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Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 15 Ethics #1 (Intro.)

Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 15 Ethics #1 (Intro.). By David Kelsey. Ethics. Ethics : the systematic investigation into the nature of morality. Morality is the code of conduct or system of principles that a person or persons follow as guidelines for their actions.

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Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 15 Ethics #1 (Intro.)

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  1. Introduction to PhilosophyLecture 15Ethics #1 (Intro.) By David Kelsey

  2. Ethics • Ethics: the systematic investigation into the nature of morality. • Morality is the code of conduct or system of principles that a person or persons follow as guidelines for their actions. • The morality of a society… • When we study morality we study it’s concepts. Some include: • Good & Bad • Right & wrong • Prescription & Prohibition • Permissibility & impermissibility

  3. What morality isn’t? • Some related concepts that we don’t study when we study Morality: • Religion: • Religion: stories, supernatural beings • A guide to conduct vs. more than this… • Etiquette: • a part of morality • applies to less ‘serious’ actions • Law: • Rules, penalties and officials • morality and law overlap…

  4. Non-moral and immoral • The word ‘moral’: has 2 distinct meanings. • Vs. Non-Moral: • non-moral: not having to do with morality • Vs. Immoral: • Immoral: wrong • In this class we will use moral in the sense that is opposed to non-moral.

  5. Moral claims • Moral claim (also called moral judgments): • non-factual claims that assert that some moral property such as Rightness is instantiated in some object or action or event. • A property: a way that something can be. • A moral property is any way that something can be morally. • Examples: • Examples of moral claims:

  6. Moral Arguments • A moral argument is one which asserts as its conclusion a moral claim. • Abortion example…

  7. Inferring a value claim: We cannot derive or infer a value claim from merely factual claims. Elliot’s father example: we might argue that Elliot’s father depends upon Elliot so Elliot ought to take care of his father. The problem: we are deriving a value claim, that Elliot should take care of his father. Support from value: So if we are trying to infer a value claim, at least one of the supporting propositions must be a value claim. So to justifiably infer that Elliot should take care of his father from Elliot’s father depends upon Elliot we need something that links the 2 claims For example… Deriving Moral Value Judgments

  8. Critiquing moral reasoning • What if we come across a moral argument we disagree with? • If you agree with the facts • yet you disagree with the conclusion • you must try to show the moral principle false. • Showing a moral principle false: how do you show a moral principle false? • You simply find a counterexample to it… • Abortion is unnatural example…

  9. A note aboutRelativism • Moral relativism: A very popular view in ethics is moral relativism. • This says: What is right or wrong depends upon and is determined by one’s group or culture. • Confusion: often times, the following 2 claims are confused: • 1. What is believed to be right and wrong may differ from group to group, society to society, or culture to culture. • 2. What is right and wrong may differ from group to group, society to society, or culture to culture. • Problems with MR: So what’s wrong with moral relativism? • True and False… • No correct answers… • Settling Disagreements.. • It is counterintuitive…

  10. Ethics: it’s three areas • The Discipline of Ethics can be divided into three sub-disciplines, which together comprise it wholly. • They are: • Normative Ethics • Applied Ethics • Meta-ethics

  11. Normative Ethics • Normative Ethics: • This is second order ethics • Here we aim to find the answer to the question: “What ought I do?” • Here we also aim to construct general guidelines for the making of a moral judgment.

  12. Applied Ethics • Applied Ethics: • First order ethics • Here we look to specific cases in which we must determine what the right action or the permissible action is. • Here we make moral judgments.

  13. Meta-ethics • Meta-ethics • Third order ethics • The study of the nature of moral judgments.

  14. Normative ethics • Normative Ethics: aims to provide a set of guidelines for making moral judgments. • In this class we will look at three such sets of guidelines. • They are: • Utilitarianism • We will look at the theory of John Stuart Mill • Deontology • We will look at Immanuel Kant’s theory • Virtue Theory • We will look at the theory put forth by Aristotle

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