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Civics Chapter 2
Civics Chapter 2
Ethics
2.2. Normative Ethics
in particular situations
It is referred as “the end justifies the means”.
It believes in purpose, ends or goals of an action, it stress that
an action is judged as right or wrong, moral or immoral
One may have the best intention or follow the highest moral
right.
• It does not just say that, from the moral point of view,
it says that, from the moral point of view, only one’s own
The utility principle (or its hedonic aspect): states that the only
thing that is good in itself is some specific type of state (for
example, pleasure, happiness, welfare).
John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism: Quality over Quantity
• John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) is also a greatly known
advocate of utilitarianism.
• For Bentham all pleasures are equal.
• Mill unlike Bentham differentiated between higher
pleasures and lower pleasures that human enjoyed and he
introduced quality and quantity in to the evaluation of
pleasures.
Cont’d
• The pleasure of a fool and a wise person are not the same
even if their quantitative amount is similar. Based on this he
made two types of pleasures.
• The lower, or elementary, include eating, drinking,
sexuality, resting, and sensuous titillation.
• The higher include scientific knowledge, intellectuality, and
creativity. Mental/intellectual pleasure for him is higher
pleasure and evaluating an act we have to consider this
distinction.
Altruism
•An action is right if the consequence of that action is favorable to all except
the actor. Some scholars argued that we have an inherent psychological
capacity to show benevolence to others. This view is called psychological
altruism and maintains that at least some of our actions are motivated by
instinctive benevolence.
•Altruists are people who act so as to increase other people’s pleasure. They
will act for the sake of someone else even if it decreases their own pleasure
and causes themselves pain.
First, rights are natural insofar as they are not invented or created
by governments.
Second, they are universal insofar as they do not change from
country to country.
Third, they are equal in the sense that rights are the same for all
people, irrespective of gender, race, or handicap.
Fourth, they are inalienable which means that I cannot hand over
my rights to another person, such as by selling myself into slavery.
Kant’s Categorical Imperative
•We have various duties that oftentimes come into conflict with
each other for instance; choosing either to speak a truth (it is
always wrong to lie) or to keep one’s promise.
•These duties are called Prima facie duties. Ross identified the
following principles as a prima facie duties that every moral
action should obey always:
Ross identified the following principles
Duties of Fidelity: the duty to keep promises and the obligation not to lie. Duties
of fidelity are duties to keep one’s promises and contracts and not to engage in
deception.
Duties of Reparation: This is a duty to make up for the injuries one has done to
others. Ross describes this duty as "resting on a previous wrongful act". It is the
duty to compensate others when we harm them. If, for example, I damage
something that belongs to someone else, I have an obligation to make restitution.
Duties of Gratitude: the duty to thank those who help us. Suppose, for example,
an especially good friend is suddenly in need of assistance, I am duty bound to do
all I can help this individual, who in the past had acted so selflessly toward me.
Duties of Justice: The duty of justice requires that one act in such a way that one
distributes benefits and burdens fairly.
Cont’d
Duties of Beneficence: the duty to improve the conditions of others. The duty
to do good to others: to foster their health, security, wisdom, moral goodness,
or happiness. This duty rests upon the fact that there are other beings in the
world whose condition we can make better in respect of virtue, or of
intelligence, or of pleasure.
Duties of Self-improvement: The duty of self-improvement is to act so as to
promote one’s own good, i.e., one’s own health, security, wisdom, moral
goodness, virtue, intelligence and happiness.
Duties of Non-maleficence: The duty of non-injury (also known as non-
maleficence) is the duty not to harm others physically or psychologically: to
avoid harming their health, security, intelligence, character, or happiness. We
are obliged to avoid hurting others physically, emotionally and psychologically.
Virtue Ethics
•Imagine a case in which it is agreed by every sort of theorist that I should, say, help
someone in need.
•A deontologist will emphasize the fact that in offering help, I will be acting in
accordance with a moral rule or principle such as “Do unto others as you would be
done by”; a consequentialist will point out that the consequences of helping will
maximize well-being; and a virtue ethicist will emphasize the fact that providing
help would be charitable or benevolent – charity and benevolence being virtues.
Aristotelian Ethics
What is Meta-ethics?
•In meta-ethics, we are concerned not with questions which are
the province of normative ethics like 'Should I give to famine
relief?' or 'Should I return the wallet I found in the street?' but
with questions about questions like these.
•Meta-ethics tries to answer question, such as:
What does “good,” “right,” or “justice” mean?
What makes something good or right?
Is moral realism true?
Is morality irreducible, cognitive, or overriding?
Do intrinsic values exist?
Cont’d
act-utilitarianism (one ought to give to famine
relief because that particular action, of those
possible, contributes most to the greater happiness
of the greatest number); rule-utilitarianism