Ethics 2

 
ETHICS & SOCIETY – DEFINING
CONCEPTS, EVOLUTION,
APPROACHES
 In a nutshell:
What is ethics?
• At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles.
They affect how people make decisions and lead their
lives.
• Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and
society and is also described as moral philosophy.
• Ethics covers the following dilemmas:
 how to live a good life
 our rights and responsibilities
 the language of right and wrong
 moral decisions - what is good and bad?
• Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions,
philosophies and cultures.
 What use is ethics?
• Ethics needs to provide answers.
• If ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they
need to affect the way human beings behave.
• Some philosophers think that ethics does do this.
They argue that if a person realises that it would be
morally good to do something then it would be
irrational for that person not to do it.
• But human beings often behave irrationally - they
follow their 'gut instinct' even when their head
suggests a different course of action.
• However, ethics does provide good tools for
thinking about moral issues.
 Ethics can provide a moral map
• Most moral issues get us pretty worked up - think
of abortion and euthanasia for starters. Because
these are such emotional issues we often let our
hearts do the arguing while our brains just go
with the flow.
• But there's another way of tackling these issues,
and that's where philosophers can come in - they
offer us ethical rules and principles that enable
us to take a cooler view of moral problems.
• So ethics provides us with a moral map, a
framework that we can use to find our way
through difficult issues.
 Ethics can pinpoint a disagreement
• Using the framework of ethics, two people who
are arguing a moral issue can often find that
what they disagree about is just one particular
part of the issue, and that they broadly agree
on everything else.
• That can take a lot of heat out of the
argument, and sometimes even hint at a way
for them to resolve their problem.
• But sometimes ethics does not provide people
with the sort of help that they really want.
 Ethics does not give right answers
• Ethics does not always show the right answer to
moral problems.
• Indeed more and more people think that for many
ethical issues there is not a single right answer -
just a set of principles that can be applied to
particular cases to give those involved some clear
choices.
• Some philosophers go further and say that all
ethics can do is eliminate confusion and clarify the
issues.
• After that it is up to each individual to come to their
own conclusions.
 Ethics can give several answers
• Many people want there to be a single right answer to
ethical questions. They find moral ambiguity hard to
live with because they genuinely want to do the 'right'
thing, and even if they can't work out what that right
thing is, they like the idea that 'somewhere' there is one
right answer.
• But often there isn't one right answer - there may be
several right answers, or just some least worst answers
- and the individual must choose between them.
• For others moral ambiguity is difficult because it forces
them to take responsibility for their own choices and
actions, rather than falling back on convenient rules
and customs.
 Approaches to ethics

• Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical

theories into three areas: metaethics, normative
ethics and applied ethics.
 Metaethics deals with the nature of moral
judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning of
ethical principles.
 Normative ethics is concerned with the content
of moral judgements and the criteria for what is
right or wrong.
 Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like
war, animal rights and capital punishment
Task E2.1. – individual work
 COURSE APPROACH – PRINCIPLES
 
FILS Context features:

 Romanian and/or foreign engineering

students
 English as medium of tuition
 Study in a Romanian university –
university autonomy – Code of Ethics
 Universally valid vs locally valid elements
• Therefore, course
approach: to
provide general • No final answers,
views and local important to:
ones – with - sensitize students to
the ethical principles
opportunities to
and rules in general
reflect on both
- increase awareness
categories
of observing
academic deontology-
build up a lifelong
type of attitude of
respect to morality
and integrity
 Some reflections

• Why do people do immoral things?!

• Perhaps they do not know it is wrong.

•  However, generally this is not true –

if so, the problem could be easily
solved by just a crash course to
inform people!
• In reality, when people do the wrong thing from the
moral point of view, it is because of lack of
motivation, not because of lack of information!

• Danny Ocean, aka George Clooney, does know he

is doing something wrong, but he argues:

“You said we were going to play the game like we had

nothing to lose.
Well, I lost something. I lost someone.
That's why I'm here.”

• He may even consider he is doing the right thing…

well, debatable …
 WARNING - 1
• Aristotle’s term for weakness of volition
was akrasia.
• That is how a deficit in morality is produced.
• We simply cannot resist temptation…
moreover, we may even tend to justify such
questionable options
• This is valid for academic organizations,
such as universities, as they consist of
human beings … who are not immune to
immoral behavior.
 WARNING - 2
• How can a course of ethics and academic integrity
contribute to correcting such behavior?!

• In 2 ways:

 Directly – by informing people – but very few cases

solved, as information does exist
 Indirectly – IMPORTANT, AS GETTING PEOPLE
AWARE AND SENSITIZING THEM TO A TOPIC IS
THE NECESSARY CONDITION FOR CHANGE

• Ethics should be understood and assumed by people,

thus changing their attitude and motivation.
 Within ACADEMIC ETHICS
there are
three main interconnected components:
 
• Applying instruments specific to
professional ethics
• Research ethics
• Management of ethics and integrity in
academic organizations
 Important: academic ethics –
two aspects covered –
to be encountered in this course:

1. a research 2. a larger trend

domain, with all its focused on
specific emphasizing attention
characteristics, e.g. to ethical
journals, requirements in the
conferences, academic life in
research projects general
a.s.o.  
• A course discussion, though, will
not be fully efficient for changing
behavior and mentality…
…unless it is not placed within a
larger context,
that of assuming ethics at the
level of the entire professional
community.
 WARNING - 3
• There are different rules in different domains
of science for the correct citation and/or
quotation in scientific works, but the
principles underlying them all are the
same
• It is important that students internalize the
generally valid moral arguments against
immoral deeds, such as plagiarism, for
instance – hence the focus of the course is on
the general aspects, with some localizations.
 WARNING - 4
• Ethics is interesting as different values could be
discussed and evaluated, in those dilemmas
where decision is not at all obvious, and
disagreement seems reasonable.
• Consequently, students should not expect
verdicts or lists of interdictions, as there may be
more than one answer to debated topics of ethical
behavior.
• It is therefore important to initiate discussions and
debates, as a contribution to developing a moral
attitude in the professional community and in the
society at large
 BASIC TERMINOLOGY
– FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

- SEE LINKS IN BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR

EXTENDED INFORMATION (correctly cited,
including Wikipedia!)

- TO BE SEEN AS COMPLEMENTARY
VIEWPOINTS - IN ORDER TO GET A
FULL PUZZLE IMAGE
 DEFINITION OF ETHICS.
THE RELATIONSHIP
ETHICS – MORALITY - DEONTOLOGY

Ethics – several views:

 a philosophical discipline that studies
theoretical and practical problems of
morality
 the assembly of principles, rules,
values and moral norms that regulate the
behavior of people in the society and
determine their obligations
 the science of good and bad
• Morality – the assembly of rules and good
behavior norms which each individual should
observe in order to be accepted by the
society.

• Ethics – seen as the theory about morality;

the reasonable approach to morality.

• Deontology – the assembly of behavior

norms and ethical obligations within a
profession
 ETHICS CHARACTERISTICS
WILL RESULT IN
THE TYPES OF CLASSIFICATION

• DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

• NORMATIVE ETHICS

• ANALYTICAL ETHICS
 ETHICS CHARACTERISTICS
• ANALYTICAL CHARACTER – dealing
with causes of human actions
• NORMATIVE CHARACTER – setting
certain rules of behavior
• PRACTICAL CHARACTER - oriented
towards action
• RATIONAL CHARACTER – it is
internalized and assumed by individuals
• PRESCRIPTIVE CHARACTER –
RECOMMENDING MORAL NORMS TO BE
OBSERVED
 MORAL STANDARDS OR NORMS

• IMPERATIVE STATEMENTS BY
MEANS OF WHICH IT IS INDICATED
WHAT A CONSCIOUS PERSON
SHOULD / SHOULD NOT DO

• CULTURAL VALUES,
CONSECRATED BY TRADITION AND
EDUCATION, WHOSE OBSERVANCE IS
IMPOSED BY THE PUBLIC OPINION
 MORAL NORMS -
CLASSIFICATION

• general/universal norms

• particular norms

• special norms
 OTHER DEFINITIONS – REFLECT AND
COMPARE APPROACHES

Ethics
 
•The theoretical study of morality. Ethics is
also the standard of morality that a
profession should follow.
 Ethics
Ethics (sometimes known as moral
philosophy) includes the following sorts of
questions:

How should we live?,

What is right and what is wrong?,
What do we mean by the word right and the
word good?,
How can we measure goodness and badness?,
Are some things always wrong or does it
depend on the point of view or situation?
• Ethical theory • Practical or Applied
examines the Ethics is more
different focused on subjects
philosophies or that invite ethical
systems used to questioning such as
explain and abortion and
make euthanasia.
judgements • Ethics is from Greek
about word ethikos, from
right/wrong/goo root ethos meaning
d/bad. character.
 Ethical Theory - subdivided into 3:

• Normative ethics, which asks whether

actions are right or wrong;
• Descriptive or comparative ethics, which
simply compares and describes differing
ethical practices;
• Metaethics, the study of the meaning of
ethical language, the definitions of words
such as good, right, etc.
• Ethics or moral • Ethics seeks to
philosophy is a branch resolve questions of
of philosophy that human morality by
involves systematizing, defining concepts such
defending, and as good and evil, right
recommending concepts and wrong, virtue and
of right and wrong vice, justice and crime.
conduct. The field of As a field of intellectual
ethics, along with inquiry, moral
aesthetics, concerns philosophy also is
matters of value, and related to the fields of
thus comprises the moral psychology,
branch of philosophy descriptive ethics, and
called axiology. value theory.
 Three major areas of study within ethics
recognized today are:

1. Metaethics, concerning the theoretical

meaning and reference of moral propositions,
and how their truth values (if any) can be
determined
2. Normative ethics, concerning the practical
means of determining a moral course of action
3. Applied ethics, concerning what a person is
obligated (or permitted) to do in a specific
situation or a particular domain of action.
• Morality (from Latin: moralitas, lit. 'manner,
character, proper behavior') is the
differentiation of intentions, decisions and
actions between those that are distinguished as
proper and those that are improper.
• Morality can be a body of standards or
principles derived from a code of conduct from
a particular philosophy, religion or culture, or it
can derive from a standard that a person
believes should be universal.
• Morality may also be specifically synonymous
with "goodness" or "rightness".
• Moral philosophy includes metaethics,
which studies abstract issues such as
moral ontology and moral epistemology,
and normative ethics, which studies more
concrete systems of moral decision-
making such as deontological ethics and
consequentialism.
• An example of normative ethical
philosophy is the Golden Rule, which
states that: "One should treat others as
one would like others to treat oneself."
• Immorality is the active opposition
to morality (i.e. opposition to that
which is good or right),
• while amorality is variously defined
as an unawareness of, indifference
toward, or disbelief in any particular
set of moral standards or principles.
Morality. Morality
•Morality – •The motives,
concerned with intentions, and
which actions are actions of an
right and which are individual as they are
wrong, rather than directed toward
the character of the others and how
person. these are judged by
•Today morality and the greater society.
ethics are often used
interchangeably.
 Deontology
• Actions are intrinsically right or wrong.
• They are right or wrong in themselves and
irrespective of their consequences.
• They are traditionally associated with Kantian duty
but can also be linked to ethical systems which
uphold absolute moral norms and human rights.
• Deontologists hold that one cannot undertake
immoral acts like torture of spies even if the
outcome is morally preferable, such as the early
ending of a war.
• It is contrasted with Teleological/consequentialist
ethical theories.
• In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or
deontology (from Greek δέον, deon, "obligation,
duty") is the normative ethical theory that the morality
of an action should be based on whether that action
itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather
than based on the consequences of the action.
• It is sometimes described as duty-, obligation- or rule-
based ethics.
• Deontological ethics is commonly contrasted to
consequentialism, virtue ethics, and pragmatic ethics.
• In this terminology, action is more important than the
consequences.
 Integrity

•  Moral virtue or distinguishable

character trait in which an individual is
free from corruption.
• That is, the individual has been shown
to have certain positive, moral
character traits that even when
challenged and tempted to do wrong,
will choose the good, right, and proper.
 Integrity
• the practice of being honest and showing a consistent and
uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and
values.
• In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or
accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can stand in opposition to hypocrisy,
in that judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal
consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding within
themselves apparently conflicting values should account for the
discrepancy or alter their beliefs.
• The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective integer, meaning
whole or complete. In this context, integrity is the inner sense of
"wholeness" deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of
character.
• As such, one may judge that others "have integrity" to the extent that
they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to
hold.
 Academic integrity

• The moral code or ethical policy of

academia.
• The term was popularized by Don
McCabe, who is considered to be the
"grandfather of academic integrity".
• This includes values such as: avoidance
of cheating or plagiarism; maintenance
of academic standards; honesty and
rigor in research and academic
publishing.
 WHO
MAINTIME
VIEWSTHEORY
ON ETHICS – HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
KEY IDEAS
Aristotle 384 – Nicomachean Ethics … is practical rather than theoretical, in the
322 Ethics original Aristotelian senses of these terms… it is not only
B.C. a contemplation about good living, because it also aims to
create good living… Ethics is about how individuals
should best live…
Kant 1724 - Categorical Central philosophical concept in the deontological moral
1804 Imperative philosophy … It may be defined as a way of evaluating
motivations for action … morality can be summed up in
an imperative, or ultimate commandment of reason, from
which all duties and obligations derive. He defined an
imperative as any proposition declaring a certain action
(or inaction) to be necessary…
John 1806 - Utilitarianism The principle that holds "that actions are right in the
Stuart Mill 1873 proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as
they tend to produce the reverse of happiness."Argument
for the qualitative separation of pleasures… intellectual
and moral pleasures (higher pleasures) are superior to
more physical forms of pleasure (lower pleasures).
Nietzsche 1844 - On the Good vs evil dichotomyThree essays, all of which
1900 Genealogy of question and critique the value of our moral judgments
Morality based on a genealogical method whereby Nietzsche
examines the origins and meanings of our different moral
concepts
 TYPES OF ETHICS – VARIOUS
CLASSIFICATIONS, BUT

The lines of distinction between

metaethics,
normative ethics, and
applied ethics
are often blurry…
 2 CLASSIFICATIONS:

CLSF 1. WITH 3 TYPES

•The field of ethics (or moral philosophy)
involves systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of right and wrong
behavior.
•Philosophers today usually divide ethical
theories into three general subject areas:
metaethics, normative ethics, and applied
ethics.
• Metaethics investigates where our ethical
principles come from, and what they mean.
• Are they merely social inventions?
• Do they involve more than expressions of
our individual emotions?
• Metaethical answers to these questions
focus on the issues of universal truths, the
will of God, the role of reason in ethical
judgments, and the meaning of ethical
terms themselves.
• Normative ethics takes on a more
practical task, which is to arrive at
moral standards that regulate right
and wrong conduct.
• This may involve articulating the
good habits that we should acquire,
the duties that we should follow, or
the consequences of our behavior
on others.
• Applied ethics involves examining specific
controversial issues, such as
• abortion,
• infanticide,
• animal rights,
• environmental concerns,
• homosexuality, capital punishment, or
• nuclear war.
 CLSF 2. WITH 4 TYPES
• Descriptive Ethics - deals with what people actually believe (or
made to believe) to be right or wrong, and accordingly holds up the
human actions acceptable or not acceptable or punishable under a
custom or law.
• Normative Ethics - deals with “norms” or set of considerations how
one should act. Thus, it’s a study of “ethical action” and sets out the
rightness or wrongness of the actions. It is also called prescriptive
ethics because it rests on the principles which determine whether
an action is right or wrong. The Golden rule of normative ethics is
“doing to other as we want them to do to us“.
• Virtue ethics - focuses on one’s character and the virtues for
determining or evaluating ethical behaviour. Plato, Aristotle and
Thomas Aquinas were major advocates of Virtue ethics.
• Deontological ethics or duty ethics - focuses on the rightness and
wrongness of the actions rather than the consequences of those
actions.
 FORMS OF APPLIED ETHICS:

• medical ethics • engineering ethics - the field of

• legal ethics system of moral principles that apply
to the practice of engineering. The
• mass media field examines and sets the
ethics obligations by engineers to society, to
• professional their clients, and to the profession. As
a scholarly discipline, it is closely
ethics
related to subjects such as the
• environmental philosophy of science, the philosophy
ethics of engineering, and the ethics of
• business technology
ethics • academic integrity is the moral code
or ethical policy of academia
• ethics of science and technology
 Normative Principles in Applied Ethics
• Arriving at a short list of
representative
normative principles is
itself a challenging
task.
• The principles selected
must not be too
narrowly focused, such
as a version of act-
egoism that might
focus only on an
action’s short-term
benefit.
• The principles must
also be seen as having
merit by people on
both sides of an
applied ethical issue.
• For this reason,
principles that appeal
to duty to God are not
usually cited since this
would have no impact
on a nonbeliever
engaged in the debate.
 PRINCIPLES ARE THE ONES MOST COMMONLY
APPEALED TO IN APPLIED ETHICAL DISCUSSIONS
• Personal benefit: acknowledge the extent to which an action
produces beneficial consequences for the individual in question.
• Social benefit: acknowledge the extent to which an action produces
beneficial consequences for society.
• Principle of benevolence: help those in need.
• Principle of paternalism: assist others in pursuing their best interests
when they cannot do so themselves.
• Principle of harm: do not harm others.
• Principle of honesty: do not deceive others.
• Principle of lawfulness: do not violate the law.
• Principle of autonomy: acknowledge a person’s freedom over his/her
actions or physical body.
• Principle of justice: acknowledge a person’s right to due process, fair
compensation for harm done, and fair distribution of benefits.
• Rights: acknowledge a person’s rights to life, information, privacy,
free expression, and safety.
 Why is ethics so important in a society?!

• Ethics is important in a society because it

grants the members some expectation of
consistency and predictability in
behavior/action. Much in the way laws do.
• Legislating or mandating all behavior is
impossible, so we invent ethical and moral
norms to cover the grey areas. Ethics covers
the parts of life where no agency or ruling
body has made explicit decrees. Or where
they shouldn’t make explicit decrees.
• Once a group has agreed upon a set moral and
ethical values, they can proceed relatively uniformly
toward a goal. Knowing how people are likely to
behave can ease interactions and facilitate
exchange. It promotes cooperation and cohesion.
• A society without clear ethical/moral values and
norms will typically experience more conflict in
areas concerning “quality of human life”. Any
issue that impacts or deals with things that can be
referred to as fundamentally “good” or “bad” will be
point of contention.
• Ultimately, ethics takes care of the big and
important questions so that we can get on with
furthering societal goals.
Portfolio homework No 1-A / 4
Portfolio homework No 1-B / 4
 Bibliography
• http://ethicalstudies.co.uk/?page_id=53
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics
• https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Ethics_of_science_and_technology
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_ethics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicomachean_Ethics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Genealogy_of_Morality
• https://ethicsunwrapped.utexas.edu/glossary
• https://www.academia.edu/11587991/Curs_etica
• https://www.danielsfund.org/ethics/overview
• https://www.gktoday.in/gk/four-branches-of-ethics/
• https://www.iep.utm.edu/ethics/
• https://www.quora.com/Why-are-ethics-so-important-in-a-society
• https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/genealogyofmorals/summary/
• https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/center_for_ethics/About%20Us/glossary.htm
• Socaciu, E., Vică, C., Mihailov, E. et al. 2018. Etică și integritate academică. Ed Univ Bucuresti,
https://deontologieacademica.unibuc.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Etica-si-integritate-
academica.pdf