EHTICS MIDTERMS

• Kohlberg's 6 Stages of Moral Development

  Lawrence Kohlberg's theory that humans develop their moral judgements in 6 stages
• Kohlberg's research method


  1. Interviewed boys aged 10-16

  2. Analyzed how they justified decisions when confronted with moral dilemmas
• Levels of Kohlberg's Moral Development

  • Preconventional Morality
  • Conventional Morality
  • Postconventional Morality
• Preconventional Morality

  • Decisions shaped by expectations of adults and consequences of breaking rules
  • Lasts until around age 9
• Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment


  • See rules as fixed and absolute
  • Obey rules to avoid punishment
• Stage 2: Self-Interest


  • Judge actions based on how they serve individual needs
  • Act for own best interest
• Conventional Morality


  • Acceptance of social rules regarding what is good and moral
  • Importance of considering norms, practices, and views of society
• Stage 3: Interpersonal Accord and Conformity


  • Focus on living up to social expectations and roles to avoid being outcast
• Stage 4: Maintaining Social Order/Law

  • Focus on maintaining law and order by following rules, doing duty, respecting authority
• Postconventional Morality


  • Development of understanding of abstract principles of morality
• Stage 5: Social Contract


  • Account for differing values, opinions, and beliefs of others
  • Rules of law important for maintaining society, but should be agreed upon
• Stage 6: Universal Principles


  • Follow internalized principles of justice, even if they conflict with laws and rules
• Moral Agent


  A human person due to their ability to think, feel, and act
• Act of Man


  An act which man performs but is not the master of, not consciously controlled or deliberately willed
• Human Act


  An act that proceeds from the deliberate free will of man, consciously controlled and deliberately willed
• Conditions for a Moral Human Act

  • Object (and its goodness)
  • Intention (or end)
  • Circumstances
• Object of the Human Act


  The effect which an action primarily and directly causes
• Circumstances of the Human Act

  Particulars of the concrete human action which are capable of affecting its morality
• End or Intention of the Human Act


  The purpose that prompts one to perform the act, the consequence of one's action
• Impediments for Human Acts

  • Ignorance
  • Passion
  • Habit
  • Fear
• Invincible Ignorance

  Ignorance that cannot be dispelled by reasonable diligence
• Vincible Ignorance


  Ignorance that could be eliminated by the application of reasonable diligence
• Subjectivism


  Position that moral judgments are based on individual subjective experiences and preferences, no objective moral truths
• Moral Courage


  Ability to stand up for beliefs and values, even in the face of opposition or potential negative consequences
• Naïve Hedonism


  Children making moral decisions based on serving their own needs and negotiated social rules
• The ultimate basis for ethics is clear: Human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others
• Reason requires impartiality, and this has serious implications for truthfulness and reason
• Reason

  The capacity for consciously making sense of things, establishing and verifying facts, applying logic, and changing or justifying practices, institutions, and beliefs based on new or existing information
• Reasoning

  Associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect
• Reason

  A declaration made to explain or justify action, decision, or conviction
• Proper role of ethical reasoning

  • To highlight acts that enhance the well-being of others (warrant praise) and acts that harm or diminish the well-being of others (warrant criticism)
• Developing one's ethical reasoning abilities is crucial because there is in human nature a strong tendency toward egotism, prejudice, self-justification, and self-deception
• If you have no good reasons for an act or a belief, then you can't have thought it through very well and maybe you shouldn't be doing it or believing it at all
• There are people out there who are voting, protesting, financing causes, or running campaigns without any clear idea of why they are doing it
• Impartiality

  A principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons
• Impartiality makes no discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavors to relieve the suffering of individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress
• Reasons and impartiality are requirements of ethics
• Ethical reasoning


  Concerned with making sense of intuitions about what is right and good by reasoning about our feelings
• Emotion is never truly divorced from decision making, even when it is channeled aside by an effort of will
• Seeing the world with complete objectivity is not possible, as our observations affect what we perceive