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ETHICS, PROFESSIONALISM AND CRITICISM OF THE SOURCES Professional Ethics Course MIMA LECTURE Information about the course: http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590 Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/ Department of Computer Science and Electronics [Website provides ethics resources including case studies and Mälardalen University contextualised scenarios in applied/professional ethics, working examples of applied ethical problems used in teaching to highlight 15 August 2007 relevant ethical principles, materials on informed consent, confidentiality, assessment, privacy, trust and similar. ] 1 2 CONTENT – Identifying Ethical Issues Identifying Ethical Basic Moral Orientations Ethical Relativism, Absolutism, and Pluralism Issues Immanuel Kant The Ethics of Duty (Deontological Ethics) Utilitarianism Rights Justice The Ethics of Character: Virtues and Vices Egoism Moral Reasoning and Gender Environmental Ethics − Professional Issues Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D. − Criticism of the Sources Director, The Values Institute − Conclusions University of San Diego 3 4 Ethics and Morality Ethics and Morality Etymology The terms ethics and morality are often used Morality and ethics have same roots, mores which interchangeably - indeed, they usually can mean the means manner and customs from the Latin and same thing, and in casual conversation there isn't a etos which means custom and habits from the Greek. problem with switching between one and the other. However, there is a distinction between them in Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory philosophy! 5 6 Ethics and Morality Ethics and Morality Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about would call moral standards and moral conduct while how to live a good life. ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the ethics is also often called "moral philosophy." adequacy of our moral beliefs. 7 8 ETHICS SOCIETY VALUES Philosophers commonly distinguish: descriptive ethics, the factual study of the ethical standards or principles of a group or tradition; ETHICS normative ethics, the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions; applied ethics, the use of these theories to form LAW MORAL judgments regarding practical cases; and meta-ethics, careful analysis of the meaning and justification of ethical claims Source: www.ethicsquality.com/philosophy.html 9 10 Identifying Moral Issues Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. They are not always easy to identify and Professional discussions of ethical define. issues in journals. We come back to ideas again and again, finding new meaning in them. See http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm 11 12 The Focus of Ethics Ethics as the Evaluation of Other People’s Behavior Ethics as the Evaluation of Other Ethics often used as a weapon People’s Behavior Hypocrisy – We are often eager to pass judgment on others Possibility of knowing other people Ethics as the Search for Meaning and The right to judge other people Value in Our Own Lives The right to intervene Judging and caring 13 14 Ethics as the Search for Meaning What to Expect from Ethics and Value in Our Own Lives Identificationa and description of an issue Positive focus Explanation Aims at discerning what is good Support in deliberation Emphasizes personal responsibility for one’s own life 15 16 The Point of Ethical Reflection Basic Moral Orientations Ethics as the evaluation of other people’s behavior Ethics as the search for the meaning of our own lives 17 18 On what basis do we make moral On what basis do we make moral decisions? (1) decisions? (2) Divine Command Theories -- “Do what the The Ethics of Natural and Human Rights -- Bible tells you” or the Will of God “...all people are created ...with certain Utilitarianism -- “Make the world a better place” unalienable rights” Virtue Ethics -- “Be a good person” Social Contract Ethics The Ethics of Duty -- “Do your duty” Moral Reason versus Moral Feeling Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory Evolutionary Ethics Ethical Egoism -- “Watch out for #1” 19 20 Utilitarianism Divine Commands (Consequentialism) Being good is equivalent to doing Hedonistic utilitarianism: Seeks to whatever the Bible--or the Qur’an or reduce suffering and increase pleasure some other sacred text or source of or happiness Epicurus revelation--tells you to do. Epicurus (341-270 BC) Greek (341-270 BC) “We count pleasure as the originating principle and the goal for the blessed life”. (Letter to Menoeceus) “What is right” equals “What God tells Frances Hutcheson (1694-1747) Irish me to do.” “The action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number; and that worst, which in like manner, occasions misery.” (An Inquiry Concerning Moral Good and Evil, 3.8) John Stuart Mill Bentham’s Utilitarian Calculus 1806-1873 Mill’s Utilitarianism “Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote [general] happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of [general] happiness. (Utilitarianism, 2) http://www.utilitarism.net/ (in Swedish) 21 22 Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) The Ethics of Duty Virtue Ethics (Deontological* Ethics) One of the oldest moral theories. Ethics is about doing your duty. Ancient Greek epic poets and playwrights Homer Cicero (stoic): On duties (De Officiis) and Sophocles describe the morality of their http://www.stoics.com/cicero_book.html heroes in terms of virtues and vices. Medieval philosophers: duties to God, self and others - cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, Marcus Tullius Cicero Plato Kant: only moral duties to self and others (106 - 43) BC temperance, and justice. Even accepted by Plato (427-347 BCE) early Christian theologians. Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694): moral duties spring from our instinctive drive for survival – we should be sociable in order to survive. Aristotle: The Nichomachean Ethics Intuitionism: we don’t logically deduce Morality is a matter of being a good moral duties, we know them as thy are! person, which involves having virtuous character traits. For each duty there is a corresponding virtue. Immanuel Kant Aristotle (384-322 BCE.) 1724-1804 Seeks to develop individual character 23 * ‘deon’ = duty 24 Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory Ethical Egoism Says the only person to look out for is yourself Human reason makes moral Ayn Rand, The Ethics of Selfishness demands on our lives Well known for her novel, especially Atlas Shrugged The categorical imperative: Act Ayn Rand sets forth the moral principles so that the maxim [determining of “Objectivism”, the philosophy that holds motive of the will] may be that man's life--the life proper to a rational capable of becoming a universal being--as the standard of moral values. law for all rational beings." It regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature, with the requirements of his survival, and with a free society. We have moral responsibility to Immanuel Kant shrug - To raise (the shoulders), especially as a gesture of doubt, disdain, or develop our talents 1724-1804 indifference 25 26 The Ethics of Rights The Ethics of Rights The most influential moral Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) notion of the past two centuries right from nature implies a liberty to Established minimal conditions protect myself from attack in any way of human decency that I can. Thomas Hobbes Human rights: rights that all humans (1588-1679) supposedly possess. John Locke (1632-1704) principal natural rights: life, health, natural rights: some rights are liberty and possessions. grounded in the nature rather than in governments. moral rights, positive rights, legal rights, civil rights John Locke (1632-1704) 27 28 Evolutionary Ethics Moral Reason versus Moral Feeling Human social behavior is an extended development Morality is strictly a matter of rational of biological evolution. judgment: Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) Evolutionary ethics: moral behavior is that which tends to aid in human survival. Since time of Plato: moral truths exist in a spiritual realm. Samuel Clarke Darwin: Origin of Species focuses on the evolutionary (1675-1729) mechanisms of nonhuman animals. Moral truths like mathematical truths Biologists and philosophers of nineteenth century are eternal. attempted to frame morality as an extension of the Morality is strictly a matter of feeling evolutionary biological process. (emotion): David Hume (1711-1729) Problem of the theory: what is progress? What is We have a moral sense good? Any signs of moral improvement since Plato? David Hume (1711-1729) 29 30 Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism Ethical Relativism, The Greek Skeptics (1) Absolutism, Xenophanes (570-475 BCE) and Pluralism “Ethiopians say that their gods are flat-nosed and dark, Thracians that theirs are blue-eyed and red-haired. If oxen and horses and lions had hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and oxen to look like ox, and each would make the god’s bodies have the same shape as they themselves had.” Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D. Director, The Values Institute The historian Heroditus(484-425 BCE) University of San Diego “Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.” 31 32 Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism The Greek Skeptics (2) Later Ethical Relativism (1) Sextus Empiricus (fl. 200 CE) French philosopher Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592): Gives example after example of moral standards that differ from one society to another, such as attitudes Custom has the power to shape every possible kind of about homosexuality, incest, cannibalism, human cultural practice. Although we pretend that morality is a sacrifice, the killing of elderly, infanticide, theft, fixed feature of nature, morality too is formed through consumption of animal flesh… custom.
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