Introduction to Virtue Ethics, Utilitarianism, and Deontology (Kantianism)

What do you think?

• As all ethics is relative and/or, we can never agree on any objectively valid principles.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree

Cultural Relativism (descriptive): Different cultures have different ethics and values.

Ethical Relativism (normative): There are no universal ethical principles.

The Difficulty of Bridging the Gap with Relativism: How do you climb out of that hole?

• There is no Truth. • There are no absolutes.• Nothing is certain.• Everything is just an opinion.

• Can you spot the contradictions?

• If a statement is self-contradictory, what is the value of the statement?

So where do we go?

• There is no Truth. (except this statement)

• There are no absolutes (except this statement).

• Nothing is certain (except this statement).

• Everything is just an opinion (except this statement).

• Some things are true; some things are not true; some things are more true than other things.

• If some things are true, there must be something absolute. It is not clear how or if we can access the absolute.

• We experience certainty in degrees, and the facts change.

• Some things are opinions; some things are facts. Different facts and different opinions have different values.

Moral Reasoning Bridges the GapBuild the Bridge Premise by Premise and Tie it all

together with Logic• Some arguments get us and

others from “is” to “ought” very effectively.

• Some arguments fail.

• Some get us there, but it’s scary and dangerous.

Virtue Ethics (excellence of character)

• Are people inherently “good” or do they learn how to be “good?”

• Plato (@400 BCE): Compelled to rediscover through contemplation the eternal knowledge of the Good forgotten during the trauma of birth (wisdom).

• Since all being comes from the Good, all truth is within (the soul).

• Once one discovers the Good, one cannot help but act in accordance with the Good since it is in one’s nature to do so.

Aristotle• All things have “telos” (a design and

purpose).

• To “actualize” telos is to “flourish.”

• The telos of the human being is actualize excellence in living (arête) by acting in accordance to the Golden Mean of moderation.

• Aristotle: We “become” by doing:

“By practicing virtue we learn it, just as the builder learns to build...We become just by doing just acts, temperate by temperate acts.”

“It is clear that he who acts must have knowledge, he must choose his act, and his act must proceed from his character. So, just actions are those the just man does.“

Virtue Ethics• What kind of person should

I/we/they be?

• How do we act in order to achieve this?

• How do we compel others to act in this way?

• What is the strength of virtue ethics?

• Weakness?

• What would the virtue ethicist say to the “dumbest” girls to help them bridge the is-ought gap?

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1842 CE)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873 CE)

• Goodness/rightness and badness/wrongness are located in the consequences an act (consequentialism).

• An act that increases happiness or pleasure (or minimizes unhappiness and suffering) is right and good; act that decreases happiness or causes suffering is wrong and bad.

• Theory based on act, rather than act based on theory.

Bentham’s “Calculus of Felicity”

• Intensity (How intense is the pleasure?)

• Duration (How long does the pleasure last?)

• Certainty (How sure is the pleasure?)

• Proximity (How soon will the pleasure be experienced?)

• Fecundity (How many more pleasures will follow?)

• Purity (How free from pain is the pleasure?)

• Extent (How many people will experience pleasure? [social not personal hedonism])

Strengths? Weaknesses?

Each person mustdecide for him/herself

Mill’s Concern

What decisions are totally private?

How can we advance civilization if morality is personal preference?

Should tax dollars be spent on…

• Mill’s solution: only the “competent” get a say.

• You have to have experienced college, tax refunds, and parties, to “vote.”

Deontology (Kantianism)

Immanuel Kant (1724-804CE)

• Pure reason reveals some a priori truths (time, space, freedom).

• Reason depends on respect for rules.

• As creatures of reason, we are “duty bound” to follow logical ethical principles (avoid contradiction).

• Deon=duty. To bind.

• Note: we duty bound to obey logical ethical principles, but one must choose to submit to them.

• Key Idea: Categorical Imperative: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become universal law.”

• Different from hypothetical imperative: If X, then Y & When X, then Y.

• In other words, a moral action is revealed via thought experiment: what happens if everyone does what I am contemplating doing?

An Example

• You owe a friend $5.• You could kill him and

avoid paying.

• Universalize: “Everyone ought to solve problems by killing.”

• You could lie.

• Universalize: “Everyone ought to lie to solve problems.”

• You could steal from someone else to repay.

• Universalize: “Everyone ought to steal to solve problems.”

• Everyone ought to pay his/her debts.

Implications?• Consequences are morally

irrelevant.

• Actions have intrinsic value because they conform to logical principles.

• Ethics is rooted in logic and reason rather than empathy and feeling (Cat. Imp. is NOT the Golden Rule).

Practical Imperative

• Humans are the source of values in the world—no humans, no values, no worth.

• Therefore, humans are the necessary condition of worth.

• As a necessary condition of worth, humans are worthy (i.e. possess dignity)

• Therefore, they have intrinsic not instrumental value.

• “Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person, or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.”

Moral Reasoning• Virtue Ethics: Bridge the

gap by acting as a Good person.

• Utilitarianism: Bridge the gap by maximizing happiness and minimizing pain.

• Kantianism: Bridge the gap by obeying the categorical and practical imperatives.

• Does motive matter?

• Is it better to do the right thing or to want to do the right thing for the right reason?

Organ Donation vs. Organ Selling• It is currently legal to donate

but illegal to sell a kidney in US.

• Practical result? Lots of people die waiting for kidneys.

• Proposal: Allow kidneys to be sold.