ETHICS

• Branches of Ethics

  • Normative Ethics
  • Meta-Ethics
  • Applied Ethics
  • Moral Ethics
  • Descriptive Ethics
• Week 1: OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION
• Descriptive Ethics focuses on how human beings actually operate in the real world, rather than attempting to theorize about how they should operate
• Positive law


  Refers to the different rules and regulations posited or put forward by an authority figure that require compliance
• Religion

  • The Presumed Connection between Morality and Religion
  • The Divine Command Theory
  • Religion and Moral Issues
• Culture

  • Shared ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Customs
  • Values
  • Objects
• Weigh the Consequences


  Consider the consequences of the remaining available alternatives, both positive and negative
• Psychological Egoism describes the underlying dynamic behind all human actions
• Lawrence Kohlberg was a professor of Psychology in Harvard and a prominent moral development theorist
• Subjectivism


  The recognition that the individual thinking person is at the heart of all moral valuations
• Law


  One’s guide to ethical behavior
• Culture

  The beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics shared by groups of people
• Cultural Relativism holds that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the bounds of the culture itself
• Moral Ethics questions how individuals develop their morality, why certain aspects of morality differ between cultures, and why certain aspects of morality are generally universal
• Compare the Alternatives with the Principles

  Eliminate alternatives according to the moral principles that have a bearing on the case
• Religion

  Based on the idea that God (or some deity) reveals insights about life and its true meaning
• Ethical Subjectivism


  Our moral opinions are based on our feelings and nothing more
• Lawrence Kohlberg's thinking grew out of Jean Piaget's writing on chi
• Make a Decision


  At some point, a decision must be made, often involving the least number of problems or negative consequences
• Levels in Lawrence Kohlberg's theory

  1. Pre-conventional level - individuals do not yet speak as members of society

  2. Conventional level - it speaks on isolated individuals rather than as members of the society

  3. Post-conventional level - moral decisions are generated from the rights, values or principles that are or that could be agreeable to all individuals composing or creating a society designed to have fair and beneficial practices
• Lawrence Kohlberg


  • A professor of Psychology in Harvard
  • A prominent moral development theorist
  • His theory is descriptive, rather than proven facts
  • Presumes that there are six (five) stages of moral development that people go through
• Factors influencing Ethical Dilemma situations


  • Personal Friendships
  • Social Dilemmas
• Ethical Dilemma situations are also known as moral dilemmas
• Ethical Dilemma


  Situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion
• Stages of Moral Development

  • Stage 1 – Punishment and Obedience
  • Stage 2 – Individual and Instrumental Exchange
  • Stage 3 – Mutual and Interpersonal Conformity
  • Stage 4 – Law And Order
  • Stage 5 – Social contract and Individual Rights
  • Stage 6 – Universal Ethical Principles
• Lawrence Kohlberg's theory


  • Everyone goes through each stage in the same order, but not everyone goes through all the stages
  • A person at one stage can understand the reasoning of any stage below him but cannot understand more than one stage above
• Normative Ethics


  Deals with how individuals can figure out the correct moral action that they should take
• Descriptive Ethics


  Focuses on how human beings actually operate in the real world, rather than theorizing about how they should operate
• Ethics


  The discipline of studying and understanding ideal human behavior and ideal ways of thinking
• Morals


  Specific beliefs or attitudes that people have, or acts that people perform
• Applied Ethics


  The study of applying theories from philosophers regarding ethics in everyday life
• Meta-Ethics


  Seeks to understand the nature of ethical properties and judgments, such as the theory behind moral principles
• Moral Ethics

  Questions how individuals develop their morality, why certain aspects of morality differ between cultures, and why certain aspects of morality are generally universal
• Personal conduct


  Referred to as morals, and falling short of behaving properly can be described as immoral
• Professional Ethics


  Regarding the acceptable and unacceptable ways of behaving in a given field
• Applied Ethics


  • Study of applying theories from philosophers regarding ethics in everyday life
• Cultural Relativism holds that the norms of a culture reign supreme within the culture itself
• Ethical Subjectivism is the idea that moral opinions are based on feelings
• Law is one's guide to ethical behavior
• Branches of Ethics

  • Normative Ethics
  • Meta-Ethics
  • Applied Ethics
  • Moral Ethics
  • Descriptive Ethics