Frameworks and Principles

Applied Ethics
 Examines specific, controversial moral
Metaethics
issues
 Studies the nature of morality
 Determine ethically correct courses of
 What do the words right, wrong' good',
action in specific realms
and bad' mean?
1. Bioethics - life, biomedical research,
Metaethics. Theories. health care, medical profession
Cognitivism 2. Environmental Ethics - nature,
 Moral judgments are 'truth bearers*
ccosystem
Either true or false 3. Business Ethics - business environment
 Right and wrong are matters of fact 4. Sexual Ethics - sexuality and sexual
Ex: Moral Realism, Ethical Subjectivism human behavior
5. Social Ethics - what is right for a society
Non-Cognitivism to do and how it should act as a whole
• Ethical propositions do not convey authentic
propositions
Neither true nor false
Virtue Ethics. Defined.
Ex: Emotivism
 Teaches that an action is right if it is an
Universalism action that a virtuous person would
 Moral facts and principles apply to perform in the same situations
everybody in all places  Virtue is a moral characteristic that an
 Aka 'moral objectivism' individual needs to live well
 Universal ethic exists  Emphasizes on developing good habits
of character and avoiding bad character
Relativism traits or vices
 Different moral facts and principles
apply to different persons or group of Virtues?
individuals  Freely chosen character traits
 Ethical standards change over time
 Morals are mere preferences Respected, because:

1. Moral Empiricism - moral facts are 1. Difficult to develop

known through observation and 2. Corrective of natural deficiencies
experience. 3. Beneficial both to self and society
2. Moral Rationalism - moral facts and
principles are knowable a priori "Cardinal Virtues"
3. Moral Intuitionism - moral truths are
knowable by intuition, by immediate By the Greeks:
instinctive knowledge, without reference 1. Wisdom
to any evidence 2. Courage
3. Moderation
Normative Ethics 4. justice
 How man ought to act
 Guidelines about what is right, virtuous, By Christianity:
or just 1. Faith
 Determines a moral course of action 2. Hope
3. Charity
1. Deontology - (from 'deon') morality is 4. Love
based on independent moral rules or
duties. Aka 'nonconsequentialism' Others:
2. Teleology - (from 'telos') determines  Grace, mercy, forgiveness, honor,
moral value of actions by outcomes or restraint, reasonableness. solidarity
results. Aka
"consequentialism
1. Virtue Ethics - emphasis on developing Theory of Forms
good habits of character (kindness,
generosity) and avoiding bad character  By Plato
traits (greed, hatred)
  Immaterial entities objectively exist
which are proper object of knowledge
 These unchanging independent forms are
like ideal and stable models
 Must comprchend the 'good'
 Virtue is knowledge and can be taught
 To know the good is to do the good
Ethics of Aristotle
Aristotle on morality:
1. Eudemian Ethics
2. Nicomachean Ethics
(Aristotle's Ethics)
 Telos - end or purpose. Essential nature
of things lay at their end. A life of
contemplation.
 Self-realization: ultimate human goal;
living consistently with human nature
produces happiness (cudaimonia -
summum bonum
 Human flourishing = habitual practice of
virtues
Ethics of Aristotle
Kinds of Virtues:
1. Virtues of intellect - corresponds to the
fully rational part of the soul
2. Moral virtues (virtue of character) -
pertains to the part of the rational soul
which can 'obey reason'
What is acting according to reason?
 Act in a way that neither goes excess nor
defect
 Vice: excess or defect
  Golden mean
Basic moral virtues:
1. Courage
2. Temperance
3. Justice
4. Prudence
  Phronesis - practical wisdom, kind of
moral knowledge which guides us to
what is appropriate (right prescription)
Thomistic Ethics
Thomas Aquinas
 Aka 'Angelic Doctor' and Prince of
Scholastics'
 Italian philosopher and theologian
 Believes that all actions are directed
towards ends and that happiness is the
final end (Aristotle)
 Ultimate happiness is not available in
this life - happiness in the present life
remains imperfect (Augustine)
Aquinas: Primary Types of Law
1. Eternal Law - rational plan of God by
which all creation is ordered
2. Natural Law - aspect of eternal law
subject to human reason, relating to
human conduct. Law or order by which
people are subject by their nature,
ordering them to do good and avoid evil.
1. Human Law - positive laws. Civil and
criminal laws formulated in light of
practical reason and morallars
2. Divine Law - law of revelation disclosed
through sacred text or scriptures which is
directed toward man's eternal end
Natural Law
1. Inherent natural tendency to pursue the
behavior and goals appropriate to us
2. Natural reason (conscience)
 Synderesis: to survive, to reproduce and
educate offspring, to know the truth
about God
Features of Human Actions
 Morality of an act can be determined in
terms of its:
1. Species (object of action) - kind of
action.
Either good, bad, or neutral
2. Accidents (context) - circumstances
surrounding the action
3. End - agent's intention - a good act
Requirements for an act to be moral:
 Species: not bad
 Accidents: appropriate
 End: virtuous
Aquinas: Happiness
 Pleasurc, material possession, honor,
sensual good
 In accordance with 'virtue* - a good
habit bearing on activity
Aquinas: Habits
 Firm dispositions or 'hard to eradicate 2.
qualities that dispose us to act in a
particular manner
 Not all habits are virtue - only those that
incline us to do good
 1. Acquired habits - deliberate effort to do  Hedonism, on the other hand, says
an act time and again something is "good" if the consequence
2. Infused habits - directly instilled by God produces pleasure or avoids pain
in our faculties
3. Moral Virtucs - not God himself, inferior Act and Rule Utilitarianism
to the final end
 Prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice Act Utilitarianism
1. Theological Virtues - concerned directly  It is the belief that it is the right action
with God - faith, hope love that brings the greatest happiness to the
ercatest number of bcople. Its a concept
What is Utilitarianism? that bc ieves that the morality of an
action is determined by its usefulness to
most of the people, that this act is in
 Utilitarianism - is an ethical theory that
accordance with the mora rules since it
determines right from wrong by focusing
brings ercater good or handiness.
on outcomes. It is a form of
consequentialism.
Rule Utilitarianism
 It is a framework that can be used to
 It is the belief that an action can be
justify military force or war. It is also the
morally right if it conforms to the rules
most common approach to moral
that will lead to the greatest good or
reasoning used in business because of the
happiness. It adheres to the belief that if
way in which it accounts for costs and
correctness of an action is determined by
benefits
the correctness of its rules and that the
 Utilitarianism - is a theory if morality
correct rule is followed, the greatest good
that advocates actions that foster
or happiness is achieved.
happiness and oppose actions that cause
unhappiness
Bentham and Mill's view of Utilitarianism
 promotes " the greatest amount of good
for the greatest number of people
Jeremy Bentham
 talks about an actions is right if it results
 Bentham s theory of utilitarianism
tha happiness of the greater number of focused on which actions were most
people likens to make people happy. It
happiness was the experence ot pleasure
Consequentialism without happiness and the cast Dossible
 It is an ethical theory that judges whether
pain
or not something is right by what its
consequences are. For instance, most John Stuart Mill
people would agree that lying is wrong.  Mill defines utilitarianism as a theory
But if telling a lie would help save a based on the principle that "actions are
person's life, consequentialism says it's right in proportion as they tend to
the right thing to do. promote happiness, wrong as they tend to
 Consequentialism is a theory that says
produce the reverse of happiness." He
whether something is good or bad defines happiness as pleasure and the
depends on its outcomes. absence of pain
 Consequentialism is sometimes criticized
because it can be difficult, or even
impossible, to know what the result of an
action will be ahead of time. Indeed, no
one can know the future with certainty.
Also, in certain situations,
consequentialism can lead to decisions
that are objectionable, even though the
consequences are arguably good

Two examples of consequentialism are

utilitarianism and hedonism.

 Utilitarianism judges consequences by a

"greatest good for the greatest number"
standard.