Ethics

• Moral agent


  A person who is capable of making moral judgments and acting in accordance with them
• Culture has the power over individuals to create beliefs, which strengthens social order, through more people holding the same beliefs
• Culture served to justify inequality - Karl Marx
• The ruling class or the bourgeoisie produce a culture that promotes their interest, while repressing the interests of the proletariat
• Basic elements of culture

  • Symbols
  • Language
  • Beliefs
  • Values
  • Norms
• Symbols


  Anything that a group of people find meaningful
• Language


  A complex system that enabled human beings to communicate either verbally or through writing
• Beliefs


  Assumptions or convictions held to be true of an individual or a group of people
• Values


  Culturally acceptable standards or behavior; considered important/beneficial in life
• Norms


  Informal guideline by a particular group of people or social unit (considered normal/correct/incorrect social behavior)
• Plato- Elements genetic traits, early childhood experience, and one's cultural surroundings influence the person's moral development
• Cultural relativism


  Explains why one behavior or practice is completely acceptable by a particular group of people, while it is a taboo in another
• Cultural relativism - idea that values, knowledge, and behavior of people must be understood within its own cultural context
• Cultural relativism - all moral and ethical standards (or the judgement of what is right or wrong) is valid and there is not "one" standard that is better among all others
• Advantages of cultural relativism


  • It warns us from assuming that our preferences are the absolute rational standard
  • It teaches us to keep an open mind and to be more amenable in discovering the truth
• Disadvantages of cultural relativism


  • We cannot call out societal practices that promote harm
  • We cannot justifiably criticize our own culture's harmful practices
  • The idea of social progress becomes doubtful
• Dr James Rachels reject cultural relativism because it is implausible
• Universal values


  • Caring for the young
  • Murder is wrong
  • Tell the truth
• Moral agent


  A person capable of making moral judgments and acting on them
• The objectives of this lesson are to define the important concepts of moral agent, explicate how moral character developed, and identify the stages of moral development as stipulated by Kohlberg
• Moral


  Principles of right and wrong behavior/ the goodness and badness of the human character
• Moral character


  The mental and moral qualities distinct to an individual
• Moral character as disposition


  • Dispositions or the tendency to act or think in a particular way for which a person can be held morally responsible
  • Rational, informed, stable, and reliable dispositions
• Moral character


  • The existence (or lack of) virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honest, and loyalty
• Confucian tradition


  Attributed to "four beginnings" of the human personality (considered as seeds of human personality that will naturally unfold to become human activities)
• Moral agent


  A person capable of making moral judgments and acting on them
• Four beginnings of Confucian tradition

  • Jen - the heart of compassion
  • Yi - the heart of righteousness
  • Li - the heart of propriety - purity
  • Zhi - the heart of wisdom
• The objectives of this lesson are to define the important concepts of moral agent, explicate how moral character developed, and identify the stages of moral development as stipulated by Kohlberg
• Virtue ethics


  Reduces the emphasis on rules, consequence, and particular acts, and focuses on the quality of the person as a virtuous person
• Moral


  Principles of right and wrong behavior/ the goodness and badness of the human character
• Virtue ethics


  Each person has a built-in desire to be virtuous and that if a person is focused on being a good person, the right actions will follow effortlessly and you will do good things
• Moral character


  The mental and moral qualities distinct to an individual
• Good person


  • Proper functioning (perform as intended)
  • Sleep, be healthy, grow, and develop as nature intended
  • Live and get along with other people
• Moral character as disposition

  • Dispositions or the tendency to act or think in a particular way for which a person can be held morally responsible
  • Rational, informed, stable, and reliable dispositions
• Virtuous person


  Equivalent to excellence, performs the distinctive activity of being human well
• Moral character


  • The existence (or lack of) virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honest, and loyalty
• Doctrine of the golden mean


  Virtue is a choice of behaving the right way, at the right time, with the right people, and that this choice is determined by rational principle and practical wisdom
• Confucian tradition


  Attributed to "four beginnings" of the human personality (considered as seeds of human personality that will naturally unfold to become human activities)
• Virtuous man


  Is the kind of man who is able to satisfy both inclinations and rational desires because his inclinations and desires are aligned, does what is good and does it because pleasure he derives pleasure from choosing and doing what is moral
• Four beginnings of Confucian tradition

  • Jen - the heart of compassion
  • Yi - the heart of righteousness
  • Li - the heart of propriety - purity
  • Zhi - the heart of wisdom