ethics

• Thomas Aquinas


  An Italian Dominican theologian, one of the most influential medieval thinkers of Scholasticism, the father of the Thomistic school of theology, a prolific writer who wrote the famous treatise Summa Theologica
• Natural


  Something found in nature and does not involve anything made or done by people, a natural ability or characteristic that you were born with
• Law


  Directed towards specific ends, something that induces us to act in a certain way, something that restrains us from acting in certain ways
• Natural Law


  The belief that certain laws of morality are inherent by human nature, reason, or religious belief and that they are ethically binding on humanity, the philosophy that there are moral laws found in nature and discernable by the use of reason, to do good and avoid evil, derived from the rational nature of human beings
• Natural Law tradition


  • Hints of its beginning can be found in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, natural law was the dominant view of the Greek stoics
• Four Kinds of Law

  • Eternal Law
  • Natural Law
  • Divine Law
  • Human Law
• Eternal Law


  That law exists because of God's Divine Providence, as God created the Universe, the universe is governed by His laws, Eternal Law is the basis for all other kinds of law
• Natural Law


  The rational creature's participation in Eternal law, rational creatures derive their acts and ends from natural law, basic formulation: "do good, avoid evil"
• Relativism


  The idea that views are relative to differences in perception and consideration
• Divine Law


  Specific formulations of eternal law, necessary for the directing of human conduct
• Types of relativism


  • Moral relativism (all opinions, beliefs, religions, and moralities are equally good)
  • Cognitive or epistemic relativism (all beliefs, truth, statements, world views, and theories are equally true)
• Human Law


  Formulations of human reason concerning particular determinations of natural law, concerned with transient/contingent realities, a means to enable man to live virtuously
• Relativism


  Can lead to actions that produce good outcomes for individuals as members of a community or society, even the whole global society
• Man's faculties are insufficient to direct him to his proper end, human judgment is uncertain, some laws must exist to govern internal actions, all evil deeds must be punished
• Laws are just when they are based on the right reason and ordained for the common good, they must not exceed the power of the lawgiver, the burden of abiding by the law must be commensurate to the attainment of the common good
• Moral behavior


  Acts intended to produce kind and/or fair outcomes
• Influence of culture on moral behavior

  • It is the process through which a human being acquires sensibilities, attitudes, beliefs, skills, and dispositions that render him or her a morally mature or adequate human being
  • One culture would differ from another in terms of its principles, beliefs, traditions, etc. Consequently the culture of a particular society is very integral to the development of the human person
  • A culture would not always be absolute in raising its members to its full development
• Impartiality


  Individual interests are equally important; no one gets special treatment or is condemned in forms of discrimination without supporting reasoning. Impartiality forbids treating one person worse than another when there is no reason to do so.
• Emotion


  A response to stimuli based on past experience made instinctively. When emotions take over it is hard to think of the consequences of one's actions.
• Reason


  A form of personal justification that changes from person to person based on their own ethical and moral code, as well as prior experience. When removed from emotion, it allows a person to make conscious decisions based on fact, with no reference to personal involvement. The use of reason as a way of knowing allows the knower to see the consequences of their actions throughout the decision-making process. There are limitations to decisions made based on reason alone, perception of situation is not questioned as it may be with an emotional decision.
• Emotion in ethical decisions

  Can be used to form an initial opinion on a situation, allows the knower to connect with the subject on a personal level
• Reason in ethical decisions

  Can be used to justify the initial opinion, allows the knower to understand the consequences of this opinion or other actions taken with regard to the ethical issue
• Theresa Ann Campo Pearson, an infant known to the public as "Baby Theresa," was born in Florida in 1992. Baby Theresa had anencephaly, one of the worst genetic disorders. Anencephalic infants are sometimes referred to as "babies without brains," – the cerebrum and the cerebellum – are missing, as is the top of the skull. The brain stem, however, is still there, and so the baby can still breathe and possess a heartbeat.
• positive relativism believes that no ona has a better morals system,beliefs, system or truth claims
• negative relativism believes that no one has the truth or knowledge of what is good.
• possible implications of relativism: positive and negative
• cultural relativism view morality as relative to a standard, especially a cultural standard
• franz boas theorized the cultural relativism
• william graham sumner theorized moral relativism, adopted the term "ethnocentrism" and coined the term "forgotten man"
• Schulman defines moral behaviors as "acts intended to produce kind and/or fair outcomes'
• lawrence kohlberg stages of moral development
• 1st level of morality "pre conventional''
• preconventional morality: obedience and punishment, self interest
• conventional: interpersonal accord and conformity, authority
• post conventional: social contract orientation, universal ethical principles