CHAPTER TWO

APPROACHES TO ETHICS
 Cont…
• Objectives:
• At the end of this chapter you will be able
to:
• Discuss ideas, feelings and questions about
activities regarded as right or wrong, good or
bad.

o Explain why there are particular rules about

what is right or wrong, good or bad behavior
for different groups and situations.
 Cont…
• Analyze the ethical dimensions of various rules
and codes of behavior.

• Examine the personal and community factors

involved in defining beliefs about what is right or
wrong, good or bad behavior.
• Analyze how different contexts and situations
influence personal values, attitudes, beliefs and
behaviors.
• Critically analyze how groups justify particular
actions and behaviors.
 Cont…
• Are you the type of person who
usually does the ‘right thing’? How
do you know what the ‘right thing
 Normative Ethics
 The study of ethical behavior
 Takes its root word from ‘norm’ which indicates some
standard or rule or principle with which moral agents
ought to comply.
 Investigates the questions on how one ought to act in a
moral sense.
 There are two central concepts of normative ethics.
a. The right
b. The morally good
 Cont…
a. The right- the concept tells us which action we
ought to perform, which it would be wrong to
perform?
 It refers to the right action, which is about
investigating and attempting to answer the
question:

 what ought I to do? Or what is the right

thing to do?
 Cont…
b. The morally good- the concept refers to “morally
good properties of human beings with various character
traits such as:
 Integrity
 Kindness
 Courage
 Honesty, etc.
 This aspect deals with character
 Cont…
• Character attempts to answer question:

What sort of person ought I to be?

This is described as virtue ethics which
specify traits or characters that are good or
bad to possess.
 Cont…
 Normative ethics includes theories or approaches
such as:
 Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist)
 Deontological Ethics
 virtue ethics,
 principlism,
 narrative ethics and
 feminist ethics
Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist)
 ‘Teleological’ derives from the Greek word telos,
meaning ‘end’, ‘goal’, or ‘purpose’.
 In ethics, the end, goal or purpose which we seek
referred to our responsibilities in attaining specific
moral goals or ends.

 For teleological ethical theories, therefore, if you

want to find out how you should behave morally,
you need to decide what the ultimate goal of ethics
is.
 Cont…
 It is referred as “the end justifies the
means”.
 It believes in purpose, ends or goals of an
action.
 It states that the consequences of an action
determines the morality or immorality of a
given action.
 Which means an action is judged as right or
wrong, moral or immoral depending on
what happens because of it.
 Cont…
 So a good or right action is one which produces
the best consequences overall in the situation.

 There are therefore situations where

consequentialist would be prepared to lie if that
was thought necessary to bring about the best
consequence(s).
 Ethical Egoism
 Ethical egoism is a sub section of
consequentialism.
 According to this view the morality of an action
is determined in reference to the doer of the
action.
 It holds that an action is morally right if it
maximizes the interest of the doer of action.

 Here morality is understood as mere reflection of

individual preference without giving due regard to
the preferences and interest of the other.
 Cont…
 The theory implies that we ought to be selfish.
 Or, to put it more gently, we ought to be self-
interested
 You should look after yourself
 Ethical egoist insisted that if you don‘t take
advantage of a situation, you are foolish.
 morality is a result of that self –interest.
 If I mistreat others, they mistreat me.
 This is a rather twisted version of the Golden Rule
(Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you).
 Utilitarianism
 Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote
happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of
happiness.
John Stuart Mill
 An action can be right if the consequence of doing the
action is more favorable than un-favorable to
everyone.
 Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the
practical question “What ought a person to do?”
 The answer is that a person ought to act so as to
maximize happiness or pleasure and to minimize
unhappiness or pain
 Cont…
 Mill argues that morally right rules brings overall
happiness to everyone concerned.
 And hence he is categorized as Rule-Utilitarians

 Rule Utilitarianism argues that;

 an act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is
itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance
would lead to greater utility for society than any
available alternative.
 Cont…
 Human beings are rule-following creatures.
 Another influential ethicist is in this tradition is
Jermy Bentham.
 An action is moral if it promotes pleasure and wrong if it brings
pain.
So, for Bentham the calculation of pain/
pleasure is very important to decide the moral
status of human action.
 Cont…
 Bentham `s famous principle is what he coined it as:
``the Greates happiness for the greatest number``

 it meant that the summation of individuals give rise

to the aggregate happiness and an action that
promotes the interest of the majority or everyone is
morally right and hence everybody has to do the
same.
 From this principle we can deduce that the morality
or effectiveness of any policy need to evaluated in
terms of its benefits to the society.
 Cont…
 Benthemite principle is referred as Act-Utilitarian.
Act-utilitarianism;
 argues that an act is right if and only if it results
in as much good as any available alternative.
 Act utilitarian tells you to test the beauty of things
through practice, experiment than mere theory.
Perfection comes through practice!

 Moral rightness depends on the consequences for all

affected people or sentient beings.
 The fundamental principle of utilitarianism is the
principle of utility.
 Cont…
• The principle of utility
The morally right action is the one that produces
the best overall consequence with regard to the
utility or welfare of all the affected parties.

• Jeremy Bentham‘s slogan:

 The right act or policy is the one that causes

‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number’
– that is, maximize the total utility or welfare of
the majority of all the affected parties.
 Ethical Altruism
 an action is right if the consequences of that action
are favorable to all except the actor.
 an action is morally right if the consequence of the
action is more favorable than un- favorable to the
society except the doer of the action.
 Here moral actions are motivated by sympathy and
compassion to others especially the disadvantaged
section of society.
 This is an important virtue of good citizenship.
 Cont…
 A civic -minded person show readiness and
commitment to wards promoting the collective
interest than individual interest.

 Butler argued that we have an inherent

psychological capacity to show benevolence to
others.

 This view is called psychological altruism and

maintains that at least some of our actions are
motivated by instinctive benevolence.
 Cont…
 Psychological altruism holds that all human action is
necessarily other centered and other motivated.

 Altruists are people who act so as to increase other

people‘ pleasure.

 They will act for the sake of someone else even if it

decreases their own pleasure an causes themselves
pain.
 Deontological Ethics
(Non- Consequentialist )
Most people know what is right. The problem comes in
doing what is right. Immanuel Kant

Deontologist are telling us that the morality of an action

should not be measured in terms of its consequences.

Instead, actions should be weighted by themselves

Kant argues that if an action is morally right, you are

obligated to perform that action, regardless of what your
 Cont…
Kant argues that if an action is morally right, you are obligated to
perform that action, regardless of what your private desires are.

 This is so with other basic moral rules like “You ought to avoid
harming others” or “You ought to keep your promises” or “you ought to
donate to charity.”

In these cases, the form of true moral commands is simply “If Z is
right,You ought to do Z.”
 Deontological Ethics

Divine Kant’s
Ross’s Prima
Command Categorical Rights Theory
Facie Duties
Theory Imperativ
 The Divine Command Theory

There are some objective

Morality is ultimately moral truths, “x is right”
based on commands of means “God commands
God, and morally right ‘x”. “X is wrong” means
action is the one that God “God commands against
commands. x”.
Devine.pptx
Therefore, the divine command theory analyze in to the
following separate features :
 Performance of One’s own Duty

• The 17th century German philosopher Samuel Pufendorf,

classified different types of duties under three headings:

Duties

Duties to God Duties to oneself Duties to others

 a theoretical duty to know
the existence and nature of
God

Duties to God
a practical duty to both
inwardly and outwardly
worship God
 duties of the soul, which
involve developing one's
skills and talents

Duties to oneself
duties of the body, which
involve not harming our
bodies, not killing oneself
 Pufendorf classification of duties to others

contract
Duties to others
universally
Absolute duties Conditional
duties
Absolute duties
avoid wronging treat people as promote the good
others equals of others
 Kant’s Categorical Imperative

 The most influential deontological theory/duty ethics was

devised by Immanuel Kant.

 Morality is mean to guide our actions.

 2.4.3. Ross’s Prima-Facie- Duties

William David Ross has postulated the following two

principles: These are:

1) duty has personal character, and

2) duty can be past and future looking

1)duty has personal character
Duty has a far more personal character than would appear
from the utilitarian account.
Though we have a duty to maximize the good, we also
have a duty to specific people.
For example we have a duty to our parents, families, for
our community and our country.
We might, sometimes, be forced to violate some moral
principles for the sake of the good of the whole like
human rights.
 2) Duty can be past and future looking
Duty is past looking as well as future looking. Here are
some lists.
Fidelity: everybody has duty keep promises/ or
contract, others commitment, which they have
voluntarily made and undertaken
Reparation: everybody has a duty of reparation for
previous wrongful acts they have done on others.
Gratitude: If others have done well to me, I owe them
a debt I return-a duty of gratitude.
 Duty of beneficence: that is, of promoting the maximum
possible intrinsic good or promoting the common
good/welfare of others.
 Non- maleficence: the duty of refraining from doing people
harm.
 A duty of justice: everybody expected to be fair and just in
the treatment of citizens. This principle is not limited to
procedural justice, but it also refers doing distributive
justice.
The duty of self-improvement. Every one of us is expected
to improve our selves and be competent enough.
 Kant’s principles

o The principle of Consistency : judge your actions by

considering the outcome should your action be made a
universal law.
• You need to be consistent in your action.

o The principle of Respect : always consider human being

as ends in themselves, never as a means to an end.
• Treat others as valued people, never just use them for
your proposes.

o The principle of Duty : actions performed out of a sense of

duty are morally praiseworthy actions.
 Kant’s principles

The principle of reversibility :it implies that acting from the

will is just like of acting of universal law for others.

example
If you violate the law, because it is in the interest of yourself, you
break the law and let others do so.
 2.4.4. Virtue Ethics
The word “virtue” comes from the Latin virtues
which signifies manliness.
A virtues was a “good man” or “excellent man.” .
virtue means the goodness of something.
Virtue is moral excellence of a person. A virtue is a
trait valued as being good.
the virtuous person chooses to practice goodness
through both words and concrete actions.
Cont…
The virtues relate us to God, goodness, ourselves, others,
and the world around us.
“Virtue,” says Augustine, “is a good habit consonant with
our human nature.”

As a simple working definition, then, we could say,

“Virtue is the power to do good.”

The virtue is a ‘blueprint’ for an individual for what to do

in given situations: the good action or thought is always
the preferred option for the possessor of virtue.
 Cont…
The opposite of virtue is vice.
A vice is essentially a bad habit or a bad practice; it
is the absence of goodness.
If virtue is the power to do good; then vice tends to
corruption, wickedness, or viciousness.
Typically vices corrupt virtues through misuse, non-
use, or over-use.
 Civic virtue :
Citizens’ disposition to further public over private good
in action and deliberation.

CV is part of virtue that makes one forgo one’s own and
other people’s interest on behalf of his community.

The emphasis is on public interest (it benefits or intends

to benefit the wider community).

the good citizen is prone to giving priority to public

rather than private good where they are conflicting.
Cont…
a society containing citizens possessing civic virtue:

 would have a population that actively supports

the national community, and

 a total lack of corruption and other public good-

damaging activities.
Cont…
• Activities that further the common good can be
activities of any kind that sustain or improve the
community:
obeying the law,
voting,
doing volunteer work,
organizing neighborhood activities,
becoming active in public or civil
organizations or becoming active in politics.