Jagoan Papa

Eight theories of Ethics Gordon Graham

1. Ethics, truth and reason
2. Egoism
3. Hedonism
4. Naturalism and virtue theory
5. Existentialism
6. Kantianism
7. Utilitarianism
8. Contractualism

1. ETHICS, TRUTH AND REASON

 Morality deals with matter of values – personal opinions
 Moral philosophy has its origins in a debate about its truth/falsehood
 There is no scope for proof and demonstration
 Persuading people to believe what you believe rather than proving them that your beliefs are true
 Subjectivism and objectivism harus ada untuk membuat philosophical options and rational decision
 We have to consider resons for and against either position

Plato and Socrates

 The issue between Socrates (or plato) and the sophist is about disagreement about the objectivity of morality
 The good and bad, right and wrong reflect subjective opinion and desire – what human feel
 With this debate, moral philosophy in Western tradition began

Relativism and Subjectivism

 There is no right or wrong
 ABORTION: agreement on matters of medical science but not on medical ethics
 In science, opinions progress over time. But in ethics and morality, opinions change, they don’t progress because there is no
possibility of proof or disproof, just disagreement.

Moral Realism
 Subjectivism is sometimes called ‘non-cognitivism’ = not a matter of knowledge
 some people believe to be right, others believe to be wrong
 moral realism adalah pandangan yang menentang dari suatu hal
 the theory that moral values (yang jahat dan baik) adalah sifat nyata seseorang  theory ini dilawan oleh Hume
 Menurut Hume: an action is all subjective. Semua itu dilihat dari diri kita sendiri, bukan tindakannya.
 Intinya, menurut Hume, semua yang kita lakuin mau salah atau benar itu tidak dapat dilihat secara objective tapi secara
subjective dari diri kita sendiri.

Moral Rationalism
 Harus gabungan antara ‘matter of fact’ and ‘relation of ideas’
 Moral rationalism is moral reasoning
 Moral maters can be reasoned about, because some moral principles concern relation between ideas
 Reasoning needs the combination of knowledge of facts, understanding of the concept, and combine both fact and
understanding in logically valid patterns of reasoning
 Pada akhirnya, conclusion yang diambil adalah yang paling jelas dan tidak diperdebatkan. Itu semua tergantung dari seberapa
jelas dan logical reasoningnya.

Objectivism
 Moral rationalism is a form of objectivism
 Four positions:
1. Hard subjectivism: moral and evaluative questions never have any right answers
2. Soft subjectivism: in many such questions, there are never any right answers
3. Hard objectivism: for every moral question, there is a right answer
4. Soft objectivism for any moral question, there may be a right answer
 Any moral matter reason may be able to point a resolution that is clearer and more convincing
 Jagoan Papa
8. CONTRACTUALISM
The Force of Agreement
 The logic is like to keep a promise. That when someone say “why should I keep my promise?” is a question that makes no
sense
 The appeal is not directly to the need of others, but rather to his or her own past action
 Morality is thought of as the set of rules and principles that we need to agree upon if society is to function properly.
 Two key concept of contractualism: the state of nature and the social contract
o State of nature: social and political structures
o Social contract: relations between individuals in society

JOHN LOCKE AND ‘TACIT’ CONSENT

 He takes for granted the existence of a natural moral law, and his question is how this natural law is related to civil society
and the laws of the state.
 His answer is that the laws of the state should reflect, interpret and enforce the natural moral law
 He nowhere has the idea that the social compact brings those laws into being, or gives them authority.

JOHN RAWLS AND ‘HYPOTHETICAL CONSENT’

 Express consent derives from words that have been spoken, tacit consent from actions that have been performed
 Consent is actual, and the problem is that, with respect to rules whose purpose is to determine what is and what is not
acceptable social behaviour, there is virtually no one whose consent to them can be said to be actual, whether express or
tacit.
 hypothetical consent cannot make good this absence and cannot therefore secure what actual consent secures.

HOBBES AND THE DEICTATES OF PRACTICAL REASON

 Hobbes reasons from a state of nature to a civilized state
 “there is no place for industry; . . . no culture of the earth; no navigation. . . no commodious building; . . . no knowledge of
the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger
of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” – Hobbes
 this arise from the belief that people are naturally egoistic
 His argument is that everyone has a clear practical reason to get out of this ‘state of nature’ whatever their purposes of
desires, because in the ‘war of all against all’ the plans of the egoist no less than the desires of the unselfish will in probability
come to nothing
 Rational egoists should accept enforceable rules of social order because there are in their own best interest even where the
application of these rules conflicts with their immediate purposes and desires

POLITICS, MORALITY AND RELIGION

 Moral yang diterima di setiap negara atau agama itu berbeda-beda. Sehingga tidak ada specific moral beliefs yang harus
diikuti atau dipercaya oleh semua orang. Semua itu tergantung sudut pandang seseorang, mana yang dapat diterima atau
tidak – seperti homosexual, aborsi, laws regarding marriage, etc.
 Tidak semua behavior yang kita pikir immoral itu dapat masuk ke law secara resmi – like telling lies, being disloyal to friends,
gossiping, maliciously, etc.
 Natural rights are God-given; thus the authority of morality comes not from the state but from God