Ethics and Morality

Ethics refers to standards of conduct,

standards that indicate how one should
behave based on moral duties and virtues,
which themselves are derived from
principles of right and wrong.
 Moral Relativism
Values are determined by the society we
grow up in, and there are no universal
values. Moral values are simply customs
or conventions that vary from culture to
culture.
 Moral Consistency
To what extent do you think the following individuals are
morally inconsistent?

A. an anti-abortionist who supports the death penalty

B. a vegetarian who buys leather shoes
C. a socialist who educates his children at a private school
D. A politician who advocates family values and has an
affair
E. An environmental activist who drives an SUV
F. Someone who thinks stealing is wrong but makes illegal
copies of computer software or music.
 How do I know what to do?
Can you choose three values which are universal for all humans? Why do you think
so?

We have clearly made scientific progress over the last three hundred years. Does it
also make sense that we have made moral progress?

Are serial killers “bad” or “mad”

Are people basically good, and corrupted by society, or are people basically bad and
must be kept in line by society?

Imagine that you arrive in a “democratic” country in which adult women have the
vote but men have no political power. When you interview them, the men tell you
that they are quite happy with the situation, that public life is for women, and a
man’s place is in the home. To what extent would you accept the situation, and to
what extent would you try to “re-educate” the men and make them see the extent to
which they have been indoctrinated?
 Self Interest Theory
Human beings are always and everywhere selfish. Even if there are
objective moral values, we are incapable of living up to them.

ｷ Definitional argument – we are selfish when we do what we want to

do, and we always do what we want to do.
ｷ Evolutionary argument – humans are naturally selfish - programmed
(biologically) to survive.
ｷ Hidden benefits argument – selfish benefits to helping others.
ｷ Fear of punishment argument – what if I get caught? (Ring of Gyges).
 Consider This…
Are people basically good, and corrupted by
society, or are people basically bad and must be
kept in line by society?
 Theories of Ethics
While it may be that some values are relative and that people are often selfish, we
do not have to conclude that all values are relative or that people are always
selfish. An ethical theory attempts to provide a set of fundamental moral
principles in harmony with our moral intuitions.

Religious Ethics – an authoritative rule book to tell us what rules to follow.

Duty Ethics - Fulfill your obligations. Duties and rights are two sides of the same
coin.

Utilitarianism – There is one and only one supreme moral principal – that we
should seek the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Maximize happiness.
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill (1800).

Kant’s Approach To Ethics – Can your actions be consistently generalized? Ask

yourself “What if everyone did that?”. According to Kant, if something is wrong, it
is always wrong!
 Duty Ethics
Duties and rights are two sides of the same coin.

Choose 2 rights from the UN Declaration of

Human Rights and rewrite these to describe a
human “duty”.
 Utilitarianism
We care about morality because we care about human
happiness

What do you think is the relationship between

pleasure and happiness? Is happiness just the
sum of pleasures, or can you have many
pleasures and still be unhappy?

Are the richest nations of the world home to

the happiest people in the world?

According to Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), “To

be without some of the things you want is an
indispensable part of happiness.” What did he
mean? Do you agree?
 Kant’s Approach to Ethics
In Kant’s view, happiness does not equal
morality. Only a good will has ultimate
moral value. Moral rules should be
universal.

• Special pleading – rationalizing to ourselves

• The golden rule - treat others the way you wish to
be treated
• Veil of ignorance - imagine the situation from both
points of view
 Which of the following is a special case
that justifies breaking a generally
accepted rule?
1a. You should respect the highway code, but it is ok to drive through a red light if
you are late for work.
1b. You should respect the highway code, but it is ok to drive through a red light if
you are taking a critically ill person to the hospital.

2a. You should keep your word, but it is ok to break a social engagement if
something more interesting comes up.
2b. You should keep your word, but it is ok to break a social engagement if you
have just contracted an infectious disease.

3a. You should pay your taxes, but it is ok not to pay them if you are short of
money that year.
3b. You should pay your taxes, but it is ok not to pay them if they are being spent
on a nuclear arms program.

4a. Murder is wrong, but it would have been ok to assassinate Hitler in 1942.
4b. Murder is wrong, but it would be OK to kill someone planning a terrorist attack.
 Ethical Dilemmas
An elderly woman living alone in poor circumstances with few
friends or relatives is dying, and you, her friend, are at her
bedside. She draws your attention to a small case under her bed,
which contains some momentos along with the money she has
managed to save over the years, despite her apparent poverty.
She asks you to take the case and to promise to deliver its
contents, after she dies, to her nephew living in another state.
Moved by her plight and by your affection for her, you promise to
do as she requests. After a tearful goodbye, you take the case
and leave. A few weeks later the old woman dies, and when you
open the case, you discover that it contains $500,000 dollars. No
one else knows about the money, or the promise you made. You
learn that the nephew is a compulsive gambler and has a drug
addiction.

What would Kant say you should do?

What would John Stuart Mill say you should do?
What would you do? Why?
 Ethical Dilemmas
Suppose you are a famous anthropologist. One day you find a remote
tribe in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. The tribe is really
surprised by your visit. After all, you are the first stranger they have
ever seen. The tribe is just in the middle of a religious ritual. They are
preparing to execute 20 prisoners from a neighboring tribe as a gift to
the sun god. However, since they also want to honor you, they offer you
the honor of strangling one of the prisoners with your own hands. If you
do that they will let the others go back to their own tribe. If you refuse
to accept this honor, they will sacrifice all 20 people. You try to tell them
that your god does not allow you to strangle people, but the tribe leader
is unwilling to make any deals. He is very clear, either you strangle one
of the prisoners or else all 20 will be killed.

What would you do? Why?

 Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Although it has been questioned as to whether it applied equally to different genders and different
cultures, Kohlberg’s (1973) stages of moral development is the most widely cited. It breaks our
development of morality into three levels, each of which is divided further into two stages:

Preconventional Level (up to age nine): ~Self Focused Morality~

1. Morality is defined as obeying rules and avoiding negative consequences. Children in this
stage see rules set, typically by parents, as defining moral law.
2. That which satisfies the child’s needs is seen as good and moral.

Conventional Level (age nine to adolescence): ~Other Focused Morality~

3. Children begin to understand what is expected of them by their parents, teacher, etc.
Morality is seen as achieving these expectations.
4. Fulfilling obligations as well as following expectations are seen as moral law for children in
this stage.

Postconventional Level (adulthood): ~Higher Focused Morality~

5. As adults, we begin to understand that people have different opinions about morality and
that rules and laws vary from group to group and culture to culture. Morality is seen as
upholding the values of your group or culture.
6. Understanding your own personal beliefs allow adults to judge themselves and others based
upon higher levels of morality. In this stage what is right and wrong is based upon the
circumstances surrounding an action. Basics of morality are the foundation with independent
thought playing an important role.
 Integrity

• What is integrity?
•
Integrity is the qualifications of being honest and having
strong moral principles; moral uprightness. It is generally a
personal choice to hold oneself to consistent moral and
ethical standards. Integrity is regarded by many people as
the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions.
 Reflection - Integrity
1. Have you had ethical dilemmas in your own
life? How did you reason your way through
them? What ethics theory best matches your
approach?
2. What does integrity mean to you? Do you
aspire to be a virtuous person? Has someone
of high moral principles been an inspiration to
you?