2. What is Ethics?
• Meta-Ethics
– Addresses questions about the nature of ethics itself.
What is morality? Is morality objective or subjective?
• Normative Ethics
– Focuses on the ethical standards (norms) on which
moral conduct is based. Is the rightness and
wrongness of an act determined its consequences?
Should I always act in accordance with my duty?
• Applied Ethics
– Applies philosophical theory to practical issues. Is
abortion permissible? Is there a distinction between
killing and letting die? How ought we to act in war?
What is the proper form of punishment?
3. Outlining the basic positions
• Objectivism (realism)
– The view that values and properties (goodness, beauty) exist independently of
human apprehension of them.
• Subjectivism (anti-realism)
– The view that values such as goodness and beauty are not a feature of external
reality but a product of human beliefs and responses to it.
• Absolutism
– The view that certain actions are right or wrong under any circumstances.
• Relativism
– In terms of ethics, the view that notions of rightness and wrongness are wholly
determined by, and relative to, particular cultures.
• Deontology
– The view that rightness or wrongness of an action is determined solely in terms
of duty or intension, irrespective of consequences.
• Consequentialism
– The view that the rightness or wrongness of an action should be solely
determined by its consequences.
4. “Is the pious loved by the gods because it
is pious, or is it pious because it is loved
by the gods?”
Plato, Euthyphro (c.375BCE))
Divine
Command
Theory
5. Moral “When Darius was king of Persia, he
Relativism summoned the Greeks who happened
to be present at his court, and asked
them what they would take to eat the
dead bodies of their fathers. They
replied that they would not do it for
any money in the world. Later, in the
presence of the Greeks and through an
interpreter (so they could understand
what was said) he asked some Indian,
of the tribe Callatiae, who do in fact
eat their parents’ dead bodies, what
they would take to burn them [as was
the Greek custom]. They uttered a cry
of horror and forbade him to mention
such a dreadful thing. One can see by
this what custom can do, and Pindar, in
my opinion was right when he called it
‘king of all’.”
Herodotus, Histories (c.440BCE)
6. Emotivism
“Take any action allow’d to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance.
Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find the matter of fact, or
real existence, which you call vice… You can never find it, till you
turn your reflection into your own breast, and find a sentiment of
disapprobation, which arises in you, toward this action. Here is a
matter of fact; but ‘tis the object of feeling, not reason.”
David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, 1740
Boo! Hurrah!
8. Utilitarianism
‘The greatest
happiness of the
greatest number’
“Nature has placed mankind
under the governance of two
sovereign masters, pain and
pleasure. It is for them alone to
point out what we ought to do.”
Introduction to the Principles of Morals
and Legislation (1789)
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832
9. Higher and
Lower Pleasures
“It is better to be a human being
dissatisfied than a pig satisfied;
better to be Socrates dissatisfied
than a fool satisfied. And if the
fool, or the pig, are of a
different opinion, it is because
they only know their own side
of the question.”
“Prejudice apart… the game of
John Stuart Mill push-pin is of equal value with the arts
and sciences of music and poetry”
(Bentham)
1806-1873
10. The Experience Machine
“Suppose there were an experience machine that
would give you any experience you desired.
Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your
brain so that you would think that you were writing a
great novel, or making a friend, or reading an
interesting book. All the time you would be floating
in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain.
Should you plug into this machine for life,
preprogramming your life’s desires? … Of course,
while in the tank you won’t know that you’re there;
you’ll think it’s all actually happening … Would you
plug in? What else can matter to us, other than how
our lives feel from the inside?”
Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State,and Utopia, 1974
12. Kantianism
‘The categorical
imperative’
“Act only in accordance with that maxim
through which you can at the same time will
that it become a universal law.”
Immanuel
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity,
whether in your own person or in the person of
another, always at the same time as an end and Kant
never simply as a means.”
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals (1785) 1724-1804
15. A return to virtue?
• Virtue Ethics
– Competitor to Utilitarianism and Kantianism
– Asks ‘What sort of person should I be?’ as
opposed to ‘What should I do?’
– Emphasis on character, not on individual action.
The goodness of an action derives from the person
that performs it, not vice versa.
– Inspiration for contemporary virtue ethics comes
from Aristotle.
16. Aristotle’s Ethics
• Aristotle believes that everything has a purpose or function (ergon) which it must perfect
in order to flourish.
• The ergon for humans is to live according to reason.
• This involves developing the excellences of character which he identifies as the virtues.
• A good upbringing is important to becoming a virtuous person.
• Living according to the virtues is known as eudaimonia.
• Aristotle proposes twelve moral virtues:
– Courage, temperance, liberality, magnificence, magnanimity, proper ambition, patience,
truthfulness, wittiness, friendliness, modesty, righteous indignation.
• The ‘doctrine of the mean’
– Aristotle states that the virtuous person must avoid the vices of excess or deficiency and act
according to the mean.
– E.g. One must be courageous rather than cowardly; but not to the extent of being foolhardy.
• The ‘unity of the virtues’
– In addition, in order to have any one virtue, one must possess them all. This enables you to
choose the mean between them.
– E,g. One must be able to identify at what stage truthfulness should give way to
loyalty.
17. “The Good of man is the active exercise of his
soul’s faculties in accordance with excellence or
virtue… Moreover, this activity must occupy a complete
lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring,
nor does one fine day.”
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, c.350BCE
