Ethics and Ethical Systems Lecture Review

Nature, Scope, and Perspectives of Ethics

  • Definition of Ethics:

    • Ethics is the study of what is right and wrong, or good and evil.
    • It operates from two primary perspectives:
      1. Basic Standards of Right and Wrong: Informs humans on what they ought to do based upon a specific approach or standard of moral authority. These standards vary from culture to culture and are often diverse even within a single culture. This diversity across societies makes ethics complex and challenging to analyze.
      2. Personal Standard Development: The study and active development of one's own ethical standards, guiding personal morals (beliefs about right and wrong) and personal values (what is considered important). Continuous evaluation of these standards is essential due to their significant impact on oneself and others.

  • Reflection Questions on Moral Choices:

    • Have you ever made a moral decision that you later regretted?
    • What happened?
    • Could the result have been different if you had made another moral decision?

  • Intersection of Religion and Ethics:

    • Normative beliefs and behaviors sit at the heart of all religions, forming part of the foundational doctrine that shapes their definition and distinctive blueprint.
    • Many of these religious beliefs and behaviors stem from proponents' views on ethics.
    • Studying ethics helps illuminate the driving principles and actions behind a religion's culture and behavioral practices.

Branches of Ethics and Key Concepts

  • Normative Ethics:

    • Focuses on the methodology of making moral decisions, producing norms or rules that actively guide decision-making.
    • Considers which customs or standards determine a particular moral choice.
    • The two primary approaches to developing normative ethics are deontological and teleological.
    • Laws as Normative Morality: Governments establish laws to govern human behavior and enforce punishments for non-compliance. However, legal status does not automatically equate to moral status due to diverse opinions on moral decision-making. Governments frequently alter laws because a law was harmful to citizens or because society's moral norms evolved.

  • Comparative Ethics (Descriptive Ethics):

    • Focuses on comparing and describing the ethics of a specific culture.
    • Frequently utilized by anthropologists in their research.
    • Concerned strictly with what people groups do (empirical behavior) rather than what they ought to do.

  • Meta-ethics:

    • Focuses on the scope and precise meaning of moral language, the underlying foundation or source of morality, and the logical reasoning behind ethical statements.
    • Defines core terms such as good, evil, right, wrong, and justice.
    • Example Application: When analyzing the statement "I believe murder is wrong," meta-ethics examines whether murder is being identified as an inherently evil act or if the speaker is merely expressing an emotional response to an individual's death.

  • Virtue Ethics:

    • Focuses on the cultivation of internal virtues within individuals rather than evaluating the morality of specific isolated decisions or actions.
    • Virtues incorporated into a person's life determine and evaluate their overall ethical behavior.

Classical Foundations: Ancient Greek Philosophy

  • Etymology and Origins:

    • The term "ethics" originated with the Ancient Greeks, specifically derived from three related words: ēthos, ēthikos, and ethos.
    • Each of these Greek words embodied ideas of customs, habits, or habitats—originally referring to actions done by habit or custom within a community.
    • The meaning evolved when translated into English and continues to shift over time.

  • Socrates (470–399 BC):

    • Attributed quote: "The unexamined life is not worth living."
    • Quote on wisdom: "true wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life ourselves and the world around us"
    • Encouraged students to evaluate their lives critically using systematic inquiry.
    • Challenged whether individuals lived by culturally approved sets of norms (conventional moral codes) or lived virtuously.
    • His method of critical inquiry profoundly shaped Western thought regarding ethical ideas and their application.

  • Plato (384–322 BC):

    • Socrates' best-known disciple, who utilized the Socratic Method across his lectures and writings.
    • Socratic Method Definition: The process of building a case for one's position by exposing inaccuracies and misperceptions within an opponent's argument.
    • Maintained that goodness could be objectively known and practiced, opposing the claims of the Sophists.
    • Wrote The Republic, one of his most famous dialogues applying the Socratic Method.
    • Rather than using the standard Greek term for ethics, Plato utilized a word translated as justice or righteous.
    • Quote: "there will be no end to the troubles of states or indeed of humanity itself till philosphers become rulers in this world or till those we now we call kings and rules really and truly become philosophers and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands"

  • Aristotle (384–322 BC):

    • Credited with linking ēthos, ēthikos, and ethos directly to the understanding of good or moral living.
    • Note on historical context: Concerns with right/wrong and moral living were addressed centuries earlier by the Hebrews and other groups, though without applying the specific term "ethics."
    • Applied the three Greek words to outline the process of moral living and character development, specifically contrasting virtue and vice.
    • Asserted that how one ought to live can be determined by investigating human nature.
    • Distinction: Studying "what people do" (mores/norms observed by anthropologists) is fundamentally different from studying "what people ought to do" (ethics). Humans are uniquely aware of their actions, yet frequently fail to evaluate what they ought to do.
    • Quote: "it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it"

Political Systems and Roman Philosophical Schools

  • Pillars of Western Ethics:

    • Western civilization and its ethical systems derive from two major historical pillars: Greco-Roman philosophy and Christian moral teaching.
    • From Greece and Rome, Western ethics treats morality through the lenses of politics and individualism.

  • Aristotle's View on Law and Government:

    • Taught that societies must establish the rule of law to uphold virtue, justice, fairness, and equity among equals.
    • Obeying good laws leads citizens to practice virtue and goodness, fostering peace, harmony, and mutual respect.
    • Analysis of Government Forms:
      • Monarchy (rule by one): The best system if the leader is good, but the worst if evil, easily degenerating into tyranny.
      • Aristocracy (rule by a few): The second-best form if leaders are good, but second-worst if evil. When a small group holds all power selfishly, it becomes an oligarchy.
      • Democracy (rule by many): Ranked as the worst standard system, but the least bad option when leaders are evil. Because power is distributed and citizens can vote, mistakes can be corrected through the electoral process.
      • Aristotle considered democracy the most preferable system overall due to its high degree of accountability and equality.
    • Reflection Questions: Why did Aristotle believe democracy offered the most accountability? What role should government play in promoting ethical behavior?

  • Roman Philosophical Systems:

    • Epicureanism:
      • Stressed the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good, defining pleasure specifically as the absence of pain.
      • Held that a virtuous person lives free from pain within the bounds provided by nature.
      • Famous maxim: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
      • Reflection Questions: Should people live life simply in the absence of pain and the pursuit of pleasure? Or is life meant to be lived for something else?
    • Stoicism:
      • Popularized by the Roman historian Seneca and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
      • Downplayed human emotions and elevated human reason as the core basis for moral decision-making, viewing the pursuit of wisdom as the highest good.
      • A virtuous person lives according to reason and remains uncontrolled by emotional desires.
      • Established the concept of universal human equality based on every individual's shared capacity to reason and make moral choices.
      • Reflection Questions: Were the Stoics right? Do emotions have no place in decision-making? How important is human reason for making ethical decisions?

Judeo-Christian Ethics and Early Christian Thought

  • Core Tenets of Judeo-Christian Ethics:

    • Synthesizes Old and New Testament teachings.
    • Rejects moral relativism; teaches that morality is absolute and universal, with an objective standard of goodness applying equally to all persons.
    • Identifies God—His person and nature—as the ultimate objective standard of goodness. Moral goodness in humans is measured by conformity to God's nature.
    • God communicates moral commands defining good and evil, exemplified by:
      • Ten Commandments (Old Testament)
      • Sermon on the Mount (New Testament)

  • Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth:

    • Radically confronted contemporary Jewish and Roman cultures by establishing that morality stems from an internal relationship with God and fellow humans, rather than outward actions alone.
    • Proclaimed the Two Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:37–39):
      1. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
      2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
    • Taught that fulfilling these commands requires internal transformation by God's love, presenting himself as the earthly representation of that love.

  • Augustine of Hippo:

    • Key Work: City of God, establishing a Christian framework for social ethics.
    • Shifted the ethical focus from "well-being" to "well-doing" (developing virtue through obedience to Jesus' commands to love God and neighbor).
    • While echoing Epicurean and Stoic themes of spiritual withdrawal and eternal focus, Augustine departed from them by defining right action and virtue relational to God and others.
    • Taught that due to human sinfulness, individuals cannot acquire virtue through their own resources and require God's grace to achieve moral good.
    • Reflection Questions: Is man incapable of being good on his own, requiring God's help to be good?

  • Thomas Aquinas (1124–1274 / Italy 1225):

    • Key Work: Summa Theologica, expanding Christian social ethics (wrote around 200 books on Christianity; canonised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church).
    • Synthesized Christian doctrine with ideas from Aristotle, Plato, and Augustine.
    • Emphasized the central necessity of law and the public good.
    • Demonstrated that the physical world can be reasonably explored through reason alongside faith.
    • Natural Law (Secular) vs. Eternal Law (Religious):
      • Natural law represents the natural function created by God in all things.
      • Good actions align with God's intentional purposes for creating humanity (loving God and neighbor); evil actions (e.g., murdering, stealing, lying, cheating, failing to serve God) violate these purposes.
      • Because humans frequently fail to follow natural law, civil law is necessary. Governments must enact civil laws that encourage right actions and punish wrong actions in alignment with natural law.

Comparative Frameworks: Deontology vs. Teleology

  • Teleological (Consequentialist) Moral Systems:

    • Definition (Cline, Teleology and Ethics 2014): Primary focus is placed on the consequences of an action. Correct moral choices require understanding expected outcomes. Actions producing correct consequences are moral; actions producing incorrect consequences are immoral.
    • Orientation (James White, Contemporary Moral Problems, 2009): Forward-looking system focused on results.
    • Application Examples:
      • Truth-telling: A consequentialist tells the truth because it produces the best overall results (e.g., higher product sales or better grades), not out of inherent duty. Lying is justified if it yields superior outcomes.
      • Adultery: Deemed wrong strictly because it fails to produce favorable consequences for the relationship, family, or society.

  • Deontological (Non-Consequentialist) Moral Systems:

    • Definition: Primary focus is placed on strict adherence to independent moral rules, duties, motives, or divine commands.
    • Orientation (James White 2009): Backward-looking system focused on duty and obligation regardless of outcome.
    • Application Examples:
      • Truth-telling: Practiced out of a direct moral obligation or duty to tell the truth, regardless of the consequences.
      • Adultery: Deemed wrong in and of itself, violating an inherent moral duty or commandment.

Eastern Ethical Traditions: Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism

  • Islamic Ethics:

    • Origins: Traced to the prophet Muhammad and recorded in the holy text, the Quran.
    • Core Concept: Grounded in vigorous submission to Allah.
    • Universal Imperative: Command good and forbid evil in every aspect of life.
    • The Five Pillars of Islam: Belief, worship, fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimage.
    • Sharia Law: Individuals possess an internal moral responsibility to submit to Allah's will and follow ethical rules prescribed by Sharia law, which governs everyday life including politics, medicine, military/warfare, and environmental stewardship.

  • Buddhist Ethics:

    • Origins: Based on enlightenment teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha).
    • Framework: Ethics forms one of the three foundational categories within the Noble Eightfold Path (a comprehensive code of conduct for the Buddhist community).
    • The Three Ethical Codes:
      1. Right speech
      2. Right action
      3. Right livelihood
    • Core Practice: Demands living in harmony with the world through self-restraint, driven by the central motivation of non-violence.

  • Hindu Ethics:

    • Concept of Dharma: Living in accordance with the natural order of the world through moral, ethical, and virtuous behaviors, as detailed in the sacred Vedas and Upanishads.
    • Reincarnation and Karma: Reincarnation holds that the soul transitions to another entity after physical death. The ultimate goal is liberation from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
    • Role of Ethics: A soul's next life is determined by good and bad deeds (Karma); thus, living ethically directly shapes an individual's eternal existence.