I) The Ethical Structure
1. Factual Issues
2. Conceptual Issues (Remember, these are areas of definitional controversy, e.g. Can eating red meat be considered a form of suicide? Is a fetus a person? Is a “permanently vegetative” person, whose vital organs would cease without live support systems, alive?
3. Ethical Issues (Argue from the utilitarian, egoist, natural law, and respect for persons ethical perspectives).
II) What is ethics?
1. It’s the difference between right or wrong.
2. It prescribes behavior.
3. It is impartial. The statement applies for everyone not just you and not the CEO. “Thou shalt not kill”, for example.
4. They are independent of authority. Authorities cannot make or change ethics nor is it established by consensus or tradition. There is no state, federal, or international Institution of Ethics.
5. There is a distinction between consequential and non-consequential ethics.
6. It’s reason not emotions (reasonable supporting arguments), systematic, and logical.
7. Applying moral theory is not easy.
8. When you face a moral issue decide which moral theory or theories to use. Some will be more relevant than others.
9. Look for middle-way solutions among the competing ethical theories; solutions that attempt to do justice to all of the competing considerations.
10.Ethical reasoning will not solve all problems but it is a good guide in assisting you to arrive at a just conclusion.
III) Egoism
1. Actions are to be judged in terms of the extent to which they promote a person’s self interest.
2. Look after #1. If you don’t look after yourself no one else will.
3. All human behavior is motivated by self-interest.
4. The only moral obligation people have is to act in our self-interest.
5. Those actions are right that contribute to my interests.
6. All moral obligations to others must be justified because they promote my own good.
7. Egoists must consider if their actions disintegrate society ‘cause that could work against the egoist.
8. No enforced benevolence (no right to tax one person to support another).
9. No paternalism (forcing others to do something for their own good, e.g. motorcycle helmet law in Mass., drug laws can only be developed to prevent crime not to help addicts).
10. Conduct will not be prohibited simply because someone thinks it’s immoral (no laws against porno, homosexuality, gambling, bigamy).
Problems with egoism:
a) Fails the impartiality test. To what extent do I recognize your equal right to pursue your well-being?
b) What is self-interest?
c) Is it impossible in egoism to do good actions for family and friends for their sake not out of what their welfare contributes to us?
d) Egoism may not be well suited to the ethical goal of resolving disputes.
e) What if every company and person committed criminal actions to benefit themselves?
IV) Utilitarianism
1. Actions are to be judged in terms of the extent to which they promote the greatest total amount of welfare for humanity.
2. Your well-being is of no greater value than someone else’s.
3. Utilitarians go for what produces the greatest total utility as opposed to the greatest distribution of utility.
4. A moral action is that which produces the greatest total utility.
5. Nothing but utility is good in itself. Particular actions and general rules must be evaluated by their consequences. Horrible actions such as murder, rape, theft, and fraud are not somehow wrong in themselves; they are wrong only because they do not produce as much utility as alternative behaviors.
6. Self-actualization has a place in utilitarianism because you will probably make you greatest contribution to the well-being by doing work that gives you the greatest satisfaction.
7. There’s no active versus passive distinction, e.g. administering a lethal injection versus omitting administering life-sustaining medication to a cancer patient who has asked for their life to be ended. The two acts are morally equivalent.
8. Consideration is based on the ability to experience pain and enjoyment as well as having rationality and self-consciousness. The fertilized egg immediately after conception is unaware of anything and thus has no rights for consideration in utilitarianism.
9. The serious interests of the mother ordinarily override the rudimentary interests of the fetus.
10.Individual freedom is supported because it leads to the discovery of truth which promotes the greatest satisfaction for people. X-Files “the truth shall set you free.” Socrates Café.
11.It’s morally permissible to perform medical experiments on mentally challenged children because the total benefits outweigh the total harms.
1. Act in a way that conforms to the natural inclinations of human beings, e.g. preserve own life, produce children, be part of a social group, and develop your own unique human intellectual faculties).
2. Unnatural is immoral.
3. There is an objective standard for morality which exists separately from ourselves. Ethical relativism is invalid. Certain actions are right or wrong regardless of the consequences. You don’t shoot any prisoners or push any passengers overboard even if by so doing you save the lives of your own people.
4. You can’t compare the good of one single life with the good of several lives.
5. Slander and gossip are morally impermissible because they harm the value of sociability.
6. A just war is morally permissible but the direct killing of innocents is not.
7. We have a duty not to act against another person’s natural law right to know the truth by lying to them.
8. Moral judgements must include an evaluation of the intentions of the person performing the act. Giving to charity in order to establish a good reputation in the community is consequentially good but not morally praiseworthy.
9. The primary goal of life is to achieve as fully as possible our potential as human beings.
10.Humans have free will and they decide to act or not.
11.Life is good. Murder and suicide are wrong.
12.Sterilization, homosexuality, and artificial contraception is wrong as they go against procreation.
13.Humans must know about God and the world. The stifling of intellectual curiosity and lack of religion is wrong.
14.Friendship and love are good. Slander and lies are wrong.
Problems with natural law:
1. Is lying right if you’re a natural liar?
2. What is human nature?
3. What should we do when sterilization is necessary to prevent a life-threatening pregnancy?
VI) Respect for Persons
1. Act in a way that respects equally the dignity of every human being. Actions are judged by whether they treat human beings as free moral agents who can order their lives by their own purposes and values.
2. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
3. All persons possess a divine spark that gives them fundamental human dignity and equality.
4. Distinguish between persons and things. People should not be treated as mere things or manipulated in a way that disregards their states as moral beings. Thus, slavery is wrong because it treats people as commodities.
5. You have a duty not to destroy or impair your health.
6. Increasing your general knowledge and education will promote your abilities to pursue your goals.
7. Treating someone as a “mere sex object” is treating the person as a thing rather than as a person. Seduction also uses the person as a mere means because it is reducing their ability to act effectively as a goal-pursuing agent.
8. An action is right if you can consent to everyone’s adopting the moral rule presupposed by the action.
9. Those actions are right that treat human beings, whether you or another person, as an end and not a means.
10.Persons can carry out their own goals whereas things have their purposes determined from the outside.
11.For a person to act as a moral agent they must have freedom or voluntariness.
12.Moral agency requires purposivenss and well-being whereby a person sets goals for themselves and has the abilities (good character and practical skills) and physical goods (good job) to achieve them.
13.If you treat others as a mere means you forfeit your rights to freedom and well-being in proportion to the rights of others that your trespass.
14.Ask if you have assisted others in achieving their freedom and well-being?
15.Determine which action constitutes the least serious violation of the moral agency of others.
16.Does the action override the freedom or well-being of oneself or others?