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Pojman ethics 8e_ppt_ch01
- 2. Chapter One: What is Ethics?
Kitty Genovese’s murder raises questions about our
moral responsibility to others.
What should these respectable citizens have done?
Are such acts of omission morally blameworthy?
Is this murder an atypical situation or does it represent a
disturbing trend?
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 3. What is Ethics? (continued)
Genovese’s murder also raises questions about the
general notion of morality.
What is the nature of morality, and why do we need it?
What is the Good, and how will we know it?
Is it in our interest to be moral?
What is the relationship between morality and religion,
law, and etiquette?
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 4. What is Ethics? (continued)
Ethics deals with how we ought to live, the idea of the
Good, and concepts such as “right” and “wrong.”
Ethics refers to the whole domain of morality and moral
philosophy.
Both areas are connected by common concerns in
different ways through values, virtues, principles, and
practices.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 5. “Moral” vs. “Ethical”
The terms “moral” and “ethical” are often used
interchangeably, but both derive their meaning from
the idea of “custom.”
The term “moral” comes from the Latin word mores.
The term “ethical” comes from the Greek word ethos.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 6. Ethics and its Subdivisions (1 of 2)
Descriptive morality
Refers to actual beliefs, customs, principles, and practices
of people and cultures.
Sociologists pay attention to moral practices of social
groups and treat them as cultural “facts.”
Moral philosophy (ethical theory)
Moral philosophy is the systematic effort to understand
moral concepts and justify moral principles and theories.
It analyzes key ethical concepts such as “right,” “wrong,”
and “permissible.”
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 7. Ethics and its Subdivisions (2 of 2)
Moral philosophy (ethical theory) continued
Moral philosophy explores possible sources of moral
obligation such as God, human reason, or the desire to be
happy.
It seeks to establish principles of right behavior that may
serve as action guides for individuals and groups.
Applied ethics
Applied ethics deals with controversial moral problems
such as abortion, premarital sex, capital punishment,
euthanasia, and civil disobedience.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 8. Morality as Compared with
Other Normative Subjects
Morality has a distinct action-guiding, or normative,
aspect, which it shares with other practices such as
religion, law, and etiquette.
Morality differs from religion, law, and etiquette.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 9. Morality and Religion (1 of 2)
Moral behavior is usually essential to religion’s practice.
But neither the practices nor principles of morality
should be identified with religion.
The practice of morality need not be motivated by
religious considerations.
Moral principles need not be grounded in revelation or
divine authority.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 10. Morality and Religion (2 of 2)
Religious ethics are grounded in revelation or divine
authority.
Ethics is grounded in reason and human experience.
Some versions of religious ethics hold that reason can
discover what is right or wrong even apart from divine
revelation.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 11. Morality and Law
Many laws are instituted in order to:
Promote well-being
Resolve conflicts of interest
Promote social harmony
Morality also does all of these three.
Ethics may judge that some laws are immoral without
denying that they have legal authority.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 12. Law and Morality Differ
Some aspects of morality are not covered by law, i.e.
lying in general.
Intention plays a role in determining the legal character
of an act, once the act has been committed. Bad
intentions, themselves, are not illegal but can be
immoral.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 13. Morality and Etiquette
Etiquette determines what is polite behavior.
Morality determines what is right behavior in a deeper
sense.
To disregard or defy etiquette in some cases can be
considered immoral.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 14. Limitations of Religion, Law,
and Etiquette
Religion—Rests on authority that may lack certainty or
agreement on authority credentials or how authority
would rule in new cases. Reason may not be able to
persuade.
Law—Every social ill cannot have a law and not all rules
can be enforced.
Etiquette—Does not go to the heart of what is important
for existence.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 15. Traits of Moral Principles
Central to morality are moral principles, which have
these five traits:
Prescriptivity
Universalizability
Overridingness
Publicity
Practicability
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 16. Prescriptivity
Prescriptivity is the practical or action-guiding nature of
morality.
Moral principles are generally put forth as commands or
imperatives that are intended for use: to advise and
influence action.
Prescriptivity is used to appraise behavior, assign praise
and blame, and produce feelings of satisfaction or guilt.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 17. Universalizability
Moral principles must apply to all people who are in a
relevantly similar situation.
Universalizability is exemplified in the Golden Rule.
It applies to all evaluative judgments.
It is an extension of the principle of consistency.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 18. Overridingness
Moral principles have predominant authority and
override other kinds of principles.
They take precedence over considerations including
aesthetic, prudential, and legal ones.
Religion is a special case where a command may
override a normal moral rule.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 19. Publicity
Moral principles must be made public in order to guide
our actions.
Publicity is necessary because principles are used to
prescribe behavior, give advice, and assign praise and
blame.
Keeping a moral principle secret would be self-
defeating.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 20. Practicability
A moral principle must be workable and its rules must
not lay a heavy burden on us when we follow them.
Rules must take human limitations into consideration so
as to prevent moral despair, deep or undue moral guilt,
and ineffective action.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 21. Domains of Ethical
Assessment
Most ethical analysis falls into one or more of the
following domains:
Action
Consequences
Character traits
Motive
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 22. Action (1 of 3)
Actions are usually termed right or wrong.
A right act is an act that is permissible for you to do. It
may be either of the following:
An obligatory act: An act that morality requires you to do;
it is not permissible for you to refrain from doing it.
An optional act: An act that is not obligatory or wrong to
do; it is not your duty to do or not to do it.
A wrong act is one you have an obligation, or a duty, to
refrain from doing: It is an act you ought not to do; it is
not permissible to do it.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 23. Action (2 of 3)
Supererogatory Acts
Also known as highly altruistic acts, these actions are
within the range of permissible acts.
These acts are neither required nor obligatory.
They exceed what morality requires.
They go beyond “the call of duty.”
Right act (permissible)
Obligatory act
Optional act
Neutral act
Supererogatory act
Wrong act (not permissible)
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 24. Action (3 of 3)
Deontological Theories
Deontological theories emphasize the nature of the act.
Some acts are inherently good or right and some acts are
inherently wrong or bad.
Kant defended a principle of moral duty he calls the
categorical imperative.
Deontological theories share the view that we have an
inherent duty to perform the right actions and avoid bad
actions.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 25. Consequences
Consequences are actions based on the foreseeable
outcome of a course of decision.
Ethical theories that focus primarily on consequences in
determining moral rightness or wrongness are called
teleological ethics.
Utilitarianism is the most famous of these and requires us
to do what is likeliest to have the best consequences.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 26. Character Traits
Ethical theories that emphasize character—or virtues—
are virtue theories.
Good character traits are virtues.
Bad character traits are vices.
Aristotle maintained that the development of virtuous
character traits is needed to ensure that we habitually
act rightly.
It is vital to empower our character with the tendency
to do good.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 27. Motive
Ethically assess situations by examining the motive of
the people involved.
Virtually all ethical systems recognize the importance of
motives.
For a full assessment of any action, it is important to
take the agent’s motive into account.
Seemingly identical acts may differ morally due to a
difference of motives.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
- 28. Conclusion
Ethics has enormous practical benefits:
It can free us from prejudice and dogmatism.
It has comprehensive systems from which to orient
individual judgments.
It helps us think more clearly about moral problems.
It shows how principles and values relate to one another.
It gives us some guidance on how to live.
© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved.
