Applying Creativity to Research in Ethics - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 19

About This Presentation

Title:

Applying Creativity to Research in Ethics

Description:

Number of Views:188

Avg rating:3.0/5.0

Slides: 20

Provided by: artsa55

Category:

more less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Applying Creativity to Research in Ethics

1
(No Transcript)
2
Applying Creativity to Research in Ethics
3
What is Ethics?

According to Weston, ethics is to be defined as
a concern with the basic needs and legitimate
expectations of others as well as our own. See A
21st Century Ethical Toolbox, 5.
Ethical problem-solving is not just a matter of
finding a way out of a specific, practical fix.
It is also an occasion to better live out our
values and, indeed, to better the world itself.
That is the very essence of ethics! Weston,
Creative Problem-Solving in Ethics, 6.
Note the contrasting view found in Rachels, where
the essence of morality is to let our feeling
be guided as much as possible by reason (11).
Rachels also provides a definition of morality
that provides quite a different emphasis when
contrasted with Westons definition above
Morality is, at the very least, the effort to
guide ones conduct by reasonthat is, to do what
there are the best reasons for doingwhile giving
equal weight to the interests of each individual
affected by ones decision (13). Although not
necessarily opposed, Westons emphases are on
concern and creativity, while Rachels focuses on
reason and judgment.

4
What Impedes Creativity in Ethics?

5
The End of Ethics

The end of ethics does not mean that all hell
has broken loose. It does not mean that the
philosophers have decided to lend their voice to
the general anarchy, to unchecked greed, the free
flow of drugs, and widespread violence. The end
of ethics does not mean that anything goes,
which can now be taken to be official, because
even the philosophers concur. The end of ethics
means instead that for certain philosophers the
business as usual of ethics has given out and the
ethical verities that we all like to think are
true, the beliefs and practices we all cherish,
are now seen to be in a more difficult spot than
we liked to think. The end of ethics is thus a
moment of unvarnished honesty in which we are
forced to concede that in ethics we are more
likely to begin with the conclusions, with the
ends or triumphant ethical finales we had in
mind all along, and worry about the premises
later. The end of ethics means that the
premises invoked in ethical theory always come
too late, after the fact. So if there are
cases in the end of ethics, the cases are
casualties, falls (casus), stumbling over
unforeseen difficulties and obstacles, the
accidents that strikes at us in daily life, that
sometimes strike us down.
See John D. Caputo, The End of Ethics, in The
Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory, edited by Hugh
LaFollette (Oxford Blackwell Publishing, 2000),
111.

6
Creative Problem-Solving in Ethics

7
Creative Problem-Solving in Ethics

8
For Practice Group Discussion on a Specific Case

1. What are the most significant facts? What
facts do you need to get a fuller picture? Are
there any suggestive facts?
2. What are the ethical issues or questions
raised by this case?
3. Apply the methods in Weston to your discussion
of the case. In what ways do they open up
alternative possibilities of thinking about the
case? Be prepared to explain.

10
UCF Ethics Bowl Teams

11
Discussion Groups

12
Ethical Arguments
13
Ethical Arguments

are not verbal fistfights in which you state
your prejudices in a new form.
are not angry, contentious disputes.
are not personal attacks.
-----------------------------------------
are means of inquiry.
are amiable conversations into the truth.
are evaluations of ideas and a weighing of
evidence to come to the best beliefs.

Think of argument as a way to make your own
place within these unfolding, ongoing dialogues.
What could be better than that? (RA xiii)
a research report written for any audience, is
a conversation, imagined to be sure, but still a
cooperative but rigorous inquiry into what we
should and should not belief. (A Manual for
Writers 130)
Research is a profoundly social activity. (The
Craft of Research 273)
Thus it has a moral dimension.
Rule 39 Modesty, please!

15
Parts of an Argumentative Essay and Oral Argument

Question What is the problem?
What is the central ethical question raised by
this case and how should it best be answered?
Claim(s) What are you claiming?
Rule 34 Jump right in
Rule 35 Make a definite claim or proposal
Reasons What are your reasons?
Evidence What evidence supports your reasons?
Acknowledgements/Objections and Responses But
what about other points of view?
Warrants How are your reasons relevant to your
claims?

16
For Practice Group Discussion on a Specific Case

1. What is the central ethical question raised by
this case? Are there related ethical issues?
2. What are the most significant facts? What
facts do you need to get a fuller picture? Are
there any suggestive facts?
3. Apply the methods in Weston to your discussion
of the case. In what ways do they open up
alternative possibilities of thinking about the
case?
4. What are the various possible positions on
your case?
5. What the arguments for these positions? Are
they sound?
6. How do you think we should best deal with this
case? In other words, what do you claim is the
answer to the question?