Module 1: What is Ethics?

1. Module 1: What is Ethics? Philosophy 240: Introductory Ethics Online CCBC Author: Daniel G. Jenkins, MA Updated April 2008

2. This module should be read in conjunction with “Chapter I: What is Morality?” in The Elements of Moral Philosophy, 5th edition, by James and Stuart Rachels. Module Goals: After completing readings, presentations, discussions, and coursework for this module, you will be able to: • Identify and explain core aspects of an academic study of Ethics • Explain the inadequacy of traditional sources of moral education • Understand the role of Ethics in moral decision-making

3. What is Ethics? • Is Ethics just a list of rules? • Is Ethics synonymous with legality?

4. Is Ethics just a list of what is permissible? If we could simply consult a final authority on Ethics, there would be very little work for us to do here. I could simply refer you to the appropriate card catalog number and you could check out the Ethics Book With All The Right Answers from the library. You would henceforth know how to live appropriately, and we could all put our cursors down and sit at the desk with our hands folded.

5. But there is no such book, because Ethics is not a list. • Ethics is an activity. • Ethics involves duties, rights, obligations, and deliberation about good lives. • The study of Ethics equips you to think critically about moral issues.

6. Ethics does not tell you what to think It equips you with the tools necessary for you to think for yourself.

7. In what sense do we talk about “right” and “wrong” in Ethics? • In Ethics, right and wrong doesn’t simply refer to the law. • We establish right and wrong through moral deliberation.

8. What is the basis of morality? • For our purposes, the basis of morality is reason. • Reason is different from reasons and from rationalizing.

9. What is reason? • In philosophy when we talk about reason, we are referring to our uniquely human capacity to look at things objectively, free from emotional biases that bind us to bad thinking and false ideas.

10. This is, in part, the philosophical basis of Ethics • If we were to choose an arbitrary date for the origin of philosophy we could pick 6pm, on May 28th, 584 BCE. • This is when the solar eclipse predicted by Thales, a Miletian mathematician, occurred at the predicted moment.

11. This story serves to tell us two facts: • The world is a rational, orderly place • We, as rational, orderly beings can understand, anticipate, and possibly influence the world • If either were untrue, Thales’ prediction could not have come to pass

12. Implications for Ethics • We wont be able to determine what the truth about Ethics is unless we are objective – that is, unless we rely on our faculty of reason.

13. But Thales’ story sounds more conducive to discussion of science! • Certainly Thales’ prediction falls properly into the realm of astronomy, a scientific and not philosophical endeavor • But this emphasis on objectivity is the hallmark of philosophical investigations into the nature of the world.

14. Ethics is but one branch of philosophical inquiry Other branches of philosophy include: • Epistemology • Metaphysics • Philosophy of Religion • Political Philosophy • Logic

15. All emphasize reason • Perhaps the one thing that all these subjects of philosophical inquiry have in common is their insistence that through rational, orderly thought we can discover truths about the world and our relationship with the world.

16. To summarize so far… • Ethics is not a list of what is permissible and what is not, but an ongoing activity involving deliberation about rights, duties, obligations, and good lives that is geared towards determining what we ought (should) do in any given situation. • The academic study of Ethics maintains morality as the barometer of right and wrong, and furthermore asserts that reason is the tool with which we will make discoveries regarding morality

17. But what is wrong with traditional sources of moral education? Why do we need an “academic” approach to Ethics? We often learn about right and wrong from a variety of sources. Take a moment to make a mental list of people and institutions that have influenced your understanding of what is right and wrong. It will probably look something like this:

18. Traditional sources of moral education: • Parents • Religion • School • Media • Friends • The law

19. Parents • Parents are people with their own interests, who make their own mistakes, and who impart their own haphazardly-gathered list of rules about right and wrong • We want a consistent, rational method of decision-making that is ubiquitous across families, cultures, and times.

20. Religion • There are many religions – which one imparts the correct moral code? • Many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion, such as wars, act of violence against abortion doctors, and terrorist acts.

21. Schools • While many teachers are great role models, some are not. • It is not enough that we have a sense of right imparted by role models, but that we understand why what is right is right.

22. Media • If there is a moral message in the media, it certainly is not consistently presented and seems to be based more on ratings than reason.

23. Friends • Hey, they’re your friends, so why did they convince you to smoke, cheat on your special someone, or do that stupid stunt that got you nothing but a broken leg? • While the advice of some friends might be better than this (and for our sake let’s hope so), people just don’t have an advantage over the awesome power of reason in solving dilemmas.

24. The Law • Laws, as entities created by individuals with individual allegiances, may or may not serve morality.

25. Reason over authority and influence • We can do better than simply fall back on the forces that gain influence over us • We can do better than simply appeal to authority • We can use our critical faculty of reason

26. The structure of our ethical journey Properly speaking, there are three branches to the study of Ethics: • Meta-ethics – the study of where values do and should come from • Morality – the study of values; the study of what we in fact believe to be right or wrong • Ethics – the study of systems of ethical decision-making; the critical examination of methods of moral deliberation promulgated by great philosophers throughout history

27. What has been presented thus far falls into the realm of meta-ethics • We are at this point involved in theoretical evaluation of value claims. We are using meta-ethics.

28. As the course progresses we will address morality and Ethics more specifically • But for now we need to spend time laying the ground for study of these topics • In particular, we need to understand why the study of Ethics is useful, and how to identify the characteristics of moral judgments rendered from reason

29. The two main questions all ethical theories attempt to answer are: • What is the good life? • What ought we do? Every theory we will discuss will attempt to answer these two questions. Note that you cannot answer the second question until you’ve answered the first – no philosopher worth considering will recommend that you do something that does not lead to a good life. You might, however, disagree about philosophers’ claims regarding what constitutes a good life, and this will, indeed, be the central focus of much debate throughout this course.

30. This is, in part, what makes the study of Ethics so useful By first addressing large-scale questions like “what kind of life is a good life to lead?” we can reason down to specific occasions and determine how we ought to behave. This is preferential to merely consulting a list of “dos and don’ts” whose origins are murky whose justifications are unclear.

31. In the next module you will consider the logical basis of moral reasoning • But before you complete this module I would like to demonstrate the top-down style of processing involved in applying models of ethical decision-making by having you consider a primitive ethical theory called Hedonism.

32. Hedonism Hedonism maintains that the sole good is to seek pleasure and avoid pain, because it maintains that pleasure is an intrinsic good and pain an intrinsic bad. So lets pose a question to Hedonism: Would the right thing for me to do tonight be to go party with friends or should I study for Ethics? Here’s how we would answer this logically: • Premise 1: Partying is pleasurable • Premise 2: Studying is boring, perhaps difficult, and therefore painful • Premise 3: I act morally by pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain (the moral imperative of Hedonism) • Conclusion: I should go party tonight.

33. Top-Down Processing • By reasoning from Hedonism’s claims about the nature of the good life to the specific instance of choosing between competing alternatives about how to spend our time, we are provided with a concrete example about the usefulness of Ethics. • We address broad claims first (what kind of life is good) and narrow, specific claims last (what action we can take in a specific scenario that will be conducive to leading the life we have identified as a good life). • But hopefully you disagree with the claims made by Hedonism. Take a moment to think about some problems that might arise if you applied Hedonism’s method of ethical decision-making to your own life, and to note some questions you might ask regarding hedonism’s propensity to help you lead a good life.

34. Problems with Hedonism • As we consider Hedonism, several questions come to mind – are there bad pleasures? Are all pleasures immediate, or does it make sense to endure pain to reach a greater or more enduring pleasure? Would the Hedonist’s understanding of morality allow me to conclude that I ought study instead of partying? • It quickly becomes clear that Hedonism is inadequate as a system of ethical decision-making because of the limited scope of the good life it takes into account.

35. You are a nascent Ethicist! Regardless of Hedonism’s failings (or perhaps because of them), here you are, considering whether or not a system of ethical decision-making is conducive to values you deem to be worthwhile – this means you are thinking in an ethical fashion, and are beginning to engage in moral reasoning.

36. The Ultimate Value of Ethics In addition to helping you think like an ethicist and demonstrating the top-down nature of ethical reasoning, Hedonism elucidates one of the most fundamental assets the study of Ethics will help you develop – the study of Ethics is useful because it helps us lead uniquely human lives.

37. How are we different from the beasts? I know many very happy dogs. One could argue that dogs (in a good home) have a very good life. But is it a life you would consent to living? Why not? Come on, I’ll let you set up a tent in my yard, I’ll feed you, I’ll pet you, and all you have to do is bark at people that come on or near my property.

38. We want more than to just feel good – we want to do good • We do not consent to the life of the dog because such a life ignores our uniquely human capacities. • The study of Ethics is important because it helps us to utilize our human faculty of reason to do good and be good as well as merely feel good.

39. Summary • Ethics is not a list of what is permissible and what is not, but an ongoing activity involving deliberation about rights, duties, obligations, and good lives that is geared towards determining what we ought (should) do in any given situation. • The academic study of Ethics maintains morality as the barometer of right and wrong, and furthermore asserts that reason is the tool with which we will make discoveries regarding morality

40. Summary, continued • Reason has an advantage over more traditional sources of moral education because it relies on our uniquely human faculty to think objectively about moral issues without the emotional biases and unclear justifications that come with merely accepting the edicts of authority or falling back on values we may have adopted unthinkingly. • That the study of Ethics relies heavily on reason is, in part, what makes it a philosophical discipline.

41. Summary, continued • The branches of Ethics include the study of meta-ethics (where values come from), the study of morality (what we in fact believe to be right and wrong), and the study of Ethics (systems of ethical decision-making designed by philosophers from throughout history). • All systems of ethical decision-making attempt to answer two questions: 1) what is the good life, and 2) what ought we do?

42. Summary, continued • The study of philosophy is useful because: it allows us to engage in top-down processing, a method that challenges the assumptions we’ve gathered haphazardly from more ordinary sources, and which allows us to form a coherent picture in which we reason down from an understanding of the good life to a specific scenario. • The study of philosophy utilizes our uniquely human capacity of reason to be and do good as well as merely feel good • The study of philosophy equips us with the tools necessary to reach our potential as moral agents, and to discover moral truths for ourselves; the study of Ethics helps teach us how, not what, to think.

43. Congratulations! You’ve just completed the presentation for module 1. Once you have also completed the assigned reading from the textbook, please proceed to the “Assignments” and “Discussion” tabs in WebCT to complete relevant coursework for this module. If you have any questions please contact me.