Ethical Theories Barbora Řebíková 2013 (rebbarbora@email.cz)

Ethical Theories

Barbora Řebíková 2013

(rebbarbora@email.cz)

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• Epicureanism• Utilitarianism• Deontology• Virtue Ethics

Many Answers

virtue

• First answer – men can get certain qualities, virtues and thus become good.

• To have these virtues means to behave good • Ethical means – to follow virtues• Plato – justice, temperance, fortitude,

prudence

Duty

• Other answer – duty• Morality based on rules, duties • To deon = duty• Ethical means – to follow rules, duty• Deontology – Immanuel Kant

Consequences

• Acceptability of consequences• Consequentialism• Difference – consequences for:• Me – Ethical Egoism (Epicureanism)• Others - Ethical altruisms• Majority - Utilitarianism

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Human acts have initiators and consequences

The theories are focusing on one of these parts.

Epicureanism

Epicurus (341 BC – 271 BC)

Aristippus from Cyrene and Epicurus

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Epicureanism(Hedonism)

What should I do to live a succesful life?(hedoné = pleasure, bliss)

ultimate goal of all our actions is pleasure

among human values pleasure is the highest and pain the lowest

actions which increase the sum of pleasure are right, and what increases pain is wrong.

optimization of calculus of pleasure and displeasure Aristippus of Cyrene

(435 – 355?)

„ Missionary Philosophy .“

• Epicurus bought a house with a big garden close to Athens. The garden gave a name of his school – The Garden

• His school was the first of the ancient Greek philosophical schools to admit women and slaves.

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• Epicurus emphasized friendship as an important ingredient of happiness, and the school resembled in many ways a community of friends living together. However, he also instituted a hierarchical system of levels among his followers

The Basic Question

The basic question of hellenistic philosophy (4 - 1 Century BC) was:

What is bliss and what should I do to live a good live?

Three schools – three answersEpicureanism, Scepticism, Stoicism

Epicurus: bliss = life full of happiness and pleasure

• „When we say...that pleasure is the end and aim, we do not mean the pleasures of the prodigal or the pleasures of sensuality, as we are understood to do by some through ignorance, prejudice or wilful misrepresentation. By pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. It is not by an unbroken succession of drinking bouts and of revelry, not by sexual lust, nor the enjoyment of fish and other delicacies of a luxurious table, which produce a pleasant life; it is sober reasoning, searching out the grounds of every choice and avoidance, and banishing those beliefs through which the greatest tumults take possession of the soul“

Pleasure is „the first good“. If we want pleasure, we want the good.

• Pleasure ist the good we want naturally (fysei). „All creatures desire for pleasure and avoid a pain because of fysei and without rational reflection.“

We want pleasure naturally

• Today we would say:• It is in our genetic code - we want a pleasure

and we avoid a pain

…but the origin of pleasure is not always the same and the pleasure doesn‘t mean

the same for everyone

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…which one is the right one?

We should try to get the highest pleasure.

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And the highest pleasure is bliss

…and bliss is ataraxia

...philosophy of private life• Nothing after death • Philosophy of private life without worrying about

politics and public issues.

Utilitarianism"greatest good for the greatest number"

• Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)• John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)

Utilitarianism

• it is the consequences of human actions that count

• The principle of utility defines the meaning of moral obligation by reference to the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people

• Utilitarianism is a Consequentialist theory of ethics. Consequentialist theories judge the rightness (or wrongness) of an action, by what occurs as a result of doing something.

Utilitarianism " . . . actions are right in proportion as they tend to

promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure.„

(John Stuart Mill)

(1806-1873)

Utilitarianism „Nature has placed mankind under the governance

of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.“ (Jeremy Bentham)

(1748 – 1832)

University College London

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• A utilitarian believes in ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number.’

• The more people who benefit from a particular action, the greater its good.

Utilitarianism

• Combination of four principles– principle of consequences– principle of utility– principle of hedonism– social principle

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principle of consequences– No action is good or bad in itself. Important is

the consequence– „The end justifies the means“– Doesn‘t matter what initiator feels principle of utility– happiness for majority– „small suffering for A justify predominant

pleasure for B.“

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principle of hedonism• What is pleasure choose every one for himself• Reading is exactly so good as paintball

social principle• Happiness for majority• the greatest happiness of the greatest number of

people• Morality can‘t be egoistic

What is happiness?• when highly motivated research scientist work to

the point of exhaustion in search of new knowledge, they do not appear to be seeking a professional happiness

• J.S.Mill: such persons are motivated by success, recognition, or money ( which all promise happiness)

• Recent utilitarian philosophers: there are also diverse set of values other than happiness: knowledge, health, understanding, deep personal relationship etc.

Critique of Utilitarianism

Critique of Utilitarianism

• the question is, whether human actions are to be judged right or wrong solely according to their consequences.

Critique of Utilitarianism

• If a surgeon, for example, could save two innocent lives by killing a prisoner on death row to retrieve his heart and liver for transplantation, this outcome would have the highest net utility (in the circumstances), but the surgeon´s action would be morally indefensible.

• (Beauchamp, T.L., Childress, J.F., (2009) Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 6th ed. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford, p. 150)

Critique• „etická aritmetika“

– dá se štěstí nějak měřit?• One of the real problems of act utilitarianism is that the

individual must somehow predict and calculate the various levels of happiness promoted by each choice. In the worst-case use of utilitarianism, individuals might be seen to shift from one position to another as they weigh the various levels of happiness and pain avoidance and, in the process, lose their sense of self

• the calculation of all the possible consequences of our actions, or worse yet our inactions, appears impossible

• a co když musíme volit mezi dvěma zly, co když z hořícího domu můžeme vynést pouze jedno dítě?

Deontology

• Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant(1724 – 1804)

"Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal

law."

• Deontological ethics• Categorical Imperative• maxim

• Critique of Pure Reason

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Kant's moral theory is deontological: actions are morally right in virtue of their motives, which must derive more from duty than from inclination.

The clearest examples of morally right action are precisely those in which an individual agent's determination to act in accordance with duty overcomes her evident self-interest and obvious desire to do otherwise.

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Of course, human agents also have subjective impulses—desires and inclinations that may contradict the dictates of reason.

So we experience the claim of reason as an obligation, a command that we act in a particular way, or an imperative.

Immanuel Kant(1724 – 1804)

Kant held that morality is derived from rationality, not from experience, and that obligation is grounded not in the nature of man or in the circumstances of the world but in pure reason

These universal truth applied to all people, for all times, in all situations

Human minds works the same way, regardless of who you are, where you are, or when you are.

categorical imperative categorical = without any exception

Immanuel Kant(1724 – 1804)

• categorical imperative– universal application (i.e., binding on every individual)– unconditionality– demanding an action

• we must always treat others as ends and not as means only

Immanuel Kant(1724 – 1804)

• Categorical Imperative: • Act only according to that maxim whereby you

can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

• we must be willing for the rules we set for ourseleves to become a „law of nature“– we must be willing to have such rules apply universally

Immanuel Kant(1724 – 1804)

• "formula of the end in itself" as: "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 never simply as a means."

Criticism of Kant

1. The exceptionless character of Kant´s moral philosophy makes it too rigid for real life. Real-life situations are so varied that it is impossible to create rules that can guide us in all circumstances

2. it is often the spirit of law, rather than the letter, that provides the arena for rational decisions

3. even though animals feel pain and pleasure, they have not any independent moral standing since they are not rational beings.

Virtue Ethics

Plato, Aristotle

..virtue

• What does virtue mean?• Do you know any?

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…modesty, sympathy, bravery, prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance

In our society?

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Virtue Theory

• „Virtue theory is largely based on Aristotle‘s Nicomachean Ethics and as a result is sometimes known as neo-Aristotelianism. Unlike Kantians and utilitarians, who typically concentrate on the rightness or wrongness of particular actions, virtue theorists focus on character and are interested in the individual‘s life as a whole. The central question for virtue theorists is: How should I live?“

How should I live?

• The answer they give to this question is:

Cultivate the virtues!

• „It is only by cultivating the virtues that you will flourish as a human being.“

The virtues

• „Aristotle claimed that cultivating the virtues is the way to flourish as a human being. But what is a virtue? It is a pattern of behaviour and feeling: a tendency to act, desire and feel in particular ways in appropriate situations. Unlike Kant, Aristotle thought that experiencing appropriate emotions was central to the art of leading a good life.“

The virtues

• „A virtue isn‘t an unthinking habit, but rather involves an intelligent judgement about the appropriate response to the situation you are in.“

• „Someone who has the virtue of being generous would, in appropriate situations, feel and act in a generous way.“

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Thank you