Ethics

• Teleological/ Consequentialist Ethics:

  1. Utilitarianism
  2. Hedonism
  3. Egoism
  4. Pragmatism
• Teleological-Theories about right action, or about what one ought to do. But they are committed to claims about value, because they appeal to evaluative facts, in order to explain what is right and wrong, and what we ought to do. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• • Consequentialism -as its name suggests, is simply the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Consequentialism - This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things, but the most prominent example is probably consequentialism about the moral rightness of acts, which holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
• Utilitarianism is one of the most influential moral theories in history. The English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) was the first to fill out the theory in detail, and the English philosopher and economist John Stuart Mill (1806–73) developed it further.
• Utilitarianism asserts that the value of an act depends on the utility it produces, and the utility it most values is happiness.
• Bentham called the utilitarian principle the principle of utility and asserted that all our actions can be judged by it. (Mill called it the greatest happiness principle.)
• Bentham: By the principle of utility (By utility is meant that property in any object) is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action what-soever, according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words, to promote or to oppose that happiness.
• The principle of utility, of course, makes the theory consequentialist (Focused on consequences). The emphasis on happiness or pleasure makes it hedonistic, (pursuit of pleasure; pleasure has worth or value) for happiness is the only intrinsic good.
• Promote the Good of Everyone & Impartiality

  An underlying tenet of utilitarianism is that you should promote the good of everyone concerned and that everyone counts equally. When deliberating about which action to perform, you must take into account your own happiness as well as that of everyone else who will be affected by your decision—and no one is to be given privileged status. Such evenhandedness requires a large measure of impartiality, a quality that plays a role in every plausible moral theory.
• Greatest Happiness Principle

  Mill’s definition: the principle that “holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.”
•  Mill: [T]he happiness which forms the utilitarian standard of what is right in conduct, is not the agent’s own happiness, but that of all concerned. As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator.
• Happiness Vs. Unhappiness

  Mill: “By Happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain

  By Unhappiness, pain and the privation of pleasure.
• Act & Rule

  In act-utilitarianism, we must examine each action to see how much good (or evil) it generates. Rule-utilitarianism would have us first determine what rule an action falls under, then see if that rule would likely maximize utility if everyone followed it.
• Act utilitarianism - focuses on the utility of specific acts (short term happiness)
• Rule utilitarianism- focuses on rules that promote greater happiness (long term)
• Bentham thinks that happiness varies only in quantity—different actions produce different amounts of happiness. To judge the intensity, duration, or fecundity of happiness is to calculate its quantity.
• Mill contends that happiness can vary in quantity and quality. There are lower pleasures, such as eating, drinking, and having sex, and there are higher pleasures, such as pursuing knowledge, appreciating beauty, and creating art. The higher pleasures are superior to the lower ones. The lower ones can be intense and enjoyable, but the higher ones are qualitatively better and more fulfilling.
• Application

  Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things (such as pleasure and happiness) in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things (such as pain and unhappiness).
• Application: In Business

  "Moreover, utilitarianism is the most common approach to business ethics because of the way that it accounts for costs and benefits. (Carla Tardi)"

   
• Hedonism comes from the ancient Greek for ‘pleasure’
• Psychological or motivational hedonism claims that only pleasure or pain motivates us.
• Ethical or evaluative hedonism claims that only pleasure has worth or value and only pain or displeasure has disvalue or the opposite of worth.
• The principle of utility, of course, makes the theory consequentialist (Focused on consequences). The emphasis on happiness or pleasure makes it hedonistic, (pursuit of pleasure; pleasure has worth or value) for happiness is the only intrinsic good.
• Bentham:

  “Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain, and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do” (An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation)
• In philosophy, egoism is the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own action. (Joshua May of IEOP)
• Altruism is the opposite of egoism. The term “egoism” derives from “ego,” the Latin term for “I” in English. (Stanford)
• Egoism has two variants, descriptive or normative.

  ·        Descriptive

  ·        Normative
• Descriptive- The descriptive (or positive) variant conceives egoism as a factual description of human affairs. That is, people are motivated by their own interests and desires, and they cannot be described otherwise.
• Normative- The normative variant proposes that people should be so motivated, regardless of what presently motivates their behavior.

  ·        Psychological Egoism

  ·        Ethical Egoism

  ·        Rational Egoism
• • Psychological Egoism The descriptive egoist’s theory is called “psychological egoism.” Psychological egoism describes human nature as being wholly self- centered and self-motivated. (Joshua May of IEOP)
• Psychological egoism, the most famous descriptive position, claims that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare. (Stanford)
• Ethical egoism claims I morally ought to perform some action if and only if, and because, performing that action maximizes my self-interest. (Stanford)
• Rational egoism claims that I ought to perform some action if and only if, and because, performing that action maximizes my self-interest. (Here the “ought” is not restricted (no restriction) to the moral “ought”.) (Stanford)
• Pragmatism

  The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. (W. James)
• W. James: “I am well aware how odd it must seem to some of you to hear me say that an idea is ‘true’ so for as much as it profits you will gladly admit.
• Pragmatism, on the other hand, asks its usual question. “Grant an idea or belief to be true,” it says, “what concrete difference will its being true make in any one’s actual life? (W. James)
• Questions Relating to Pragmatism

  ·        How will the truth be realized?

  ·        What experiences will be different for those while would obtain if the belief were false?

  ·        What in short, is the truth’s cash-value in experiential terms?

  (W. James)
• Meta-ethics, on the other hand, tries to go beyond the concepts and parameters set by normative ethics by trying to question the basis of the assumptions proposed in such a framework of norms and standards by normative ethics. Meta-ethics as an ethical approach examines the presuppositions, meanings and justifications of ethical concepts and principles (aid our study in ethics).
• Meta-ethics is the attempt to understand the metaphysical, epistemological, semantic, and psychological, presuppositions and commitments of moral thought, talk, and practice. (Stanford)