The Problem with the Good Life

 What constitutes “the good life?”

 What ought I to do?
 Is there any criterion of good or evil, right or wrong?
 Various Ethical Theories which have influenced or even shaped the temper
and conduct of mankind

Ethical Theories:
I. The Authoritarian Ethics
 Goodness or badness of human acts depend on AUTHORITY
 Pronouncement of authority on moral and religious matters are final
and even infallible
 Persons welcome authority because they:
o Have little confidence in themselves
o Are intellectually lazy
o Are glad to let others think for themselves because they do not
want to bear the responsibility
 Toeing or joining the bandwagon
 Robs the individual of his freedom to decide for himself
 Examples:
1. RELIGIOUS ETHICS – Divine Authority
 Presupposes the existence of God or gods
 Deity at some point in the past revealed a moral code for
man to follow (popular belief in Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam where there divine will is written in their respective
Scriptures)
 Righteousness is simply conformity to the divine will
 Tends to be dogmatic or legalistic
  Function of the moralist is to interpret and systematize
the divine commands (not to investigate or question it;
wisdom of the Deity’s laws should not be doubted)
 Codes or commands attributed to God are diverse or even
contradictory = questionable or debatable
 Many people patronize it on the basis of tradition and
blind conformity (not on the basis of reason)
2. CUSTOMS AND TRADITION / PUBLIC OPINION – Customary
or Traditional Morality
 Whatever conforms to the established practices is good
 Represent the experience of the social group – must be
respected and considered the norm
 Moral deviation or social crime – Defiance or violation of
the social conventions = social outcast
 “While in Rome”, or “Do as the Romans do”
 Submerges the individual in society
 Conservative in nature – resistant to change
 To use them as norms of what is ethical = to block the
moral growth and development of people
 Engenders complacency and blind conformity

II. The Rationalistic Ethics

 Set forth by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant
o The Critique of Pure Reason
 Two Realms of Reality:
Phenomenal World
•We can only know the phenomenal or realistic world
•What we can perceive through our SENSES
Noumenal World
 The noumenon or the thing-in-itself
  Not within our experience = beyond our
understanding = cannot be proven to be true or false

o The Critique of Practical Reason and The Metaphysics of Morals

 Moral philosophy or ethics is not concerned with
what is but WHAT IT OUGHT TO BE
 Man has a sense of duty which springs from his
nature
 To live in accordance with the moral law is to
live in accordance with the law of reason
 To live in accordance with the law of reason is to
live in accordance with the laws of nature
 Good motive / Good will – can be called good even
without qualification (acts are good regardless of
the consequences; contrary to PRAGMATISTS who
believe that the determinants of morality are the
consequences)
 Absolute / Unconditional – will to perform an act is
governed by reason and NOT by desire or inclination
= CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE / Absolute
Command which rests on Two Principles:
o The Principle of Universality – do only acts
which can become a UNIVERSAL LAW; ask if
the act that we will do, we want others to do
as well (Act only on that maxim whereby you
can will that at the same time it should
become a universal law)
o The Principle of Humanity – Persons should
not be treated as a means to an end. Do not
make a person perform an act against his will
 (So act as to treat humanity whether in your
own person or in that of another never as a
means but always as an end)

III. The Self-Realization Ethics (aka Perfectionism or Eudaemonism)

 Based on belief that the development of all the normal capacities of
man like thinking, feeling, and acting is the norm of morality
 Whatever leads to the development of man = good
 Whatever obstructs that development = evil
 Plato (The Republic) – Man has to develop his rational powers
 Aristotle – Pursuit of excellence as the highest good, follow the
Golden Mean (the middle ground between the extremes; in medio
stat virtus: virtue lies in the middle)
 Became an invitation to unbridled EGOCENTRISM –the self or
individual as the object of glorification; exaltation of the “ego” or “self”
 Regard and concern for others has been totally obliterated = “might
over right” or “survival of the fittest”

IV. The Power Ethics

 Proclaims power as the end of human life (elaborated by Friedrich
Nietzsche – carried the Darwinian Theory of Evolution to such an
extreme)
 If life is really a struggle for existence in which only the fittest shall
survive then:
o STRENGTH – highest and ultimate virtue
That which contributes to survival and victory
o WEAKNESS – only fault
That which fails and ends in defeat
 PRIDE AND POWER not humility and goodness which determines
the histories and destinies of men
  GENIUSES not the masses will be the rulers of the earth “beyond
good and evil”
 The philosophy with which the Germans tried to build the “super
race”
 Nietzsche distinguishes Two Kinds of Morality:
o Herren Moral – The Morality of the Masters
Accepted standard in classical antiquity (especially
among the Spartans and the Romans) – Courage,
Enterprise, Bravery, and Pride
o Herden Moral – The Morality of the Slaves or Herd
Traced from Jews or Christians – Humility and
Resignation

V. The Pragmatic Ethics (aka Instrumentalism)

 Holds that the morality of human action depends on CONSEQUENCES
 No act is intrinsically right or wrong, good or evil, OUTISDE OF ITS
CONSEQUENCES
 Actions are judged according to their USEFULNESS or RESULTS
 From Greek word pragma which means “practical”
 Has been viewed as merely a more recent version of Utilitarian
Philosophy
 Advanced by American Philosopher, William James
 Beliefs and ideas are only true and good “in far forth”
 Professor John Dewey – the world is constantly changing = moral
values are subject to continuous reconstruction as demanded by
the EVER CHANGING KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL CHANGE AND
PROGRESS
o Proper Adaptation to Life = Happiness of Man
 By Accommodation
Welcome bad conditions, which cannot be altered
  By Adaptation or Reconstruction
Altering existing conditions to suit our needs
 By Religiousness
Belief in humanity

VI. The Situation Ethics (aka The New Morality or Situationism or

Contextualism)
 Radical departure from the conventional wisdom and prevailing
climate of opinion
 Professor Fletcher – this ethics is rooted in the classical tradition of
Western Christian Morals
 The stress it lays on human freedom and responsibility in making a
moral decision
 Emphasis on PERSONAL DECISIONS rather than adherence to a pre-
established code of conduct
 Middle ground between Legalistic Ethics (directives to be followed)
and Antinomian Ethics (defies all laws, principles, and regulations)
 The only thing to serve is CHRISTIAN LOVE (AGAPE)

VII. The Marxist Ethics

 Marxism (by Karl Marx: The Communist Manifesto)
o Grew out of the intense social struggle which arose as a result
of the Industrial Revolution
o Envisions a classless society where class distinctions would
be eliminated by abolishing “private ownership” of the means
of production = COMMUNISM
o Knowledge and theories must be translated into practice
o Liberation of mankind – freedom from economic want
o Everybody receives “according to his needs”