Introduction to Ethics

What is Ethics?
What are Ethical Issues?
What are the Moral Theories?
What are the challenges in Morality?
Cases Studies
 Selected movie scene from
“Vertical Limit”.
 Should the son kill the father?
 If you were the son,….
 If you were the daughter,…
 If you were the father,…
 Two versions of the trolley problem
 What are your answers and
justifications?
 Would the answers be different if you
were the person who need to make
the decision and take the action?
 What is ethics?
 Ethics - sometimes used as synonyms for
“morally correct” or justified - set of justified
moral principles of obligation, rights, and ideals

 Ethics - can be particular beliefs or attitudes

concerning morality

 Ethics - area of study or inquiry – an activity of

understanding moral values, resolving moral
issues, and justifying moral judgments
What is ethics?
 (1) What makes an act morally right or wrong
(a question of conduct)?
 (2) What makes a person or something good
or bad (a question of value)?
 (3) How to draw the correct conclusion about
what we ought to do or what kind of person
we ought to be?
 (1) and (2) are theoretical/conceptual
questions and (3) is a practical question
about moral reasoning.
Ethics, Values and Morals
 Values signify what is important and
worthwhile. They serve as a basis for
moral codes and ethical reflection.
 Morals are codes of conduct governing
behavior. They are values put into practice
as actions.
 Ethics provide a systematic, rational way
to work through dilemmas and to
determine the best course of action in the
face of conflicting choices.
Ethical Issues
 Ethical issues are defined as situations that
occur as a result of a moral conflict that must
be addressed. Thus, ethical issues tend to
interfere with a society's principles.
Characteristics of Ethical Issues
 Moral disagreements are common. Moral
issues are often controversial and open-
ended. It is often difficult to arrive at some
consensus.
 How serious could people disagree with one
another? Could the disagreement be radical
and fundamental?
 People even disagree about what and how
much they disagree.
Example of Ethical Issues
 Abortion
 Mercy Killing
 Suicide
Moral Theories
 A moral theory consists of a set of moral
principles.
 These principles specify the conditions under
which an action is morally right or wrong, or
what makes a person or something good or
bad. (Theoretical questions (1) and (2))
 They purport to guide our moral reasoning
(Practical question (3)).
 Together with facts about different moral
situations, moral rules that guide the morality
of specific kinds of actions could be derived.
 Together with facts about an individual case,
we can further judge whether an individual
act is morally right or wrong, or whether a
person or something is good or bad.
Structure of moral action
 Person  Action  Consequence
 Person: What makes a person morally good?
Be courageous, kind, and so on? Do the
motive, character, and intention of the person
matter in deciding whether an action is right
or wrong?
 Action: What makes an action morally right?
Should the motive, character, or intention of
the actor be taken into consideration? Should
it be solely determined by the consequences?
 Consequence: What constitutes a good or
bad consequence?
Three major kinds of moral theories
 Consequence-based theories
 Deontological theories
 Virtue-based theories (approaches)
Consequence-based Theories
 Consequentialism is a theory that
says whether something is good or
bad depends on its outcomes.
 Best example of this theory is
Utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism
 Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that
determines right from wrong by focusing
on outcomes. It is a form of
consequentialism. Utilitarianism holds
that the most ethical choice is the
one that will produce the greatest
good for the greatest number.
Deontology Theory
 Deontology is an ethical theory that says
actions are good or bad according to a clear
set of rules.
 Its name comes from the Greek word deon,
meaning duty. Actions that align with these
rules are ethical, while actions that don’t
aren’t.
 Deontology is an ethical theory that uses
rules to distinguish right from wrong.
Deontology is often associated with
philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant believed
that ethical actions follow universal moral
laws, such as “Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t
cheat.”
Virtue-based Theory
 It is an approach to ethics that treats the
concept of moral virtue as central. It
emphasizes virtues or moral character rather
than the consequences or the duties or roles.
 It is developed by Aristotle. This character-
based approach to morality assumes that we
acquire virtue by practice.
 Difference between the three
theories
In the Movie “The Dark Knight” Batman has an
opportunity to kill Joker:
Utilitarianism will suggest to kill Joker for the
benefit of great amount of people
Deontology will not suggest to kill Joker since it
is wrong to kill.
Virtue Ethics would highlight the character of the
person who kills Joker. Does Batman wants to be
the kind of person who takes away his enemy’s
life?
Anti-theory Approach
 Cases have their own voices. This gives us a
very crucial criterion for evaluating moral
theories.
 A moral theory is accepted if it can make sense
of and be compatible with our various intuitively
appealing beliefs and ideas or firmly held
judgements about morality.
 Anti-theory approach (moral particularism):
 No theory can meet the above criterion.
 Moral precepts are only rules of thumbs with
lots of loopholes and exceptions. There is no
theory in ethics but only approaches.
 Something like the case law approach should
be adopted.
Challenges to Morality
 Egoism
 Psychological egoism: Human actions are
motivated by their self-interests.
 Ethical egoism: One should only promote
one’s own interests, or it is alright for everyone
to do so.
 Relativism
 Descriptive relativism: People of different
cultures follow different norms and have
different conceptions of the good.
  Ethical relativism: What makes an act morally
right and wrong or something morally good or
bad depends on the cultural context in which
the question is raised.
 Moral skepticism
 Why should I be moral? It is impossible to give
a non-question begging answer.
 We can never justify our moral beliefs and
ideas.
 Moral Nihilism
 Ethical claims are either fictitious (according to
error theories) or neither true nor false.
 They are not answerable to any reality.
 There is no such thing called “morality”.
Group Activity: Role Playing

• Create a role play that will show

case why the following words/issues
below are considered as Ethical
issue
• Abortion (Group 1)
• Mercy Killing (Group 2)
• Suicide (Group 3)
 ROLE PLAYING RUBRIC

CONTENT- 40%
ROLES- 20%
PREPARATION- 20%
OVERALL IMPRESSION- 20%