Ethics 1 Ethics and Moral Reasoning in Everyday Life

For Parts I and II (The Nature of Ethics and Moral Reasoning and Understanding Basic
Ethical Concepts)

A. Plato, The Ring of Gyges

Dominant perspective during the time of Socrates (Ancient Greek) through the
characterization of the just and the unjust man as Glaucon narrated

Egoism – Everyone acts only from the motive of self-interest.

For reflection:

If a person could be certain that consequences of actions would result to personal

benefits without being discovered, or if actions are discovered, yet without
punishing consequences, would there be a reason for a person to act morally?

B. Williams, Socrates’ Question “How should one live?” –


It is neutral on the issue of morality, yet its very generality implies that it is
applicable to everyone


It is about a manner of life


It is non-committal,


It pertains to ethical and moral considerations (important for Socrates) as
well as other kinds of considerations, e.g. economic, political, family, or
all things considered


It is a timeless question w/c invites reflection


It drives to generalize under Socratic reflection


 To act morally is to act autonomously, not as a result of social pressure.1
How should one live? – Best place for moral philosophy to start because:

1
Williams, B. (2006) Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, (Oxford: Routledge), p. 7
  Ethical consideration for the Greeks refers to the individual character –
broader term (for Williams)


Notion of obligation – “to act morally is to act autonomously, not as the
result of social pressure


Notion of outcomes (consequences)


Notion of virtues (disposition of character)


Notion of egoism (ethical) – “each person ought to pursue his or her own
self-interest” may take on an ethical turn when one believes that the
above statement becomes an “ought” and “that is for the best of
everyone”

 Moral consideration from the Latin emphasizes social expectation – demands

specificity or boundary

 Non-ethical consideration/Counter-ethical – malevolence


Notion of bald egoism

For reflection:

If the question “How should I live?” is neutral to morality, why did Williams consider
it still as the best way for moral philosophy to start?

C. Benedict, Anthropology and the Abnormal

  Every society, beginning with some slight inclination in one direction or
another, carries its preference farther and farther, integrating itself more and
more completely upon its chosen basis and discarding those types of
behavior that are uncongenial.

 Normality is culturally defined.

 An action is normal if it falls well within the limits of expected behavior for a
particular society.

 Abnormality is a term used for a segment of human behavior that a particular

civilization does not use.

 Deviance is accorded to behaviors which are not congenial to the selected

type of human behavior in a particular community.

 The concept of the normal is properly a variant of the concept of the good.

 Morality is a convenient term for socially approved habits.

 Most individuals are plastic to the molding force of the society into which they
are born.

 All local conventions of moral behavior and of immoral are without absolute
validity, yet it is quite possible that a modicum of what is considered right and
what is wrong could be disentangled that is shared by the whole human race.

For reflection:

If morality is taken as coming from approved habits, what could possibly be

the reason why some behaviors are permissible to the whole human race?

D. Harmin and Simon, Values

 A value problem is exhibited (in a student) if, in the absence of a prior

emotional disturbance, (he) finds it very difficult to face typical life situations,
and make choices and decisions; or if there is no awareness that some
choices are more worthy than others.

 Teachers can deal w/ value development in three ways:

 Do nothing about it because values are the domain of family and religious
institutions.
 Transmit a pre-existing set of values to students (right, desirable, and
good which are known)

 Model desirable values – assuming that right and wrong can be

identified and communicated to others.

 Modeling has a strong influence on children based on the

assumption that values are absorbed through absorbing
patterns of behavior

 Conflicting models exist for almost every value

 Modeling is weak in dealing with values that are only imperfectly

reflected in public behavior.

 Reward-and-Punishment Approach – repetition of an identified

desirable behavior is shaped through judicious rewards and
encouragement;

 Some value habits are formed through materials or activities

that channel behavior in desired ways

 It cannot be held true to shaping feelings and thought

processes

 How does the notion that adults can shape children’s behavior
come to terms w/ children’s internal powers and inclination?
What happens if there is a conflict between the two?

 Explanatory Approach – explanations are provided for values to be

promoted.

 The approach is useful because students appreciate knowing

the reason for existing standards and adult beliefs; children will
likely accept the standards of beliefs supported by
understandable reasons.

 Explanations are bound to be incomplete and rests on prior

assumptions which are seldom explained
  Many decisions involve a conflict between two or more
desirable elements, which explanations cannot help. (e.g.
knowing honesty or politeness does not help if faced with the
choice of being either dishonest or impolite)

 Nagging Approach – to frequently remind students what is right and

wrong and what is expected of them without attending to whether they
understood the reasons for the standards.

 Students are more annoyed than educated

 Manipulation Approach – environment and experiences to which

students are exposed to are manipulated

 Withhold (from students) knowledge of alternatives

 Distort the consequences of certain actions

 Restrict experiences in ways that have value consequences

 It is uncomfortable for those who believes that man’s rational

processes need to be utilized

 It runs counter to current trends in society – exposure to

increased communication

 Transmittal Liberal Arts Approach – immerse to liberal arts to reveal

existing values (rights, basic goods)

 Read widely, think deeply, experience broadly

 Values are complex, man’s thoughts and accomplishments are

both abundant and complicated; not sufficient for value education
For reflection:

If the above approaches are often ineffective, how are you going to explain/
account for the discipline the earlier generation has and their claims that the
above approaches worked for them? (They believe that they have more
manners and are better disciplined)

 Clarifying Values – Help students find their own values – values are viewed
as relative, personal and situational; the goal is to help students clarify
his/her own values so he can obtain the values that best suit him and his
environment; so he can adjust himself to a changing world.

o Teachers must learn methods, without promoting particular values

o Teachers must devise methods of controlling behavior so that they are

and others are protected from destructive behaviors

 Clarifying Liberal Arts Approach – it’s aimed at exposing students to

the best in the culture so that s/he may find the best values for
himself/herself and his/her environment, to find himself/herself.
  The cultural heritage is too broad, too complex, and too inconsistent
to expect the average student to grasp it and relate it to his life and
times with any degree of comfort and comprehension

 Value Skills Approach – it’s aimed at helping the student to learn skills
to continue the value-clarifying approach throughout his life and to
apply his values in ways that are personally and socially helpful.

 To teach how to apply values in real situations – sensitize children.

 Value questions should be treated with thoughtful consideration of

alternatives, consequences (social and personal)

 Value skills are learned just like critical thinking skills

 Value thinking is encouraged through value issues

 Measuring instruments are identified

 Seven broad value skills

 Seeking alternatives when faced w/ a choice

 Looking ahead to probable consequences before choosing

 Making choices on one’s own, w/o depending on others

 Being aware of one’s own preferences and valuations

 Being willing to affirm one’s choices and preferences publicly

 Acting in ways that are consistent with choices and preferences

 Acting in those ways repeatedly


Measuring instruments are needed to distinguish values expressed in paper
versus values woven in behavior.


A combination of clarifying liberal arts – provides data often useful for
making choices and value skills – provides a climate and experiences for
practicing value choice-making is probably best;
 
Models are useful but not as prescriptions of behavior to be emulated; useful as
illustrations of what life can be and not what life should be


Explanations are useful if they inform students thinking; as long as offered as
personal consensual statements of positions, and not dogma


Students who behave in ways that contradict the teacher’s, schools, or society’s
values must be taught that there are limits to accepted behavior.

For reflection:

If a behavior is contradictory to what is expected of a student, why are they to

be taught the limits to accepted behavior?

E. Kohlberg, The Child as a Moral Philosopher

Kohlberg’s structural approach to moral development consists of three

distinct levels of moral thinking within which two related stages were
distinguished.

Children’s morality is not internalized from the outside.

Moral Levels/Moral Stages (Sub)

Pre-conventional – Children who are well-behaved and responsive to

cultural labels of good and bad interprets these labels in terms of
their physical consequences, or the physical power of those who
enunciate the rules; ages 4-10

Stage 1 Orientation toward punishment and unquestioning

deference to superior power

Stage 2 Right action is that which instrumentally satisfies

one’s needs and occasionally the needs of others

Conventional – Conformist; Maintaining expectations and rules of

others (family, group, or nation) is valuable in its own right;
Conforms, maintains, supports, and justifies social order.
 Good-boy-good-girl orientation – conformity to stereotypical
images of what is majority or natural behavior.

Orientation toward authority, fixed rules, and maintenance of

social order.

Postconventional – Autonomous moral principles which have validity

and application apart from authority of the groups or persons who hold
them apart from the individual’s identification with those persons or
groups.

A social contract orientation generally with legalistic and

utilitarian overtones

Orientation toward the decisions of conscience and toward

self-chosen abstract and universal ethical principles
appealing to logical comprehensiveness, universality, and
consistency

Kohlberg’s Conclusions

The results indicate the cultural universality of the sequence of the

moral stages

Moral thought seems to behave in a progressive manner through the

moral levels and stages characterized by increasing differentiation
and increasing integration similar to the progress a scientific theory
represents.

In the preconventional and conventional levels moral content or

value is largely accidental and culture bound

“Youths who understand justice act more justly and the man who
understands justice helps create a moral climate which goes far
beyond his immediate and personal acts. The universal society is
the beneficiary.”

For reflection:
What is the implication of Kohlberg’s Moral Levels and Stages? If a child’s morality is
not internalized from the outside, what does this say about morality being culture
bound? Would you say that “morality is universal” will be justified by Kohlberg’s
studies?
F. Mothershead, The Problem of the Scope of Morality
Ethics (branch of Philosophy) is the study of morality(subject)

Value experience – side taking between good (value) and bad (disvalue);
the expression of approbation or disapprobation; good is not exclusively a
moral term.

All values are priorities with respect to some aspect of human experience

Moral values differ from other values by being unlimited priorities

When I make moral judgment – X is morally good (or bad), I mean to

imply that X ought to be promoted (or prevented), in so far as purposive
human action can do it without conflict with other higher moral values,
whatever other kinds of values may be set aside in the process.

Moral Judgment is budgeting (own) actions; with reference to other

people or groups of people.

A moral decision is a moral judgment that has reference to the

judger’s own future action; choices as to what shall be included and
discarded out of life, in so far as the person believes that s/he has a
control over it

Conduct is deliberate human action

Morality centers about deliberate budgeting of actions whether for the self
or others or for active beings generally

Moral values are priority ratings(takes precedence over other values);

often attached to other values (e.g. religious, aesthetic, epistemological)

Freedom and obligation are minimal requirements of morality –

An ethical theory in moral philosophy must be able to explain how

we can make (freedom) moral judgments and why we ought to do
so (obligation)
 Moral values are values of action; inanimate objects and other living
creatures are incapable of moral judgment (no recognition of right
and wrong)

The present state of human knowledge does not does not enable men to
draw a sharp line or to be confident to dogmatically assert that higher
animals are not capable of any degree of moral action


Only men make fully explicit moral judgments and decisions


The central problem of ethical theory is the justification of moral principles


The life of man is only partly a moral life


It is part of a moral philosophy to equip people to recognize and cope w/
encounters w/ critical situations that would call for careful moral judgment.

For reflection:

If moral values are priority ratings and takes precedence over other values, is it
possible for people to overlook it in their decision making process and their actions?
Why?