Philosophy 323

1
Philosophy 323

• Normative Ethical Theory
• Challenges to the Dominant Theories

2
Adding to Our Vocabulary

• A common moral concept that we have not yet
  considered is the concept of a Right a legal or
  moral claim (entitlement) to do or refrain from
  doing something or to choose or not choose to
  have something done to them.
• This is a particularly important concept for
  Business Ethics, where it takes the form of a
  discussion of workplace rights.
• The ethical category of rights addresses
  situations when an individuals well being is
  vulnerable to the activity of others (individuals
  or institutions).
• 1)Most of us must work.
• 2)Few of us control how we work (in all relevant
  respects).
• ------------------
• 3)Most of us are profoundly vulnerable in the
  workplace.
• Rights serve to protect the vulnerabilities of
  individuals.
• Example Right to Free Speech.

3
Rights Based Theories

• Rights Based Theories hold that rights form the
  basis of obligations because they best express
  the a key purpose of morality the securing of
  liberties or other benefits from rights holders
  (31).
• The TRA for RBT focuses on the correlation
  between rights and obligations.
• If an agent has a right, then other relevantly
  situated agents have an obligation relative to
  the right.

4
Different Concepts of Rights

• Given the proximity of the concept of rights to
  the concept of freedom, it should not be
  surprising that a distinction we recognized as
  operating in the latter also operates in the
  former.
• A negative right is a valid claim to liberty, and
  a negative obligation requires that we not
  interfere with the obligations of others.
• A positive right is a valid claim to a good or
  service and positive obligation requires that a
  person, organization, or state provide such goods
  or services.

5
Different Types of Rights

• The concept of rights as it is commonly employed
  applied can take four different forms.
• Contractual based in explicit, contractually
  established agreements.
• Benefits packages, Term of employment.
• Legal based in legislative or judicial acts.
• Minimum Wage EEOC.
• Moral entitlements independent of any legal or
  contractual specification.
• Right to work, respect, participation, safety,
  privacy
• Human entitlements based in membership in the
  human race (or perhaps in moral humanity).
• Kantian notion of dignity.

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Criticisms of Rights Theories

• One common criticism of RBTs points to the
  proliferation of rights.
• Construed merely negatively, rights seem to be
  limited, but when we consider the range of
  positive rights, their number expands
  considerably.
• Another common criticism points to the apparently
  inevitable conflict between rights.
• The issue becomes how to adjudicate between these
  conflicting claims.

7
Character vs. Acts

• Though historically speaking, Virtue Ethics is
  the first systematic, philosophical ethical
  position, it had until somewhat recently been
  pushed aside by the other ethical theories weve
  studied.
• One reason for this is that these other theories
  have focused our attention on the ethical
  evaluation of acts, while VE focuses on
  character.
• There are lots of (not necessarily all good)
  reasons to prefer the former.

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An Ethic of Virtue

• The lack of attention (until recently) paid to VE
  has the result that there is still a great deal
  of disagreement about the basic structure of VE.
• We can say a few basic and uncontentious things
  about such theories.
• The first and most important one is the VE
  reverses the tendency that weve seen in other
  ethical theories and makes the concepts of virtue
  and vice basic.
• Right and Wrong become derivative concepts.

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Virtue and Vice

• Virtue a trait of character or mind that
  typically involves dispositions to act, feel, and
  think in certain ways and that is central to a
  positive evaluation of persons.
• Honesty, Courage, Justice, Temperance,
  Beneficence
• Vice a trait of character or mind that typically
  involves dispositions to act, feel and think in
  certain ways, and that is central to a negative
  evaluation of persons.
• Dishonesty, Cowardice, Injustice, Intemperance,
  Selfishness

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A TRA for Virtue Ethics

• On the basis of the distinction between virtues
  and vices, it is possible to articulate a general
  TRA for VE.
• An action is right iff it is what a virtuous
  agent (acting in character) would not avoid doing
  in the circumstances under consideration.
• If a virtuous agent would do it, the action is
  obligatory if they might do it, the action is
  permissible if they wouldnt do it, the action
  is forbidden.
• Acting in character points to the concept of
  practical wisdom and the significance of moral
  judgment for VE.

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Advantages of VE

• It is consistent with our moral intuition that
  there may be more than one right answer in the
  face of a moral dilemma.
• It is not inconsistent with our conviction that
  traits of character are importantly out of our
  control, inasmuch as they are influences by
  genetics and circumstance.
• It encourages us to take a holistic view of our
  moral circumstances.

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Disadvantages?

• What about the virtues and vices themselves?
• Who is a virtuous agent?
• How do we know if they are acting in character?
• What if we lack a virtuous character?