Origins of Ethics According to Fr. Austin Fagothey

Ethics Overview

• The main focus of ethics is to examine moral principles and values that guide human behavior.

Ethical Theories

• The ethical theory that focuses on maximizing individual happiness is Ethical Hedonism.
• Consequentialism evaluates an action's consequences to determine if it is good or bad.
• Ethical Egoism prioritizes individual interests and happiness over others.
• Altruism considers an action right if it benefits others, even if it sacrifices one's own happiness.

Ancient Civilizations

• The ancient Egyptian civilization is associated with the ethical theory of Osiris.

Comparing Ethical Theories

• Deontological reasoning focuses on moral rules and duties, rather than consequences.
• Act Utilitarianism evaluates each action's consequences, whereas Rule Utilitarianism evaluates the consequences of a general rule.
• Deontology differs from Utilitarianism in that it prioritizes moral rules over consequences.
• Ethical Egoism is distinct from Psychological Egoism, which is a descriptive theory about human nature.

Ethical Dilemmas

• In the trolley problem, the key distinction between killing and letting die is the active role of the agent in causing harm.
• The main factor influencing decision-making in the footbridge scenario is the moral duty to minimize harm.

Philosophical Concepts

• Carl Jung's concept of 'the shadow' primarily involves the repressed or hidden aspects of one's personality.
• Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's quote implies that morality is a complex and multifaceted concept.
• Immanuel Kant's deontology might consider saving a drowning man a moral dilemma because it involves prioritizing one's moral duty over personal inclination.

Aristotle's Philosophy

• Aristotle's concept of 'entelechy' refers to the potential for something to become what it is meant to be.

Moral Relativism

• Anthropologists such as Ruth Benedict and Franz Boas were primarily responsible for popularizing Moral Relativism.
• Relativism views universal moral norms as culturally relative and subjective.

Deontology

• Deontology primarily focuses on moral rules and duties in ethical decision-making.
• A deontologist might hesitate to save a drowning man despite the moral duty to help others because it involves weighing competing moral rules.

Explore the origins of ethics as traced by Fr. Austin Fagothey in his book 'Right and Reason', where he discusses how the Greeks' curiosity about human life and society led to the examination of human conduct. Ethics is defined as the study of right and wrong in human behavior, and is considered a theoretical examination of morality.