The Common Good Approach in Ethics

Understanding Civics and Ethics

• Definition of Civic Education:
  • Studies about the rights and responsibilities of citizens of a politically organized group of people
  • Knowledge, means, and activities designed to encourage students to participate actively in democratic life
• Minimal and Maximal Concepts of Civic Education:
  • Minimal: content-led, teacher-based, whole-class teaching, examination-based assessment
  • Maximal: comprised of knowledge, values, and skills, prepares students for active participation, extends learning beyond the curriculum and classroom
• Definition of Ethics and Morality:
  • Ethics: branch of philosophy, explores the meaning and ranking of different ethical values, establishes standards and norms of conduct
  • Morality: related to praxis, concerned with the conduct itself, code of conduct one follows accepted in a society or subgroup

Ethics and Law

• Laws: norms formally approved by the state or national/international political bodies to promote well-being, resolve conflicts, and promote social harmony
• Differences between Ethics and Law:
  • Some actions may be illegal but not unethical
  • Some actions may be unethical but not illegal
  • Laws can be unethical or immoral
  • Ethics is not enforceable by law

Importance of Moral and Civic Education

• Goals:
  • Make individuals responsible and efficient members of their community
  • Teach values and sense of commitment that define an active and principled citizen
  • Produce self-confident citizens who decide on issues based on reason
  • Create a generation capable of shouldering family and national responsibility
• Necessity:
  • Instill citizens about their rights and duties
  • Foster a participant political culture
  • Provide relevant knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes
  • Overcome discrimination and nurture inclusive dialogue among cultural groups
  • Contribute to peace-building

Approaches to Ethics

• Teleological Ethics (Consequentialist):
  • Judges an action based on its consequences
  • Action is right or wrong depending on the outcome
  • Includes theories such as utilitarianism, hedonism, and ethical egoism
• Deontological Ethics:
  • Denies the principle of maximizing good over evil
  • Asserts that there are other considerations that make an action right or obligatory besides its consequences
  • Includes principles such as justice, keeping promises, and being commanded by God or the state
• Egoism:
  • Ethical Egoism: focuses on the consequences of actions, believes that those consequences justify actions
  • Psychological Egoism: asserts that individuals act only in their own self-interest
  • Argument for ethical egoism: if individuals are psychologically programmed to act only in their own self-interest, then they can never be obligated to perform altruistic acts### Normative Ethical Theories

Ethical Egoism

• Ethical egoism is a normative theory that suggests one should always act in their own self-interest.
• It does not forbid helping others, but only if it benefits oneself.
• It does not say one should always do what is most pleasurable, but what will be of long-term benefit to oneself.

Psychological Egoism

• Psychological egoism is the argument that humans are always seeking their own greatest good.
• It suggests that one's own self-interest is the only basic principle in human nature.
• The argument is used to support ethical egoism, but it is not logically compelling.

Utilitarianism

• Utilitarianism is a universal teleological system that aims to maximize goodness in society.
• The theory suggests that an action is best if it procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.
• There are two types of utilitarianism: act-utilitarianism and rule-utilitarianism.

Act-Utilitarianism

• Act-utilitarianism suggests that an act is right if and only if it results in as much good as any available alternative.
• It is a practical problem to decide which act is the correct one in each case.

Rule-Utilitarianism

• Rule-utilitarianism suggests that an act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is itself a member of a set of rules whose acceptance would lead to greater utility for society than any available alternative.
• It is a more specific rule that passes the test of rational scrutiny.

Criticism of Utilitarianism

• Problems with formulating utilitarianism: determining which variable to rank first when they seem to conflict (happiness or number).
• The comparative consequences objection: it is difficult to predict the long-term consequences of actions.
• The consistency objection to rule-utilitarianism: it can become a deontological system or transform into act-utilitarianism.
• The no-rest objection: one should always do what promotes the most utility, leaving no time for rest or leisure.
• The publicity objection: utilitarianism seems to contradict the requirement of publicity.
• The relativism objection: rule-utilitarianism seems to endorse different rules in different societies.
• Criticism of the ends justifying immoral means: utilitarian ends might justify immoral means, such as lying or torture.

Altruism

• Altruism is a moral theory that suggests an action is right if the consequences of that action are favorable to all except the actor.
• Psychological altruism holds that all human action is necessarily other-centered and other-motivated.
• Altruists act to increase other people's pleasure, even if it decreases their own pleasure and causes themselves pain.### Deontological Ethics
• Rightness or wrongness of moral action is determined with reference to formal rules of conduct rather than consequences or result of an action.
• It is referred to as "the means justifies the end".
• Deontological moral theory is diametrically opposite to utilitarianism.
• It is a duty-based theory, and consequences or results of our action have nothing to do with their rightness or wrongness.
• Emphasis is on intentions, motives, moral principles, or performance of duty rather than results.

The Divine Command Theory

• Ethical principles are simply the commands of God.
• Derive their validity from God's commanding them.
• Without God, there would be no universally valid morality.
• Analyze the DCT into three separate theses:
  • Morality originates with God.
  • Moral rightness simply means "willed by God", and moral wrongness means "being against the will of God."
  • Because morality essentially is based on divine will, not on independently existing reasons for action, no further reasons for action are necessary.

Rights Theory

• A "right" is a justified claim against another person's behavior.
• Correlativity of rights and duties: Rights and duties are related in such a way that the rights of one person imply the duties of another person.
• John Locke argued that the laws of nature mandate that we should not harm anyone's life, health, liberty, or possessions.
• Thomas Jefferson recognized three foundational rights in the United States Declaration of Independence:
  • Life
  • Liberty
  • Pursuit of happiness
• Four features traditionally associated with moral rights:
  • Natural - not invented or created by governments
  • Universal - do not change from country to country
  • Equal - rights are the same for all people, irrespective of gender, race, or handicap
  • Inalienable - one cannot hand over his/her rights to another person

Kant's Categorical Imperative

• Not consequences which determine the rightness or wrongness of an act, but the intention of the person who carries out the act.
• The emphasis is on the correctness of the action, regardless of the possible benefits or harm it might produce.
• There are some moral obligations which are absolutely binding, no matter what consequences are produced.
• Kant's duty-based theory emphasizes a single principle of duty.
• The categorical imperative is a single, self-evident principle of reason that he calls the "categorical imperative".
• Different from hypothetical imperatives that hinge on some personal desire.
• Kant emphasizes the idea of good intention.

Ross's Prima Facie Duties or Moral Guidelines

• Prima facie duties are duties that dictate what we should do when other moral factors are not considered.
• Examples of prima facie duties:
  • Duty to keep promises
  • Duty of reparation
  • Duty of gratitude
  • Duty of justice
  • Duty of beneficence
  • Duty of self-improvement
  • Duty of non-maleficence
• Prima facie duties are understood as guidelines, not rules without exception.
• The actual duty has the greatest amount of prima facie rightness over wrongness.

Moral and Civics Chapter 3

• The function of morality is to give guidance in dealing with puzzles and provide principles and rules that are acceptable to everyone.
• Individuals consider what is right and correct based on their own justification.
• The ethical nature of our action and decision is dependent on our notion of "Good" and "Bad", "Right" and "wrong".
• Instrumental good and intrinsic good:
  • Instrumental good: things which we consider good or desirable for their result or what they lead to.
  • Intrinsic good: things which we consider good not because of what they lead to but because of what they are in themselves.
• Task of ethics: to analyze and critically consider the values we hold and the claims we make, to evaluate the adequacy of reasons that we give for our actions.