ETHICS UNIT 3  “The Universal Teacher.
”
VIRTUE ETHICS
 Moral structure wherein hypotheses underline
the purpose and significance of one’s character
and virtue so as to evaluate the integrity of their
actions.
 Focuses on the improvement of an individual’s
general righteous character or greatness.
(Kraut, R, 2018)
GREEKS
 Virtue is equal to greatness.
ARISTOTLE
 Aristotle or Artistoteles lived in Greece
sometime in 384 and 322 BCE.
 Virtuous individual is the one who is routinely
checking his conduct and correcting them
accurately.
 Built The Lyceum.
 Best philosopher in old Philosophy.
 Everything that a man has a capacity or action
the great and the well is thought to live in the
capacity.
ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF ETHICS
 Centered on discussing excellence and
character or “what makes a human life good or
worth living” working in his book and moral
hypothesis which he called Nicomachaean
Ethics which he named after his child
Nicomachus.
 Telos is a Greek expression that signifies “last
reason”.
 Teleology is additionally known to be a
consequentialist theory.
 Aristotle did not create Teleology but rather his
form is the most acclaimed record of this
ethical theory.
TELOS: THE FUNCTION ARGUMENT
 One’s actual function to have the option to
accomplish goodness or greatness and that is
intellectual virtue.
TELOS: THE GOLDEN MEAN
 Aristotle states in Nicomachean Ethics that
virtue is a mean.
 It is a condition of clarification and
apprehension from pain and pleasure.
 An excellent character is the one that is
continually and effectively cleaning up the soul.
VIRTUE ETHICS ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
 Roccasecca, Italy between 1224 and 1226.
 Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles
 There four types of law that oversee the
universe as indicated by Aquinas:
a. Eternal Law – indistinguishable from the brain
of God.
b. Divine Law – originated from the disclosure of
God to people written in the Old and New
Testaments.
c. Human Law – law that is formulated by a human
explanation as indicated by geological, social,
and historical conditions.
d. Natural Law – administers everything in nature
and the establishment of pragmatic thinking
human law.
VIRTUE ETHICS: NATURAL LAW
 It causes us to see how God really made
the universe and ordered it.
 What is good is to be done and evil is to be
avoided.
 Natural comprehension and tendency to do
certain things normally.
NATURAL LAW: THREE UNIVERSAL VALUES
1. All-inclusive standards are consistent with
each individual who has arrived at the time of
reason as a general rule.
2. All-inclusive rules that with certain reflections
can be reached from the main standards.
 We achieve happiness when we achieve our
ultimate objective.
 “Propensity” causes an individual to play out his
capacity, activity, or development appropriately.
 Cardinal Virtues – four explicit temperances
that arranges us to carry on with ethically great
lives.
a. Prudence - reasonability is the righteousness
of scholarly fitness or capacity to do certain
things mentally and sanely.
b. Temperance – restraint is the temperance of
refining our methods of making the most of our
real wants.
c. Courage - the virtue of limiting feelings of
trepidation while figuring out how to bear
preposterous hunger for wild activities.
Fearlessness realizes when to battle and when
to fly.
d. Justice – centered on going people to
productive members of society. Equity is the
ethicalness that administers our connection
with others and the state.
 The two kinds of equity are commutative and
distributive. Commutative is justice between
common individual residents. While distributive
is equity as the aggregate activities of the
individuals from the state.
KANT AND RIGHTS THEORISTS: GOODWILL AND
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
 Immanuel Kant is a German Philosopher (1724-
1804)
 Whose way of thinking on the goodwill and
categorical imperative is established in utilizing
an individual’s capacity to reason.
MAXIM
 A premise or rule on how and why we act
and unwritten guideline book.
a. Theoretical Goal.
b. Absolute Objective.
DUTY AND GOODWILL
 Duty is an objective maxim “irrespective of
all objects desire.”
 The duty of man is to follow the ultimate
goal.
 The inspirations of people for their activities
go past joy, and that we practice reason
above impulse.
 Cooperative attitude is in this manner about
after obligations without respect for joy or
wants.
IMPERATIVES
 There are two sorts of objectives: hypothetical
and categorical.
a. Hypothetical imperatives are restrictive
orders dependent on your applicable want.
b. Categorical imperative is an all-inclusive
moral guideline that is unqualified, objective,
and soundly essential.
CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
 Acknowledges that there is a unique standard
of moral quality.
 Instance of deontological moral speculation
(deon is Greek for obligation), which says that
how we judge our exercises as either right
or wrong isn’t dependent upon the
outcomes.
Formula 1: The Universality Principle
Formula 2: The formula of Humanity
MORALITY AND THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
 CI emphasizes basic respect for the humanity
of others.
 Basis and justification of morality because
morality governs us, and we cannot excuse
ourselves from it. Thus, violating CI results in
immoral actions.
THE MORAL WORTH OF PERSONS
 Moral worth is evaluated through people, and
not actions.
 Motivation – what caused you to do the action
determines whether you are good or bad.
KANT AND RIGHTS THEORISTS: DIFFERENT
KINDS OF RIGHTS
 Understanding the relationship between legal
rights and moral rights.
 What are Rights?
a. Rights are privileges (not) to play out specific
activities, or not to be in sure states, or
qualifications that other (not) play out specific
activities or not be in sure states.
 Nickel (1992) characterized human rights as
individuals in all nations and societies
supposedly have basically on the grounds that
they are individuals.
 Human rights permit each person to have a
decent life. It guarantees that the positive and
negative essentials to accomplish these are
accessible and available.
MORAL RIGHTS
 Rights that are granted to any human simply
because they are human.
 The existence and validity of a moral right do
not depend on the law. Moral rights represent
the natural law. Moral rights are grounded in
moral reasons. Moral rights are not enforceable
by law.
LEGAL RIGHTS
 Granted to people under a legal system
(authority, government).
 Legal rights are mandated by the laws of the
country the individual is subjected to. Legal
rights represent positive law.
 Legal rights derive from the laws of society.
They can be found in legal codes.
 Legal rights are enforceable by law which
recognizes and protects it.
RIGHTS THEORIES
 Legal positivism – argue that only rights that
exist are legal rights that exist in the legal
system.
 The Human Rights Doctrine – relies on the
philosophical claim that moral order exists and
applies to everyone, everywhere, anytime, or the
moral universalism.
 The Interest Theory by Bentham (1748-1832) –
“benefit theory” which believes that the
foundation of moral rights is everyone’s basic
duty to respect the interest of others (life,
liberty).
 The Will theory by Herbert L.A. Hart (1907-1992)
– also known as the “choice theory,” this
believes that anyone can claim or waive their
own rights.
 Natural law - timeless and immutable, universal,
and inalienable. The natural rights are: Right to
life, Property, and Liberty.
THE LAW
 The law has been utilized to demolish its own
target.
 A decent law is key for the presence of a free
and well-working society.
 Terrible law can likewise be exploited by the
individuals who need to live to the detriment of
others, in this manner bringing treachery.
 Law is power. It is an instrument of equity that
holds together the general public.
UTILITARIANISM
 Believes in the principle that happiness is an
intrinsic value that every human aspire for,
therefore it drives our morality.
 Basic Principles of Utilitarianism focuses more
attention on the results or consequences rather
than the intent and behavior.
 Main Principle: Do what produces the best
consequences.
 Utilitarianism believes that morality aims to
make life better by increasing happiness and
reducing suffering. Good consequences equal
good results.
 Happiness is equal to pleasure or the absence
of pain. Unhappiness is equal to pain or the
absence of pleasure.
NATURE OF THE THEORY
 Utilitarianism believes that happiness is a
universally shared value and that every human’s
goal is to be happy.
 Hedonism believes that happiness is the only
thing that is good on its own and does not need
to produce further value.
 Egoism which means pursuing something for
one’s own good.
GROUP
 The maximum value that a group can benefit
from is determined by the total of the interests
(benefits and losses) of all its members.
 Utilitarianism operates on the idea that when
considering the benefit from an action, one
must look at it through an outsider’s perspective
– without bias to own or favored benefit to
others.
 Actual Consequence – these are actual results
produced by the action. This serves as a
determining factor of what is right and
what is wrong.
 Foreseeable consequence. These are the
perceived results that may be produced by the
action. This serves as a reference for a decision-
making procedure.
ELEMENTS
 Value theory means that the only thing that is
intrinsically valuable is happiness or the
happiness of suffering.
 Theory of right action is the one that produces
the most valuable or the most expected value.
FRAMEWORKS
 Act Utilitarianism means choosing the action
that produces the greatest good for the
greatest number.
 Rule Utilitarianism connotes that we ought to
act according to moral rules which would
produce more utility compared to other moral
rules.
CRITIQUES OF THE THEORY
 One. There are situations where we happen to
be in.
 Two. For the value theory, happiness should not
be the only available thing in our life.
 Three. For the theory of right action, since it
takes into consideration the act that will cause
more happiness, the alternative is considered
less valuable, what is less valuable is transitive.
 Four. The prevention of suffering should be
prioritized over the increase in happiness.
 Five. Utilitarianism focuses on the total amount
of good (pleasure/happiness) produced not on
how it is distributed across people.
 Six. The Diminishing Margin Utility of Wealth –
the more resources we have, the less impact it
gives.
IMPACTS OF UTILITARIANISM
 Impact on Law – useful in terms of punishment
for an individual which aims to separate him
from society or reform him.
 Impact on Politics – useful in asserting the best
action for a society based on the utility of an
individual and the authority of the government.
 Impact on Economics - early utilitarians believe
that the economy could prosper on its own.
Modern utilitarians believe that government
intervention is important to ensure further good.