Ethics and Ethical Theories

Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology,

Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.
 Morality and moral systems

• Rules of conduct
• Rules for individuals
• Rules for social policies
• Principles of evaluation
 Justifying rules for moral systems
• Religion – teachings of religious leaders
• Philosophical ethics – appeals to reason
• Law – codes determined by constitutions
and legislation
 Discussion stoppers

• People disagree on solutions.

– They also agree on many things.
• Who am I to judge?
– Sometimes we have to make judgments.
• Ethics is a private matter.
– Morality is essentially a public system.
• Morality is a matter for individual cultures.
– Do in Rome as the Romans do.
 Why ethical theories are needed

• Follow the golden rule.

– Doesn’t cover when others have different
desires.
• Follow your own conscience.
– Some people think it all right to fly airplanes
into towers.
 Consequence based ethical theories

• Bentham (1748-1832) and Mill (1806-

1873)
• What results from an act
• The ends justify the means
• Principle of social utility measured by the
resulting amount of happiness
 Utilitarianism

• Act utilitarianism – Act is good if it results

in the greatest good for the greatest
number.
– What happens to minority?
• Rule utilitarianism – Act is good if it comes
from following rules that bring good to
greatest number.
– Should we base ethics on happiness and
pleasure?
 Duty-based ethical theories
Deontological theories
• Kant (1724-1804) – Duties and obligations
that people have to one another.
• People have rational natures
• People should never be treated as means
to the ends of others
• Each individual has the same moral worth
as every other.
 Rule deontology
Kant’s categorical imperative
• Rules that all individuals should be treated
as ends in themselves and not means to
an end.
• Rules that can be universally binding for
all people.
• One person or group should not be
privileged over all others.
 Act deontology

• Ross (1930) - Problem if two conflicting moral

duties
• When conflict, consider individual situations
• Prima facie (self-evident) duties.
– Honesty, justice, helpfulness
• Actual duty – What to do when have conflicts.
– Use rational intuitionism.
• Weigh evidence to decide course of action in
particular case
 Contract-based ethical theories

• Hobbes(1588-1679) – Premoral state

– state of nature where all free to do as like
• People establish formal legal code
• In each person’s self-interest to develop
system with rules
• Objections – Depends only on formal legal
rules
• Difference between ‘doing no harm’ and
‘doing good’.
 Rights-based contract theories

• Jefferson (1776) and Aquinas (1225-1274)

– Natural rights or inalienable and self-evident
rights
• Legal rights – positive rights and negative
rights
• Negative rights
– Privacy, no interference in right to vote
• Positive rights
– Education (in US through 12th grade)
 Character-based ethical theories
• Virtue ethics - Plato (427?-327 BCE) and Aristotle (384-
322 BCE)
• Development of good character traits and habits
• Be a moral person rather than just follow rules
• Agent-oriented rather than action or rule-oriented
• Develop character traits such as kindness, truthfulness,
honesty, trustworthiness, helpfulness, generosity, and
justice
• More likely to work in homogeneous societies rather than
our pluralistic one
• Consequences often should be taken into account
 Single comprehensive theory
• Rawls (1971) and Moor (1999) – Just-Consequentialist
Theory
• Start with core values – ‘Do no harm’
• Support justice, rights, and duties – ‘Do your duty’
• Settle conflicts – two steps
– Consider situation impartially without regard to specific case –
choice between ethical vs. unethical policies
– Consider consequences of specific case – choice between better
vs. worse policies
• Consider whether problem is disagreement about facts
rather than value differences
 Moor’s ethical framework

• Deliberate from an impartial point of view

– Does it cause any unnecessary harm?
– Does it support individual rights, duties?
• Select the best policy from the set
– Weigh the good and bad consequences
– Distinguish between disagreements about
facts vs. disagreements about values