Webs



History of Moral Philosophy

The field of moral philosophy addresses the foundation of society's rules. It is behind every important law, from the condemnation of murder to the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. Moral philosophy is a discourse, and the rules change over time. This might imply that they are subjective because laws differ from place to place. However, the rationalist Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) stated that an action should only be performed if it could safely become a universal law. No one should allow himself to do something he would not want everyone else to do. Only recently has morality come to be considered subjective, with Nietzsche (1844-1900) encouraging a personal morality and Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) encouraging individuals to make their own judgments. Such debates continue to feature in today's moral philosophy.

The question of how best to lead a moral life, and how the word "morality" can be best defined, is one of the foundational questions of philosophy. Moral philosophers (or Ethicists) have, over the years, formulated numerous theories designed to help people make the best moral decisions. These theories often come into conflict with each other, however, and a firm grasp of their basic differences is essential for those who want to study moral philosophy.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism, first popularized by British philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill in the 19th century, is a theory that holds that the best way to make a moral decision is to look at the potential consequences of each available choice, and then pick the option that either does most to increase happiness or does least to increase suffering. Utilitarianism, also known as consequentialism, is often summed up as a philosophy of "The greatest good for the greatest number."

Deontology

Deontology is a duty-based moral theory. Deontology states that society needs rules in order to function, and that a person can only be called moral to the extent that he abides by those rules. The most famous and eloquent exponent of deontology is generally agreed to be Immanuel Kant. Kant coined the following maxim, known as the Categorical Imperative, to help people decide which actions should be governed by rules: "Act only according to that maxim by which you can also will that it would become a universal law." In other words, people should only do things that they would be happy to see everyone do. For example, people shouldn't lie, because if everyone lied all the time then society would collapse.

Relativism

Moral relativism is a theory which states that no one person's morals are better or worse than any other. Relativists argue that a person's moral code is shaped by the society in which he is raised, and that no society is inherently better or worse than any other.

Divine Command Theory

Divine command theory states that God is the ultimate arbiter of what constitutes morality and that without God we have no clear way of telling right from wrong. Divine command theorists therefore believe that the best way to live a moral life is to act in accordance with Scripture.

Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics states that only good people can make good moral decisions. Therefore, the best way to be moral is to constantly seek to improve oneself. Virtue ethicists list a number of qualities that they believe are universal, and are appreciated in all cultures. They include wisdom, prudence, loyalty, honesty, temperance, bravery, magnanimity, and justice. Virtue ethicists argue that if a person tries his best to embody these traits, then by definition he will always be in a good position to make moral judgments.

Egoism

Egoism is a philosophy that holds that the best way for one to be morally good is to act in accordance with one's self-interest. Egoists hold that we are only really qualified to consider our own well-being, and that attempts to "Be one's brother's keeper" are doomed to fail because we can never really know what our peers actually want. Egoists also believe that if everyone acts in their own self-interest, then moral dilemmas are much more likely to be resolved to the satisfaction of all parties, thereby maximizing overall happiness.

The Theory of Natural Rights

Natural rights theorists believe that every person is endowed with certain inalienable rights, such as the right to life, the right to own property, and the right to liberty. Natural rights theorists argue that these rights are self-evident, and would exist even if nobody believed in them. The reason that natural rights theorists hold these rights as self-evident is that they are essential to the flourishing of human happiness and the foundation of civil society. For example, they argue that without the right to own property, there is no incentive to create property and therefore there is no mechanism by which society can advance.

Types of Moral Theories

The question of how best to lead a moral life, and how the word "morality" can be best defined, is one of the foundational questions of philosophy. Moral philosophers (or Ethicists) have, over the years, formulated numerous theories designed to help people make the best moral decisions. These theories often come into conflict with each other, however, and a firm grasp of their basic differences is essential for those who want to study moral philosophy.

-Applied Ethics

Applied ethics is the most specific type of moral philosophy. It takes an individual issue and asks, "What is right or wrong in this situation?" The answer is not always objective. For instance, with the abortion debate, those who are anti-abortion believe it is morally wrong to destroy the life of a potential human being, while those who want abortion to be legal believe each potential mother has the moral right to have an abortion.

As in the abortion example, applied ethics is often concerned with doing what a person believes is right and in keeping a clean conscience. On the other hand, it can also be utilitarian, meaning that for an action to be morally right, its consequences must be advantageous. Finally, applied ethics can be a set of rules of moral conduct, such as those we teach children when we tell them not to hit others because it hurts them or laws prohibiting murder or theft.

-Normative Ethics

Another type of moral philosophy is normative ethics. Rather than determining what is right and wrong in any given situation--the job of applied ethics--normative ethics assesses the factors that enable us to make moral decisions in the first place. It considers three main factors: the action, the person who performs the action and the action's consequences.

If the focus is on the action, we find that some actions are considered to be fundamentally wrong, no matter who performs them or what their consequences are. This focus of normative ethics is called deontology, from the Greek word "deon," meaning "duty."

If the focus is on the person performing the action, moral action becomes a question of the person's virtues. This is called virtue ethics. People possess moral traits such as generosity, and in order to be moral, they must act on them rather than acting on bad traits. An action is therefore moral according to whether the person's intentions are good.

Finally, if the focus is on the consequences of an action, all that matters is the outcome of the action. This is called consequentialism, and it emphasizes that the end justifies the means. In this way, it is similar to utilitarianism. People are supposed to take actions that have positive results, such as happiness.

-Analytic Ethics

Analytic ethics, also known as meta-ethics, is not concerned with determining what is right and wrong but instead debates moral philosophy on an abstract level. It asks questions about the nature of morality, rather than the specifics of right and wrong. For instance, analytic ethics ask whether morals exist naturally in the world or are man-made, and whether they can be objective.

Significance

Together, the three branches of moral philosophy help people answer the tough decisions with which they are faced every day. Only by stepping back from a situation and analyzing it with these types of moral philosophy can someone come to a moral decision. Questioning existing rules and thinking through moral choices can help everyone keep a clean conscience and make the world a more decent place.

Four Types of Ethical Conflict

Ethical dilemmas and conflicts deal with morality applied to human relationships. Often paradoxes --- upholding one moral principle would mean violating another --- the study of ethical conflicts is a branch of moral philosophy. Most types of ethical conflicts deal with moral imperatives central to human societies and, thus, most often arise in legal fields, medical professions, politics and business.

Legal Conflicts

Criminal justice systems ultimately derive from cultural interpretations of moral behavior, a process that began when Aristotle first asked the ancient Greeks, "What is good?" "What is right action?" Western legal systems answer that question relativistically: "for the greater good" as interpreted by society, as in "X is illegal here." Despotic and totalitarian systems, or those fully based on religions, practice legal absolutism: "X is illegal because we say it is."

Medical Ethics

As a type of ethical conflict, the field of medical ethics involves issues such as informed consent, patient confidentiality and refusal of treatment. In each case, a moral code evolved to deal with ethical dilemmas. While a patient has a reasonable right to expect that confidentiality be maintained, clinicians are ethically (and legally) obligated to breach confidentiality in cases of child, elder or domestic abuse.

Public Policy

In the political realm, ethical conflicts involve policy decisions --- "Is this a just war?" "Is water boarding torture?" --- to questions of international diplomacy, such as, "What are the ethical obligations of superpowers?" Political ethics are a type of meta-ethics, in that they deal with the interaction between societies and their approach to the world at large.

Applied Ethics

Conflicts in applied ethics focus on clearly moral issues: animal rights, gays in the military or right-to-life issues. Professional ethics, a subset of applied ethics, deals with specific groups, such as businesses or journalists. A journalist refusing to disclose a source is applying a "normative principle" of applied ethics, in that society values the free and unfettered sharing of information.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download