Ethics PDF

**Module 4** **The Goal of Ethics: Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics** The central issue for Aristotle is the question of character or personality- what does it take for an individual human being to be a good person? Every activity has a final cause, the good at which it aims, and Aristotle argued...

**Module 4** **The Goal of Ethics: Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics** The central issue for Aristotle is the question of character or personality- what does it take for an individual human being to be a good person? Every activity has a final cause, the good at which it aims, and Aristotle argued that since there cannot be an infinite regress of merely extrinsic goods, there must be a highest good at which all human activity ultimately aims. This end of human life could be called happiness (or living well), of course, but what is it really? **According to Aristotle, things of any variety have a characteristic function that they are properly used to perform.** **Human beings should aim at a life in full conformity with their rational natures**; for this, the satisfaction of desires and the acquisition of material goods are less important than the achievement of virtue. **True happiness can therefore be attained only through the cultivation of the virtues that make a human life complete.** **The Nature of Virtue** **According to Aristotle, the virtuous habit of action is always an intermediate state between the opposed vices of excess and deficiency**: too much and too little are always wrong; **the right kind of action always lies in the mean** with respect to acting in the face of danger, courage {Gk. ανδρεια \[andreia\]} is a mean between the excess of rashness and the deficiency of cowardice; with respect to the enjoyment of pleasures, temperance {Gk. σωφρσυνη \[sophrosúnê\]} is a mean between the excess of intemperance and the deficiency of insensibility; with respect to spending money, generosity is a mean between the excess of wastefulness and the deficiency of stinginess; with respect to relations with strangers, being friendly is a mean between the excess of being ingratiating and the deficiency of being surly; and with respect to self-esteem, magnanimity {Gk. μεγαλοψυχι&alpha \[megalopsychia\]} is a mean between the excess of vanity and the deficiency of pusillanimity. **Aristotle's ethical doctrine is clear: avoid extremes of all sorts and seek moderation in all things.** **Voluntary Action:** First, actions that are produced by some external force (or, perhaps, under an extreme duress from outside the agent) are taken involuntarily, and the agent is not responsible for them. Second, actions performed out of ignorance are also involuntary. **Decisions to act voluntarily rely upon deliberation about the choice among alternative actions that the individual could perform.** **Deliberate Choice:** But there is a distinctive mode of thinking that does provide adequately for morality, according to Aristotle: **practical intelligence or prudence** This is the **function of deliberative reasoning: to consider each of the many actions that are within one's power to perform,** considering the extent to which each of them would contribute to the achievement of the appropriate goal or end **Weakness of the Will:** Incontinent agents suffer from a sort of weakness of the will that prevents them from carrying out actions in conformity with what they have reasoned. **Aristotle argued that the vice of intemperance is incurable because it destroys the principle of the related virtue, while incontinence is curable because respect for virtue remains** **Friendship:** In a particularly influential section of the Ethics, Aristotle considered the role of human relationships in general and friendship {Gk. φιλια \[philia\]} in particular as a vital element in the good life. For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. **A friendship for pleasure** comes into being when two people discover that they have common interest in an activity which they can pursue together. **A friendship grounded on utility,** on the other hand, comes into being when two people can benefit in some way by engaging in coordinated activity. **A friendship for the good,** however, comes into being when two people engage in common activities solely for the sake of developing the overall goodness of the other. (last forever) **Achieving Happiness:** Genuine happiness lies in action that leads to virtue, since this alone provides true value and not just amusement. **Saint Thomas Aquinas' Natural Law:** Thomas\'s reading of Aristotle\'s **argument for the ultimate end as a reductio** and his own claim that in **one sense of it everyone pursues the ultimate end since one chooses whatever he chooses sub ratione boni** and as conducive to or a constituent of his fulfillment and perfection, tell us something important about Thomas\'s mode of procedure. **Natural Law:** the peculiarly human participation in the eternal law, in providence. All creatures are ordered to an end, have natures whose fulfillment is what it is because of those natures. **the first principles or starting points of practical reasoning.** **In the practical order there is a first concept analogous to being in the theoretical order and it is the good.** The good means what is sought as fulfilling of the seeker. The first practical judgment is: the good should be done and pursued and evil avoided. Any other practical judgment is a specification of this one and thus includes it. Natural Law consists of this first judgment and other most general ones that are beyond contest. **Kant's Moral Philosophy:** Immanuel Kant (1724--1804) argued that the supreme principle of morality is a standard of rationality that he dubbed the **"Categorical Imperative" objective, rationally necessary and unconditional principle that we must always follow despite any natural desires or inclinations we may have to the contrary.** The fundamental principle of morality --- the CI --- is none other than the law of an autonomous will. Thus, at the heart of Kant's moral philosophy is a conception of reason whose reach in practical affairs goes well beyond that of a Human 'slave' to the passions. Moreover, it is the presence of this self-governing reason in each person that Kant thought offered decisive grounds for viewing each as possessed of equal worth and deserving of equal respect. **Kant's most influential positions in moral philosophy are found in The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals** but he developed, enriched, and in some cases modified those views in later works such as The Critique of Practical Reason, The Metaphysics of Morals, Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason as well as his essays on history and related topics. **Aims and Methods of Moral Philosophy:** The most basic aim of moral philosophy, and so also of the Groundwork, is, in Kant's view, to "seek out" the foundational principle of a "metaphysics of morals," which Kant understands as a system of a priori moral principles that apply the CI to human persons in all times and cultures. **Kant's analysis of the common moral concepts of "duty" and "good will" led him to believe that we are free and autonomous as long as morality, itself, is not an illusion.** ant thought that the only way to resolve this apparent conflict is to distinguish between **phenomena,** which is what we know through experience, **and noumena,** which we can consistently think but not know through experience. Finally, moral philosophy should say something about the ultimate end of human endeavor, the Highest Good, and its relationship to the moral life. an a posteriori method of seeking out and establishing the principle that generates such requirements will not support the presentation of moral "oughts" as unconditional necessities. **Utilitarianism: form of consequentialism** On consequentialist grounds, actions and inactions whose negative consequences outweigh the positive consequences will be deemed morally wrong while actions and inactions whose positive consequences outweigh the negative consequences will be deemed morally right. **On utilitarian grounds, actions and inactions which benefit few people and harm more people will be deemed morally wrong while actions and inactions which harm fewer people and benefit more people will be deemed morally right.** "the morally right action is the action that produces the most good." **Varieties of Utilitarianism:** **Actual Consequence Utilitarians versus Foreseeable Consequence Utilitarians.** The former base the evaluation of the moral rightness and moral wrongness of actions on the actual consequences of actions; while the latter base the evaluation of the moral rightness and moral wrongness of actions on the foreseeable consequences of actions. **Act Utilitarianism versus Rule Utilitarianism.** Act utilitarianism focuses on individual actions and says that we should apply the principle of utility in order to evaluate them. Therefore, act utilitarians argue that among possible actions, the action that produces the most utility would the morally right action. But this may seem impossible to do in practice since, for everything that we might do that has a potential effect on other people, we would thus be morally required to examine its consequences and pick the one with the best outcome. Rule utilitarianism responds to this problem by focusing on general types of actions and determining whether they typically lead to good or bad results. This, for them is the meaning of commonly held moral rules: they are generalizations of the typical consequences of our actions. **Is Utilitarianism Persuasive and Reasonable?** John Stuart Mill's argument that it is based on his claim that "each person, so far as he believes it to be attainable, desires his own happiness." Mill derives the principle of utility from this claim based on three considerations, namely desirability, exhaustiveness, and impartiality **Justice and Fairness:** **Justice:** means giving each person what he or she deserves or, in more traditional terms, giving each person his or her due. standard of rightness **Fairness:** with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one\'s feelings or interests; fairness has also been used to refer to the ability to make judgments that are not overly general but that are concrete and specific to a particular case. **Principles of Justice: \"equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally.\"** \"Individuals should be treated the same, unless they differ in ways that are relevant to the situation in which they are involved.\" **Different Kinds of Justice:** **Distributive justice** refers to the extent to which society\'s institutions ensure that benefits and burdens are distributed among society\'s members in ways that are fair and just. **Retributive justice** refers to the extent to which punishments are fair and just. In general, punishments are held to be just to the extent that they take into account relevant criteria such as the seriousness of the crime and the intent of the criminal, and discount irrelevant criteria such as race. **Compensatory justice** refers to the extent to which people are fairly compensated for their injuries by those who have injured them; just compensation is proportional to the loss inflicted on a person. **Foundations of Justice:** The foundations of justice can be traced to the notions of social stability, interdependence, and equal dignity. As the ethicist John Rawls has pointed out, the stability of a society---or any group, for that matter---depends upon the extent to which the members of that society feel that they are being treated justly. **Module 5** **The Ethical Challenges of Globalization** **Political Scientist David Mittelman (1996)** defines globalization as the compression of space and time. By this, he meant that the technologies of globalization have reduced the significance of the distance barrier and the salience of time in cross-border interactions. **Sociologist Roland Robertson (1992)** refers to globalization as the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole. Globalization has transformed the world from a collection of discrete communities interacting occasionally to an overlapping community of fate is clearly indicated by the fact that the world is increasingly integrating along the cultural, political and economic spheres **Ethical Issues in Globalization** **The first normative question elicited by globalization concerns the character of globalization itself.** Critics have argued that the currently unfolding neoliberal globalization concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, while it leaves the majority in the condition of poverty. **The second prominent normative challenge arising out of globalization is the problem of managing the global environment** in order to forestall a global ecological collapse, a prospect that threatens humanity with the specter of annihilation. **Millennials/Generation Y:** They are those born from 1982 to 1994 while other sources stretch the range up to 2004 Older people might find them selfish because, as studies show, millennials especially in the West \"want it all\" and they \"want it now.\" This explains their insatiable drive for new gadgets, clubbing, travel, rewarding jobs, and even designer drugs. **Fillinnials:** Filipino Millennials (very specific segment of our population.) **Career/Employment: Millennials, those who are currently in their 20s and 30s, are projected to comprise almost half of the entire global workforce by 2020.** In the Philippines, in October 2015, it was estimated that 47.1% of the more than 66 million working Filipinos were composed of millennials aged 15--34 years old. This data suggests that millennials are not only occupying a significant portion of the Philippine economy, but are also shaping the direction of it. One of the most common conceptions on millennials is that they **are "career shifters."** **Lifestyle** **One of the striking characteristics of millennials is that they do practice "challenge convention**" which pertains that they continuously seek to find better and suitable ways of doing things on their own. Most of them prefer to be in charged on their own matters such as when it comes to handling their finances, accommodation and even travels. They are usually tagged as entitled, with close parental involvement, and demands less supervision. Comparatively speaking, these kind of attributes were not present in the previous generation. **Relationship/Social Relationship** The emergence of new means to build relationships is now taking its scene, along with the spur of the "hookup culture" where most millennials are identified to be fascinated with. Hence, the notion as to whether the traditional Filipino conservative ideals in selecting partners and managing relationships also evolved. **Religion and Ethics** **Can we be Ethical without being Religious?** The influential philosopher, Immanuel Kant defended the idea of God as a basic requirement of ethics. We ought to be virtuous and do our duty, he said. Kant believed virtue should be rewarded by happiness, and it would be intolerable if it were not so. The link between religion and morality is best illustrated by the Golden Rule. Virtually all of the world's great religions contain in their religious texts some version of the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would wish them do unto you". In other words, we should treat others the way we would want to be treated. This is the basic ethic that guides all religions. If we do so, happiness will ensue. **The Role of Religion in an Ethical Society** This leads us to the great absence in efforts to address the crises in today's world: religion. Traditionally religion has provided the multitudes with basic moral and ethical values. Religion has taught about good and evil, saints and sinners, and the altruistic values that build lasting cultures---versus the greed, lust, indolence, pride, and violence so valued in today's market-based societies. Yet today, even in societies that claim to be religious, those ethical values are largely lacking, or are given lip service while the great majority pursue self-centered materialistic objectives. Religion is the light of the world, and the progress, achievement, and happiness of man result from obedience to the laws set down in the holy Books. Briefly, it is demonstrable that in this life, both outwardly and inwardly the mightiest of structures, the most solidly established, the most enduring, standing guard over the world, assuring both the spiritual and the material perfections of mankind, and protecting the happiness and the civilization of society --- is religion.