Ethics Overview - City University of New York



Ethics Overview

Why Do We Need Ethics?

1. The argument from a positive view of human beings: human beings have many, and complex, needs--not only for such obvious things as food, clothing, shelter, and medical care, but for things like stable and nurturing emotional relationships, intellectual stimulation, and aesthetic gratification. In order to create enough of these goods so that many of the members of a group can have full, satisfying, and recognizably human lives (that is, so that many of the group’s members can flourish, rather than simply subsist), people have to work cooperatively. In order to work cooperatively, a certain number of rules must be in effect--principles that provide, for example, for an equitable division of the human goods. Without such rules, the necessary cooperation either doesn’t occur, or doesn’t run smoothly.

2. The argument from a negative view of human beings: human being have many, and complex, desires, and are innately interested only in the gratification (to the maximum) of their own desires. Human beings also are innately possessed of the willingness to harm other people if they believe those others are obstacles to the gratification of their desires. Unless there are rules limiting the extent to which people are allowed to go in the pursuit of their own desires, they will quite happily cheat, rob, burgle, maim, and kill others in order to satisfy them. If that condition--which Hobbes called the “state of nature”--ever obtains, he says that human life is likely to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Rules limiting what people can do in the pursuit of their own desires paradoxically make it more likely that more people will be able to gratify more desires--that is, that more people will obtain human goods.

Goal of Ethics

Ensure that humans flourish in social groups.

Ethical Theory

Both arguments for why we need ethics lead to the conclusion that in order to reach the goal of ethics—i.e., to secure flourishing for as many human beings as possible—we need either sets of rules or a way of deciding (call this a “decision procedure”) what kinds of human actions will in fact lead to such flourishing. Ethical theories attempt to answer the question: How is it we should behave, if we want to achieve human flourishing? Since the ability to reason is a capacity that, other things being equal, human beings have in common, ethical theories use reason (not religious authority, legislative bodies, or culture) to work out how to answer that question.

Types of Ethical Theory

Teleological theory: evaluations are made based on the consequences of actions. John Stuart Mill’s utilitarian theory is an example. The fundamental principle of this theory is: an action is right as it results in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people it affects.

Deontological theory: consequences are completely irrelevant. Evaluations are made based on a characteristic of the act itself. Immanuel Kant’s theory is an example. The second formulation of his categorical imperative states: Always treat human beings as ends in themselves, never only as a means.

Why Not Religion, Legislative Bodies, or Culture?

| | | | |

|Subject |Source of Evaluation |Value Terms |Sanctions |

| | | | |

|Ethics |Reason |morally right, morally wrong; moral, |Conscience. Praise and blame from others. |

| | |immoral | |

| | | | |

|Religion |Religious authorities |right and wrong (sin) |Conscience. Eternal reward and punishment |

| | | |from supernatural agent or force. |

| | | | |

|Law |Legislative bodies, judicial|legal and illegal |Determined by legislative and judicial bodies.|

| |bodies. | | |

| | | | |

|Manners |Culture |proper, improper; polite, rude |Social approbation and disapprobation. |

Tests for “Ethics” Rules

Louis Pojman points out that the rules we need to guide our actions so that many people are able to flourish must pass the following tests. If you think about them, you’ll see why these five tests are good ways of deciding whether something is an ethical rule at all!

1. Prescriptivity: the rule must be a prescription for behavior. It is expressed as an injunction or imperative, to guide action. Ex: “First do no harm.”

2. Universalizability: the rule must apply to all persons who are in a relevantly similar situation.

3. Overridingness: the rule must have hegemonic authority. Ethics rules are not the only principles, but they take precedence over other considerations, including aesthetic, prudential, and legal ones.

4. Publicity: in order to achieve their purpose of prescribing and evaluating behavior, the rule must be stated publicly. (It would defeat the purpose of ethics to keep it a secret.)

5. Practicability: human beings must be capable of following the rule. This means in part that people must be able to understand and apply the rule. It also means that it must be possible to act in accordance with it. (A moral principle that was literally impossible to follow could not serve as a guide to action, so it would be self-defeating.)

Discussion Problem

Heinz Dilemma: A woman was near death from a type of cancer. There was one drug that might save her, something that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The druggist was charging ten times what the drug cost to produce. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said: "No.” Heinz broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should Heinz have stolen the drug? Why or why not? [This dilemma was used extensively by Lawrence Kohlberg, a moral psychologist, in his research.]

Sources: Kant, Groundwork; Mill, Utilitarianism; Pojman, Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong.

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