats humanity as an end in itself and not merely as a means • Maxims are: • Like policies • What you intend to do in certain situations

15. An Example: Slavery • Assess the options: • 1) Endorse slavery • 2) Repeal slavery • 1 results in rational beings being used as a mere means to the slave-owners ends • Therefore, kantianism asserts that 2 is the right choice

16. Break • Think about the better theories… • Can you see problems with them?

17. Problems with the Better Theories… What do you think?

18. The Tram Dilemma • An out of control tram will soon kill 5 people who are stuck on the track. • You can flick a switch to divert the tram to another track where only one person is stuck. • Should you flip the switch? • Should you kill one person to save five? SWITCH

19. The Surgeon’s Dilemma • You are a surgeon with six patients. • Five of them need major organ transplants. • The sixth, an ideal donor for all the relevant organs, is in hospital for a minor operation. • Should you kill one person to save five?

20. Jungle Dilemma • You are trekking alone in the Amazon. • You discover an evil army officer and his troops rounding up villagers. • Unless you kill one, the troops will kill six. • Should you kill one person to save five?

21. Jungle Dilemma Cont. • What if there are 2 villagers? • What if there are 10 villagers? • What if there are 100 villagers? • Can you ever kill one innocent person to save many?

22. Summing Up • At least two moral theories seem plausible… • But they disagree sometimes • So, they can’t both be right all of the time! • Is there a right and wrong in such situations?

23. Summing Up Cont. • Are some acts just right or wrong (without explanation)? • What about killing innocent children? • Innuits do it (for a reason) • What about torturing innocents? • The US does this (for a reason)

24. The Meaning of Life and the Good Life Dan Turton Victoria University of Wellington

25. Teaser Questions • Why are we here? • What makes life worth living? • What is the meaning of life?

26. Clarifying the Question • What do we really mean when we ask: • ‘What is the meaning of life?’ • Probably not: • ‘What does it mean to be alive?’ • Probably: • ‘What, if anything, is the purpose for life?’ • And possibly: • ‘What, if anything, could make a life meaningful?’

27. Purposes for Life • ‘What, if anything, is the purpose for life?’ • Religious purposes • Non-religious purposes • Survival and reproduction • Selfish purposes • Moral purposes • There is no purpose

28. Meaning in Life • ‘What, if anything, could make a life meaningful?’ • Supernaturalism • Naturalism • Subjective Naturalism • Objective Naturalism • Nihilism

29. Meaning vs. Goodness • ‘What, if anything, could make a life meaningful?’ • But is that the most interesting question? • Does a life have to be meaningful to be good? • Would you rather your life be good or meaningful?

30. The Good Life • ‘What, if anything, makes a life good?’ • What kind of ‘good life’? • A good example of a life • Aesthetically good • Causally good • Morally good • Subjectively good

31. What Theories of Well-Being Do • Describes the ultimate cause(s) of a life being good for the one living it • Describes what intrinsically makes someone’s life go well • Reduces all instrumentally life-improving things down to one or more type of ultimately valuable thing

32. Break • Think about well-being (the subjectively good life)… • What do you think makes a life good for the one living it?

33. Theories of Well-Being • Mental state accounts • E.g. hedonism • Desire-satisfaction accounts • E.g. informed preference-satisfaction • Objective list accounts • E.g. perfectionism

34. Making an Objective List • What things intrinsically make a life go well for the one living it? • Now check that those things are intrinsically valuable • By asking why they make someone’s life go better for them • What are we left with?

35. Is Pleasure the Only Thing of Value? • Compare the lives of two men • Similarities: • Both lived long lives, in which they have experienced equal pleasures from the same sources • Sources: being loved by their family and friends, achieving at work and in hobbies etc. • Differences: • One of them is mistaken about all of the things he takes pleasure in • The other is not • Whose life is better?

36. Is Informed Preference-Satisfaction the Only Thing of Value? • Compare the lives of two very intelligent women • Similarities: • Up to the age of 25, both women led practically identical lives • Throughout their whole lives they always made fully informed decisions • Both learned everything to know about Heroin • Differences: • At age 25, one of them tried Heroin, became addicted and went on to live a short life of much suffering • The other did not try Heroin and went on to live a normal life • Whose life is better?

37. Is Ideal Preference-Satisfaction the Only Thing of Value? • What makes a preference ideal? • Unless we remain very abstract about what is ideal, then we appear to be making another objective list • Is it important (for our well-being) to get what we want?

38. Summing Up • The ‘meaning of life’ is easy to work out for religious people • But non-religious people can still find meaning for their life by: • Making their own meaning in their life, or • Having a good life

39. Summing Up Cont. • Understanding what is fundamentally important in our lives is important for ethics • These intrinsically valuable things should be at least considered when doing ethics • An moral theory that ignores what gives our lives meaning and/or makes them good will be a poor moral theory

40. The Morality of Meddling with Human Life • What should we want most for our children? • What, if anything, is morally bad about un-natural processes? • Is it more loving to accept a child exactly as they are or to encourage them to alter their lives for their own benefit?

41. Meddling with Human Life • Meddling = interfering where we shouldn’t • Making human life • Modifying human life

42. Technologies for Making Life • IVF – In Vitro Fertilisation • PGD – Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis • SCNT – Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer • Artificial wombs

43. Technologies for Modifying Life • Beware the fallacy of Genetic Determinism! • PGD • Choosing (genetic dispositions for) specific characteristics • IVF with GE (Genetic Engineering) • Creating (genetic dispositions for) specific characteristics

44. Should We be Using These Technologies to Enhance Our Children? • Isolating the important moral issue • Imagine the technology is: • Safe, • Effective, • Widely accessible, and • Cheap

45. Should We be Using These Technologies to Enhance Our Children? Cont. • Types of enhancements or ‘goods’ • Relative goods • Height • Absolute goods • Happiness, intelligence • Note continuum • Irrelevant goods • Hair colour, eye colour • (Maybe) Deafness, sexuality

46. 2 Reasons for Allowing Enhancement • Procreative Liberty • ‘The freedom to decide whether or not to have offspring and to control the use of one’s reproductive capacity.’ • Moral analogy with educating our children • Would you send your children to a school that guaranteed the best physical, intellectual and emotional education?

47. Break • Think about how you might object to all or certain types of enhancement • To object to the moral analogy with education, you need to show that there is a morally relevant difference between enhancement by technology and enhancement by education

48. Objections Against All Enhancement • Wisdom of repugnance (Yuck!) • Rights of the child (which one?) • Rights of the child to object (not a difference e.g. with nutrition) • Slippery slope to babies with wings • Brave New World (who will clean the toilets?) • All goods are relative (so enhancements don’t improve things overall) • Too much ‘transforming love’ and not enough ‘accepting love’

49. Objections Against Some Enhancements • Ban enhancements of some types of ‘goods’ • Relative, Absolute, or Irrelevant goods • Ban enhancements that decrease the autonomy of the child • Deafness, GE for mathematics

50. Some Practical Reasons Against Enhancement • Can the technology ever really be: • Safe?, • Effective?, • Widely accessible?, and • Cheap?