Chapter 2: Values and Ethics

This chapter will cover

• Value assumptions
• Conflicts between value assumptions
• Value priorities
• Ideal values versus real values
• Ethics in argumentation
• Ethical decision making
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 Values and Ethics

Assumptions

• Unstated (and often unconscious)

beliefs

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Value Assumptions and Conflicts

Values
• Beliefs, ideals, or principles that are
considered worthy and held in high
regard.
• Truth
• Loyalty
• Freedom

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 Values Assumptions

Value assumptions:
Reality assumptions:
Beliefs about how the
world should be
Beliefs about how the
• What is more important world is

• Form the foundation of an Chapter 3

argument.

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Value Assumptions and Conflicts

Value Conflict

• When two competing values cannot be

held to the same degree in a given
argument or situation:

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Skill
Understand that different values form the basis
of many arguments and that conflicts are often
based on differing value priorities.

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 Value Conflicts
Issue: Conclusion:
When my roommate asks how she I’ll tell her its ugly and that she
looks in her new outfit, should I tell should never buy her own clothes
her that she has hideous taste in because she couldn’t dress a
clothes? scarecrow!

Reason:
She expects and deserves an honest answer.

Value Assumption?
Honesty

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 Ethics- A Dimension of Values

Ethics

• Standards of conduct that reflecting what we

consider to be right or wrong

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 Ethics- A Dimension of Values

Morals

• Principles that distinguish right from wrong

behavior

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 Example
• Should you take a job • If you arrive home
that pays more but and notice that a
has evening hours, cashier at a store
which you value for gave you too much
studying, or should change, should you
you take a job that go back to the store
pays less but gives and return the
you the hours that money?
you want? •  Reflects ethical
•  Reflects what you principles
value more
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 Ethics

Why we have disagreements

• We hold many values in common,

but to different degrees…

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 Ethics
Some Common Ethics

• Libertarianism: promote individual liberty

• Utilitarianism: promote the greatest general
happiness/minimize unhappiness
• Egalitarianism: promote equality for all
• Religious: promote faith spirituality
• Prima facie values: universal ethical principles

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Ideal Values and Real Values

Ideal Values

• Held by an individual in a
theoretical sense

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 Ideal Values and Real Values

Real Values

• Theoretical and practiced

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 Ethics

U.S. Declaration of Independence

"We hold these truths to be self ‑ evident, that all [men] are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights*, that among these are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

* Natural (life and liberty) vs legal

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 Ethics in Argumentation

• Honesty in conclusions
• Do not omit or distort
• Thoroughly research claims made
• Listen respectfully to opposing viewpoints
• Be willing to revise position
• Credit secondary sources

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 Ethical Decision Making

How do we know what our

principles and standards are?
• Role Exchange Test: Put yourself in
someone else’s position when having
to make a judgment about them.
• The Universal Consequences Test:
• The New Cases Test
• The Higher Principles Test

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 Common Rationalizations

Ethics in action

• If It’s Necessary, It’s Ethical

The False Necessity Trap
• If It’s Legal and Permissible, It’s Ethical
• I Was Just Doing It For You

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 Common Rationalizations

Ethics in action

• I’m Just Fighting Fire With Fire

• It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone, & Everyone’s Doing It
• It’s O.K. If I Don’t Gain Personally
• I’ve Got It Coming (I Deserve It)
• I can still be objective

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 Name the rationalization

• A worker steal chocolate from the factory

where he is employed. He feels entitled to
this act because he is underpaid.

• It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone, & Everyone’s Doing It

• It’s O.K. If I Don’t Gain Personally
• I’ve Got It Coming (I Deserve It)
• I can still be objective

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 Name the rationalization
• Last year, a girl bullied my sister in the
beginning of the school year. So I went to
her school and beat that bully until she
was senseless.

• I’m Just Fighting Fire With Fire

• It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone, & Everyone’s Doing It
• It’s O.K. If I Don’t Gain Personally
• I’ve Got It Coming (I Deserve It)
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 Name the rationalization
• My friend parked her car in the area
designated for persons with disabilities.
When I pointed that out to her, she
responded:

• It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone, & Everyone’s Doing It

• It’s O.K. If I Don’t Gain Personally
• I’ve Got It Coming (I Deserve It)
• I can still be objective
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 Name the rationalization
• I need to have 1 year experience in order
to qualify for the job I am applying for. So
I’ll put it on my resume, even tough I don’t
have any experience yet.

• If It’s Necessary, It’s Ethical

• If It’s Legal and Permissible, It’s Ethical
• I Was Just Doing It For You
• It Doesn’t Hurt Anyone, & Everyone’s Doing It
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 Toulmin’s Model

A Method for Discovering Assumptions

Claims
Reasons
Warrants

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 Toulmin’s Model:

Claim

• A statement of an individual’s belief

or stand upon an issue

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 Toulmin’s Model

Warrant

• The unstated but necessary link

between reasons and claims

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 Toulmin’s Model
Claim:
We will have to Reason:
leave at 5 a.m. We will be
because
to make our driving in rush
flight hour traffic.

Warrant: ?

Rush hour traffic moves more slowly

than other traffic

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 Example

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 Example
• Claim: • Reason:
• Female students are • Female students’
smarter than male grades are higher
students than male
counterparts.

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 Chapter 2: Values and Ethics

Checkup
• What are value conflicts
• Name some ethics to use in an argument
• Difference between ideal and real values
• What are some common rationalizations

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