Ethical Perspective

Prof. Kumar Neeraj Sachdev

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
 Philosophical Perspectives
• Ethical Perspective - Values
• Logical Perspective - Reasoning
• Epistemological Perspective -
Knowledge
• Metaphysical Perspective - Reality
 Ethical Perspective
• An ethical perspective begins in response to
questions such as the following:

– How should I live (a good human life)?

• Cultivate virtues to live a Good Human Life from Aristotle’s ethical
perspective.

– What should I do (in a particular moral situation)?

• Follow the Fundamental Moral Principle of Conduct from the
Utilitarian ethical perspective or Kantian ethical perspective, for
example.
 Ethical Perspectives of Thinkers

• Aristotle – Virtue
• John Stuart Mill – Happiness
• Immanuel Kant – Duty
John Stuart Mill – Utilitarian Ethics
• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
• All human action, Bentham claimed, is
motivated by the desire for pleasure and the
avoidance of pain.
• Mill says that actions are right in proportion as
they promote happiness and wrong as they
promote the reverse of happiness.
• Every person desires happiness as a means or part of this.
Therefore, every person’s happiness is desirable and a rational
end for every person to aim at.
• Every person’s happiness is good to that person, and general
happiness, therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons.
• Utilitarian morality has a natural basis of sentiment, the social
feelings of humankind: the desire to be united with fellow
beings. The social state is natural, necessary and habitual.
• Humans cannot conceive a total disregard for other people’s
(interests) happiness.
• Innumerable experiences of cooperation with others lead to
an identification with the collective interest rather than
individual interest.
• Utilitarian Principle: “Maximization of overall
happiness.”
• Maximization – the more happiness there is, the
better
• Overall – total happiness – the effects of an action on
all people's happiness must be considered.
• Efficiency may require focusing only on those people
for whom the act would produce some net change in
happiness.
• Happiness – intended pleasure and avoidance of
pain
• Unhappiness – pain and privation of pleasure
• Higher pleasures – intellectuality and creativity
• Lower pleasures – body pleasures
J S Mill on Calculation of Happiness: An Example

Visit Do not visit

You -10 +8

Aunt +15 -20

Total +5 -12
• Criticisms:
• Difficult to measure happiness;
• Not easy to predict the future owing to lack of information;
• Morally required to engage in never-ending action;
• Does not clearly prescribe what is fair and ethical thing to do
(Example in the box given below)

One day Sue Gets

Off each Both Days
Off
Sue +12 +22
Tom +4 -4
Total +16 +18
 Concluding Remark
Utilitarian ethics is easy to
comprehend because it is based on
common sense or collective morality.
Still, it appears weak precisely on this
ground as it fails to consider the
individual’s interest.

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 Ethical Perspectives of Thinkers

• Aristotle – Virtue
• John Stuart Mill – Happiness
• Immanuel Kant – Duty
Immanuel Kant – Deontological Ethics

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• Deontology – any position in ethics
which claims that the rightness or
wrongness of actions depends on
whether they correspond to our duty
or not. The word duty derives from
the Greek word deon.
• First Proposition of Morality
– What makes a person morally good?
– The intentions one chooses to make one morally good,
which means…
– To assess a person morally, we must look at his
intentions even if the set goal may not be achieved.
• Second Proposition of Morality
– What sorts of intentions make one morally good?
– One intends to be dutiful – working from the
motive of duty and not from the misguided
motive of bringing happiness.
• Third Proposition of Morality
– What does it mean for a person to intend to act from the motive of
duty?

– Acting from the motive of duty is acting out of respect for the moral
law.

– The moral law is what morality requires of us. Acting out of respect for
the moral law means not allowing anything – not happiness, not fear,
not love, not even a government’s law – to get in the way of doing
what is morally right. It is a commitment to doing what is right.

– How are we to determine what this moral law is?

– Kant maintains that moral law is formulated in the categorical
imperative, which means an unconditional command of reason. He
explains the categorical imperative with the help of formulations as
follows.
• First formulation: “Act only according to that
maxim (principle of action) by which you can
simultaneously will that it should become a
universal law.”
• The basic ideas in the formulation are that it is
wrong to make yourself an exception to the
rule and what would happen if everyone acted
that way.
• Example: Making a False Promise
• Second formulation: “So act that you treat
humanity, whether in your person or the
person of any other, always as an end and
never merely as a means.”

• The basic idea behind the formulation is to

treat human beings, including oneself, with
respect acknowledging thereby we are
moral equals.

• Example: Treatment of Older Employees

 Criticisms
• Kantian ethics is an abstract thought
process separated from socio-cultural
roots.
• A moral person appears to be free from
intuitions, desires or emotions.
• Rules emerging from categorical
imperative appear absolute, and
resolving any conflict between rules is
impossible.
 Concluding Remarks
• Deontological ethics is a reading of the
rational expression of the human mind to
perform the morally correct action in a
given situation.

• However, this reading appears to be

separated from a person's emotional and
socio-cultural life. It dictates that he follows
commands of morality in a binding manner.
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Thank You.