Ethics: The Study of Right and Wrong

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Ethics The Study of Right and Wrong

• The Ancients (5th-4th Centuries BC)
• Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
• The Moderns (17th-19th Centuries)
• Descartes, Hume, Kant
• Contemporary Schools(20th Century)
• Positivism, Existentialism, Pragmatism

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Descriptive Ethics The Study of Actual Codes of
Conduct

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• History
• Cross-Cultural Anthropology
• Ethnic Studies

3
Normative Ethics The Study of the Universally
Valid Code of Conduct

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• Ethnocentrism
• There is a Universally Valid Code.
• We have it.
• The Ethnocentric Fallacy
• Error of Judging Others By Standard Not Their Own
• Mathematics as a Normative Model
• Mathnocentrism
• The Mathnocentric Fallacy?
• Moral Skepticism
• Metaphysical Certainty
• Common Sense Fallibility

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Ethical Theory

• Religious Authoritarianism
• It is right if sanctioned by deity.
• Is something right because God says so, or does
  God say so because it is right?
• Individualism
• Egotism
• If it suits me, it is right.
• Egoism
• If it suits the agent, it is right.
• The Prisoners Dilemma
• Morality as a set of agreements that optimize,
  not maximize, self-interest.

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Ethical Theory (Cont.)

• Utilitarianism
• Act
• It is right if it leads to more good than harm.
• Rule
• It is right if it leads to more good than harm
  as a rule.
• Traditional Moralism
• Established Morality
• It is right if it is the custom.

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Ethical Theory (Cont.)

• Traditional Moralism (Cont.)
• The Categorical Imperative
• If it is right, it is universalizable
• It treats others as an end-in-themselves, not
  just as a means to an end
• It is motivated by a sense of duty defined by the
  moral law.
• Pragmatism
• If, at the end of inquiry, we say it is right, it
  is right.
• From moral skepticism to common sense fallibilism
  as practical necessity.

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Applied Ethics

• Biomedical
• Business
• Legal
• Science
• Virtual (Computer) Ethics

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MetaEthics The Study of the Foundations of
Normative Ethics

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• Subjectivism
• Morality as in the eye of the beholder.
• Objectivism
• Morality as a matter of fact.
• Positivism
• Morality as venting.