Lesson I What is Ethics?

1. Lesson IWhat is Ethics?

2. A/ Definitions • Morals: morality is the set of behaviors, attitudes and values transmited by tradition within a particular human group and which binds its members. • Ethics: ethics is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, defending and critizicing concepts of right and wrong behavior, and the oportunity and convenience of different moral codes. • Politics: politics is the disposition to reflect about the administration and government of a society and to act over them using power and authority, it also consists in analyzing critically ideological principles from an ethical point of view.

3. B/ Areas of Ethics • Meta-Ethics talks about the nature of ethics and moral reasoning. (Are we free? Are moral principles relative? Do moral facts exist?) • Normative Ethics is interested in determining the content of our moral behavior. (What ought I do? Which actions are good?) • Applied Ethics attemps to deal with specific realms of human action and to craft criteria for discussing issues that might arise within those realms. (For instance: business ethics or bioethics)

4. C/ The questions of meta-ethics1/6 Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved by the gods? Plato, Eutiphro Why do we believe that some actions are right and some actions are wrong? Do we believe they are right because they are right, or are they right because we believe them to be so? Is it a matter of truth or of taste? Do moral facts exist? If there are moral facts, what is their origin?

5. C/ The questions of meta-ethics 2/6 • Moral realism is the view that there • exist moral facts and truths and • that moral judgments express our beliefs about what these moral facts are and • that we can come to discover what these facts are. • Moral anti-realism is the view that • there are no moral facts and • either moral judgments express our personal attitudes (subjectivism) or • they express dominant social practices (conventionalism) • Moral nihilism is the view that • there are no moral facts • so moral practice is just an illusion.

6. C/ The questions of meta-ethics 3/6 We can avoid the realism-antirealism debate acknowledging that morality is a mutually adventageous convention which ought to be enhanced and preserved for the sake of social welfare but… Which conventions ought we enhance and preserve? Do universal moral standards exist or are they culturally relative? Can we reach a universal consensus about how ought we act?

7. C/ The questions of meta-ethics 4/6 • Universalism: is the view that some system of ethics applies universally, to all people regardless of culture, race, religion, nationality or sex. • Relativism: is the view which denies that any single moral code has universal validity, and asserts that moral truth and justifiability are relative to (depend on) factors that are personally, culturally and historically contingent.

8. C/ The questions of meta-ethics 5/6 Let’s presume that a universal moral consensus about some moral fundamentals would be desirable… What would let us decide which might be those moral standards? Is ethics based on reason or on sentiments? Are moral judgements supported by intuitons? Can there be any basis for a universal consensus?

9. C/ The questions of meta-ethics 6/6 • Rationalism: is the view according to which moral truths or principles are knowable independently from experience, by reason alone. • Empiricism: is the view that our knowledge of moral truths or principles depends on experience, would that be human nature (naturalism) or individual opinions (subjectivism) or social conventions (conventionalism). • Skepticism: is the view that there is no moral knowledge, no moral truths or principles might be discovered.