ETIC111- Prelim Lecture Week 2.pdf

1. The Moral Aspect of Human Existence 2. Value Judgments Beyond the Scope of Ethics. 3. 2 Approaches in Ethics the ethical dimension of human existence Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the grounds for the values w/ particular and s...

1. The Moral Aspect of Human Existence 2. Value Judgments Beyond the Scope of Ethics. 3. 2 Approaches in Ethics the ethical dimension of human existence Ethics as a subject for us to study is about determining the grounds for the values w/ particular and special significance to HUMAN LIFE.  Our first point of clarification is to recognize that there are instances when we make VALUE JUDGMENTS that are not considered to be part of ethics. 1.AESTHETIC VALUATIONS 2.TECHNICAL VALUATIONS 3.MORAL VALUATIONS  It shows us that aesthetic considerations and questions of ETIQUETTE are important facets of human life. But they do not necessarily translate into genuine ethical or moral value. THE CHOICE OF CLOTHING THAT ONE IS TO WEAR, in general, seems to be merely a question of aesthetics, and thus one is taste. Is it deemed immoral or unethical (improper behaviour) for women to wear spaghetti straps and for men to wear shorts inside the church?  Yet in some cultures, what a woman wears (or does not wear) may bring upon harsh punishment to her according to the community’s rule. Afghanistan in the 1990s was ruled by the Taliban, and women were expected to wear the full- body burqa; a woman caught in public with even a small area of her body exposed could be flogged severely.  TECHNICAL VALUATIONS We get the English terms "technique" and "technical" from the Greek word "techne," commonly employed to denote the correct or proper method of performing tasks. However, it is important to note that a technical assessment, representing the right or wrong approach to doing things, might not inherently align with ethical considerations, as illustrated by this image  MORAL VALUATIONS They involve valuations that we make in a sphere of HUMAN ACTIONS, characterized by certain gravity and concern the human well-being and human life itself. Therefore, matters that concern life and death such as war, capital punishment, or abortion and matters that concern human well-being such as poverty, inequality, or sexual identity are often included in discussions of ethics. NORMATIVE ETHICS Normative approach is an evaluative one, it is a way of generating and FORMULATING PRINCIPLES, RULES, STANDARDS THAT WILL GUIDE HUMAN CONDUCT OR ACTION. In normative approach it includes general normative ethics and applied ethics. The former emphasizes any philosophical attempt to formulate and to defend basic moral principles and virtues governing the moral life, thus, it emphasizes ETHICAL THEORIES like natural law theory, utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics etc. The PRINCIPLES found in normative general ethics that are regarded to be of help to guide an action and are commonly applied to some specific moral problems such as in medicine, nursing and other medical sciences; thus, it yields an APPLIED ETHICS  NON-NORMATIVE ETHICS This approach is a non-evaluative one. IT SIMPLY CONSIDERS BY KNOWING WHAT IT IS AND DESCRIBES CERTAIN ACTIONS, PRACTICES AND EVENTS. It is not expressed by categorizing that is right or that is wrong, rather IT SIMPLY EXPRESSED WHAT IS THE ACTION AND THE WAY AN ACTION WAS DONE. Under this approach it presents two considerations, namely: DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS AND METAETHICS. The former, simply reports through description and explanation of moral behavior and belief of a person. For example, the stages of moral development by Lawrence Kohlberg. Now, in metaethics or analytic ethics it analyzes the peculiarity of an ethical language, such as ‘ought’, ‘good’, ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’. It asks the question ‘what is’ and also analyzes the structure of logic and moral reasoning. These are investigated in metaethics. These are not the only forms of nonnormative ethics. There are other forms, such as those that consider the biological bases of moral behavior and the ways in which humans do not differ from animals.