Detailed Notes on Ethical Frameworks and Principles

A basic structure underlying a system or a concept.
In ethics: a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices constituting a way of viewing reality.
Frameworks and principles dictate one's moral disposition and resolution of moral dilemmas.

Are there objective moral truths?
What do the words “good”, “bad”, “right”, “wrong” mean?
Are moral judgements a matter of subjective personal feeling?
Example: “Slavery is wrong” - is this a claim about customs or an objective declaration?
How can we know if something is right or wrong?
How may ethical propositions be supported or defended?

COGNITIVISM: Moral judgments convey propositions that are either true or false; right and wrong are matters of fact.
- Moral realism: Existence of moral facts and truth/falsity of moral judgments are independent of people’s thoughts and perceptions. Morality is about objective facts.
- Ethical subjectivism: Truth/falsity of ethical propositions depends on the attitudes or standards of a person or group. Contrary to moral realism.
NON-COGNITIVISM: Denies that moral judgments are either true or false. Ethical sentences do not convey authentic propositions.
- Emotivism: Moral judgments are expressions of emotions and feelings.

MORAL UNIVERSALISM: Moral facts and principles apply to everybody in all places.
- Also called ‘moral objectivism’.
- If something is right for one, then it is right for another. Compatible with ‘moral realism’.
MORAL RELATIVISM: Different moral facts and principles apply to different persons or groups.
- Different cultures have distinct standards of right and wrong.
- Ethical standards change over time even in the same culture.
- Denies a single, objective standard for morality.
- Moral norms are equally true, and morals are mere preferences. Compatible with ‘ethical subjectivism’.

MORAL EMPIRICISM: Moral facts are known through observation and experience.
- Extension of ‘empiricism’ in epistemology.
- All knowledge of matters of fact is derived from experience.
- Mind is not equipped with pre-experience concepts.
MORAL RATIONALISM: Moral facts and principles are knowable a priori (using logic and reason to form conclusion before experience), by reason alone and without reference to experience.
- Relies on reason rather than intuition in justifying a belief or action.
MORAL INTUITIONISM: Moral truths are knowable by intuition, that is, by immediate instinctive knowledge without reference to any evidence.

Studies how man ought to act, morally speaking.
Examines ethical norms: guidelines about what is right, worthwhile, virtuous, or just.
Evaluates standards for the rightness and wrongness of actions.
Determines a moral course of action.
Prescriptive in nature, addresses specific moral questions about what we should do or believe.
We do normative ethics if we justify norms like “Discrimination is wrong” or “We must always act in accordance with our duty”.
Meta-ethics tackles questions such as “What is goodness?”; normative ethics deals with issues like “What ought one to do?”

Ethical system that bases morality on independent moral rules or duties.
From the Greek word deon which means ‘duty’.
Equates behaving morally with adherence to duties or moral rules.
Acting immorally with failure to obey them.
Also called non-consequentialism.
Principles are submitted as obligatory, regardless of the consequences that actions might produce.
Guided by an individual's own personal sense of morality.
Concerned with what people do, not the consequences of their actions.
Rules as to which actions are obligatory, permissible in various situations, are generally considered to be duty-based ethics.

A moral system that determines the moral value of actions by their outcomes or results.
From the Greek word telos, which means ‘end’.
Takes into account the end result of the action as the exclusive consideration of its morality.
Deems an action as morally right if its favourable consequences are greater than its adverse outcomes.
Its most famous form is consequentialism.
Morality is determined solely by a cost-benefit evaluation of the action’s consequences.

Places emphasis on developing good habits of character, like kindness and generosity, and avoiding bad character traits, or vices, such as greed or hatred.
Virtue-based theories give importance to moral education which molds individuals to habitually act in a virtuous manner.
Focusing on the character of the agent, virtue ethics describes right actions as those chosen and performed by a suitably virtuous person.
A broad term for theories that emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences.
A virtue ethicist: “Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.”

Philosophically examines specific, controversial moral issues.
Attempts to determine the ethically correct course of action in specific realms of human action using philosophical methods.
For a subject to be considered as an applied ethical issue, it must be a matter of moral judgment and controversial.
There must be considerable groups of people both for and against the issue.

Concerns ethical issues pertaining to life, biomedical research, medicines, health care, and the medical profession.
Deals with controversies like those about surrogate mothering, genetic manipulation of fetuses, stem cell research, using human embryos in research, in-vitro fertilization, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, patient rights, confidentiality of patient’s records, physician’s responsibilities, and mandatory medical screening.

Deals with moral issues concerning nature, ecosystem, and its nonhuman contents.
Includes issues such as animal rights, animal experimentation, endangered species preservation, pollution control, and sustainable development.

Examines moral principles concerning the business environment.
Involves issues about corporate practices, policies, business behaviors, and the conducts and relationships of individuals in organizations.
Investigates ethical controversies such as those about the social responsibility of business, employee rights, harassment, labor unions, misleading advertising, job discrimination, and whistle-blowing.

Studies moral issues about sexuality and human sexual behavior.
Examines topics like homosexuality, lesbianism, polygamy, pre-marital sex, marital fidelity, extra-marital sex, non-marital procreation, loveless sexual relations, safe sex, and contraceptive use.

Deals with what is right for society to do and how it should act as a whole.
Focus is on what may be deemed as proper behavior for people as a whole.
Issues include racial discrimination, the death penalty, nuclear weapon production, gun control, drug use for fun, and welfare rights.