Ethics and Moral Values

Clark Wolf
Iowa State University

Philosophical approaches to
ethical choice and reflection

The problems of philosophy involve questions in

which we are all (or should all be) deeply
interested at the most basic level. They are
important to us as we make decisions about
what to believe, and how to be critical of our
own naively held beliefs. Philosophical
investigation may help us to determine what
kinds of choices we should make, and what kind
of person to be. It may help us to understand
and justify our belief (or disbelief) in God. It may
help us to form a rational life plan, and to better
understand our own motives and fears.
Philosophical questions are important to us as
we try to understand what we are and to
determine our place in the scheme of things.
And they are important to us as we try to
choose right actions in a complicated and
difficult world, and to find meaning in our lives.

Identifying Ethics: Principles of ethics

should provide us guidance as we make
choices in a complicated world. Ideally, an
account of ethics should help us to identify
moral principles and morally relevant features
of the choices we face.

There is no simple recipe for

ethical decision making.
Philosophical and religious
theories about ethics do not
remove our need (obligation?) to
exercise deliberative judgment
and to evaluate alternative values
that are at play in concrete cases.

Ethics: Ethical codes of conduct

instruct us on what we ought or
ought not to do. Typical ethical
theories or ethical codes include
basic principles that are intended
to be used to guide conduct.

Values: Values underlie ethical

codes. For any ethical code, we
can evaluate it by considering
the values that support it.

Values and Wants: The things

we want are usually among the
things we value, but values and
wants are different. It is possible
to want what one does not value,
and possible to value what one
does not want.

Role of Religious Belief in Ethics:

For those of us who have religious
beliefs, often these beliefs are
intimately tied to our values and to the
ethical principles we accept. But it
would be a mistake to suppose that
ethical values are simply religious
valuesat least, the relationship is
more complex than people sometimes
realize.

Any time says that we should do

X because it is what God wants us
to do, it is appropriate to
consider the reasons we have for
thinking that this is what God
wants. Once we ask this
question, were doing philosophy.

Question: Are Ethical Judgments

Relative, Subjective, and
Incomparable?

Relative: Different people make

different judgments, and the
evaluative judgments people
make are wholly relative to the
values that they hold.

Subjective: Different people

just have different values, and
there is no way to argue or reason
about the evaluative assumptions
that lie behind different ethical
judgments or choices. There are
no evaluative facts in the way
that there are facts about the
physical universe.

Incomparable: There is no way

to compare the judgments of
different people, and no one's
evaluative judgments are any
better than the evaluative
judgments of anyone else.

Claim: If it were true that ethical

values are all relative, subjective,
and incomparable, then talking
about ethics would be useless.

Why might one believe this?

Is it true?

Claim: Because we have many

values in common, discussions in
ethics often involve appeals to
commonly shared values.

Claim: Often discussions in

ethics involve appeals to values
one believes that others accept,
or values one believes that others
have reason to accept.

Ethical argument and discussion

requires an informed and
sympathetic understanding of
other peoples values and other
peoples point of view. We get no
where if we simply preach our
own values without making an
effort to understand others.

One Form of Ethical Argument:

Elicit a value judgment by coming
to an understanding of some of
the values another person holds.
Then show that the value in
question has implications that are
not consistent with the persons
actions.

Example: Robert Nozick on

Vegetarianism. (Hand-out.)

Ethical Arguments

Argument: A set of statements,

some of which serve as premises,
one of which serves as a
conclusion, where the premises
are intended to provide evidence
for the conclusion.

Ethical Arguments
When presented with an
argument, one may either
1) Accept the premises and the
conclusion
2) Reject the premises
3) Argue (or show) that the
conclusion does not follow from
the premises.

An Example of an
Ethical Argument:

Hand-out: Argument for

Vegetarianism and Limitations on
Animal Testing

Do you accept the premises? If not,

which premise do you reject or find
questionable?
Does the conclusion follow from the
premises?

Example: Peter Singer

1) Suffering and death from lack of food,

shelter, and medical care are bad.
2) Singer's Principle: Two versions.
Version i) If it is in our power to prevent
something bad from happening, without
thereby sacrificing anything of comparable
moral importance, we ought, morally, to do
it.
Version ii) If it is in our power to prevent
something very bad from happening, without
thereby sacrificing anything of moral
significance, we ought, morally to do it.

Example for Singers Principle: If

I'm walking past a shallow pond,
and I see a child drowning in it, I
ought to wade in and pull the
child out.

COST: Muddy Clothing.

BENEFIT: Child's Life.

Extending the Argument:

Whenever we spend on
ourselves or our loved ones
money we could use to address
the more pressing moral issue of
absolute poverty, we are
violating a moral principle that we
accept.

Notice that Singers argument is

an appeal to our integrity. He is
not simply preaching his values
and applying them (perhaps
inappropriately) to us.

Basic v. Derivative
Obligations

Some obligations derive from

other more basic obligations. For
example, obligations of
citizenship may be based on our
obligation to be fair, responsible,
and respectful of other people
with whom we interact.

Basic and Derivative

Obligations

When obligations can be derived

from others, the more basic
obligations have a kind of
priority over the derived
obligations.

Basic and Derivative

Obligations

Question: Is there an identifiable

set of fundamental obligations,
such that all our real obligations
can be derived from that set?

Basic Values: The Josephson

Proposal:
Trustworthiness
Respect
Responsibility
Fairness
Caring
Citizenship

W.D. Rosss List of Prima Facie

Duties:
1) Duties that rest on previous acts of my own
a) Promises.

b) Duty to rectify previous wrongs.

2) Duties that rest on previous acts of others

(Duties of gratitude).
3) Duties of justice (Ross interprets this as a
duty to endeavor to bring the distribution of
pleasure or happiness in line with merit.)
4) Beneficence- Duty to benefit others.
5) Duty to improve one's own virtue or
intelligence.
6) Duty not to injure others.

Joel Feinbergs List of Basic

Obligations:
1) Fidelity- Obligation to keep promises.
2) Veracity- Obligation to tell the truth, or (or better-- not
to tell lies).
3) Fair Play- Obligation not to exploit, cheat, or "free
load" on others
4) Gratitude- Obligation to return favors
5) Nonmaleficence- Obligation not to cause harm, pain
or suffering to others,
6) Beneficence- Obligation to help others in distress, at
least when this involves no great danger to oneself or
to third parties.
7) Reparation- Obligation to repair harms to others that
are one's fault.
8) Obligation not to kill others (except in self-defense).
9) Obligation not to deprive others of their property.
10) Obligation to oppose injustices, at least when this
involves no great cost to oneself.
11) Obligation to promote just institutions and to work
toward their establishment, maintenance, and
improvement.

Finding an appropriate list of

basic obligations may seem like a
philosophers game. But the
business of making appropriate
ethical decisions is not a game.
One practical goal of such a list is
that it may help us to make
appropriate decisions in
complicated circumstances.

What more basic values are

involved?
Helping out on your father-in-laws farm,
you discover that he has ceased to use
appropriate environmental
precautions. His plow patterns are
leading to excessive soil erosion and
excessive pesticide run-off. There is
reason to believe that his unsafe
practices are significantly contributing
to groundwater contamination, and
that erosion from his fields is

Ethics and ethical decision making are

not simply the province of
philosophers or ethicists. Our choices
reveal our values to the world. These
values are either unreflective and
shallow, or reflective and deep.

Philosophical deliberation should help us

to make our values and choices deep
and thoughtful. Maybe this makes it
more likely that our choices will be the
right ones.