Ethics reviewer

• Morality


  A system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad
• Moral development


  Changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity
• Moral beliefs are related to, but not identical with, moral behavior
• It is possible to know the right thing to do, but not actually do it
• Moral beliefs are not the same as knowledge of social conventions
• Social conventions


  Arbitrary customs needed for the smooth operation of society
• Social conventions may have a moral element, but they have a primarily practical purpose
• Conventionally, motor vehicles all keep to the same side of the street for smooth, accident-free flow of traffic
• Choosing the wrong side of the street can have moral implications
• Moral choices are woven into almost every aspect of classroom life
• Simple dilemmas about fairness and consideration arise in classroom scenarios
• Morality of justice


  About human rights, respect for fairness, impartiality, equality, and individuals' independence
• Morality of care


  About human responsibilities, caring for others, showing consideration for individuals' needs, and interdependence among individuals
• Students and teachers need both forms of morality
• Lawrence Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral development: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional
• Preconventional Level


  • Stage 1: Obedience and punishment
  • Stage 2: Market exchange
• Conventional Level


  • Stage 3: Peer opinion
  • Stage 4: Law and order
• Postconventional Level


  • Stage 5: Social contract
  • Stage 6: Universal principles
• Moral stages according to Kohlberg

  • Stage 1: Obedience and punishment
  • Stage 2: Market exchange
  • Stage 3: Peer opinion
  • Stage 4: Law and order
  • Stage 5: Social contract
  • Stage 6: Universal principles
• Moral development stages


  1. Stage 1: Child responds to positive or negative consequences without considering reasons

  2. Stage 2: Ethics of market exchange, actions favoring both parties involved are morally good

  3. Stage 3: Ethics of peer opinion, beliefs based on what a larger group agrees on

  4. Stage 4: Ethics of law and order, moral beliefs framed based on majority societal approval

  5. Stage 5: Ethics of social contract, actions are morally good if created through fair, democratic processes respecting rights of those affected
• Stage 1


  Child incapable of considering reasons for actions even if offered by adults
• Stage 2


  Introduction of fairness into the child's thinking for the first time
• Stage 3


  Child's reference group are immediate peers, ethics of peer opinion
• Stage 4


  Moral beliefs framed based on what the majority of society believes
• Stage 5


  Ethics of social contract, actions morally good if created through fair, democratic processes respecting rights of those affected
• Consultation processes


  Should be thorough and fair
• Individuals thinking according to Stage 5


  Regardless of the position they take about wearing helmets
• Beliefs on both sides of a debate about an issue can sometimes be morally sound even if they contradict each other
• Paying attention to due process should help to avoid mindless conformity to conventional moral beliefs
• An ethics of social contract places more faith in democratic process than it sometimes deserves
• An ethics of social contract does not pay enough attention to the content of what gets decided
• A society could decide democratically to kill off every member of a racial minority


  Deciding this by due process may not make it ethical
• Realization that ethical means can sometimes serve unethical ends

  Leads some individuals toward Stage 6, the ethics of self-chosen, universal principles
• Stage 6 ethics


  The morally good action is based on personally held principles that apply both to the person's immediate life as well as to the larger community and society
• Marginal utility


  The additional utility (satisfaction) gained from the consumption of an additional product
• If you add up marginal utility for each unit you get total utility
• Morality of care


  System of beliefs about human responsibilities, care, and consideration for others
• Moral positions according to Gilligan

  • Position 1: Survival orientation
  • Position 2: Conventional care
  • Position 3: Integrated care
• Positions of moral development according to Gilligan

  • Position 1: Survival orientation - Action that considers one’s personal needs only
  • Position 2: Conventional care - Action that considers others’ needs or preferences, but not one’s own
  • Position 3: Integrated care - Action that attempts to coordinate one’s own personal needs with those of others
• Responsibilities to others (the baby, the father, or her family) play little or no part in her thinking


  She will be whatever creates the least stress for herself and that disrupts her own life the least