Ethics

• Practical and normative science, based

on reason, which studies human acts and
provides norms for their goodness and
badness

• “moral philosophy”
Epicurus

• Greek philosopher of Samos

• Son of an Athenian colonist

• Claimed to be self-taught,
although tradition states that
he was schooled in the
systems of Plato and
Democritus by his father and
various philosophers.
 Epicureanism

The art of making life

happy and strictly
subordinated
metaphysics to ethics,
naming pleasure as the
highest and only good
Epicurus and his philosophy

Pleasure was not heedless indulgence

but the opposite, ataraxia [serenity],
manifesting itself in the avoidance of
pain
 Epicurus and his
philosophy

His hedonism differed from Aristippus and the

Cyrenaics in the emphasis that it placed on
ataraxia and on the superiority of intellectual
pleasures over bodily pleasures
 Epicurus and his
philosophy
Prescribed a code of social conduct:

honesty
prudence
justice

Not because these virtues were good in themselves,

but because they saved the individual from society's
retribution
 Epicurus and his
philosophy
• The ultimate aim of Epicureans is to rid
people of fears (i.e. death, afterlife)

• Appeals to commonsense and avoid

abstract reasoning
Epicureans and Apostle Paul
The second missionary journey, (49 to 52 A.D), took Paul
and Silas, his new assistant, to Phrygia and Galatia, to
Troas, and across to the mainland of Europe, to Philippi in
Macedonia.

The physician Luke was now a member of the party, and in

the book of Acts he gives us the record. They made their
way to Thessalonica, then down to Athens and Corinth.

At Athens Paul preached in the Areopagus, and we know

that some of the Stoics and Epicureans heard him and
debated with him informally, attracted by his vigorous
intellect, his magnetic personality, and the ethical
teachings which, in many respects, were not unlike their
own.
 Hedonism

• An ethical doctrine that claims that pleasure is

the norm of morality

• Happiness is attainable through pleasure

"I never intended to be a
revolutionary. My intention
was to create a mainstream
men's magazine that included
sex in it. That turned out to be
a very revolutionary idea."

- Hugh Hefner
 ** Pleasure **
• The one and only good

• Basis for moral judgment

• Intellectual, aesthetic, physical = desire

for truth, appreciating a work of art,
satisfaction of sensuous desire
 Hedonism

• Suppress our desires = pain = suffering

• Eat, drink and be merry

 Teleological/Utilitarianism

• GOODNESS =
DETERMINED BY
CONSEQUENCES

– John Stuart Mill

 Teleological/Utilitarianism
• The greatest good/benefit for the greatest
number or an action is bad/wrong insofar as it
produces more harm than benefit for the
greatest number of individuals

• BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF UTILITY =

“Actions are good insofar as they tend to
promote happiness, bad as they tend to
promote unhappiness.”
 Situationism
• Moral norm depends upon a given
situation, but whatever the situation may
be, one must always act in the name of
Christian love

• Example: abortion caused by rape

 Christian love

• Eros: man/woman relationship

• Philia: filial love
• Agape: care, concern towards others
 Mightism
• Whenever an act enhances one’s strength
or capacity to rule or control others, it is
good

• Whereas if it causes one’s ineffectiveness,

weakness, and feebleness, is wrong
 Mightism
• Those who are weak should follow and
obey

• Morally wrong: disobedience, resistance,

revolt, disloyalty to ruler
 Mightism
• Rulers and strong ones dictate what is
just and unjust, right and wrong

• Goodness is nothing but the expression of

an individual’s will to power

• Reason is an instrument of the will = will

to power
 Humanistic Ethics

• Life-affirming and death-denying

• All that serves life is good and all that

serves death is evil
Humanistic Ethics

Self-realization
or
fullness of life
 Aristotle
• Three-fold nature to Vegetative aspect =
achieve fulfillment, physical body
each nature should
be fulfilled • Sentient being =
Sensual feelings and
emotions; imbalance
would be painful
 Aristotle
An individual should also
actualize one’s rational
nature: Rational animals

 in pursuit of scientific
knowledge,
 philosophical truth
 political activity
 religious commitment,
 creative and artistic
endeavor
 Self-realization
• Dimension of reciprocity

• Meaning of one’s life is related to the

presence of others

• cooperation, unity, solidarity,

harmony, mutual helpfulness, peace,
universalism
 Natural law Ethics

Source of the moral law is reason

itself, discoverable within our nature
= the voice of reason or conscience
Deontological Ethics/
Duty Ethics

Immanuel Kant

“One acts morally if and

only if one does whatever
one is obliged to do.”
Deontological Ethics/Duty
Ethics

» Rightness or wrongness
of an action is
found in the motive
 Deontological Ethics/Duty
Ethics

• Is there a test for determining what

one’s duty will be under a particular set
of circumstances?
 Kant’s: Categorical Imperative

• “ Act only on that maxim which you can at

the same time will to become a universal
law.”
 Categorical Imperative

• Principle of Respect for Persons

• Principle of Universalizability
Thank you!