Ethics in the news

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Ethics in the newsToo good to play?

• Nine-year-old Jericho Scott has been banned from
  pitching in a New Haven, Conn. youth baseball
  league because he throws so hard that he
  frightens the other players, according to league
  officials.

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Ethics in the newsToo good to play?

• What are the ethical questions here?
• What rights are the two sides defending?
• Is there some middle ground?

3
Art or Child Abuse?Olympia Nelson taken by her
mother 2003Beatrice Hatch taken by Lewis
Carroll 1873
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Evelyn Hatch taken by Lewis Carroll
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Other 19th C. artistic photography

• Taken by
• Julia Margaret Cameron, British photographer
• Does it make a difference that a woman took the
  picture? Does it matter who the child is?

6
Cheaters do prosper, but...

• ....in Canada, of 20,000 first-year students at
  11 post-secondary schools, 53 per cent admitted
  to plagiarism...
• 73 per cent said they had cheated in high
  school...

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PHIL 2525 Contemporary Moral IssuesLec 2

• Arguments are among us

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Doing philosophy

• Articulating expressing yourself clearly
• Arguing supporting your ideas with reasons
• Analyzing taking apart in order to understand
• Synthesizing gathering together in a meaningful
  way

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Aristotles Organon

• Earliest texts on the tools and structure of
  logical argument

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Deduction and Induction

• Two different ways of thinking and arguing
• Deduction begins with general truths and draws
  conclusions about particulars
• Induction begins with particulars and draws
  general truths

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An argument is...

• An argument is a series of statements
• One is a conclusion
• The others are evidence

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The most basic form of deduction the syllogism

• Premise
• Premise
• ------------
• Conclusion

• All men are mortal
• Socrates is a man
• -------------------------
• Therefore, Socrates is mortal

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Categorical syllogism

• All men are mortal
• Socrates is a man
• Therefore, Socrates is mortal

• All A are B
• C is an A
• Therefore, C is a B

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Not all arguments are so sweet and simple

• All Catholics are famous
• The Pope is Catholic
• -------------------------
• Therefore, the Pope is
• famous

• All A are B
• C is an A
• --------------------
• Therefore, C is a B
• Validity?
• Truth?
• Soundness?

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Not all arguments are so sweet and simple

• All Catholics are famous
• The Pope is Catholic
• -------------------------
• Therefore, the Pope is
• famous

• All A are B
• C is an A
• --------------------
• Therefore, C is a B
• A syllogism can be valid, even when not true
• The form can be valid, even when the content is
  false

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What about this?

• The Earth goes around the sun
• The moon goes around the Earth
• ----------------------------------------
• The Earth is part of the solar system
• Validity?
• Truth?
• Soundness?

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What about this?

• The Earth goes around the sun
• The moon goes around the Earth
• ----------------------------------------
• The Earth is part of the solar system
• A syllogism can have all true statements and a
  true conclusion but still not be sound.
• Soundness requires both truth and validity

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Sometimes one of the premises is assumed

• Men cant give birth
• Therefore, Terry cant give birth
• (the assumed premise is.)
• Truth?
• Validity?
• Soundness?

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What is the assumed premise here?

• Abortion is killing people
• Therefore, abortion is wrong
• Truth?
• Validity?
• Soundness?

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Validity and Truth Soundness

• Validity has to do with the form of the argument
  -- the shape -- the evidentiary relationship --
  the way the parts fit together
• Truth (or falsity) has to do with the content
• Soundness requires both validity and truth

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You might wonder

• What is the point of a deductive argument if the
  form can be valid, but the conclusion false?

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You might wonder

• What is the point of a deductive argument if the
  form can be valid, but the conclusion false?
• The deductive argument is important because if
  the premises can be shown to be true, and the
  form is valid, then the conclusion must be
  accepted

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Induction is less certain than deduction, but

• Knowledge grows from induction in a
• way that it cant from deduction.
• Science is organized, methodical induction
  
• Advances in medicine or physics proceed
  induction by induction

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Induction

• The conclusion of an inductive argument always
  goes beyond the premises

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Inductive uncertainty

• The 3,000 people who were tested reacted
  adversely to the new drug
• Therefore, the new drug should not be approved
  for general use
• What is the unstated premise here?

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Inductive uncertainty
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Moral Skepticism

• the idea that there is no right or wrong about
  moral issues
• not merely that we dont or cant know, but that
  there is no right or wrong
• no objective truth

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Protagoras

• Man is the measure of all things.
• ...one opinion can be better than another, but it
  cannot be truer...

29
Moral Skepticism

• The Cultural Differences Argument
• People in different cultures disagree about
  moral right and wrong
• So, therefore there is no knowing

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Moral Skepticism

• The Cultural Differences Argument
• Example
• In some societies, such as among the Eskimos,
  infanticide is thought to be morally acceptable.
• In other societies, such as our own, infanticide
  is thought to be morally odious.
• -------------------------------------------------
  -------------------------
• Therefore, objectively speaking, infanticide is
  neither right nor wrong. It is merely a matter
  of opinion that varies from culture to culture.

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Moral Skepticism

• The Cultural Differences Argument
• Rachels offers an analogous argument.
• In some societies, the world is thought to be
  flat
• In some societies, the world is thought to be
  round
• -------------------------------------------------
  ------------------
• Therefore, objectively speaking, the world is
  neither flat nor round. It is merely a matter of
  opinion that varies from culture to culture.

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Moral Skepticism

• The Provability argument
• If there were any such thing as objective truth
  in ethics, then we should be able to prove that
  some moral opinions are true and others false.
• But in fact, we cannot prove which moral
  opinions are true and which are false.
• -------------------------------------------------
  -----------------------
• Therefore, there is no such thing as objective
  truth in ethics.

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Acting for reasons...

• Practical reasons
• Moral reasons

34
Individual morality...

• Making your own choice
• Making the right choice

35
Social morality...

• Health, education, same-sex marriage ...

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The Ring of Gyges
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Good Sport, Bad Sport

• Ben Johnson
• 1988 Olympic Games

• Platos moral of the story, the Ring of Gyges
• that we would all be corrupted...

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Cyberbullying

• Megan Meier killed herself in October 2006. She
  was thirteen years old.

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Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Think in bumper-stickers...

• It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.
• People kill people. Guns dont kill people.

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Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Rationalize...rationalize

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Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Dogmatic commitment

• Antidote
• Dont believe everything you think!

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Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Relativism

• Any moral opinion is as good as the rest....