Introduction & Arguments

Applied Ethics Introduction & Arguments

APPLIED ETHICS • Lecturers: Chan Chong Fai Tang Chak Kin • Tutors: Chan Chong Fai Tang Chak Kin

Teaching Mode • Lectures and tutorials. • A lecture (2hrs 10min) every week; • One tutorial (1 hr) every two weeks; • Tutorials start at Week 3.

Teaching Mode • About 12 lectures and 5 tutorials in a semester. • Please sign up your tutorial class now.

TEXTBOOK • Olen, Jeffrey. & Vincent Barry (2010), Applying Ethics (10th ed.). Wadsworth. • You will be provided with lecture notes which will also be put on Soul.

Assessment • Group Presentation & Participation 20% • Individual or Group Paper 30% • Examination 50%

Course outline • Introduction :What is Ethics & Morality? • Logic & Reasoning (Arguments) • Moral theories: Utilitarianism, Kantian Ethics, Rights-based Ethics

Moral Issues • Abortion • Racism, Sexism & Affirmative Action • Animal Rights • Euthanasia • Distributive justice

Rules-governed society • A society is an association of people organized under a system of rules designed to advance the good of its members over time. • Cooperation among individuals helps to promote the common good.

Ethics (Moral philosophy) • Morality--rules of conduct prescribing what people ought and ought not to do in various situations. • Ethics is the study of morality, a rational examination into people’s moral beliefs and behavior.

Ethics (Moral philosophy) * About right or wrong. Ethics establishes the general principles for determining right and wrong. *Analyze moral concepts, like, good, wrong, obligation, justice, rights. * Construct and justify moral principles and theories

Moral judgments • Abortion is morally unacceptable. • Beating your little brother is wrong. • You should not steal others’ things. • Lying is wrong. • You ought to give your seat to the old woman standing front of you.

Moral judgments RightOught to do (should do, must do) Duty (obligation) Moral Wrong  Ought not to do (should not do) Immoral

Fact and Value • Science: descriptive, about fact. • Factual or descriptive, or empirical statements are either True or False.

Facts • The Earth moves around the Sun. • Li Ka Shing is the CE of HKSAR. • Bill Clinton lied to his wife. • Chan Chong Fai is a teacher of HKUSPACE Community College.

Ethics • Prescriptive—commanding us to do or not to do, about something we ought to do or not to do. • Moral judgments are value-judgments or evaluative statements.

Ethics • Killing a person is morally impermissible. • We should help each other. • Making a false promise is wrong. • Bill Clinton should not lie to his wife. • Don’t kill.

Moral law vs. Scientific law • Scientific law is to describe or explain why something is the case. • Moral law is to control human behaviour, to guide or command us something we ought to or ought not to do.

Value-judgments • Moral judgment Aesthetic judgment • This board is beautiful • We should respect each other’s privacy

Fact or Value ? • Look at the sunset, it’s beautiful. • The sunset is a combination of four colours, red, yellow, pink, and orange, and its colours reflect on the sea.

Fact or Value? • All those who had abortion should be put to death, as convicted murderers should be put to death. • Water freezes at zero degree. • Joe, you should not lie to your girl-friend.

Fact or Value? • Mary judged that abortion is wrong but David said it is nothing wrong. • There is disagreement between societies on the standards of morality. • Moral standards should be the same for all human beings.

Fact or Value? • We do not have full democracy now in Hong Kong. • We should have full democracy in Hong Kong.

Ethics • Ethics is about values, or something we ought to do or ought not to do. • The moral issues we shall look at, we seldom come to agreement. • Science is about facts, scientists often come to agreement.

Argument * When you try to prove something, or try to support a point of view, or try to convince others to believe or not to believe something, you propose an argument.

Argument * An argument is a piece of reasoning in which a conclusion is deduced from premises.

Argument • It is warm to-day. • A cold front is approaching HK to-morrow morning. • Cold air stream and warm air stream coming together precipitates rains. • Therefore, it is going to rain to-morrow.

Argument *Argue for abortion: give reasons to support that abortion is nothing wrong. *Argue against abortion: give reasons to support that abortion is wrong.

Argument Argument consists of --Premises (reasons) and --Conclusion (the claim or point of view to be supported)

Since killing a human being is wrong, and fetus is a human being. Abortion is killing the fetus. Thus, abortion is wrong.

*It is likely that David took the money, since the money disappeared at the same time as David left and he had stolen others' money before.

Martin has nicotine-stained fingers; so Martin is a smoker.

Today is not Thursday. Therefore, today is Friday, because either today is Thursday or Friday.

Argument • If the burglar had broken in through the kitchen window, there would be footprints outside; but there are no footprints; so the burglar did not break in through the kitchen window.

The beings that are sentient are those that can suffer pain and enjoy happiness; and the beings that have interest are those that are sentient. Both humans and non-human animals are sentient and have interest. The moral principle of equality is equal consideration of interest. Therefore, it is morally wrong to inflict sufferings upon animals (in factory farm, hunting, and experiment). Since we should take all sentient beings’ suffering into consideration and the principle of equality requires that non-human animals’ suffering be counted equally with the like suffering of any other sentient beings; and morality requires us to seek to maximize the satisfaction of interests or to minimize sufferings whether they be those of humans or animals.

Two kinds of arguments • Deductive argument: In a valid deductive argument, if all premises are true, the conclusion must be true. It is either valid or invalid. • Inductive argument: Even a very strong inductive argument, all premises are true, but the conclusion can be false.

Deductive or inductive? • David Beckham is bald & rich. • Lee Ka Shing is bald & rich. • Person (100) is bald & rich. • Therefore, all bald persons are rich.

Deductive or inductive? • All bald persons are rich. • Agassi is bald. • Therefore, Agassi is rich.

Argument form All B are R. A is B. ∴ A is R.

Deductive or inductive? • Martin has nicotine-stained fingers; so Martin is a smoker.

Deductive or inductive? • Today is not Thursday. Therefore, today is Friday, because either today is Thursday or Friday.

Deductive argument • In a valid deductive argument, if all premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

Deductive argument • In a deductive argument, all premises are true and the conclusion is also true; • The argument must be valid?

Valid or invalid? • All legislative councilors are permanent residents of Hong Kong. • Some teachers are permanent residents of Hong Kong. • Therefore, some teachers are legislative councilors.

Deductive argument • In a deductive argument, all premises are true, but the conclusion is false; • The argument must be invalid?

Valid or invalid? • Some fruits are sweet. • Lemons are fruits. • Therefore, lemons are sweet.

Sound argument • Sound = Valid + All premises are true. • All humans are mortal. • CFChan is a human. • CFChan is mortal.

Evaluating argument 1.Is the reasoning valid? 2. Are all premises true or acceptable?

Evaluating argument All teachers are poor. Agassi is a teacher. Therefore, Agassi is poor.

Evaluating argument • Since killing a human being is wrong, and fetus is a human being. Abortion is killing the fetus. Thus, abortion is wrong.

Introduction & Arguments