Why Be Ethical?/You are what You Do

1
Why Be Ethical?/You are what You Do

• pp. 5-21 and 23-39

2
The Capacity to Act (Freedom)

• Aristotles teleological view ? We have a natural
  desire and sense of purpose to do good (pp.
  11-14).
• Kants deontological view ? We have and
  obligation to do good (pp. 14-17).
• Levinass relational theory of ethics ? We are
  called to good by encountering the other
  (pp.17-20).
• What makes us capable of responding in an ethical
  manner?

3

• Despite being predisposed to act a certain way
  because of genetics, we also have the capacity to
  make choices.
• We have the capacity to be an agent (someone who
  is able to initiate things and is able to change
  the world).
• Actions are what make us human human actions
  are the building blocks of who we are and who we
  become.

4

• Freedom is the human potential, the capacity and
  the power to act. Action is the realization of
  that power.
• Ethics examines your capacity as an individual to
  make things happen in your world, in your
  relationships and even within yourself.
• The morality of human acts depends on (1) the
  object chosen (2) the end in view or the
  intention (3) the circumstances of the action.

5
The Conceptual Framework of Human Action

• Who? - the agent
• What? - the action
• Why? the motive
• How? with what means?
• Under what circumstances?
• With or against whom?
• With what outcomes?

6
Human Freedom

• The capacity to choose and to act. I am free
  because I have possibilities and a capacity to
  act (or not act) on these possibilities.
• Not all philosophers agree on how to explain the
  human ability to initiate an action.
• The intention or primary cause is usually not
  visible.
• Intending to doing something is not the same as
  actually doing it.

7

• Traditionally, the capacity to act intentionally
  has been identified as a spiritual/transcendent
  quality.
• If someone states their intentions to marry, it
  is a real commitment even though it cannot be
  detected by any of the senses.
• Some philosophers and paradigms believe that free
  will itself is an illusion humans are part of a
  physical and material world and nothing in them
  reaches beyond the material and into the
  spiritual world.

8
Naturalism

• The movement has roots in the ideas of 18th
  century philosopher and empiricist David Hume (he
  challenged the principle of causality it is not
  found innate in thought but through experience).
• The material universe is a unified system where
  everything is shaped by physical, chemical,
  psychological, social, biological and
  environmental processes. Humans are simply part
  of the material universe, which is one grand
  chain of cause and effect.

9

• With the sequencing of the human genome,
  naturalism believes we have the blueprint for
  humanity this notion challenges the notion of
  the free self.
• If this theory is held to be true, then our
  promises and commitments dont come from
  intention but instead from genetic
  predisposition.
• Naturalism denies the possibility of ethics and
  morality.

10

• How can you be responsible for your actions if
  what you do is a natural, physical process over
  which you have no control?
• According to Augustine, in our understanding of
  law, guilt can only be assigned to a human agent
  acting freely.

11
Naturalism and A.I.

• The concept of artificial intelligence is very
  much in-line with the philosophy of naturalism
  (reduces intention to a process that can be
  programmed).
• Computers and modern forms of A.I. today can only
  model an aspect of intelligence and not act as a
  whole intelligence system. Neural networks of
  humans can be replicated in computer programs but
  this is far from human intelligence.

12
Religious Determinism

• Freedom, as a human capacity, is also attacked in
  other philosophies and theologies.
• Some churches within Christianity have denied
  human freedom, based on the belief that Gods
  foreknowledge and will have predetermined
  everything in the world, including our individual
  actions.

13

• Most Christians believe in the concept of
  providence, which is God influence upon events
  and actions.
• Some Christians, such as John Calvin (French
  Protestant reformer from 1500s), believe that
  our salvation or damnation has been predestined
  and therefore there is no freedom or ethics
  (predestination takes away the human capacity to
  act freely).

14

• Catholic teaching maintains that human freedom
  and Gods providence dont conflict.
• God has a foreknowledge of what will happen, but
  we are actively acting in the present and are
  free to choose our actions.
• God gives us the gift of salvation, Gods
  initiative of love.
• This love/salvation requires us to cooperate and
  choose to be good (act freely). It also gives us
  the grace to cooperate and choose to be good
  (theological virtues).

15
Social Determinism

• Similar to naturalism, this paradigm suggests
  that our behaviours are determined by outside
  influences like the influence of others around
  you
• Parents, culture, race, social background,
  personal history, gender religion etc.
• Sigmund Freud believed that human behaviour is
  often driven by unconscious impulses based on
  repressed memories and desires.

16

• Freud believed that these repressed experiences
  exert a constant pressure on our conscious mind.
  They emerge as images and symbols in our dreams,
  and odd patterns in our behaviour.
• Freud also believed humans had 2 determining
  instincts life (linked to love, sex and eros)
  and death (thanatos).
• Freud believed we have a personal taskmaster that
  imposes guilt and shame to control our actions
  (superego, influences by parents and society).

17

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vIQWBnwu1oZs
• Do you see your self as an agent who is free to
  act, or are you just another piece in a grand
  chain of cause and effect?