The document summarizes several ethical theories: Divine Command Theory holds that something is good only if God wills it. Objections are that it prevents rational deliberation and makes people unthinking automatons. Relativism claims ethical principles are only true within a given system/culture. Egoism says people should act selfishly in their own interests. Social Contract Theory views ethics as rules agreed upon by society; critics say it neglects important non-competitive relationships. Care Ethics sees ethics as rooted in caring personal relationships rather than abstract rules.

1. Chapter 12
Ethical Theories

2. Divine Command Theory
• The Divine Command theory of ethics
(theological voluntarism) makes ethics depend
entirely on what God wills, on God’s voluntary
choice.
• Something is good because God wills it, not
because God recognizes it to be good.
• God’s will or God’s command is the whole of
ethics: A law or principle is right if and only if it is
willed or commanded by God.

3. Objections to Divine Command
Theory
• With the Divine Command model, humans cannot
attempt to understand what is right and
wrong, and we cannot carefully deliberate about
our moral obligations.
• Rather, moral acts must consist entirely in the
unreasoning adherence to arbitrary rules.
• One who unthinkingly follows another’s moral
dictates—whether that other is divine or mortal—
is an automaton rather than an ethical actor.

4. Objections (continued)
• Plato’s Euthyphro
• Is something moral because God commands it?
or
• Does God command something because it is moral?

5. Relativism in Ethics
• According to one definition, relativism is the view
that:
• All ethical principles are true or false only
relative to a given system
• The basic principles of each system cannot be
proven or disproven
• Ethical systems are ultimately nonobjective.

6. Additional Definitions of Relativism
• Sociological relativism: The view that different
cultures sometimes have different values.
• Cultural relativism: The view that ethical
principles hold only within a given culture:
• The ethical principles and cultural practices of
each culture are right within that culture.
• Ethical principles apply only within a culture;
they are culturally relative rather than universal.

7. Objections to Cultural Relativism
• Often we simultaneously live in many cultures.
Which “cultural rules” should one follow when two
sets of such rules are in conflict?
• Cultural relativism morally condemns efforts at
cultural reform (moral progress).

8. Egoism
• Psychological egoism: A descriptive theory which
claims that all people act strictly for their own
benefit; everyone is fundamentally selfish.
• Ethical egoism: A prescriptive theory which
asserts that all people should seek exclusively
their own interests; selfishness is a virtue.

9. Justification for Ethical
Egoism
• The most common justification for ethical egoism
is a sort of social Darwinism:
• When everyone strives for individual
gain, showing no pity for the weak, then the
strongest, most talented individuals will rise to
the top and make the world, and our
species, better.
• The weaker and unfit will be weeded out.

10. Social Contract Ethics
• Primarily a political theory
• Refers to ethical systems in which the principles
and rules of ethics are set by general enforced
agreement among those who live under those
rules:
• The rules of ethics are rules that we make.
• We may have ethical inclinations prior to or
independently of the social contract, but the basic
principles of ethics are constructed by human
agreement and consent.
• Sometimes called a constructivist view of ethics

11. Rawls’ Social Contract
Theory
• Consider what kind of society and what kinds of
ethical rules we would favor if we could strip
ourselves of all prejudices, biases, and special
interests.
• You will then arrive at standards, rules, and
policies that are genuinely fair.

12. Criticisms of Social Contract
Theory
• Critics argue that social contract ethics
entrenches the idea that as ethical agents we
start from a position of strict individual self-
interest.
• This starting point fatally distorts our ethical
perspective: ethics starts in our families and
communities; social contract ethics neglects and
devalues that essential ethical domain.

13. Criticisms of Social Contract
Theory
• Critics also argue that social contract ethics is an
ethics for individuals in a competitive market type
of setting in which everyone is working to
maximize his or her own advantage.
• Our relation with our friends and families is very
different: a relationship of support and nurturing
and cooperation rather than competition and
contracts.

14. Criticisms of Social Contract
Theory
• Ethics is for rough equals: those who pose
threats, can reciprocate benefits, and maintain
agreements.
• For large and important parts of our lives we are
vulnerable and not rough equals—i.e., when we
are children and when we are elderly.
• Basing an ethical system on only one dimension
of our lives, our lives as competent adults in
impersonal interaction with other adults, results in
an ethical system that is blind to some of the
most important aspects of our lives.

15. Criticisms of Social Contract
Theory
• Social contract ethics conceptualizes humans as
radically individual self-interested, independent
operators; thus, it is based on a profoundly false
view of human behavior and human needs.
• The model implies that our “natural” state is as
isolated individuals, but we are a profoundly
social species.

16. Care Ethics
• Ethics is rooted in care, affection, and personal
relationships.
• Ethical rules have their place, especially in the
impersonal interactions of the marketplace, the
legislature, the courtroom, the municipality.
• But the foundation and heart of ethics is in our
relations of friendship and affection, among our
families, friends, lovers.

17. Care Ethics
• Many important ethical issues are situated, and
the details of the situation are of vital importance
in determining what act is right
• If we try to decide what is right by thinking of the
people involved as abstract entities, we will
neglect important ethical considerations.