Ethics Questions

1) Human beings should always be treated as ‘ends’ in

themselves and never as merely `means’. Explain the
meaning and significance of this statement, giving its
implications in the modern techno-economic society. (150
Words)

2) Some people feel that values keep changing with time

and situation, while others strongly believe that there are
certain universal and eternal human values. Give your
perception in this regard with due justification. (150 Words)
ETHICS
INTRODUCTION
Ethics - Simple Definition

The field of ethics (or moral philosophy)

involves systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of right and wrong
behaviour.

The branch of knowledge that deals with

moral principles
Deontological Definition

The philosophical science that directs or

guides voluntary human actions according to
ultimate principles discovered by human
reason alone. (Deontological definition)
 Other Definitions
Ethics introduces a radical kind of doubt into the
everyday world. Ethics looks at the future; it is
concerned with the goodness and rightness of
man's doing and making...

Ethics seeks to clarify the logic and the adequacy

of the values that shape the world; it assesses the
moral possibilities which are projected and
portrayed in the social give-and-take
Terrorism
Victims?
Food Crisis
Victims?
Climate Change?
Victims? - Innocents
Pollution
Religion?
River Pollution
Victims - Children?
Violence against Women
Moral corruption
Safeer Karim IPS
 Ethics vs Morals
Ethics are set of principles followed by
society

Morals are set of principles followed by an

individual

For you adultery may be immoral, but it may

be ethical for your community
 ETHICS

Metaethics

Normative Ethics

Applied Ethics
 METAETHICS
Metaethics investigates where our ethical principles come from, and
what they mean

It is concerned with the first principles or fundamental aspects of ethics

Example: Where do values come from? Where do morals exist? Are

moral standards culturally relative?

Some philosophers might argue that morality is a human creation

designed by the rich and powerful to control and exploit others!

Some philosophers want to explore relationship between morality,

justice and human welfare
 NORMATIVE ETHICS
Normative ethics takes on a more practical task, which is to arrive at moral standards that
regulate right and wrong conduct

Normative means that is something to do with norms or regulations

For example The "Golden Rule" was given by Jesus of Nazareth: "Do to others what you
want them to do to you.”

Other examples: How individuals should behave in an organisation or society; Code of

conduct or code of ethics;

Normative ethics is also known as prescriptive ethics - it prescribes norms

It is different from Descriptive ethics - which is more concerned with empirical

investigation such as what proportion of people believe that cow slaughter is always
wrong, whereas normative ethics seeks to set guidelines prescribing why cow should not
be killed
 Normative Ethics
The key assumption in normative ethics is that there is
only one ultimate criterion of moral conduct, whether it
is a single rule or a set of principles

Three strategies:

1) Virtue Ethics

2) Duty Ethics

3) Consequentialist Ethics
 Virtue Ethics
It  focuses on the character of those who are acting

It places less emphasis on learning rules, and instead stresses the

importance of developing good habits of character, such as benevolence,
empathy and compassion

Plato emphasized four virtues in particular, which were later called cardinal

virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance ( abstinence from alcoholic drink)
and justice. 

Other virtues: fortitude, generosity, self-respect, good temper, and

sincerity

Advocating moral education in schools fits into virtue ethics category

 Virtue - Golden Mean
virtue theorists hold that we should avoid acquiring bad
character traits, or vices, such as cowardice, insensibility,
injustice, and vanity

Aristotle - the golden mean. Moral behavior is the mean between

two extremes - at one end is excess, at the other deficiency.

Too much fortitude might harm you or others, deficiency of it

leads to cowardice

To find the golden mean, it is not an easy task - we need

assistance from our reason
 Aristotle’s 11 Virtues
Moral Virtues 

1. Courage in the face of fear

2. Temperance in the face of pleasure and pain

3. Liberality with wealth and possessions

4. Magnificence with great wealth and possessions

5. Magnanimity with great honors

6. Proper ambition with normal honors

7. Truthfulness with self-expression

8. Wittiness in conversation

9. Friendliness in social conduct

10. Modesty in the face of shame or shamelessness

11. Righteous indignation in the face of injury

There can be a question just like Gandhiji’s Seven Sins

 Values vs Virtues
If values are the goal, virtues are the way to get there.

A virtue is a characteristic of a person which supports individual moral

excellence and collective well being.

Such characteristics are valued as a principle and recognised as a good way to be.

Value could be both culturally and personally explained while a virtue could only be
explained in a personal sense.

Virtues are innate good qualities or morals within people, whereas values are goals
that individuals or societies strive to achieve

For example, if establishing peace is the value, fortitude is the virtue one needs to
fight those who disturb peace
 Values
Authenticity
Boldness
Achievement
Compassion
Adventure
Challenge
Authority
Citizenship
Autonomy
Competency
Balance
• Creativity • Happiness

• Curiosity • Honesty

• Fairness • Humor

• Faith • Influence

• Fame • Inner Harmony

• Friendships • Kindness

• Fun • Leadership

• Growth • Learning
 List of Values
• Love
• Responsibility
• Loyalty
• Security
• Openness
• Self-Respect
• Optimism
• Service
• Peace
• Spirituality
• Pleasure
• Stability
• Poise
• Success
• Reputation
• Wealth
• Respect
 Seven Sins - Gandhiji
Wealth Without Work

Pleasure Without Conscience

Knowledge Without Character

Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)

Science Without Humanity

Religion Without Sacrifice

Politics Without Principle

These sins originate due to lack of both virtues and values in an individual.
Wealth without Work
Politics without Principles and Other Sins
Science without Humanity
Aristotle - Eudaimonia
It is a central concept in Aristotelian ethics
used as the term for the highest human good,

Aristotle takes virtue and its exercise to be

the most important constituent in eudaimonia
but acknowledges also the importance of
external goods such as health, wealth, and
beauty.
 Duty Ethics
Also known as Deontology

The word deontology derives from the Greek words for duty (deon) and science (or study) of (logos).

Deontology falls within the domain of moral theories that guide and assess our choices of what we
ought to do (deontic theories), in contrast to those that guide and assess what kind of person we are
and should be (virtue theories)

In deontological ethics an action is considered morally good because of some characteristic of the
action itself, not because the product of the action is good

Deontological ethics holds that at least some acts are morally obligatory regardless of their
consequences for human welfare

 “Duty for duty’s sake”

“Virtue is its own reward”

“Let justice be done though the heavens fall”

Let’s build Ram Mandir even if it means disturbing whole
country!
 Immanuel Kant - Categorical
Imperative
The first great philosopher to define deontological principles
was Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century German founder of critical
philosophy

Categorical Imperative - a moral law that is unconditional or absolute

for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any
ulterior motive or end.

“Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will
that it should become a universal law.”

Do not steal; Do not lie; Do not cheat….! Categorically wrong

According to Kant
Categorical Imperative
Immanuel kant
 Refugees must be protected as it upholds the value of
humanity and it’s the duty of humans to protect other humans
Rohingya - Categorical imperative?
“So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in
another, always as an end, and never as only a means.” - KANT
Natural Rights and Moral Rights
The most influential early account of rights theory is that of 17th century British
philosopher John Locke, who argued that the laws of nature mandate that we
should not harm anyone's life, health, liberty or possessions - these rights are
natural given to us by God.

Moral Rights: First, rights are natural insofar as they are not invented or created by
governments.

Second, they are universal insofar as they do not change from country to country.

Third, they are equal in the sense that rights are the same for all people,
irrespective of gender, race, or handicap.

Fourth, they are inalienable which means that I cannot hand over my rights to

another person, such as by selling myself into slavery.
 Consequentialism
(results-based ethics)
It was also known as Teleological ethics

Consequentialism is based on two principles:

• Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act

• The more good consequences an act produces, the better or more right that act

Two Forms

• Utilitarianism states that people should maximise human welfare or well-being

(which they used to call 'utility' - hence the name).

• Hedonism states that people should maximise human pleasure

 Utilitarianism
This says that the ethically right choice in a given situation is the
one that produces the most happiness and the least
unhappiness for the largest number of people.

Rohingya Issue - sending them back in the national interest

Uniform Civil Code

Sending soldiers to war to save country

Encounters - killing terrorists or criminals to ‘protect’ citizens

 Three subdivisions of consequentialism emerge:

• Ethical Egoism: an action is morally right if the consequences of that

action are more favourable than unfavourable only to the agent performing
the action.

• Ethical Altruism: an action is morally right if the consequences of

that action are more favourable than unfavourable to everyone except the
agent.

• Utilitarianism: an action is morally right if the consequences of that

action are more favourable than unfavourable to everyone.

Example: Accident victim and onlookers

 Jeremy Bentham
"Ethics at large may be
defined as the art of
directing men's actions to
the greatest production
of the greatest possible
quantity of happiness on
the part of those whose
interest is in vie..”
 Applied Ethics
Applied ethics is the branch of ethics which consists of the analysis of specific,
controversial moral issues such as abortion, animal rights, or euthanasia.

In recent years applied ethical issues have been subdivided into convenient
groups such as medical ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics etc

First, the issue needs to be controversial in the sense that there are significant
groups of people both for and against the issue at hand.

The second requirement for an issue to be an applied ethical issue is that it

must be a distinctly moral issue.

Reservations for minorities; Employing third genders in military; Prostitution;

 public versus private health care systems
 Human Action
ethics concentrates on human actions or on the
consequences of human actions

All these definitions of ethics suggest that it

focuses on human actions and their morality.

Ethics focuses only on people's deliberate

human actions, and not on undeliberate actions
or actions done because of ignorance.
Human Action - Determinants
Scholastic philosophers maintain that three
requirements must be concurrently present
for any action to be human:

(1) There must be some knowledge involved;

(2) There must be voluntariness present;

(3) The action must be freely done

Dimensions of Human Action
Knowledge is an essential requirement for an action to be human. As discussed in
psychology, we cannot will anything unless we first know it. So knowledge of some kind is an
absolute for an action to be human.

Besides knowledge, the action must be voluntary—that is, it must proceed from the will

Example: Pushing you one someone and causing them injury - not an human action, as no
free will is involved

The third element in a human action is that it must be freely done

Free will means that human beings have choices

That means that while an actor may be the cause of an action, the actor was operating under
conditions such as force or fear that prevented the action from being freely done

Example: Demonetisation! - citizens forced to give up cash against their choice, stand in
queues against their will
 Story of Eklavya

Food for thought..

Identify the ethical issues

in the case of Eklavya and
Dronacharya story