Introduction to Ethics

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Introduction to Ethics
An unexamined life is not worth
living --Socrates, Athens, 5th century B.C.
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What is It?
Ethics--A set of values that describe what is
right or wrong, good or bad. Morality--A
doctrine or system of ideas concerned with right
(human) conduct.
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Introduction to Western Philosophy (Idiots Guide)

• Started in Athens, 5th century B.C.
• -Socrates
• -Plato (Socrates pupil)
• -Aristotle (Platos pupil)
• -Taught Alexander the Great

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Socrates

• Truth ? Morality
• -Find truth through argument and debate (Socratic
  Method--lead through probing questions)
• Technology is bad!
• -Writing! It destroys memory and oral skills it
  obscures the distinction between wisdom and
  knowledge

Where is the wisdom we have lost in
knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in
information? --T.S. Eliot, Choruses from the
Rock, 1934
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Plato

• The physical world is an illusion. (But a shadow
  on the wall of the cave for what is real--the
  truth.)
• Ideal society is ruled by a Meritocracy (rule
  by an aristocracy of merit men and women who
  rule by virtue of their education, intelligence,
  and wisdom).
• Ethical ideals and justice are corrupted by the
  material world, which is itself an imperfect
  shadow of the real world of the mind and the
  spirit.

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Aristotle

• Attempted to develop a universal method of
  reasoning by which one could learn everything
  about reality.
• -Categorization of things (e.g., biological),
  logic and methods of reasoning, physics and
  physical laws
• Ethics--Goodness leads to the good life
• -There is a natural desire for happiness that
  aligns with our moral selves.
• -But the individual does not exist outside of the
  social context (including politics, the city, and
  the state (civilization)).
• Virtue--Seek the Mean--Excellence lays balanced
  between the extremes.
• -Egyptians--All things in proper measure.

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Moral Philosophy ? Natural Philosophy

• The whole world can be deduced from basic truths.
• No idea of observation, experimentation, or
  scientific validation here
• For example, The earth is the center of the
  universe.
• Pythagoras (the great geometer, Greece, 5th
  century B.C.) developed ideas to describe the
  motion of the planets.
• Ptolemy(Alexandria, 2nd century A.D.) built on
  the ideas of Pythagoras to make a more detailed
  description of sun, moon, and planets motion
  (cycles and epicycles). This was a complicated
  system, but it worked.

Ptolemys system was used successfully for
navigation till Columbus time (about 2,000
years)!
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Ethical Systems
An ethical system should be generalizable. It
should hold for a broad range of cases. Although
generalizable, conflicts will always arise
between ethical principles.
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Naïve Egoism

• Not really a coherent well-developed view
• Essentially boils down to one principal, If we
  all follow the bidding of our egos, well be
  happy. (This is also essentially the
  materialistic philosophy of Ayn Rand.)
• -Taken to its logical extreme, this means egoists
  believe they can use others with impunity to
  realize their own ends. Might makes right.
• But its difficult to systemize and generalize
  egoism. (Whose might? Whose right?)
• -Some egoists try to broaden their approach by
  limiting naïve egoism by permitting contracts or
  institutional arrangements or sacrificing
  short-term interest for long-term ones.
• -This may not be a very workable philosophy for
  individuals, but what about companies? Or
  countries? (Libertarian Capitalism?)

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Utilitarianism

• This is an ethics of consequences developed by
  Jeremy Bentham and other British philosophers in
  the 1700s.
• Developed the goal of the greatest good for the
  greatest number. An alternative is the greatest
  happiness (most pleasure for the least pain).
• -This sounds like a quantitative approach. (You
  could develop an algorithm!)
• -John Stuart Mill developed Consequentialism, a
  type of Utilitarianism. An act is morally right
  if it produces a greater net value (benefits
  minus costs) than any available alternative. (Is
  this the only way to calculate value?)
• -Estimates of consequences, at least long-term
  ones, by this method are hard. Without additional
  principals, we can be overwhelmed by choices.

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Ethics by Principles

• This system rests on a few basic principles that
  we are duty-bound to uphold (e.g., the Ten
  Commandments).
• Immanuel Kant (German philosopher, late 1700s)
  tried to derive these principles from
  philosophical reasoning.
• -If we have a system of a few principles that
  apply in all cases and are never contradictory,
  we have a clear and precise ethical system.
• -But will this always be the case? Will all cases
  be covered? Will principles never be
  contradictory?
• -(Maybe some utilitarian comparative analysis
  would be in order here.)
• -If we have a shared cultural background, shared
  values, the Kantian approach has its most impact.

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Ethics by Principles

• Such ethical systems are called deontological
  systems. (They emphasize duties and absolute
  rules, to be followed regardless of the
  consequences.)
• Deontologists argue that logic or reason
  determine ethical rules and that actions are
  intrinsically good because they follow from
  logic.
• -Kant said, Respect the reason within you. This
  implies we are all moral beings, to the extent
  that we are rational.

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An Ethics of Consequences and Principles

• Perhaps we can compromise and develop an ethical
  approach based on principles that also considers
  consequences.
• This is often done (e.g., people, or nations,
  have the right to defend themselves, even if it
  causes injury or even death to the attacker).
• We will look both at principles and consequences
  throughout this course, and not only to develop
  ethical arguments. We will try to broaden
  principles for actions or views when possible.
  And we will look carefully at consequences.

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Natural Rights

• These are rights that apply to all individuals
  (natural and inalienable)
• They can constrain utilitarianism and flesh out
  deontological systems.
• -John Locke (British), Thomas Jefferson, Jean
  Jacques Rousseau (French), all active in the
  1700s, were philosophers of natural rights.
• -This philosophy formed the basis of the shared
  cultural values of the U.S. founding fathers and
  thus the shared cultural values of most U.S.
  citizens today.

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Institutional Ethics

• Government
• -Bill of Rights Declaration of Independence (We
  hold these truths to be self-evident...)
• These are expressions of an institutional
  ethics.
• Business
• -The ethics and moral code for a business may be
  different than that of the government or an
  individual.
• Profession
• -A professional group purporting to represent a
  profession (who says?) makes an ethical code.
  This may again differ from the ethics of an
  individual.
• Whose code trumps whom?