KEY WORDS

 Ethics

o Ethics is primarily concerned with valuations. What kind? Ethical or moral

valuations. It enables us to recognize the notions of good and bad, and right
and wrong – judging an issue to be good or bad, or making decisions that is
right, and avoid doing what is wrong. Ethics allows for these.
o Ethics deals with the question about what could or should be considered as
the right way of acting. The discipline of studying and understanding ideal
human behavior and ideal ways of thinking which bring about these
behaviors.
o Applies to all human beings, not only some. Relativism is what makes ethics
impossible.
 Morality

o There is no consensus as to how to make the distinction between ethics and

morality. The terms ethics and morality are used interchangeably in this
course.
o A person’s personal conduct is referred to as his morals, and if he falls short
of behaving properly, this can be described as immoral.
o Ethical valuations are based on expectations of how one should think and
behave in different situations.
 Aesthetics

o There are many kinds of valuations, not only ethical; hence, we must be able
to distinguish ethical valuations from other kinds of valuations, i.e.,
aesthetical, etiquette, and technical.
o One way to distinguish ethical valuation from other kinds of valuation is its
gravity. The three other kinds of valuations are on less grave matters
compared with matters dealt with in ethics.
o They involve valuations that we make in a sphere of human actions,
characterized by certain gravity and concern the well-being or human life
itself.
o Therefore, matters that concern life and death such as war, capital
punishment, or abortion and matters that concern human-well-being such as
poverty, inequality, or sexual identity are often included in discussion of
ethics.
o Although it is always not clear as to what belongs to ethics and what does
not. It can also become a subject matter of ethics the question whether a
certain sphere of human activities belong to this discussion.
o Aesthetic valuations are judgments of personal approval or disapproval that
we make about what we see, hear, smell, or taste.
 Etiquette

o Concerned with right and wrong actions, but those which might be
considered not quite grave enough to belong to a discussion in ethics. To

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 clarify this point, we can differentiate how I may be displeased seeing a
healthy young man refuse to offer his seat on the bus to an elderly lady but
my indignation and shock would be much greater if I were to see a man
deliberately push another one out of a moving bus.
o Chewing gum in class vs pulling someone’s hair example
 Technique

o Travelling in basketball example

o Can a technical valuation also be ethical?
 Descriptive

o Reports how people, particularly groups, make their moral valuations without
making any judgment either for or against these valuations.
 Normative/Prescriptive

o What could or should be considered as the right way of acting? In other

words, a normative discussion prescribes what we ought to maintain as our
standards or bases for moral valuations.
o Standards or bases for moral valuations are not arbitrary, they must satisfy
the minimum conception of morality: reasonable and impartial.
o It does not simply accept as correct any normative theory.
o A philosophical discussion of ethics engages in a critical consideration of the
strengths and weaknesses of these theories. This will be our primary concern
throughout the semester.
 Issue, Decision, Judgment, and Dilemma

o Situation that calls for moral valuation.

o A penniless mother’s concern to feed her hungry child example
 Positive Law

o Refers to the different rules and regulations that are posited or put forward
by an authority figure that require compliance.
 Divine Command Theory

o The problem of difference

o The Euthyphro Dilemma
 The divine will could be arbitrary
 There are standards of right and wrong that we can refer to
independently of God. We do not obey a command of God because
he commanded it, but are looking for those objective standards of
right and wrong to which God simply concurs.
o Our calling into question of the divine command theory is not a calling into
question of one’s belief in God; it is not intended to be a challenge to one’s
faith. Instead, it is an invitation to consider whether there may be more
creative and less problematic ways of seeing the connection between faith
and ethics, rather than simply equating what is ethical with whatever one
takes to be commanded by God.

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 Cultural Relativism

o What is ethically acceptable or unacceptable is relative to, or that is to say,

dependent on one’s culture. Appealing because:
 Different societies have different moral codes.
 The moral code of a society determines what is right within that
society; so, if a society says that a certain action is right, then that
action is right, at least in that society.
 There is no objective standard that can be used to judge one society’s
code as better than another’s. There are no moral truths that hold for
all people at all times.
 The moral code of our own society has no special status; it is but one
among many.
 It is arrogant for us to judge other cultures. We should always be
tolerant of them.
o The cultural differences argument
 (1) Different cultures have different moral codes.
 (2) Therefore, there is no objective truth in morality. Right and wrong
are only matters of opinion, and opinions vary from culture to culture.
o Debunking the CDA:
 To make the point clearer, consider a different matter. In some
societies, people believe the earth is flat. In other societies, such as
our own, people believe that the earth is a sphere. Does it follow,
from the mere fact that people disagree, that there is no “objective
truth” in geography? Of course not; we would never draw such a
conclusion, because we realize that the members of some societies
might simply be wrong. Even if the world is round, some people might
not know it. Similarly, there might be some moral truths that are not
universally known. The Cultural Differences Argument tries to derive a
moral conclusion from the mere fact that people disagree. But this is
impossible.
o What follows from CA:
 We could no longer say that the customs of other societies are
morally inferior to our own.
 We could no longer criticize the code of our own society.
 The idea of moral progress is called into doubt.
 Subjectivism

o Me, myself, and I, is the source of MY moral valuations.

o Exhibits a close-mindedness that rightly invites censure from someone trying
to think more critically about values.
 Psychological Egoism

o There is already an underlying basis for how one acts. The ego or self has its
desires and interests, and all our actions are geared toward satisfying these
interests.

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 o You need not be aware of the underlying basis, or if you deny it, it is a
strategy of the ego or self as a way to further promote its interests.
o A cynical view of humanity, to a gloomy description of human nature, and
finally to a useless theory for someone who is concerned with asking herself
what is the right thing to do. This is because it ends up nullifying the
possibility of any normative ethics in its view of the already-determined
human being.
 Ethical Egoism

o It does not suppose all our actions are already inevitably self-serving. Instead,
ethical egoism prescribes that we should make our own ends, our own
interests, as the single overriding concern. We may act in a way that is
beneficial to others, but we should do that only if it ultimately benefits us.
o The theory acknowledges that it is a dog-eat-dog world out there and given
that, everyone ought to put herself at the center. One should consider herself
as the priority and not allow any other concerns, such as the welfare of other
people, to detract from this pursuit.
o A certain disorder, the absence of order or the lack of harmony, with desires
and appetites running rampant, results in acts of injustice.
o The presence of internal disorder in a person place in power turns the
seemingly pleasant prospect of doing whatever one want—of acting with
impunity—into a terrifying portrait of character without self-control or self-
possession.
o “Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (Lord Acton)

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