FAS 108: Ethics

Lecture slides
Chapter 1: Ethics and Ethical
Reasoning
 Why Study Ethics?
 There are differing views of moral rights and
wrongs
 Matters are not always easy to judge
 Search, wiretaps: public safety vs. right to
privacy, academic cheating: should I do it if
no one checks?

 What is Ethics?
 The set of values or principles held by
individuals or groups (beliefs vs. values vs.
norms vs. social practices)
 A study of the various sets of values that
people do have
 Ethics is a branch of philosophy; moral
philosophy
Chapter 1: Ethics and Ethical
Reasoning
 What is Ethics (continued)?
 Normative Ethics: this is good/bad,
justifiable, moral
Metaethics: the nature of ethics, what does
it mean when we say something is
right/wrong

Philosophical questions can be asked about

many subjects
Aesthetics, philosophy of art, what is art:
something that can show us truths that
cannot be described
Philosophy of science: does science show
us reality as it is?
Chapter 1 continued
Ethics and Religion
 Ethics and religious grounding
 Religion as a motivation for morality
Ethical and Other Types of
Evaluation
Descriptive (empirical) judgments:
Capital punishment acts (doesn’t act)
as a deterrent
Normative judgments (moral): Capital
punishment is (isn’t) justifiable
Chapter 1 continued
Moral judgments are evaluative
because they ‘place value’ (negative or
positive) on an action or practice
Judgment are grounded in norms
and/or values
Ethical Terms
Right/Wrong
Good/Bad
Ought/Ought not
Peace is good; this knife is good
Chapter 1 continued
Ethics and Reasons
Rational (based on reasons) or
Emotional
Intuitionism or Emotivism
EthicalReasoning and Arguments
Should I try to save a drowning person?
Every life is valuable, if there is a chance
to save the person I ought to try
Reasons
Conclusions
Premises
Chapter 1 continued
Evaluating and Making Good
Arguments
Soundness: does the conclusion follow
logically from premises, are premises
true
Value assumptions: is saving a life
good?
Conceptual matters: what is meant by
lying?
Factual assertions: is capital
punishment a deterrent?
 Chapter 1 continued
 The connection of Ethical Theory  Ethical
Principles  Ethical Judgments
 Do consequences (outcomes of action) matter?
◦ Teleological – consequentialist
◦ Deontological - nonconsequentialist
 I push you in anger, I push you out of the
path of a speeding car
 Can Ethics Be Taught?
 If people know what is right will they do it?
 A matter of knowledge
 A matter of motivation
 Chapter 1 continued
 TheEmotive Meaning of Ethical Terms (C. L.
Stevenson)
◦ How can ethical questions be made clear?
- The question of relevance
substitute questions with ones that are
clear (is something yellow or good)
- The question of goodness
Desired by community? Desired by me?
◦ The Traditional Interest theories
- Ethical terms are instruments: shape
behavior
- Emotive meaning and the dynamic use of
words (old maid vs. elderly spinster)
 Chapter 1 continued
 The Experience of Emotions
 Emotions (in response to a stimulus, short lasting) vs.
Moods (longer lasting and not triggered by a particular
stimulus)
 Schachter's two component theory of emotion: an
individual comes to experience an emotional state if,
and only if:
◦ 1. arousal is present (or another unusual bodily state)
◦ 2. some feature of the stimulus situation (internal or
external) is
 labeled in an emotionally relevant way and
 is identified as the cause of that arousal
 The process is quick & unconscious – we experience
the emotion but not the intervening cognitions
*Emotions are in part inferences