Worksheet for Moral Deliberation

“We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live.”Socrates, as reported by Plato in the Republic (ca. 390 B.C.)

Morality and Ethics

• Morality - principle of right and wrong

• Ethics - discipline/process of determining what is right and what is wrong

• Business Ethics - study of morality as it applies to business; aims at developing a reasonable moral framework for decision-making

Ethical Principles

• Utilitarianism

• Rights

• Justice and Fairness

• Virtue

• Care

Utilitarianism

• An action is right if and only if the sum total benefits produced by that act is greater than the sum total benefits produced by any other act the agent could have performed in its place

• Conceived in the 19th century by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

• Most popular in business because the cost-benefit analysis in business is a form of this theory

• The rightness of an action is judged in conjunction with the consequences or effect on all persons affected (including the agent).

2 Main Limitations of Utilitarianism

• Difficult to use when dealing with values that are difficult and perhaps impossible to measure quantitatively

• Ignores the question of rights and justice– rights - individual entitlements to freedom of

choice and to well-being– justice - how benefits and burdens are

distributed among people

Rights

• Rights=individual’s entitlement to something

• Moral/human rights=derived from a system of moral standards that specify that all human beings are permitted, empowered to do something, or entitled to have something done for them

RightsImmanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative:

2 Formulations:

Formulation 1:• I ought never to act except in such a way that I can

also will that my maxim should become a universal law

• An action is morally right for a person in a certain situation if, and only if, the person’s reason for carrying out the action is a reason that he or she would be willing to have every person act on, in any similar situation.

RightsImmanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative:

Formulation 2:• Act in such a way that you always treat

humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.

• An action is morally right for a person if, and only if, in performing the action, the person does not use others merely as a means for advancing his or her own interest, but also both respects and develops their capacity to choose freely for themselves.

Rights - 2 Criteria for determining right or wrong

• Universalizability

• Reversibility – similar to the Golden Rule: Do unto others

what you would want them do unto you

Justice and Fairness

• Justice consists in treating equals equally and unequals unequally, and in giving each person his due

3 Categories of Justice and Fairness

• Compensatory Justice– concerns the just way in compensating someone

for a past injustice or what he/she lost when wronged by others

• Retributive Justice– consists in the just imposition of punishment and

penalties on those who do wrong– related to procedural justice, referring to fair

decision procedures, practices, agreements

3 Categories of Justice and Fairness

• Distributive Justice– involves the fair distribution of benefits and

burdens– arises when issues concerning common good

are at stake– “Individuals who are similar in all respects relevant

to the kind of treatment in question should be given similar benefits and burdens, even if they are dissimilar in other irrelevant respects; and individuals who are dissimilar in a relevant respect ought to be treated dissimilarly, in proportion to their dissimilarity.”

Virtue

Virtue• dispositions, attitudes, habits that form the

character of a person, developing his/her highest potentials.

• Habits that enable a person to act in accordance with reason, and acting in accordance with reason is choosing the mean between the two extremes (the extreme of excess and the extreme of lack)

Virtue

• An action is morally right if in carrying out the action the agent exercises, exhibits, or develops a morally virtuous character, and it is morally wrong to the extent that by carrying out the action the agent exercises, exhibits, or develops a morally vicious character

• Virtue ethics determines the rightness or wrongness of an action “by examining the kind of character the action tends to produce or the kind of character that tends to produce the action.”

CARE

2 moral demands• we should preserve and nurture those concrete and valuable

relationships we have with specific persons who have become part of our lives and have formed us as we are

• we should care for those with whom we are concretely related by attending to their particular needs, values, desires, well-being as seen from their own personal perspective, and by responding to these needs, values, desires, well-being, especially of those who are vulnerable and dependent on our care.

CARE

2 important points• An ethics of care should encompass larger systems

of relationship leading to a “communitarian ethic.”• An ethics of care provides a corrective to other

ethical principles that emphasizes impartiality and universality.

Questions for making a moral decision

• Does the action maximize social benefits and minimize social injuries?

• Is the action consistent with the moral rights of those affected?

• Will the action bring just distribution of benefits and burdens?

• What kind of person will one become if one makes this decision?

• Does the action exhibit care for the well being of those who are closely related to or dependent on oneself?

Ethical Decision-Making and Action Planning Process

Consider thefollowing:1. Scope & Natureof Dilemma

2. Obligation to Act

3. Available Guidance

4. Sanity Check onDecision

Impact onYour FutureFlexibility

Impact on Others

Impact on Your Company

Impact on Yourself

Perceive aDecision to be Made

Perceive Thereis a Dilemma

Trigger EventReasoning Process toDevelop an EthicallySensitive Decision

Determine the MostAppropriate/Best Courseof Action

Rules on How One Ought to Act

• Identify and Set up the Ethical Problem– State problem/thesis to be tackled

– Identify immediate facts that have the most bearing on the ethical decision that must be made (include economic, social, political pressures)

• Identify the stakeholders – Identify corresponding obligations towards

stakeholders

– List at least 3 (2 are the extremes)

Rules on How One Ought to Act• Evaluate the Options

– State benefits/harms of each option and which alternative leads to best overall consequence (Utilitarianism)

– State moral rights of affected parties and which option best respects those rights (Kant)

– State course of action which advances the common good

– State which decision enables one to be and act in ways that develops one’s highest potential as a person (virtue)

Rules on How One Ought to Act• Evaluate the Options

– State which option treats everyone the same, except where there is a morally justifiable reason not to and does not show favoritism or discrimination (Justice and Fairness)

• Determine the Most Appropriate Action– Requires courage

• Double-check the Decision– See to it that the arguments are consistent

Rules on How One Ought to Act• Double-check the Decision (cont’d)

– See to it that the arguments are valid and sound• valid = one whose premises logically entail its

conclusion

• invalid = one whose premises are true and one can reject the conclusion without any contradiction because premises do not entail its conclusion

• sound=true premises and valid reasoning

• unsound=invalid reasoning or has at least one false premise

Rules on How One Ought to Act• Double-check the Decision (cont’d)

– Identify best & worst-case scenarios if one chooses particular option

– Ask oneself: “Can I honestly live with myself if I make this decision?”

– Ask oneself: “Will I be able to defend this decision to that claimant who has lost the most or been harmed the most?”

– Decision must be “enabling” rather than “disabling”• enabling=liberates us• disabling=prevents us from acting fruitfully or effectively;

prevents our growth as persons