Moral Frameworks

LECTURE # 04

SADAF FARHAN
(ASSISTANT PROFESSOR)
 What is an Ethical Theory?
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 Comprehensive perspective on morality that clarifies, organizes

and guides moral thoughts.

 Defines various moral frameworks for making moral choices and

resolving ethical dilemmas.
 Moral Frameworks
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 Utilitarianism.
 Rights Ethics.
 Duty Ethics.
 Virtue Ethics.
 Self-realization Ethics.
 What is Utility?
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 Standard of right conduct is maximization of good consequences.

 Utility also refers to the balance of good over bad consequences.

 Interpreting Codes of Ethics using Utilitarianism
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“Engineers should hold paramount the safety, health and

welfare of the public in performance of their professional
duties.”

 Welfare is synonymous to overall good (a utility).

 Safety and health may be called the important aspects of
good.
 Cost-Benefit Analysis
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 Identifies good or bad consequences of some actions

usually in terms of money (dollar).

 Weighs total goods against the total bads for one course of
actions.

 Compares the results to the tallies of the consequences of

the alternative actions.
 Cost-Benefit Analysis Vs. Utilitarianism
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 Seems similar to Utilitarianism.

 But do not in reality.
 Whose good or bad is considered?
 Ford Motor Company
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 Developed Pinto automobiles… largest selling subcompact

cars in US.
 Crashworthiness tests reveal that car could not sustain a
front-end collision without wind shield breaking.
 Quick-fix solution: Drive train was moved backward.
 Due to the quick-fix solution, differential moved close to
fuel tank causing explosions on rear-end collisions at low
speeds.
 Cost-Benefit Analysis performed by Ford Motor Company
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 $11 dollar part needed to be installed per car to greatly

reduce the injuries by protecting fuel tank.
 Seems insignificant expense.
 But makes far more difficult to market the car that was to
be sold for no more than $2000.
 Costs of part installation on 11 million cars and 1.5 million
light trucks added up to $137 million.
 Cost-Benefit Analysis performed by Ford Motor Company
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 Cost of not installing the part and instead paying out costs
of deaths and injuries was projected using cost-benefit
analysis.

 Annual cost of injuries and deaths was $49.5 million, far

less than estimated $137 million for installing the part.
 Cost-Benefit Analysis
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 This cost-benefit analysis was not a utilitarian calculation.

 Implicitly focused on the costs and benefits to Ford Motor
Company.
 Focuses only on the costs quantified in dollars.
 Costs of good consequences like public happiness was not
taken into account.
 Omitted the bad consequences of not informing the public
about the known dangers.
 Utilitarian Calculation
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 Considers costs and benefits for every one affected by the

project.
 Gives no preference to members of corporation.
 Adopts long term view rather than short term.
 Do not reduce goods and bads to dollars.
 Versions of Utilitarianism
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 Act Utilitarianism.
 Rule Utilitarianism.
 Act-Utilitarianism
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 Focuses on each situation and the alternative actions

possible in the situation.

 An action is right if it is likely to produce most good for

most people in given situation compared to alternative
choices.
 Act-Utilitarianism
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At the moment you are listening this lecture, alternative

options can be:
 Watch a movie.
 Go asleep.

 Lot of other options.

 Take a break.
 Each action has the long term as well as short term
benefits.
 The right action is the one that would produce the most
good for most of you.
 Rule-Utilitarianism
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Rather than individual actions, rules should be

taken seriously.

Right actions are those required by the rules that

produce the most good for the most people.
 Rule-Utilitarianism
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 For example, if codified rules regarding bribe and

deception are justified, then even if a particular bribe or
deception is beneficial in some situations, one should still
refrain from them.
 Problems with Act-Utilitarianism
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Act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism seems to

point in different directions.

Rule-utilitarianism was developed to correct the

problems with act-utilitarianism.
 Problem-I
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 Act-utilitarianism apparently permits some actions that we

know on the other grounds are immoral.
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“Stealing a computer from my employer, an old one

scheduled for replacement any way, benefits me
significantly and causes little harm to the employer and
others.”

 Theft is unethical.
 Act-utilitarianism tries to wrongly justify the act.
 Rule-utilitarianism devise a rule saying: “Act as faithful
agents or trustees of employers”.
 Problem-II
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 Act-utilitarianism seems to permit injustice by promoting

social good at the expense of individuals.
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“Suppose that in a particular situation, more good is

promoted by keeping the public ignorant about serious
dangers, for example, by not informing them about a
hidden fault in a car or building.”

 Rule-utilitarianism avoids this by saying:

“Corporations should inform the public about the
dangers.”
 Problem-III
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Act-utilitarianism requires too much from

individuals.
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“ Each of us could promote the overall good by forgoing luxuries and

redirecting our careers in order to give to worthy causes, such as
alleviating world hunger. Our own well-being might be adversely
affected, but surely saving people from starvation produces more
good than missing a few movies and driving a less expensive car.”

 Act-utilitarianism: Abandon all the luxuries.

 Rule-utilitarianism says: “Give to help others, while keeping
sufficient resources for the security and reasonable luxuries for
oneself and one’s family.”
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Rights
Ethics
 Rights Ethics
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 Regards human rights as fundamental.

 Emphasize respect for individual’s integrity and dignity.
 A little contrast with utilitarian approach of general good.
 Rights and Duty ethics are mirror images of each other.
 Human Rights
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 Respect for public’s right to life by producing safe

products.
 Rights to privacy.
 Rights not to be injured by dangerous products.
 Rights to fair and honest exchanges in marketplace.
 Right to give informed consent to the risks accompanying
the technological developments.
 Employers have rights to faithful services from employees.
 Employees have rights of respectful treatment from
employers.
 Forms of Human Rights
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 Liberty rights.
 Welfare rights.
 Liberty Rights
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 Liberty means to live life in a way one wishes to live.

 Rights to exercise one’s liberty.
 Place duties on other people, not to interfere with one’s
freedom.
 Also called negative rights.
 Welfare Rights
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 Rights to the benefits needed for a decent human life.

 One cannot earn those rights, community must make
them available.
 Also called positive rights.
 Locke’s Version of Human Rights
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 Supports libertarian approach.

 Focus on highly individualistic human rights.
 Property is what, achieved by mixing our labor with the
things.
 Government taxation on one’s property is against human
liberty rights.
 Corporations should not accept responsibilities beyond
maximizing profits with little exception of following
minimum laws like forbidding fraud.
 Special Moral Rights
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 Rights held by particular individuals rather than by

every human being.
 Engineers and their employers have special moral rights
that arise from their respective roles and the contracts
they make with each other.
Difference between Legal and Human Rights
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 Legal rights are those that law of given society says one
has.
 Human rights are those we have as humans, whether
law states them or not.
 Three-tiered Hierarchy of Rights
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 First Tier:
 The most basic rights.
 Life, physical integrity, mental health.
 Second Tier:
 Rights to maintain the level of purpose fulfillment an individual
has already achieved.
 Rights not to be deceived, the right not to be defamed, the right
not to have possession stolen.
 Third Tier:
 Rights to increase ones’ level of purpose fulfillment.
 Rights to acquire and use property for one’s benefit.
 Case
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“A plant manager wants to save money by

emitting a pollutant from the plant that is
carcinogenic. The manager acting on the behalf
of the firm has right to free action and to use the
plant (firm’s property) for the economic benefit
of the firm.”
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The End