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Approachs to Ethics
Ethics can be defined as:
• The study of standards of behavior which promote
human welfare.
• About how we behave, about the standards we hold
ourselves to…
• About how we treat each other, even those we do not
know
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Chapter 2
Approachs to Ethics
• In general, the term ethics refers to two things
– First, ethics refers to well-founded/well-
substantiated/standards of right and
wrong that prescribe what humans ought
to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or
specific virtues.
Ethical
Utilitarianis Kantianism
Egoism
m
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Chapter 2
Classification of normative Ethics
• Normative ethics is classified into two branches as
study of or as search for standard against which
human behavior is going to be judged. These are:
1. Ethics of Conducts
2. Ethics of Character
• Under Ethics of conducts, we have two classes of
theories: Teleologism and Deontologism.
• Even under Teleologism, we have two
classifications:
Ethical Egoism and Utilitarianism.
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Chapter 2
1. Ethics of conduct
- Deals with issues case by case (what works - treat things all times, all places, & all
now may not work later or what works here my people with out variation.(The law is
not work there) universal and applies in the same manner)
- Greatest Happiness principle (whatever the Adherence to the identified rigid rule or
action is, it is good or right if it causes greatest maxims or principles (for the action to be
happiness) right or wrong , good or bad)
The end justifies the means The rightness goodness is in the actions
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intrinsic nature.
Chapter 2
Classification of Teleology
• Teleology is family of ethical theories not one
single theory.
• Under teleology, there are two particular
classifications:
1. Egoistic Hedonism that is the sum of Egoism
and Hedonism.
2. Utilitarianism or Social Hedonism.
• The basic difference of the two is not that, one is
end based and the other is means based but rather
both are end based.
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Chapter 2
Classical utilitarianism
For Epicurus (342–270 BCE), who stated that
“pleasure is the goal that nature has ordained for us; it
is also the standard by which we judge everything
good.”
According to this view, rightness and wrongness are
determined by pleasure or pain that something
produces.
An act that produces more pleasure than pain has
greater value than an act that produces more pain
than pleasure.
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Chapter 2
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• Jeremy Bentham: Quantity over Quality
• There are two main features of utilitarianism, both
of which Bentham articulated:
i. The consequentialist principle (or its
teleological aspect): states that the rightness
or wrongness of an act is determined by the
goodness or badness of the results that flow
from it. It is the end, not the means that
counts; the end justifies the means.
ii. The utility principle (or its hedonic aspect):
states that the only thing that is good in itself
is some specific type of state (for example,
pleasure, happiness, welfare).
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Chapter 2
Rule-utilitarianism:
o An act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is
itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance would
lead to greater utility for society than any available
alternative.
o Refers to elements in Mill’s theory.
o The act-utilitarian rule, to do the act that maximizes
utility, is too general for most purposes.
Example
“Whenever I need money, then I shall borrow the money
and promise to repay, even though I know I will not
repay.”
- Lying and not keeping promise can’t be a universal law
for one who can’t accept it as a universal law.
- Lying and not repaying would be morally right from a
deontological perspective if the person can consistently
accept that lying and not keeping promise be a universal
law
Example -2
If you have to decide between whether to feed or
not of a starving person, you should not judge
the “rightness” or “wrongness” of your action by
what you get or loose in doing so.
•You have to do it for the sake of humanity. Here
humanity is an end.
• Since you will not be happy if somebody do not
help you when you are in hunger. So you are
expected to feed others in the same problem.
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Chapter 2
Criticism on Deontology
There is no clear way to deal with moral conflicts.
•What about moral conflict between two, morally right
principles?
E.g., Killer comes to the door: If a killer comes to the door
and ask for a friend of yours inside whom he intends to
kill.
So, here would you tell the truth to the killer and see what
comes next or not tell the truth and save the life of your
friend? These are two different conflicting ideas. you
must tell the truth (Kant’s idea). There is no clear way
given in Deontology when such things appear.
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Chapter 2
2. Ethics of character
• The other branch of normative ethics parallel to
the ethics of conduct is the issue of character or
the ethics of character.
• Here, it is not the question of what should I do
so that I can be called as right person but, it is a
question of who should I be.
Thank You