• ETHICS

• Prof. Amie Moulik

• Ethics (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions
about morality—that is, concepts such as good and bad, noble and ignoble, right and wrong,
justice, and virtue.

• It has evolved from the Greek word “ethos” referring to character or custom or acceptable
behaviour.

• Significance of Ethics

• Every individual spends a huge amount of time trying to build “REPUTATION” and a single
act of insanity can reduce it to ashes.

• Repute once lost has no possible option of salvaging, it doesn’t rise like a phoenix from its
ashes it has to be rebuild again from scratch.

• Ethics ensures that your repute remains intact provided you listen to your gut feel
(conscience).

• Eg: Cadbury’s worm delight, pesticide flavoured coke.

• Objectives of ethics

• Study of human behaviour – makes evaluative assessment about moral or immoral (a

diagnostic goal).

• Establishes moral standards/norms of behaivour.

• Makes judgement upon human behaviour based on these standards & norms.

• Prescribes moral behaivour; makes recommendations about how to or how not to behave
(therapeutic / beneficial goal).

• Expresses an opinion or attitude about human conduct in general.

• Importance of ethics

• Requirement for human life.

• Deciding a course of action (random/aimless).

• Correctly organize our goals & actions to accomplish our most important values.

• Reduce flaws & be successful in our endeavors.

• Baseline for understanding concepts of right & wrong.

• Helps us react to a certain situation long before that situation happens.

• Ethics acts as a mediator when dealing or coming into contact with other people.
 • We pass it on to others regardless of whether it involves our personal or business life.

• Nature of ethics

• Concept of ethics

• Deals with human beings only as they are endowed with freedom of choice & means of free
will.

• Human beings can distinguish between good & evil, right & wrong, just & proper

• Human being can distinguish between the end he wishes to pursue & the means to gain that
end.

• Only human being faces questions of ethics, values & moral conduct.

• Study of ethics

• A set of systematic knowledge about moral behaivour and conduct

• A science – a field of social science.

• Science of ethics (normative science)

• Judge the values of the facts in terms of an ideal situation.

• Concerned not with factual judgements but with judgements of “what ought to be”.

• Ethics is concerned with judgement of value or what ought to be; seeks to determine the
nature of the norm ideal or standards & seeks to enquire into the fitness of human actions
to this ideal.

• Deals with human conduct

• Voluntary; not forced or coerced (pressurize) by persons or circumstances.

• Eg: injuring or killing a person who has come to kill you is not a moral or legal offence, a cold
blooded murder is the highest kind of moral or legal crime)

• Six primary sources of ethics

1. Genetic inheritance

• The qualities of goodness is a product of genetic traits strengthened over time by the
evolutionary process.

2. Religion

• Religious morality is clearly a primary focus in shaping our societal ethics.

3. Philosophical systems
 • The quality of pleasure to be derived from an act was the essential measure of its goodness
as per the epicureans (devoted to sensual pleasures & luxury – esp. good food).

• Stoics (patient & uncomplaining) like the puritans (followers of strict moral code) & many
contemporary / modern Americans advocated a hardworking, thrifty / economic life style.

• Such philosophies have been instrumental in our society’s moral development.

4. Cultural experience

• Rules, customs & standards transmitted from generation to generation act as guidelines for
appropriate conduct.

• Individual values are shaped in large measure by the norms of the society.

5. The legal system

• Law is an ever-changing approximation of current perception of right & wrong.

• Laws represent a rough approximation of society’s ethical standards.

6. Codes of conduct

There are 3 primary categories of codes

• Company codes

• Company operating policies

• Codes of ethics.

• 9 THEORIES

• Situational ethics

• Consequential ethics

• Value ethics

• Utilitarian ethics

• Moralistic ethics

• Ethical realism

• Ethical hierarchies

• Principle ethics

• Moral development

• Situational – depends on situation (lying is wrong, but if you avoid hurting someone’s feeling
its acceptable).
 • Consequential – depends on action (lying is not wrong if results are positive).

• Value – what do you feel is right (conscience).

• Utilitarian – the behaviour that provided the most benefit is ethical behaviour (if you can kill
one person to save many, it is OK to do so).

• Moralistic – there are certain moral situations in which something is always right or always
wrong (pacifists (antiwar) may believe war is ALWAYS wrong, no matter how justified it may
seem).

• Ethical realism – recognises that in real world ethical principles can conflict & the best one
has to be chosen.

• Ethical hierarchies – certain ethical values are more important than others; choose that most
important when a conflict arises.

• Principle ethics – ethical values are just principles or theories to guide decisions.

• Moral development – this suggests that ethics can be taught & that the greater levels of
ethical behaviour can be achieved as one learns more.

• Model of ethics

• Major branches of ethics include

• meta-ethics, about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how
their truth-values (if any) may be determined;

• normative ethics, about the practical means of determining a moral course of action;

• applied ethics, about how moral outcomes can be achieved in specific situations;

• moral psychology, about how moral capacity or moral agency develops and what its nature
is; and

• descriptive ethics, about what moral values people actually abide by.

Theories of ethics

Prof. Amie Moulik

Meta ethics

Seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties, ethical statements, attitudes & judgement.

It speaks about the theoretical meaning and reference of moral propositions and how their truth-
values (if any) may be determined

It addresses questions as

1. What is goodness?
 2. How can we tell what is good from what is bad?

Metaphysical issues – deals with the question whether the moral values exist independently of
humans or whether they are simply human conventions (principle).

Psychological issues – deals with the psychological basis of the moral action.

Linguistic issues – deals with the meaning of the key moral terms we use.

Normative ethics or Prescriptive Ethics

Normative implies something that guides or controls thus “normative ethics” is that branch of ethics
that guides human conduct.

Traditionally, normative ethics (also known as moral theory) was the study of what makes actions
right and wrong. These theories offered an overarching moral principle one could appeal to in
resolving difficult moral decisions.

It is the branch of philosophical ethics that investigates the set of questions that arise when we think
about the question “how ought to one act, morally speaking?”

Eg: Golden rule (Biblical/Bible Ten Commandments)

Theories of normative ethics

Teleological Theory

The word “Teleo” in Greek means “end/goal/purpose” and “logos” means “logic/reason”. Thus
teleological means “thinking rationally about ends”.

It is also called as “consequentialist” theories.

In this theory an action is considered morally correct if the consequences of that action are more
favourable than unfavourable.

To judge whether the consequence of an action is favourable or not, one first has to list the good &
bad consequences & then determine which aspect outweighs the other.

The drawback of this theory is that it is very difficult to quantify the consequence of our actions.
More over perception & interpretation differs from person to person.

Egoism – an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favourable than
unfavourable only to the individual performing the action.

Utilitarianism – an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favourable
than unfavourable to everyone.

Altruism – an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favourable than
unfavourable to everyone except the individual.

Utilitarianism
Bentham is a widely recognised leader of utilitarianism & a proponent of the view that we should
judge ideas, actions & institutions on the basis of their utility or usefulness, or their ability to
produce happiness.

Bentham also made ethics practical as he proposed a system for measuring the amount of pleasure
& pain, through a device called the hedonistic calculus.

The greatest advantage of hedonistic calculus is that it provides a method of talking about ethics
that is open, public, objective & fair.

He identified 7 aspects of an action’s consequence that can be used to compare the results of
different deeds.

They were the intrinsic strength of pleasurable or painful feelings produced:

1. How long they last – duration

2. How likely it is that these sensations will be produced by a given action – certainty &
uncertainty

3. How soon they will be felt – propinquity or remoteness

4. Whether these feelings will lead to further pleasures (fecundity / productiveness) or pain
(purity)

5. The member of people affected by the act – extent

This theory has a democratic approach – while everyone’s happiness counts, no one’s happiness
counts for more than another’s.

Strengths & weakness of Teleological theory

Strength

It is in accord with much of our ordinary moral reasoning that an action would provide some benefit
or inflict some harm.

Provides a relatively precise & objective method for moral decision making where in the decision
maker needs to only determine the possible courses of action & calculate the consequences of each
one.

Weakness

Though much of our ordinary moral reasoning is teleological, some are decidedly non-teleological in
character. We have an obligation to keep our promises, even when more good might be achieved by
breaking them.

Deontological Theory

The word “deno” in Greek means “duty or obligation” it believes in the built-in worth of the action
itself whether good or bad.
This theory focuses on certain fundamental duties that we have as humans, such as not committing
murder or theft.

These duties stress that rightness of an act is derived from some feature of the action itself, with
reference to its consequences.

Some actions are inherently considered good (honesty, respecting others) while some are bad
(dishonesty, theft) no matter how much good may come from lying, the action will never be right. A
deontological approach to ethics sees rights to fairness, equality, justice, honesty and the respect of
one’s dignity as rooted in the fundamental characteristics that define our nature.

The duties upheld by this theory is classified under 3 headings:

1. Duties to god, including honouring him & praying to him.

2. Duties to oneself, includes preserving one’s life & sharing happiness.

3. Duties to others, including family duties, social duties & political duties.

One of the profounder of this theory is Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) who called his moral law the
categorical imperative – a command that holds no matter what the circumstances.

Kant believed that it must not simply conform to a moral law, but from a sense of duty, should be
internally consistent & universally valid.

W. D.Ross a philosopher talked about deontological theory consisting of a set of “absolute moral
rules.”

Absolute moral rules suggested by W.D.Ross

Strengths & weakness of Deontological theory

Strengths

Makes sense of cases in which consequences seem to be irrelevant

 Eg: Mfg. honour a warranty on defective part, though it terminates in extra cost & affecting
the customer in satisfaction.

It takes into account the role of motives in evaluating actions

 Eg: Charity out of genuine concern & out of display.

The rightness of actions depends only or in part of the motives from which they are performed & not
on the consequences

Weakness

Fails to give a likely account of how we can know our moral obligations & resolve problems of moral
conflict.
There is no reason provided for accepting Ross’s theory nor is there any order of priority among the
rules.

People at different times & in different places might reject Ross’s rules or regard others equally
worthy.

Distinction between Deontological & Utilitarianism

Deontological

Principle inherent in action.

Individuals are valuable in themselves & not because of their social value.

Theory asserts that there are some actions that are always wrong, no matter what the
consequences.

Often recognises self defense & other special circumstances as excusing killing, but the killing is not
exactly intentional.

Utilitarianism

Outside the action

Criticised because it appears to tolerate sacrificing some people for the sake of others.

Right or wrong are dependent on the consequences vary with the circumstances.

Every person is counted equally, no person’s unhappiness/happiness is more important than

another.

Cont…….

Deontological

According to deontologists, the utilitarian go wrong when they fix on happiness as the highest good.
They point out that happiness cannot be the highest good for humans.

Utilitarianism

Concerned with total amount of happiness; we can imagine situations where great overall happiness
might result from sacrificing the happiness of a few.

 Death of one person & using his organs to save ten lives by transplantation.

Holistic Theory / Virtue Ethics

It places much less emphasis on which rules people should follow & instead focus on helping people
develop good character traits, such as kindness & generosity.
These character traits will, in turn allow a person to make correct decisions later in life. That is
emphasizes on character development rather than the articulation / expression of abstract moral
principles that guide actions.

Virtue theorists also emphasize the need for people to learn how to break bad habits of character,
like greed or anger, as these are vices & stand in the way of a person becoming good.

If a moral principle is to be accepted, it must be:

Prescriptive – formulated as an imperative or command, to emphasize that the proposed action is

obligatory.

Universal – not restricted to a particular group but is applicable to any person in a given situation.

Overriding – should be a primary consideration in action assessment.

Public – presupposes social interaction.

Practical – must be achievable by an average individual in ordinary circumstances.

Applied ethics:

It is a branch of ethics that deals with specific, often controversial moral issues in different fields
which are as follows:

1. Medical field: Abortion, female foeticide & infanticide etc.

2. Business field: misleading advertisement, insider trading, bribery, corruption etc.

3. Others: displacement of tribal people due to hydro – electrical projects, cloning, testing
drugs on animals etc.

What is the difference between descriptive, normative & applied ethics ???

Descriptive ethics:

What do people think is right?

Normative /prescriptive ethics:

How people should act?

Applied ethics:

How do we take moral knowledge & put it into practice?

 Applied ethics is distinguished from normative ethics, which is concerned with what people
should believe to be right & wrong. It is distinct from meta-ethics which is concerned with
the nature of moral statements.

Other theories:

Nature law theory:

The idea that morality is based on human nature is a central tenet of natural law theory.

This theory had its primary source in the philosophy of Aristotle (384 B.C.) who elieved that what we
ought to do, & what we ought not to do was determined by considering some aspects of nature.

Aristotle believed that our rational element had 2 functions:

1. To know

2. To choose a action, wisely.

He named it “prudential choice” which is unique to persons specific capacities of knowing &
choosing freely.

Those things that help us pursue truth like education are good, and those that hinder our pursue of
the truth are bad.

Machiavelli School:

Nicrolo Machiavelli was born on 3rd May, 1469, in Florence, Italy and was associated with corrupt,
totalitarian government.

His goal was to rule Italy & he worked relentlessly towards that end.

This is another approach to business ethics, where survival of the organisation is the acid test to
judge whether it is good for the society.

More & more corporations thrive on this approach which is top sided & immoral.

Hedonistic School:

Hedonism is the doctrine that teaches happiness is the highest good.

Rational behaviour is one behaviour that increases pleasure and decreases pain.

Praxis School:

Motive & intentions have to be clear & straight forward.

“If it works, it is good”.