Philosophy, Morality and Ethics

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Session 1

• Philosophy, Morality and Ethics

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Looking at ethics
moral dilemmas, legal and policy issues
allocation of resources PAS, etc
Ethical issues
ETHICS
values and principles fundamental to ethical
practice
philosophical efforts to identify relevant moral
criteria
Ethical theories
Ethical concepts
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Introduction

• Philosophy
• concerned with the nature and validity of each
  major aspect of human existence
• Morality
• concerned with standards of right or wrong
  behaviour
• Morals
• what is considered right or wrong behaviour based
  on social custom
• Ethics
• concerned with the moral dimension of human
  life/evaluating human action
• what is right or wrong based on reason
• reflective and critical

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Introduction

• Metaethics
• investigates where our ethical principles come
  from, and what they mean
• focuses on issues like universal truths,the role
  of reason in ethical judgments, and the meaning
  of ical terms.
• Normative Ethics
• concerned with how do we arrive at moral
  standards that regulate right or wrong conduct
• normative theories provide moral guidelines
• Applied Ethics
• examines specific issues such as abortion,
  ethuanasia
• attempt to resolve these issues based on
  foundations provided by metaethics and normative
  ethics

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Morality

• Morality carries the concepts of
• moral standards, with regard to behaviour
• moral responsibility, referring to our
  conscience and
• a moral identity, or one who is capable of right
  or wrong action
• Personal morality
• values and duties adopted by an individual
• Societal morality
• Group morality
• values and duties that apply to an organisation
• or profession

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Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivism

• Do morality and ethical rules exist independently
  of humans or are they human conventions?
• Views on the validity of moral beliefs
• moral relativism - the view that ethical
  standards, morality, and positions of right or
  wrong are culturally based and therefore subject
  to a person's individual choice we can all
  decide what is right for ourselves
• moral objectivism the view that moral beliefs
  are capable of being objectively valid capable
  of being true or false/rational or irrational
• Moral pluralism
• the existence of many different moral viewpoints
  (does not imply moral relativism) e.g. abortion
• English legal doctrine and moral values

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Ethics

• What does the word ethics mean to you?
• What is ethics about?
• What ethical issues do you think you might come
  across in your practice?
• What are values?
• Where do values come from?

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Reflective activity

• what is the source of moral values?
• when and how did you become aware of their
  existence
• think of some situation when your values were
  challenged how did you feel?
• why is being aware of your value system important
  in your work?

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Values

• ideals, beliefs, customs, characteristics
  considered valuable and worthwhile by an
  individual, a particular group or society in
  general
• influence behaviour, help make choices and
  decisions
• personal values - beliefs or attitudes about what
  is good, right, desirable, worthwhile, etc
• values may refer to how one should act (for
  example, to be honest, self-disciplined, caring,
  etc). or to what one wants to accomplish or
  obtain in life (for example, wealth, security,
  fame, health, etc)
• acquired in different ways, in a conscious (or
  subconscious) way through
• family, friends, teachers, those whom we admire,
  etc
• work environment, colleagues, role-models
  (tutors) and promoted through professional codes
  of ethics, etc. professional values

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Values

• personal value system - the ways a person
  organises, ranks, prioritises and make decisions
  based on his/her values - provide the foundation
  from which a person makes personal and
  professional judgments and choices
• values exist as a complex heirarchy of
  interweaving personal policies or priorities that
  serve as a guide for decision-making
• a persons particular set of values are likely to
  have developed over a long period of time and
  will develop and change throughout life
• value system will be influenced/shaped by many
  factors such as
• family life
• religious upbringing
• cultural and ethnic background
• educational and environmental experiences
• political views

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Law and morality

• law what not to do morals what should do
• natural law theorists
• argue that the law should reflect morality
• higher law that sets out the basic moral code
• utilitarian approach
• crimes without victims should not really be
  crimes at all
• crimes that only do harm to the criminal should
  be decriminalised

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Law and morality

• Hart/Devlin debate
• whether the law should reflect morality discussed
  in the 1950s by two members of a commission set
  up to look at the possible reform on the laws
  relating to prostitution and homosexuality
• Wolfenden Report
• recommended that prostitution and homosexuality
  be decriminalised with restrictions
• law should not intervene in private matters of
  individuals
• harm to others principle applied (JS Mill)

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Hart/Devlin debate

• Lord Devlin (an eminent judge)
• opposed to the findings of the report
• favoured a less liberal approach and argued that
  there should be some
• whether or not something was immoral and
  therefore should be illegal was the test of the
  standard of the right-minded person form of basic
  common morality
• Hart (an academic)
• in favour of them
• criminalising immoral behaviour was
  unnecessary, undesirable and in itself immoral

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Law and morality

• The Warnock Committee conception, embryology
  and pregnancy
• committee was established to report on the new
  developments in medical technology relating to
  reproduction following advances such as in vitro
  fertilisation
• issues considered include the use of embryos for
  medical research, payments for surrogacy, sperm
  and egg donation
• morals are not absolute
• there can be different views of morality

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Law and morality

• In 1994, the House of Lords upheld conviction of
  consenting adults engaging in sadomasochistic
  activities in the case of R v Brown 1994 1 AC
  212
• convicted even though no one had complained the
  police had happened upon the party by chance
• European Court of Human Rights subsequently
  approved the conviction
• that the fact that people consent and there is no
  harm done is not enough there is some basic
  standard of morality in operation here

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Ethics and Terminology

• Ethical rules statements about ethical
  behaviour
• Ethical codes compilation of ethical rules
• Ethical standards similar to rules but suggests
  model behaviour
• Ethical principles broader than rules or codes
  foundation for rules and codes and offer guidance
  on decision-making
• Ethical theory general ways of determining what
  is right or wrong science of ethical
  decision-making

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Ethical theories

• numerous theories proposed by philosophers and
  ethical theorists not necessarily mutually
  exclusive
• teleological and deontological are the
  predominant approaches
• typically classified into categories based on
  criteria used to decide whether the behaviour is
  right or wrong
• action-based - duty, consequences, rights, etc.
• actor-based virtues, intuition, etc.
• situation-based case-based, ethics of care,
  etc.
• theories may be used to derive helpful guidelines
  for thinking about ethical behaviour

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Common ethical (moral) theories

• Teleology - actions are right or wrong
  according to the balance of their good or bad
  consequences
• utilitarianism is a teleological theory that
  judges acts based on their utility or usefulness
• Deontology - actions are performed out of duty or
  moral obligation every person is an end and not
  solely a means to another persons end.
• Virtue theory - places value on the moral
  character of the actor rather than acts or
  outcomes of acts

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Consequentialism and Utilitarianism

• Teleology (consequentialism)
• teleology comes from the Greek word telos,
  meaning purpose or end
• more commonly known as consequentialism
• for consequentialists, whether an action is
  morally right or wrong depends on the action's
  consequences
• in any situation, the morally right thing to do
  is whatever will have the best consequences
• question arises as to what kind of consequences -
  i.e. needs to be combined with a theory about
  what the best consequences are

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Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism a consequentialist theory
• utility is a term used to refer to the degree
  to which an action produces good/avoids evil
• actions are right if they maximise
  happiness/pleasure and minimise unhappiness/pain
  or, that actions are right if they have the
  greatest utility
• basis of utilitarianism is to ask what has
  intrinsic value (value in itself) and then assess
  the consequences of an action in terms of
  intrinsically valuable things
• utilitarianism has had considerable influence
  upon legislation
• 'Founders' of Utilitarianism - Jeremy Bentham
  (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

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Utilitarianism

• The Greatest Happiness Principle
• "actions are right in proportion as they tend to
  promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce
  the reverse of happiness. (J S Mill)
• an action is judged by the total amount of
  happiness and unhappiness it creates with regard
  to everyone affected by the action ethical
  hedonism
• broader understanding of good/evil is that which
  makes our lives worth living/that which detracts
  from the overall values of our lives
• when all the people who might be affected by an
  action are considered, that action is right if it
  promotes more happiness than unhappiness

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Act and Rule Utilitarianism

• act utilitarian approach emphasis on outcomes
  or consequences of specific act
• rule utilitarian approach follow a rule
  consistently and not bend it to fit a particular
  situation

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Duty Theories

• Duty Theories (Deontological Theories)
• morality is based on specific foundational
  principles of duty that are absolute, obligatory,
  and irrespective of the consequences that might
  follow our actions.

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Deontology

• Deontology - from the Greek word deon meaning
  duty
• according to deontologists
• there are acts we have the duty to perform
  because these acts are good in themselves (i.e.
  intrinsically good)
• we have a duty to refrain from acts that are
  intrinsically bad or wrong
• consequences are irrelevant to determining what
  is moral or not
• rule deontology rules we can know which tell
  one what is right and what is wrong (e.g. 10
  Commandments the Golden Rule)

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Kantanism duty based

• Immanuel Kant (1724 1804) - most influential
  deontologist
• introduced a secular moral law (a method for
  deciding moral duty/duties), known as his
  categorical imperative his key rule
• based on the human capacity for reason or
  rational thought all humans are rational beings
  capable of knowing the categorical imperative and
  of applying it to various situations
• moral duty could be determined by the use of
  reason about the act in question

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The categorical imperative

• Two versions
• First version "Act only on that maxim through
  which you can at the same time will that it
  should become a universal law."
• i.e. unless you are able to say that everyone
  must act like this, then you should not act like
  it
• something is morally right (or wrong) only if it
  commands or compels obedience and is binding on
  all persons equally
• it would be inconsistent and irrational to
  decide, for example, that you could steal from
  others, but they could not steal from you - thus,
  reason demands that we do not steal unless
  everyone should steal

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The categorical imperative

• Second version "Act in such a way that you
  always treat humanity, whether in your own person
  or in the person of any other, never simply as a
  means, but always at the same time as an end.
• people must be treated as ends in themselves and
  not as a means to an end
• i.e. there are certain ways we must not treat
  people no matter how much utility might be
  produced by treating them in those ways e. g.
  dont lie to a patient
• influential in medical ethics as it can be
  translated as it is necessary to treat people as
  autonomous agents capable of making their own
  decision

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Deontology and duties

• Kants perfect and imperfect duties
• Perfect Duties are those for which there are no
  exceptions, for example, the duty not to kill an
  innocent person, duty not to lie, duty to keep
  promises. It is intrinsically wrong to do the
  opposite of these, no matter how beneficial the
  consequences
• Imperfect Duties are those for which exceptions
  are allowed but actions due to these duties can
  never be at the expense of perfect duties
• Kant also distinguishes between acting in
  accordance with duty (but for the wrong reasons)
  and acting from a proper sense of duty. It is
  important to chose an action because it is ones
  duty not simply to be consistent with duty

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Ross' Deontological Theory

• Pluralist deontologists affirm more than one
  basic rule or principle
• W D Rosss theory (greatly influenced the
  four-principles approach to medical ethics) is
  based on ethical conflict, or conflict of duty
• unlike many other duty-based theories, he gives
  considerable weight to consequences
• distinguishes duties as prima facie or actual
  duties
• prima facie duty - a duty that is always to be
  performed unless it conflicts with an equal or
  stronger duty
• actual duty - the prima facie duty that has a
  stronger weight in case of conflict
• we know our duties in particular situations just
  on the basis of our moral beliefs and conventions
  

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Ross' Duties

• Ross' Duties
• fidelity duty to keep promises, honour
  contracts and agreements, tell the truth
• gratitude duty to repay previous acts of others
  who benefited you
• beneficence - duty to make things better for
  other persons
• non-maleficence - duty not to make other persons
  worse off
• justice - duty to distribute pleasure or
  happiness (or the means thereto) in accordance
  with the merit of persons concerned
• self-improvement - duty to improve ones own
  condition

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Rights-based ethical theory

• Natural Rights Theory proposed by John Locke
  (1632-1704)
• everyone has rights that arise form our very
  existence as human beings
• rights (to life, health, liberty, possessions)
  are natural rights, given to us from God
• these rights are natural (not invented by
  humans), universal (not dependent on culture),
  equal (for all people), and inalienable (cannot
  be given them up)
• rights are entitlements that prevent others from
  interfering in ones life
• Lockes theory was influential to the US
  Declaration of Independence (1776) and the
  French Revolution (1789) and is the foundation of
  many modern democracies
• theory can be seen as being opposite to
  utilitarianism in its support of the individual
  rather in preference to the state

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Virtue Theory

• Virtue ethics represents the oldest normative
  theory and is based in ancient Greek civilization
• focuses on the development of character rather on
  specific acts
• moral conduct requires more than an action and an
  outcome it requires an agent or actor
• a virtue is a trait of character that is socially
  valued and a moral virtue is a trait that is
  morally valued

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Virtue Theory

• Plato four cardinal virtues wisdom courage
  temperance justice - other important virtues
  include fortitude generosity self-respect
  good temper sincerity.
• we should strive to acquire good habits of
  character and avoid bad character traits
• Aristotle - (384 322 B.C) Nichomachean Ethics
  - concerned with the question of character
• moral character and moral achievement are
  functions of education, self-cultivation, and
  habituation.
• whereas, obligations play a more central role in
  other theories Aristotelian theory turns on
  motive, effort, commitment, action from virtue,
  and the development of character
• a virtue is something practised and learned
  becomes habit people can be taught to be
  virtuous
• Theological virtues faith hope charity
  supplement Greek virtues

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Virtues what do we expect from a pharmacist?
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Virtues some examples
wisdom
integrity
etc, etc
truthfulness
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