ETHICAL PHILOSOPHERS

Maria Luisa T. Uayan,DHSc,MSN,RN

College of Nursing UERMMMCI
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Discuss the personal and ethical background
of the following famous philosophers:
–Kant
–Rawl
–St. Thomas Aquinas
–Ross
2. Differentiate the ethical thoughts and ethical
principles of these famous Philosophers;

3. Explain how the different ethical beliefs of the

philosophers affects ethical decision making.
Kantian Ethical thoughts
• Immanuel Kant
(1724-1804)

• A German
philosopher

• was an opponent of
utilitarianism
Kant’s Deontological moral theory (Formalism)

• Our emotional preferences which provides us with values, must

be checked against certain rational standards of a PURELY
formal kind;

• Supreme principle of morality referred to as The Categorical

Imperative (CI);

• Any choices we make must be such that we would be willing for

everyone else to make the same choices (universality).
Example
• If I choose to lie for my own benefit, would I really be
willing that others lie to me?

• Since I prefer that they don’t lie to me, therefore I

should not lie to them
Kantian Ethics
• This method was advantageous because it
made NO appeal to any standard EXCEPT the
individual’s own CONSCIENCE;

• Nevertheless; it is open to serious criticism – it

is purely formal and has to rely on emotivism
to establish any concrete values or practical
rules;
The weakness of Kant’s ethical belief must be
balanced with:
• Fairness

• Beneficence
Kantian 2 Important Questions
 When we are about to decide to do something we
must ask ourselves:

1. Can I rationally will that everyone act as

I propose to act?

* If the answer is no, then we must not perform the

action.
2.Does my action respect the goals of
human beings rather than merely using
them for my own purposes?

* if the answer is no, then we must not perform the

action.
Kant on Moral Worth
A person's actions are right or wrong, a person
is morally worthy or lacks moral worth (i.e., is
morally base);

A person's actions determine her moral

worth, but there is more to this than merely
seeing if the actions are right or wrong.
Kant’s Basic Idea

• a person is good or bad depending on the motivation

of their actions and not on the goodness of the
consequences of those actions;

• "motivation" = the cause or reason you to do the

action (i.e., your reason for doing it).

• If the motivation is MORAL the act is also MORAL

John Bordley Rawl
• Born: February 21, 1921
• an American moral and political
philosopher;
• Professorship at Harvard University, University of
Oxford;
• His magnum opus, A Theory of Justice (1971
• According to English philosopher Jonathan Wolff, John
Rawls was the most important political philosopher of
the 20th century
• Social Contract as a solution to Distributive Justice
(the socially just distribution of goods in a society);
• Resultant theory known as "Justice as Fairness”:
• 1. Society should be structured so that the greatest
possible amount of liberty is given to its members,;
• 2. Inequalities either social or economic are only to be
allowed only if the worst will result under an equal
distribution;
• Finally, if there is such a beneficial inequality, this
inequality should not make it harder for those without
resources to occupy positions of power, for instance public
office.
John Rawl’s Ethics
• Design and evaluate social institutions and
practices on the basis of principles of justice.;

• Establish a social order based on the moral

standards of an equal form of justice.
• all persons receive an equal distribution of certain
political, social, and economic goods and rights;
however;

• liberty principle, advocates that each person should

have an equal right to as many basic liberties BUT
NOT TO INFRINGE on the liberty of others.
Rawls Natural duties
• Justice,
• Avoiding harm to others,
• Promise keeping, and
• Helping others in need.
Rawls Support Principles
• Respect for persons,
• Nonmaleficence,
• Fidelity,
• Beneficence,
 St. Thomas Aquinas
• Born 1225; Sicily, Italy
• Proclaimed Doctor of the Catholic Church
• Joined the Dominican Order
• (Order of Preachers – OP)
• Thomas's ethics - "first principles of action.“
• Summa theologiae , he wrote:
• Virtue denotes a certain perfection of a power;
• Now a thing's perfection is considered chiefly in regard to
its end;
• But the end of power is act. Wherefore power is said to be
perfect, according as it is determinate to its act.[82]
St. Thomas Four Cardinal Virtues
• Prudence
• Temperance
• Justice
• Fortitude
• The object of the theological virtues is GOD Himself,
Who is the last end of all, as surpassing the
knowledge of our reason;

• On the other hand, the object of the intellectual and

moral virtues is something comprehensible to human
reason. Wherefore the theological virtues are
specifically distinct from the moral and intellectual
virtues.[86]
Four Kinds of Law St. Thomas Aquinas

(I) Eternal Law: laws of the universe --- "the

whole community of the universe" is governed
by God which "is not subject to time but is
eternal"

(II) Divine Law: the revealed word of God

(revelation) --- we need to be guided to our
supernatural destiny, our reason being
inadequate to reveal it to us
Four Kinds of Law – St. Thomas Aquinas

(III) Natural Law: eternal law as it applies to us,

which we know by reason: "The natural law is
promulgated by the very fact that God instilled it
into men's minds so as to be known by them
naturally"

(IV) Human Law: created by us for the purpose

of carrying out natural law
 Goal of human life
(St. Thomas Aquinas)
• The goal of human existence as union and eternal fellowship with
God;
• This goal is achieved through the beatific vision, in which a person
experiences perfect, unending happiness by seeing the essence of
God;
• The goal of union with God has implications for the individual's life
on earth.
• Thomas stated that an individual's will must be ordered toward
right things, such as charity, peace, and holiness.
• Those who truly seek to understand and see God will necessarily
love what God loves. Such love requires morality and bears fruit in
everyday human choices.
William David Ross

• Born: April 15, 1877; Thurso, Scotland

• Scottish philosopher
• Education: University of Edinburgh

• The moral order...is just as much part of the

fundamental nature of the universe (and...of any
possible universe in which there are moral agents at
all) as is the spatial or numerical structure expressed
in the axioms of geometry or arithmetic;

• "moral intuitionist" theory,

The Prima Facie Duties or Moral Guidelines
• According to W. D. Ross (1877-1971), there are
several prima facie duties that we can use to
determine what, concretely, we ought to do.

• A prima facie duty is a duty that is binding

(obligatory)

• "Unless stronger moral considerations

outweigh, one ought to keep a promise
made."
The prima facie duties include
• 1. Fidelity - duties to keep one’s promises and
contracts and not to engage in deception; not
to tell lies;

• 2. Reparation - a duty to make up for the

injuries one has done to others; "resting on a
previous wrongful act" ;
• 3. Gratitude - a duty to be grateful for good
deeds done to oneself and if possible to return
such favor;

• 4. Non-injury - (also known as non-

maleficence) is the duty not to harm others
physically or psychologically: to avoid harming
their health, security, intelligence, character, or
happiness.
• 5. Harm-Prevention - duty of a person to
prevent harm to others from causes other
than him- or herself.

• 6. Beneficence - to do good to others: to

foster their health, security, wisdom,
moral goodness, or happiness.
• 7. Self-Improvement - to act so as to promote
one’s own good;

• 8. Justice - act in such a way that one

distributes benefits and burdens fairly; the
duty of justice includes, to prevent an unjust
distribution of benefits or burdens.
9. Respect for freedom - avoid coercion of
others and, insofar as we are able,
• provide conditions of empowerment
especially to those who radically lack them;
• it does not enslave or kidnap others or force
them to participate in the activities of our
particular religious group;
• or it support efforts to ensure basic health
and educational opportunity for those
unable to secure them for themselves.
• 10. Care - a duty reflecting concrete
relationships such as occur within families or
between close friends; we should exercise
special care for [persons] with whom we are
concretely related, attending to their own
needs, values, etc. and responding positively
to these needs, etc., especially of those most
vulnerable in society.
• 11. Non-parasitism - the principle of not
being a "free rider;

• we should do our part to abide by the rules of

an institution in which we willingly participate
and from which we willingly accept benefits;

• concrete duty not to steal the property of

others.
When in doubt REMEMBER:

•1) Non-injury overrides other

prima facie duties.

•2) Fidelity overrides Beneficence.