Social Justice Ethics and Ethical Reasoning

1. Social Justice Ethics and Ethical Reasoning Based on work by Professor Douglas Olena

2. What is ethics? • is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality — that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice

4. Approaches to ethics • Traditional • We need to study (discover) what is right and wrong conduct • "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself“ • Modern – relativism • Moral/Ethical is what we agree that is moral

5. Why are ethics important • what we do will affect others in ways that we cannot foresee. Nothing we do is in isolation – other people are always involved in one way or another. • ‘six degrees of separation’ If you know six people you will have a link to everyone in the world!! • What we say or do will come back to us in the end. What goes around comes around!

6. Ethics should be considered as a set of principles by which to live; • a code of conduct for our relationships with all whom we come in contact. • Ethics encompasses social mores, usually expressed today as good manners; our behaviour towards our fellow humans and fellow creatures; and trust. • The world operates on trust. • Trust is a belief that others will act in accordance with ill defined, but generally accepted standards of behaviour and respect for others. • If trust is absent then very little of what we deem necessary, to allow the free flow of social intercourse and commerce, will occur. • All these matters are governed by ethics.

8. Ethical Considerations/ Principles • Respect Autonomy – • It is assumed that individuals have the right to decide how they live their lives, as long as their actions do not interfere with the welfare of others. One therefore has the right to act as a free agent and has the freedom of thought and choice. • Do No Harm – • The obligation to avoid inflicting either physical or psychological harm on others and to avoid actions that risk harming others may be a primary ethical principle especially in helping professions.

9. Benefit Others – • There is an obligation to improve and enhance the welfare of others, even where such enhancements may inconvenience or limit the freedom of the person offering assistance. Helping professions presume the welfare of the consumer is primary when other considerations are equal. • Be Just – • To be just in dealing with others assumes equal treatment of all, to afford each individual their due portion, to be fair. It presumes reciprocity, impartiality, and equality. • Be Faithful – • One should keep promises, tell the truth, be loyal, and maintain respect and civility in human discourse. Only in so far as we sustain faithfulness can we expect to be seen as being trustworthy

10. Why Ethical Reasoning • People should all be able to develop or moral or ethical reasoning skills • Believers and nonbelievers of many types should be able to discuss moral matters together • We need to be able to evaluate our own and others views of what is thought to be goodand bad, just or unjust. • Living in our world and multicultural country requires us to have a reason based connection to issues like justice, fairness etc…

11. Evaluating Ethical issues • Descriptive (empirical) judgment: Capital punishment acts (or does not act) as a deterrent • Normative (moral) judgment: Capital punishment is justifiable (or unjustifiable.)

12. Ethical Terms • Core Beliefs: • Those basic principles that consciously or unconsciously impact our decisions. • They reflect our environment, religion, culture and training. • Right and wrong usually apply to action —as in, ‘You did the right thing • Good and bad imply that the thing should be positively regarded

13. Ethical reasoning • When we make a moral judgment, we need to be prepared to give reasons for it • Reasons do not have to be purely rational • We must be able to justify our position • To just make a judgment and feel strongly about it is not enough.

14. Reasoning & Arguments • We should know how to reason well in thinking or speaking about ethical matters • A good argument is a sound argument • It has a valid form in that the conclusion actually follows from the premises… • ...and the premises or reasons given for the conclusion are true

15. Top Down Strategy • Using a top down strategy we devise norms by ethical theory through ethical principles to make ethical/practical judgments • Theory: Always treat people as ends in themselves, not merely as means. • Principle: Employers need to consider the personhood of their workers. • Practice: Pregnant women should be allowed the opportunity to take half pay maternity leave lasting 2 months, and have their job waiting when they return.

16. Bottom up • Strategy where we start with ethical judgments then organize them in terms of principles to derive a theory • Practice: Drunk drivers are responsible for the deaths of about 17,000 people a year in the US. • Principle: There should be some limits and restrictions on people who drink and penalties for abusers. • Theory: People should have a right to protect their own life, no one has the right to take it from them without consent.

17. Can Ethics Be Taught? • Plato thought that ethics could be taught. • “All evil is ignorance.” • “If someone knows something to be the right thing to do, does there still remain the question why we should do it?”