Prelims 2

Ethical Theories

The rules and principles that determine right and wrong for any given situation.

Normative ethical theories

Prescribes the morally correct way of acting.

Consequentialist theories (Sinnott-Armstrong, 2019)

It determines the moral rightness or wrongness of an action based on the action’s consequences or results.

Egoism Theory

An action is morally right if the decision-maker freely decides to pursue either their desires (short-term) or their interests (long-term).

Adam Smith - design of liberalist economies

Milton Friedman - advocacy of free markets with limited government

Egoism has also been influenced by these persons.

Adam Smith (1973)

He argued that in the economic system, this pursuit of individual self-interest was acceptable because it produced a desirable outcome for society through the invisible hand of the marketplace.

Enlightened egoism

The conviction that benefitting others can serve the egoist’s self-interest just as much as the egoist's acts directly in favor of themselves.

To maximize our utility

Motto of Egoism

Utilitarianism

An action is morally right if it results in the greatest good for the greatest number of people affected by it.

Greatest happiness principle

Utilitarianism is also called by this.

Hedonists

Humans are seen as this whose purpose in life is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain.

Jeremy Bentham

John Stuart Mill

Persons involved in Utilitarianism

Act Utilitarianism

Rule Utilitarianism

Types of Utilitarianism

Act Utilitarianism

Looks at single actions and bases moral judgement on the amount of pleasure and pain this single action causes.

Rule Utilitarianism

Looks at classes of action and asks whether the underlying principles of action produce more pleasure than pain for society in the long run.

To maximize collective utility

Motto of Utilitarianism

Non-consequentialist Ethics

These determine the moral rightness or wrongness of an action based on the action's intrinsic features or character, not it's consequences.

Ethics of Duties

Immanuel Kant focused on the motives and willingness of individuals to act for the good of others, even though that action might result in personal loss.

Eternal

Abstract

Unchangeable principles

Set of a priori moral laws

Categorical Imperative

This theoretical framework should be applied to every moral issue regardless of who is involved, who profits, and who is harmed by the principles once they have been applied in specific situations.

Consistency

Human Dignity

Universality

Consistency

An action can only be right if the rule guiding that behavior should be consistently followed by everyone in all cases, without contradiction.

It checks if everyone can perform the action.

(ex: allowing murder = no human security)

Human dignity

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

Universality

The rules guiding actions should be universally law giving. That is, people have to be acceptable to every rational human being.

Human rights

Are the basic, unalienable entitlements inherent to all human beings.

John Locke

He conceptualized the notion of natural rights or moral claims that humans were entitled to and that should be respected and protected.

Justice

It is the simultaneously fair treatment of individuals in a given situation with the result that everybody gets what they deserve.

Fair procedures (procedural justice)

Fair outcomes (distributive justice)

According to Beauchamp and Bowie, theories of justice see fairness in two ways.

Fair procedures (procedural justice)

Fairness is determined according to whether everyone has been free to acquire rewards for their efforts.

Fair outcomes (distributive justice)

Fairness is determined according to whether the consequences are distributed in a just manner, according to some underlying principles such as need or merit.

John Rawls

Theory of Justice

Each person has an equal right to the most extensive total system of basic liberties compatible with a similar system of freedom for all

Social and economic inequalities are arranged so that they are both:

a. To the greatest benefit of the least advantaged

b. Attached to the offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity

Rawls two criteria to decide whether an action could be called just.

To choose under the ‘veil of ignorance’

Motto of Theory of Justice