Course Subject: SocSci

Ethics – morality
• Morality – rules that we follow to determine which actions are
right or wrong, distinction between good or evil

• Importance of Rules (according to Hobbes)

- Rules are important because it prevents society from falling apart
- A society without rules is chaotic, life is short, brutish, nasty, etc.
- Hobbes believes that humans are innately selfish and rational
rational – capable of higher form of thinking

• Hobbes’ State of Nature – hypothetical world where there is no rules

and existence.
- this chaotic world without rules is what would push us to make rules

▪ Regulates behavior
▪ Protects individual rights and freedom
▪ Justice
▪ Rules and the economy
Moral vs. Non-moral Standards
Standard – rules
- not all rules are moral in nature
• Hypothetical Imperatives
- non-moral standards
- things that we do for non-moral reasons
examples: studying, fashion standards, etc.
- does not involve morality
- not obligated to strictly follow it
- does not make you good or bad
- dependent on people’s desire

• Categorical Imperatives
- moral standards
- things that we do for moral reasons
- involves morality or right and wrong
- it is our moral obligation to follow them

• Moral Standards
▪ Significant Effect
- affects the well being of another human being
- either good or bad effect, positive or negative effect
- following moral standard results to living without fear
- violating moral standard results to living with fear

▪ Superiority
- moral standards are superior to non-moral standards
- regardless of what we feel, we have an obligation to choose
moral standards if there is a conflict situation in moral and
non-moral standards
▪ Not established by authority figures
- laws are man-made, moral standards are not
- authority figures have no power to change moral standards
- laws are different from moral standards
- moral standards should be the basis of laws
 ▪ Universalizability
- action is universalizable if everyone should do it without
society falling apart
- action is not universalizable if everyone will do it and
society will collapse
▪ Impartial
- free from prejudice, biases
- follow your moral standards regardless of your beliefs, desires,
how you see other people
▪ Associated with special emotions
- following or not following standards triggers feelings or
emotions that are not usually felt when doing non-moral
standards based on intensity

• Moral Dilemma
▪ Dilemma
- situation where you have to choose between two or more
mutually exclusive options that have equally unpleasant
consequences or results
- equally negative situation
- not all dilemmas involve moral dilemma
example: non-moral dilemma – choosing between a gaming
desktop and gaming laptop
▪ Moral Dilemma
- choosing a decision that results to unpleasant results
affects morality
- has three levels: personal, organizational, structural
▪ Trolley Dilemma
- an ethical thought experiment where there is a runaway
trolley moving down railway tracks
▪ Mutually Exclusive
- accepting one option closes the other options that are
available
▪ Personal Dilemmas
- dilemmas that we ourselves experience
▪ Organizational Dilemmas
- dilemmas that are faced by social organization
example: government officials need to choose between
 prioritizing their mandate as public servants or repaying the
contributors first that helped them during their campaign
▪ Structural Dilemmas
- involves different organizations
- example: Different institutions, organizations are involved in
creating a vaccine. Their decision to lower or raise the price
of the vaccines affect the level of compensation for those
who worked in creating the vaccine and the accessibility of
the general public in getting the vaccine.

• Moral Agents
- moral individuals who are capable of making moral choices
- decides between good or bad
- distinguishes right from wrong
- rationality is important before someone can be considered as
moral agent
- humans are rational therefore humans are considered moral
agents
▪ Reason and Impartiality
- must be objective when deciding things
- rationality is useless if one is impartial
- reason helps us determine what is right or wrong
- impartiality helps us do the right thing based on the reason
using rationality
▪ Humans as Moral Agents
- not all humans are considered as moral agents
example: babies are incapable of making rational thoughts,
adults that have illnesses that render them to think rationally
▪ Rational
- an important requirement before someone is considered
as a moral agent
▪ Autonomous
- one is free when deciding things and are not controlled by
anyone
▪ Self-aware
- one knows that he/she is human and rational
- knows that having rationality makes him/her have the
responsibility to do the right thing
 • Moral Responsibility
- responsibility to do good and avoid inflicting unjustified harm to
other people
-held morally responsible
- whether or not one should be praised or blamed for the fulfillment
or not fulfilling of his/her moral obligation
▪ Bernard Williams and Thomas Nagel
▪ Drunk Drivers
▪ Immanuel Kant
▪ “Ought implies can”
▪ Causal Responsibility vs. Moral Responsibility
▪ Injury and Morality

Nature of Morality - Is morality objective or relatively?

Metaethics
• Moral Realism
- believes that there are moral facts
- some actions are just right and some actions are just wrong
-facts - things that are proven
• Moral Absolutism
- believes that moral facts are objective in nature
- good actions are good and wrong actions are wrong regardless of
anything
-moral standards are objectively applied regardless of what you
believe in
• Too restrictive
- there are no exceptions
• Moral Relativism
- opposite of absolutism
- argues that morality is subjective
- right and wrong may differ from one person to another
• Cultural Relativism
- believes that what is right and what is wrong is determined
by cultural beliefs
 • No motivation to improve yourself
- there is no change to be done in their beliefs
• Moral Anti-realism
- there are no moral facts
- neither wrong nor right
- we have opinions but doesn’t make it right or wrong

Ethical Theories
- frameworks of what is good and what is evil
• Frameworks of Morality
- act as guide to help us determine which actions are good and
which actions are bad

• Grounding Problem
-
• Initial Assumptions
-

Divine Command Theory

• Morality is determined by divinity
- what is right and what is wrong depend on what their god
commands
- morality is determined by god
- more focused in following your religion

• One of the most popular ethical theory

- solves the danger of having a subjective concept of
 morality
• Objective
- ideally believes that there is one true religion
• Moral progress
- discusses why one should become a better person
• Simplicity
- determining which actions are good and which actions are
bad is simple
• Comfort
- provides answers to questions that bother us

• Eutyphro Dilemma
- written by Plato
- book was named after his teacher Socrates was
conversing with an individual called Eutyphro
- platonic dialogue
- Socrates is being charged for corrupting the minds of the
youth (Asebeia)
- Eutyphro believes that what he is doing is right
• Are actions good because they are loved by their gods?
- believes that moral acts are right because it is the will of god
- what god wants is good
- god is known for violating his rules
- morality depends on god
- morality and divine command theory are not subjective
- defeats the purpose of having standards
- arbitrarily
- has a negative side
- god is the creator of morality
• God = moral
- questionable acts by gods can be moral if moral acts
depend on the will of gods
• Do the gods love good actions because they are good?
- god is the implementor of morality
- implies that is not the source of morality
 - problem with omni potency (all powerful)
- morality is above god
- the creator of morality is above god
• God is unnecessary
- god will be useless if god is the source of morality
- redundancy

• Provides the wrong reasons why we should be moral

- example: act of raping is wrong not because we will be sent
to hell but because it is wrong and will make us a bad person
• Contradicting nature of religions and religious books
- example: killing is wrong in bible books but god violates
this rule
- not every part of the bible should be interpreted literally
- some should be interpreted metaphorical
• Cherry picking
- choosing what is good and disregarding what is wrong