Morality and Ethics

Morality
• is the set of rules that apply when the group includes all rational human.
• Is the set of standards everyone (every rational person at his/her rationap
best) wants everyone else to follow even if their following them means
having to do the same.
Ethics
• Ethics is traditionally referred to as the philosophy of morality.
• A set of morally permissible standards of a group that each member of the
group (at his/her rational best) wants every other member to follow, even if
their doing so would mean that he/she must do the same

 Note: ethical is not synonymous with "morally good", instead we use

"ethical" to express comsistency with particular standards
 Example:
1. In the USA, it is against ethical standards for
physicians to advertise proces for their services.
there is nothing inherently moral or immoral àbout
advertising prices, so the prohibition on advertising
prices is morally permissible.
Note: an action might be unethical but morally
permissible.
2. In the USA, prices of goods are written
without adding the the taxes for it, thus
customers approximate the total price of
goods with adding a certain percentage to
the price to know the total price.
 Moral Theory
Moral Theory - is a way of defining morality.
* The definition of morality is not necessarily the
same definition accepted by everyone.
 Religious Ethics
A set of ethical standards for the followers of a
particular religion

Ex:
An atheist is pro-abortion because
underage pregnancy mostly leads to poor
future, while a religious person is against
abortion because every life is important
Divine Command Theory
A moral theory that holds that X is good
because gods commands it, for no other
reason

Cultural Relativsm
Is a moral theory that holds that no valid
rational criterion for determining the right
thing to do exists.
According to Cultural Relativism theory, it is
an action judged good or bad based only on the
standards that have been adopted by ones
society

Cultural Relativism also appears to promote

tolerance of other cultures, claiming that
there is never acceptable justification for one
culture to override the wishes of another.
 Virtue Theory
Is a moral theory that concerns the nature of
virtue and what it means to have virtue

Righteous Indignation - is the anger

we feel at someone's undeserved good
or bad fortune.
 Utilitarianism
Is a consequentialist moral theory that states that the
right decision is the one that causes the most
happiness

Utility - means maximizing happiness in the

world

Utilitarianism Calculus - the process of

calculating which action will lead to
greatest happiness
 Act Utilitarianism
• The only way to judge an act is to examine the
consequences of an act.
• When examining the consequences of an act, one
should use overall impact on human happiness as the
measure of goodness

Argument:
There are numerous problematic cases in
which act Utilitarianism conflicts with Intuition
and/or religious norms
 Rule Utilitarianism
• Rules can make the evaluation of an act much less
prone to calculations error.
• Rigorous compliance with rules ( except for
compelling reasons to violate) will maximize
happiness providing the rules are selected properly

Argument:
It is still difficult to determine wether a set of
rules will truly maximize overall happiness
 Deontological Ethics
It focuses on rights, duties, obligations, and rules.
Hence, according to these theories, some rules
must be followed, even if following a particular rule
would result in a bad end.
- Categorical imperatives, such as the universal
law of nature and the principle of end in itself,
tend to be simple to state and easy to apply

- Acknowledges the importance of motivation in

determining wether an act was good or not.
- Because the principle is categorical , there
are no exceptions.
Deontological Ethics
Argument:
Lack of exceptions lead to cases where the
consequences are unacceptable according to
intuition and/or religious conviction
 Contractarianism
• A rational theory that an individual's best interest
is served by acting for common good.
• The premise that an individual's interest is best
served by acting for common good may be
incorrect.
Argument:
1. Major premise that an individual's interest is best served
by serving the common good may be incorrect.

2. Even if the major premise is correct, there will always be a

possibility for greater advantage to an individual for immoral
behavior if that individual can avoid retaliation by those
wronged by the justice system.
 Ethics of Justice
Impartiality
• Every person is treated equally and no one is given
preferential treatment in the theory.
Universality
• A decision reached by applying the theory should be for
everyone that has a similar decision to make.

- Makes it easy to understand why we may not

necessarily be obligated to do away with all economic
inequalities.
- Encourages people to help the least unfortunate.
Argument:
The justification for Rawl's claims is much more
complicated and controversial, than those for
utilitarianism or kant's principles. As a result, or to
calculate how their acts will affect others.
 Ethics of Caring
It is the goodness in terms of wether or not we
take care of the people around us.

Nodding
- claims that morality really boils down to achieving a
single moral ideal, a single virtue, which is Caring for
other individuals
- believes that such approaches are helpful in teaching
people how to actually act morally
 Questions:
1. What is moral Theory?

Identify the 9 Moral Theories

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