Theoretical Foundations of Ethics

Meta Ethics: Schools of thought which tries to understand as to why human beings think in terms of right/wrong. Are there any objective criteria by which you can assess moral statements?

Normative Ethics: Different theories making an attempt to understand what makes things right or wrong for human beings

Greek Philosophers I
Socrates: Ethics cannot be made up of abstract ideas. In order to understand the common perception of ethics, we must have better understanding of peoples circumstances and pay attention to conditions of human life. Ethics should be knowledge that seeks to improve human life. Asked questions about purpose of human life, authority of the government etc.

Greek Philosophers II
Plato: Student of Socrates Intellectual consequences of denying the reality of the material world Contended that the very fact that we have Government, creates the possibilities for corruption. In order to curb the corruption, what is required is to have Philosopher Kings. Philosopher King: those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.

Plato and Society

Plato questioned the concept of society and doubted the ideas that are propagated by the society.

Truth

Norms of the society

Greek Philosophers III - Aristotle

Student of Plato Best known for his contribution towards emphasing the virtues of Balance and Moderation for creating an ethical society. When a person acts according to his/her nature and realises his/her full potential, then all actions of that person are moral actions.

 People should not simply live but also try to improve their lives. Aristotle also said: Any action right/wrong depends on whether or not it is a good thing to do. Something can be considered good if it fulfilled its purpose. For example: A knife: used by a doctor or used by a thief will have completely different consequences.

Thomas Hobbes
English Philosopher, working on ethics, morality and politics in 1500s. Wrote a book called The Leviathan, where he proclaimed that human beings are inherently cruel and nasty. In a jungle like kingdom, the powerful will try to dominate over the week and the more intelligent will try to manipulate the less intelligent. Therefore, people come together and collectively create an entity to maintain justice in the world called Government.

John Locke
English Philosopher from the 1600s Believed that human beings are essentially nice and the world can be properly governed if people are provided with three rights:
Right to Life Right to Liberty Right to Property

Self is continuity of consciousness, from where the source of ethics lie.

English Philosopher G.E.Moore

Goodness cannot be defined, because it is unlike any other quality. For example: To say something is good is like saying that it is yellow how can you describe yellow to someone who does not know that colour? However, if we intuitively know what is good, then why do we face ethical dilemma?

Hedonism
Happiness is the goal of life. Judgments we make are based on our feeling of pleasure or pain. Make Merry today, who has seen tomorrow? Example: Charvakas the ancient Indian philosophical system also emphasised on materialism and pleasure-seeking activities Danger: If you are a Hedonist, you have to suffer the conviction that every helpful person is actually trying to help you simply doing something for himself/herself. Also, excessive indulgence can be dangerous

Egoism
We actually only do things that we believe will benefit us. An Ethical Egoist is someone who claims that everyone should pursue self interest and that selfishness is not a fact to be regretted. Machiavelli argued that people will do the right thing only under compulsion but given a chance will do what is in their best interest

Stoicism
Peace of mind is the highest virtue and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. All moral corruptions are equally vicious. Development of self-control and fortitude are means of overcoming destructive emotions; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason

Utilitarianism
One of the most influential of ethical theories propagated by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill Efforts of all human beings are to increase the pleasure and reduce the pain. In any situation where there is a moral choice, the right thing to do is that which is likely to produce the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

Criticism of Utilitarianism
The main problem of this argument is that it completely ignores the aspect of justice. 1) Is immediate happiness the criterion, or is it the long term benefit? 2) By what criteria do you judge what leads to happiness? 3) What about the minority voices?

Immanuel Kant
One of the strongest influences on the ethical discourse in the world Kant was most concerned with the sense of duty. The mind plays an important and active role in shaping and ordering experiences. Our mind determines the way we experience things, it is not a passive recipient of what is out there. Therefore, the starting point for a debate on morals cannot be something out there it should be the actual experience of moral obligation feeling that there is something we ought to do.

Categorical Imperative of Kant

1) All your actions should based on a thought where you believe that this action should be a universal law. For e.g.: When you decide to break a traffic light, you should be comfortable with the idea when everyone in the world is breaking traffic lights

 2) No longer how pure the objective is, the means to reach that objective should also be pure. Ends-Means Test For example: You steal from someone to give food to the hungry. However, it is unethical because even though feeding the poor is a good thing to do, stealing the food does not justify even your positive actions.