Ethics How should we treat other people? Is there a “good life” for humans?

1. Ethics How should we treat other people? Is there a “good life” for humans? What is the relationship between moral values and religion? How do we decide on the moral rightness of social issues? A man may have no religion yet be moral. (Napoleon Bonaparte 1769-1821) Moral feelings are not innate but required (John Stuart Mill 1806-1873)

2. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Ethical Dilemmas Are an Unavoidable Part of Life What is your reaction to this photograph of a comatose patient on life support equipment? Do you believe that medical technology should be used to extend people’s lives in all cases? Why?

3. Why do you think some people are willing to suspend their critical thinking abilities and permit their minds to be controlled by cult leaders like Marshall Applewhite, who committed suicide with 39 of his followers on March 28, 1997?

4. I. Your Moral Compass A. We make moral decisions all the time B. Moral choices have the following characteristics: they involve the treatment of others; there may not be an obvious right answer; there are positive and negative consequences that will result from your choices; the choices are guided by values; the choices involve the notion of moral responsibility C. Based on what should or ought to be, not on what is.

5. II. What is Ethics? A. Ethical and moral concepts include right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, fair and unfair, responsible and irresponsible B. Ethics from the Greek ethos; morals from the Latin moralists—the terms are roughly equivalent C. Moral philosophy emphasizes an evaluation of the justification and logic of moral beliefs D. Important to become a philosopher of values, rather than relying upon a confused set of childhood teachings, popular wisdom, and unreliable intuitions

6. III. What are My Moral Values? A. Task: inventory of current moral values B. Some of our values in education involve thoughtful teaching; some involve bullying, bribing, manipulation C. Most value systems do not rise to the level of a system—they are a collection of general principles, practical conclusions, and emotional pronouncements D. Ethical dilemma: when relevant moral principles contradict one another

7. IV. Ethical Theories A. Ethical theories are coherent theoretical frameworks that we can apply to the moral decisions we encounter in everyday life B. We’ll look at these major theories in turn: ethical subjectivism, cultural relativism, ethical absolutism, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, ethics of duty, virtue ethics, existentialist ethics, and ethics of care

8. Jean-Jacques Rousseau What I feel is right is right. What I feel is wrong is wrong. The corruption of man/woman from society and culture.

9. V. Ethical Subjectivism A. Ethical subjectivism is very popular and very problematic—it is superficially attractive because it gives everyone the feeling that they are tolerant and that they get to follow their own sense of what’s right B. Fatal flaw: it does not involve tolerance for the views or interests of others; recipe for moral anarchy C. If we commit ourselves to a universal principle of tolerance to fix the flaw, we are no longer subjectivists (Gandhi)

10. Mohandas Gandhi

11. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Friends and Relatives of Deletha Word Pray Tuesday, August 22, 1995 on the Belle Isle Bridge in Detroit Some people believe that the popularity of a belief in ethical subjectivism in our culture contributes to the kind of moral apathy displayed when a crowd of people watched Deletha Word jump to her death trying to escape an attacker. Do you agree? Why?

12. D. Need to distinguish between descriptive ethics and normative ethics—otherwise we are likely to commit the naturalistic fallacy Descriptive Ethics: What is the case? Normative Ethics: What ought to be the case? E. Still a strong temptation to think that because people have different moral beliefs, these beliefs all have equal value (perhaps like taste) F. Opinions are easy to hold; informed opinions more difficult, and more important

13. VI. Cultural Relativism A. Ethics as simply the mutual agreement of various groups, thus relative to each culture—ethical subjectivism on a social level B. Ruth Benedict: defined morality as “socially approved customs”—reaction to the cultural imperialism of the West—response to social Darwinism C. Benedict argues that we cannot uncritically accept Western values as morally superior—gives examples of what is abnormal in Western culture that is normal or admirable in other cultures—homosexuality as normal, social cooperation and friendship as abnormal

14. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Woman Being Buried Alive Along with her Dead Husband at a Funeral Ceremony in the East Indies Cultural relativists believe that cultural practices (such as that depicted in this engraving) determine what is ethically right and wrong. Do you agree? Why?

15. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Satirical Illustration Depicting a Scene from a Nineteenth-Century Mental Institution. Do you agree with the contention of cultural relativists that we cannot evaluate the practices of other cultures (such as the treatment of the mentally ill) as being either inferior or superior to any others? Why?

16. D. Argues we have the capacity to learn a moral code just as we have the capacity to learn language, but which language and which code is entirely determined by the culture we are born in E. Believes there is no additional meaning to the idea of moral values besides the idea that they are the customs our culture happened to chose

17. Do you agree with Ruth Benedict’s statement that “Morality differs in every society and is a convenient term for socially approved habits”? Why?

18. Ethical Absolutism A. Counter to relativism, absolutism argues that “at least some values apply to every individual” B. For example, slavery would be wrong in every case, regardless of whether it is a deeply ingrained custom of a given culture

19. Chaffee (2005) takes this opportunity to address the confusion students are likely to feel—says that many people adopt a “live and let live” perspective without fully appreciating the “disturbing and unintended consequences” of their view

20. G. Stace evaluates the arguments for relativism one by one: first, the fact that cultures disagree is not evidence for relativism H. Next, there is the claim that absolutism cannot be true because absolutists cannot establish where a universal moral code would derive its authority; but the mere fact that it is difficult to establish the source of moral authority for universal moral principles and easy to establish it for relativism does not prove that relativism is right I. Stace argues that absolutism is better partly because it provides the most rational and complete understanding of our lived experience—we live as though there are independent moral standards

21. J. One more difficulty with relativism: its presumption that the majority of people in a cultural group agree about basic moral values K. Finally, Stace argues that anything at all would be morally permissible if relativism is true

22. VIII. Ethical Egoism A. First absolutist theory: that the highest moral value for all humans is for them to pursue their own happiness—a moral obligation to care for ourselves first B. Myth of the Ring of Gyges: a life of injustice is much better—a good man and a bad man would perform the same actions if they each had the cover of invisibility; in other words, it would be crazy to enter into the social contract if we have the power to avoid it

23. IX. Ayn Rand A. As an ethical egoist, Rand argues that altruism and compassion are actually vices—she maintains that what is currently valued is self-sacrifice, and that doing something good for yourself is always looked upon as an immoral action B. She says we are morally bound to pursue our own self-interests, but that we should pursue only our rational self-interest and not simply do whatever we please C. For example, we shouldn’t steal because it is in our interests to become a strong, independent person

24. Ayn Rand cont. Empathy not a characteristic of a rational person Independence, honesty, integrity and a sense of justice are Rand blames the value that our culture places on altruism on two feelings: guilt and cynicism

25. X. James Rachels A. Offers a critique of both psychological and ethical egoism—begins with the example of someone giving up a weekend in the country in order to help a friend B. Says the claim that the person made the choice because “she wanted to,” thus proving egoism is a non-starter—the person chose to do what she didn’t want to do; secondly, even if the choice does bring satisfaction to the person who gives up the weekend, the primary goal was to help the friend, and the satisfaction is a side effect (must look at what action’s consequence is)

26. C. Three confusions Rachels clears up: selfishness and self-interest are not the same thing; not true that every action must be done either out of self-interest or other-directed motives; not true that concern for one’s own welfare is incompatible with genuine concern for others’ welfare D. Another example: burning a department store just to enjoy watching it burn; this seems to be an action that an ethical egoist would find to be morally good—maybe not a fair example for Rand’s version of rational egoism, which includes being independent, having integrity, being honest, and being just

27. E. Logical inconsistency of egoism: an egoist cannot want everyone else to be an egoist too—it wouldn’t be in her own self-interest; Rand thinks that if everyone is an egoist, conflicts between individual interests will harmoniously work themselves out, though it is not clear why she thinks this is so F. Finally, Rachels thinks that it is inhuman for the egoists to suggest that the natural tendency towards sympathy is unimportant or even morally bad

28. XI. Morality and Religion A. Students may have noticed how their own religious beliefs have informed their morality—metaphysical religious beliefs are deeply intertwined with beliefs about how we should act on earth B. Indeed, religion is one possible grounding for universal moral principles—but saying that we should adopt certain moral principles simply because “God says so” removes the question of morality from human debate and turns it into a spiritual question

29. C. Plato first posed the problem of divine command theory by asking if an action is morally good because God makes it good or if God says an action is morally good because it is already morally good D. If moral commands are not to be questioned, this leads to the disturbing possibility of uncritical individuals becoming vulnerable to manipulative leaders who say that they have access to God’s commands E. Abraham and Isaac example again—is this a sign of great faith or a sign that some things are morally wrong no matter who commands us to do them?

30. According to Divine Command Theory, we act morally when we do what God commands us to do, such as following the Ten Commandments held by Moses in this statue by Michelangelo.

31. XII. Natural Law Ethics A. Aquinas rejected the divine command theory and instead suggested that God loves the right and the good because it is right and good B. What grounds morality, then, is a natural law that is based on humanity’s essential nature and that is universal and binding on all people—c.f. “we hold these truths to be self evident” (Declaration of Independence) C. Aquinas argues that by following the dictates of reason, we are able to discover God’s ethic encoded in our human nature D. Reveals the possibility of legitimate civil disobedience—Martin Luther King, Jr. subscribed to a version of Aquinas’s natural law theory

32. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Detail of “Apotheosis of St. Thomas of Aquinas,” by Zurbaran, 1631 According to Natural Law Ethics, championed by St. Thomas Aquinas pictured in this painting, universal moral values can be discovered in nature by using the faculty of reason. Can you identify any universal moral laws that you believe are grounded in human nature?

33. VISUAL PHILOSOPHY Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Being Arrested and Led Away by Police In the tradition of natural law ethics, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., believed that “one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” Do you agree? Why?

34. XIII. On Becoming an Ethical Person A. Big problem: how do we educate someone to be moral—Robert Coles points out that a person can easily have knowledge about ethics and yet not be an ethical person B. Gives an example of a student who drops out of school because even the finest education might not make her fellow students good people

35. XIV. Making Connections: Your Moral Compass Revisited A. Reinforce the unworkability of ethical subjectivism B. We covered egoism as a possibility, and two alternatives in natural law ethics and divine command theory