PHIL 2 Philosophy: Ethics in Contemporary Society

1. PHIL 2Philosophy: Ethics in Contemporary Society Week 4 Topic Outlines

2. Week 4 • Moral Implications of Lying, Cheating, Breaking Promises, and Stealing – Chap. 11 • Morality, Marriage, and Human Sexuality – Chap. 12 Week 4, PHIL2

3. Topics 1 & 2: Moral Implications of Lying, Cheating, Breaking Promises, Stealing • Lying, cheating, breaking promises, and stealing • Significance of these moral issues • Arguments for and against these moral issues • Analyzing if an action taken is considered moral or immoral • Applying Humanitarian Ethics to moral problems Week 4, PHIL2

4. Lying, Cheating, Breaking Promises, and Stealing • Lying: intentionally deceiving or giving a wrong impression • White lie • Lie of commission • Lie of omission • Cheating: deceiving by trickery or fraud, swindling, misleading Week 4, PHIL2

5. Lying, Cheating, Breaking Promises, and Stealing (continued) • Breaking a Promise: failing to carry out or acting contrary to or otherwise violating a vow • Stealing: taking something without right or permission, generally surreptitiously Week 4, PHIL2

6. Significance of These Moral Issues • These issues affect human relationships and self-worth. • They provide unfair advantages to some. • They can hurt people emotionally and physically. Week 4, PHIL2

7. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues • Lying • For: • Defense of the innocent, including self • National security • Trade secrets in business • “Little white lies” Week 4, PHIL2

8. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Lying • Against: • Dupes and deprives others • Causes distrust in human relationships • Begets other lies • Gives unfair advantage or power to liar • Destroys liar’s power when discovered Week 4, PHIL2

9. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Cheating • For: • Surviving and winning in a dog-eat-dog world • Everybody does it • As long as you don’t get caught… Week 4, PHIL2

10. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Cheating • Against: • It’s unfair and unjust to others • Can cause harm when done to falsify qualifications • Successful cheaters can become lazy Week 4, PHIL2

11. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Breaking Promises • For: • When circumstances change • When there are moral conflicts • When it’s a trivial issue • When unusual situations justify it • No promise is sacred Week 4, PHIL2

12. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Breaking Promises • Against: • Destroys personal relationships • Domino theory • Affect people’s life choices • Destroys general social trust • Brings about loss of personal integrity Week 4, PHIL2

13. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Stealing • For: • Balances our corrupt economic system • Justified in crucial emergency situations • Provides thrills and adventure • Recoups profits made by large institutions and organization • As long as you don’t get caught… • Military and government secrets Week 4, PHIL2

14. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Stealing • Against: • Violates another’s property rights • Causes breakdown of trust • Invades privacy • Domino argument • Causes material loss to victims • Affects thief’s self-image • Engenders fear and social breakdown Week 4, PHIL2

15. Analyzing If an Action Taken Is Considered Moral or Immoral • Case studies • Lying • Cheating • Breaking promises • Stealing Week 4, PHIL2

16. Applying Humanitarian Ethics to Moral Problems • Lying generally is immoral without strong justification. • Cheating is primarily a violation of the Principle of Justice or Fairness and should be avoided unless such an act would prevent harm to someone. Week 4, PHIL2

17. Applying Humanitarian Ethics to Moral Problems (continued) • Breaking promises is acceptable only to save someone from harm or death; no promise is too trivial to keep. • Stealing violates the principles of Justice, Honesty and Individual Freedom; it is immoral unless strong justification exists. Week 4, PHIL2

18. Topics 3 & 4: Morality, Marriage, and Human Sexuality • Public, societal, and private aspects of human sexuality • Moral issues involved in sexuality • Arguments for and against these moral issues • Determining if actions taken are considered moral or immoral • Applying Humanitarian Ethics to the moral problems of human sexuality Week 4, PHIL2

19. Public, Societal, and Private Aspects of Human Sexuality • Public aspects of human sexuality are concerned with how matters of sex overtly affect others. • The governing principles of morality here are life, goodness, and justice. Week 4, PHIL2

20. Public, Societal, and Private Aspects of Human Sexuality (cont.) • Private aspect is concerned with sexual relations between or among consenting adults. • The governing principles here are goodness, justice, freedom, and honesty. Week 4, PHIL2

21. Moral Issues Involved in Sexuality • Private aspects • Procreation, or a necessary evil • Personal freedom to enjoy pleasure • Expression of love or like Week 4, PHIL2

22. Moral Issues Involved in Sexuality (continued) • Public aspects • Sexual activity that brings harm, such as rape, molestation, unwilling sadism • Pornography • Unnatural activities • Adultery, premarital sex • Prostitution • Non-monogamous marriage Week 4, PHIL2

23. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues • Premarital sex • For: • Old moral traditions are no longer applicable. • Abstinence is not acceptable. • Proper precautions can eliminate most concerns about disease and pregnancy. • Promiscuity does not necessarily result, but even if it does, the people are consenting adults. Week 4, PHIL2

24. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Premarital sex • For: • There is much less ostracism today over illegitimate children. • Premarital sex lets people gain sexual experience and test compatibility before marriage. • Premarital sex is a private, not public, matter. Week 4, PHIL2

25. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Premarital sex • Against: • It undermines traditional morality and family values. • It fosters promiscuity. • It fosters social diseases and AIDS. • It can be detrimental to the children born of such a relationship. • It fosters guilt and ostracism. • It is prohibited in the Bible. Week 4, PHIL2

26. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Adultery • For: • Individuals are free to do what they want in their own private sex lives. • What spouses don’t know won’t hurt them. • Marriages generally should not be broken up because of the harm to financial security and the children. • Sex outside of marriage is just another lifestyle. Week 4, PHIL2

27. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Adultery • Against: • It violates traditional family values and the most intimate contract between two people. • It involves lying, cheating, and infidelity. • It can destroy the marriage relationship. • It brings the danger of social disease to an innocent person. Week 4, PHIL2

28. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Masturbation • For: • It is perfectly normal, both biologically and psychologically. • It causes no ill effects. • It is the best way of learning about sex and our own bodies. • It is the safest form of sexual activity. Week 4, PHIL2

29. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Masturbation • Against: • It is an abuse of one’s sexuality, which is a gift from God. • It causes people to become preoccupied with sex and can lead to other sexual violations of morality, such as fornication, adultery, and pornography. Week 4, PHIL2

30. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Pornography • For: • Consenting adults can view, read or listen to anything they wish. • There is no proof that pornography is degrading or will destroy our moral fabric. • It is not degrading and exploitative, but rather it is exciting and pleasurable. Week 4, PHIL2

31. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Pornography • Against: • It is humanly degrading and as it becomes widespread it will destroy the moral fabric of our civilization. • It can involve actual sex crimes. • It degrades human sexuality in general and women in particular. • It encourages trafficking in sex, rape, child molestation, sadism, and other perversions Week 4, PHIL2

32. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Prostitution • For: • It is a safe release in a sexual repressive society. • It is a victimless crime that both parties enter into freely. • If there were social acceptance and governmental control, the criminal and social disease aspects would be eliminated. Week 4, PHIL2

33. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Prostitution • Against: • Extramarital and commercialized sex is immoral from the conservative point of view. • Prostitution causes crime and degradation. • It spreads social diseases and AIDS. Week 4, PHIL2

34. Arguments For and Against These Moral Issues (continued) • Sexual perversion, or “unnatural” activity • For: • As long as a sex act is performed between or among freely consenting adults, it is a private matter and should be considered moral. • Against: • The only sex act that isn’t perverted is intercourse between a man and a woman in the missionary position. Week 4, PHIL2

35. Determining If Actions Taken Are Considered Moral or Immoral • Case studies: • Premarital sex • Homosexuality • Cohabitation • Adultery • Pornography Week 4, PHIL2

36. Applying Humanitarian Ethics to the Moral Problems of Human Sexuality • In matters of private sexuality, individual freedom should be the guiding principle as long as the rights of the people immediately involved in the relationship are also observed. • Private sexual matters should not be legislated against. Week 4, PHIL2

37. Week 4 Thiroux, Jacques P. Ethics – Theory and Practice, 8th ed. Chapters 11-12 Week 4, PHIL2