Ethics and Moral Behavior

Deontology, Utilitarianism, & Moral Skepticism

Three Different Discussions

Deontology

- an ethical theory that focuses on rules and duties to

determine what is right or wrong, rather than considering the

consequences of actions

Utilitarianism

- an ethical theory that is entirely about consequences,

specifically, maximizing overall well-being/happiness and minimizing

suffering, for everyone affected, not just the actor.

Moral Skepticism

is there any objective moral truth for these theories to be competing to describe at all?

Kantian Deontology

Morality is about duty, determined by reason alone,

independent of consequences or character. An action's

moral worth comes from the principle behind it, not its

outcome.

qualification

According to kant - it is impossible to conceive anything at all in the world, or even out

of it, which can be taken as good without ____...

in accordance with duty

shopkeeper who doesn't cheat customers because honesty is

good for business is acting ________.

from duty

A shopkeeper who charges a fair price even when he could get away

with cheating, even when no one would ever find out, even when it

costs him money is acting ____.

Universalizability

“Act according to maxims of a universally legislating

member of a merely possible kingdom of ends.

Humanity formula

“So act that you treat humanity, whether in your

own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an

end, never merely as a means.

Utilitarianism

Morality is entirely about consequences,

specifically, maximizing overall well-

being/happiness and minimizing suffering, for

everyone affected, not just the actor.

The Greatest Happiness Principl

actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote

happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the

reverse.

John Stuart Mill

who pioneered utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill

He argues some pleasures (intellectual, aesthetic, moral) are qualitatively superior

to mere bodily pleasures, and that anyone who's experienced both

will prefer the higher kind.

John Stuart Mill

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”

External sanctions & internal sanctions

2 types of Motivations for Morality

Internal sanctions

- a feeling of duty, conscience

External sanctions

- hope of reward or fear of punishment from

others or from God, and the desire for approval from fellow

humans.

J.L. Mackie

“There are no objective [moral] values.”

The error theory

Ordinary moral statements are assertions

Every moral claim is not meaningless. They are false.

The Argument from Relativity

“Disagreement about moral codes seems to reflect people’s

adherence to and participation in different ways of life.

Moral beliefs are a “projection of each culture's practices and

preferences outward onto the world”

metaphysically

If objective moral values existed, they would have to be

______ queer (unlike anything else in the universe).

Ordinary facts are easily recognizable, moral assertions aren’t.

epistemologically

If objective moral values existed, they would have to be

_______ queer (unlike other types of facts we know).

Mehaphysically queer & epistemologically queer

2 Argument from Queerness

G.E. Moore

goodness, ____ says, is intuitive

True

True or false
Mackie objects Moore by saying that this faculty has no known

causal mechanism, no organ, no explanation whatsoever for how it

supposedly connects us to these facts.

Moral Skepticism

According to what principle?

“Moral intuition is invoked only to explain moral knowledge,

with no independent evidence that the faculty even exists or

is reliable.