ETHICS REVIEWER

How can we best live our lives?

Aristotle

• Father of Philosophy

Virtue Ethics

• A theory of what’s right from wrong and how do we know and what to do and whether what we
do, our actions are the right ones.

➢ Aristotle based a lot of his ideas on the work of a former pupil of Socrates who was called Plato.
➢ Plato had several called Cardinal Virtues

• Cardinal Virtues
o Courage
o Temperance
o Justice
o Prudence

He thought that good people that we hold up on a pedestal and go like “yes, I like being around
with this person. I want to be more like this person”. They had a lot of quality of these four
different qualities of cardinal virtues

• Moral virtues
o Courage
o Temperance
o Liberality
o Magnificence
o Magnanimity
o Proper Ambition
o Truthfulness
o Wittiness
o Friendliness
o Modesty
o Righteous
o Righteous Indignation

The moral virtues is what how people act and how they decide to act.
• Intellectual Virtues
o Courage
o Temperance
o Liberality
o Magnificence
o Magnanimity
o Proper Ambition
o Truthfulness
o Wittiness
o Friendliness
o Modesty
o Righteous
o Righteous Indignation
o Intelligence
o Science
o Theoretical Wisdom

People should have a certain level of intelligence, obviously, you can be a really nice person but
if you you’re really thick then you’re not exactly what many people would call a good person or
someone they would aspire to be.

• Agent-Centred or Teleological

Teleological comes from the Greek “tell us” means “purpose”. It is called Teleological theory
because unlike other theories, for example M in the bible theory you have a lot of deontological
ethical systems, do not kill. That is a command you are not allowed to kill.

All about the purpose, it’s related to but different to consequentialism which look at the
consequences of one’s action.

• Deontological

It is your duty, “dion” comes from the duty, in Greek “not to kill”.

❖ Difference with virtue theory from a consequentialist theory?

Virtue theory is about being rather than doing. For virtue ethicists they believe that the
important thing is to make yourself someone who is a virtuous person and then you will know
what to do in the future
“You are what you repeatedly do”

-Aristotle

For example: You might want as a child have stolen a chocolate bar but that doesn’t make you a thief for
life, however, if you keep stealing as you grow older then you are a thief because that’s what you
repeatedly do. To be a good person just keep doing good things and you will be a good person because
you are what you repeatedly do.

➢ If you hone your virtues everyday, when the time comes you will know what to do.

By being a virtuous person who practices by being good by using the morals and the intellectual
virtues, when you come into a situation and if you have tried to be a good person and you keep
doing what you repeatedly do then you will know what to do at this point. The reward at the
individual is eudaimonia.

• Eudaimonia (Human Flourishing)

Term that is loosely translates to human flourishing or eternal happiness. This is the kind of
feeling you get that after you’ve had a kill a day and you’ve done really well, you’ve done
everything on your to-do list, and you’ve absolutely nailed it is the closest we can kind get to this
idea of eudaimonia.

• Vice – the opposite of virtue. It should be avoided.

• 2 types of vice
o Vice of Deficiency – if you have too little of a virtue
o Vice of Excess – when you have too much of a virtue

• St. Thomas Aquinas

o during the 13th century was reading a lot of Aristotle’s stuff

• Natural Moral law

o how to choose right from wrong which has been the theory that the Catholic church has
used for and still does use too for a large part

• Alaisdar Maclyntyre
o He used the natural moral law and wrote a book about this.
o He wrote a book called “After Virtue” in 1981.
 o His approach in his book “After Virtue” is to ask three questions, “Who am I?”, “Who I
ought to be?”, “How do I get there?”. These questions are useful for anyone trying to
improve their life and trying to understand what the right action is to take.

➢ There are different things which have different purposes.

o For example:
The purpose of a knife is to be sharp. A sharp knife that cuts through things is a good
knife because it fulfill its role.
A person who is a virtuous person who has all of these different virtues outlined by Plato
and Aristotle then they are a good person and something we should aspire to be
ourselves.
➢ Natural Law Ethics
o A popular name attributed to the model of ethics developed by Saint Thomas Aquinas
during the medieval period
o Also called “Thomistic Ethics”
o Basic idea of natural law ethics is that “Reason” is the source of the moral law; it directs
us towards the “Good”
➢ Good
o according to Aquinas the good is the ultimate goal of the persons actions
o Discoverable within the person’s nature

• It explain the basic goal of natural law ethics is “to do good and to avoid evil”

✓ How do we know that a person is acting rightly or wrongly?

Answer: an act is morally right if it is done in accordance with the moral law.

✓ What is the moral law?

Answer: “Reason” is the source of moral law; the moral law is the dictate of reason.

• For Aquinas, the moral law comes from God’s eternal law. The moral law is the divine law
expressed in human nature which reads “do good and avoid evil”
• For Aquinas, “GOOD” is that which is suitable to human nature.

✓ How do we know that one is acting in accordance with the good?

Answer: An action is good if it is done in accordance with conscience.

• Aquinas understands conscience as the inner voice of the intellect or reason which calls the
human person to follow the moral law.

• In natural law ethics, Conscience serves as the guide in making moral decisions.

✓ How do we know that one’s action obeys conscience?

Answer: According to Aquinas, an action obeys conscience if it is satisfies the three-fold natural
inclination of the human person:
1. Self-preservation
2. Just dealing with others
3. Propagation of human species

• For Aquinas if at least one of the these three natural inclinations of the human person is violated
then an act does not obey conscience; it is therefore immoral.
 ➢ Self-preservation
o Natural inclination to take care of one’s health or not to kill or put one’s self in danger.
This explains that for Aquinas suicide is absolutely wrong

➢ Just dealing with others

o Treat others with the same respect that we accord ourselves. Thus for Aquinas, all forms
of in humanities such as exploitation, seduction, deception, manipulation, cheating,
kidnapping, murder, and intimidation is absolutely wrong.

➢ Propagation of human species

o Aquinas believes that the reproductive organ is by nature designed to reproduce and
propagate human species. Any act of intervention therefore that frustrates the very
purpose of the reproductive organ is unnatural, hence, immoral. This explain why even
masturbation is immoral in natural law ethics.

• For an action to be considered moral, it must be done in accordance with conscience; It must be
done in accordance with the moral law.

THREE DETERMINANTS OF MORAL ACTIONS

1. Object of the human act

o That which will intends primarily and directly
2. Circumstance
o The conditions that affecting the morality of an action
CLASSIFICATIONS:
1) Quality of a person (WHO)
▪ It is bad to rape a woman but it is worse to rape a daughter

2) Quality/Quantity of the moral object (WHAT)

The act of the taxi driver who returns a wallet containing a couple of thousand
dollars is good in itself but that one who takes the initiative of returning 50
thousand dollars left by a tourist is even better.

3) Circumstance of place (WHERE)

▪ Smoking in public may not be good but it is worse if one smoke inside a
church
4) Circumstance of means (BY WHAT MEANS)
▪ To pray for a sick person is good in itself but to give her money for
medicine is better
5) Circumstance of end (WHY)
 ▪ Helping an orphan kid finish schooling is good but doing it with the
intention of employing her later is better
6) Manner in which the action is done (HOW)
▪ Killing might be conceived as evil but in the case of unjust aggression it
might be morally right to kill the aggressor
7) Time element (WHEN)
▪ It might not be a good idea to smoke inside a church but it is worse to
do it while the mass is going on
3. End
o The act refers to the purpose of the doer. According to Aquinas it can be taken as a
circumstance because the end is an integral part of every moral act. For example,
marrying a person one is engaged to is good in itself but doing so while motivated by the
selfish and of say taking a big share of inheritance makes the whole action morally
wrong.

• It must be noted that for Aquinas, all the three determinants of a human act must be all good for
an act to be considered good or morally right.
• Sometimes a human act may produced two conflicting result that is one is good and the other is
evil.

FOUR PRINCIPLES OF DOUBLE EFFECT

1. The action is intended must be good in itself, or at least morally indifferent; otherwise, the
act is evil at the very outset
2. The good effect must follow the action at least as immediately as the evil effect, or the good
and evil effects must occur simultaneously
3. The foreseen evil effect should not be intended or approved but merely permitted to occur
4. There must be a proportionate and sufficient reason for allowing the evil effect to occur
while performing the action.

• For example, Removing a cancerous uterus of a pregnant woman.

Good – Saves the mother’s life
Evil – Kills the fetus

Principle 1: The intention is good. The intention of removing cancerous uterus is good in itself

Principle 2: Good and evil effects occur simultaneously. The good effect that is the recovery of the
pregnant woman follows the action immediately and even the fetus die after the removal of the
cancerous uterus at least this evil effect occurs simultaneously with the good effect

Principle 3: It is satisfied because abortion/death of the fetus was not intended, it was just allowed to
happen
Principle 4: There’s a sufficient reason for allowing the evil effect

• According to Aquinas, the 4 principle must be satisfied for an action to be considered morally
right.