Applied Ethics: An Introduction

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Applied Ethics An Introduction
2
Applied Ethics

• There are 12 lectures and 4 tutorials in a
  semester
• One lecture every week
• One tutorial every 2 weeks
• Please note that tutorial attendance is
  compulsory.

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Applied Ethics

• The course requirements as well as the topics
  covered can be found in the Course Outline.
• A wealth of useful resources can be found on the
  course website
• applied-ethics.weebly.com

4
Applied Ethics

• Assessment
• Group presentation 30
• Written assignment 20
• Examination 50

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In this lecture

• What is ethics?
• Right and wrong
• Moral reasoning
• Fallacies
• Principles and Theories

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What is ethics?

• Ethics is the philosophical study of morality, a
  rational examination of peoples moral beliefs
  and behavior.
• Applied ethics is a branch of moral philosophy
  that attempts to apply ethical principles,
  theories and concepts to real-life moral issues.

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What is ethics?

• In the study of ethics, we evaluate peoples
  actions (i.e. to judge or decide whether these
  actions are right or wrong), we study peoples
  moral beliefs and judgments, and we examine the
  justifications (or reasons) given for moral
  judgments and decisions.

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What is ethics?

• In modern times, the terms ethics and
  morality often have the same meaning. But what
  is morality and why do we need it?
• Morality can be seen as a system of rules (or
  principles) that, if followed by everyone, will
  promote the well-being (or welfare) of society as
  a whole.

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What is ethics?

• Every society has rules of conduct telling people
  what they should do and should not do in various
  situations.
• We need morality (i.e. rules of behavior that
  people can agree on) because it tells us what we
  would expect others to do and what others would
  expect us to do.

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Right and wrong

• Unlike the study of science, there is no unified
  method or approach in ethics that can be used to
  examine moral judgments and decisions across
  different situations.
• Moral judgments and decisions, therefore, are
  much less certain than scientific facts.

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Right and wrong

• Susan believes that light travels faster than
  sound, while Dave believes that sound travels
  faster than light.
• Anyone who has good scientific knowledge will
  agree that Susans belief is true whereas Daves
  belief is false. Why? Because Susans belief is
  based on scientific fact, but Daves is not.

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Right and wrong

• The statement Water boils at 100c denotes an
  objective fact that can be examined
  scientifically to see whether it is true or not.
• The same cannot be said of the statement
  Homosexuality is immoral, which is just
  someones subjective moral judgment.

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Right and wrong

• Some people believe that science deals with
  objective facts, whereas ethics deals with
  subjective value judgments.
• According to this view, moral judgments are value
  judgments, and all value judgments are highly
  subjective.

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Right and wrong

• If your friend has committed a crime (e.g.
  stealing from a supermarket), should you report
  the crime to the police?
• Different people may have different opinions.
  They may not agree on what is the right thing to
  do in a situation like this.

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Right and wrong

• Some people may say that you should report the
  crime because justice is more important than
  friendship.
• Others may choose not to report the crime because
  they value friendship above justice.

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Right and wrong

• Different people may have different responses
  because they have different moral values, beliefs
  or judgments. They may not agree on what is the
  morally right thing to do in a situation like
  this.

17
Right and wrong

• Does it imply that moral judgments (i.e.
  judgments about what is right and what is wrong)
  are simply subjective expressions of personal
  feelings and attitudes?

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Right and wrong

• No, not necessarily. Peoples moral beliefs and
  judgments can be either subjective or
  objective.
• Subjective moral judgments are based on personal
  feelings and attitudes, whereas objective moral
  judgments are based on knowledge of actions,
  events, and situations.

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Right and wrong

• In dealing with ethical issues, there are always
  objective and rational considerations that we
  should focus on when we make moral judgments and
  decisions.
• In the previous example, we may ask ourselves the
  following questions

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Right and wrong

• How serious is the crime committed? How does it
  affect other people?
• Are we really helping our friends if we cover up
  their crimes for them?
• What would happen if everyone covered up the
  crimes committed by their friends?

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Right and wrong

• Moral judgments, therefore, are not simply
  subjective expressions of personal feelings and
  attitudes.
• Rational people are able to make moral judgments
  and decisions on the basis of objective knowledge
  of actions, events and situations, moral
  reasoning, and shared moral values.

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Moral reasoning

• Do you think babies can make moral judgments? Do
  they know the difference between right and wrong?
• Lets watch this video to find out!

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Moral reasoning

• As we can see, babies as young as 3 months old
  prefer nice behavior to mean behavior. They also
  have an innate sense of justice. For example,
  they think that bad behavior should be punished.

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Moral reasoning

• However, babies moral judgments are not based on
  reason. As shown in the video, they prefer others
  who are similar to them. They even want those who
  are different from them to be treated badly.

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Moral reasoning

• Babies moral judgments are often irrational and
  unreasonable. They cannot explain, justify, or
  give reasons for their judgments.
• From an ethical point of view, we need to think
  about the reasons or justifications of our moral
  judgments, i.e. what makes an action right or
  wrong.

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Moral reasoning

• Consider another example
• Is it acceptable for adult siblings (brothers and
  sisters) to have consensual sex with each other
  if they use contraception and no one is harmed?

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Moral reasoning

• A survey found that about 80 of college students
  answered No to the question, but most of them
  were unable to provide reasons or justifications
  for their opinion.
• This shows that our moral judgments are often
  based on how we feel about an issue rather than
  good reasoning.

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Moral reasoning

• As we have seen, ethical choices are not simply a
  matter of personal preference.
• Good moral judgment and decision-making should be
  based on objective knowledge of actions, events
  and situations. Moreover, it also requires the
  use of reason.

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Moral reasoning

• Reason is the ability to think logically.
  Persons, objects, actions, events and situations
  are represented in the human mind as ideas (or
  concepts).
• We use reason to make sense of the world by
  figuring out the relationship between ideas or
  concepts inside our minds. That is how we form
  our beliefs and judgments.

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Moral reasoning

• We can use reason to decide what we should do (or
  should not do) in different circumstances. Our
  moral judgments and decisions, in any situation,
  should be based on good moral reasoning.

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Moral reasoning

• What should we do when people disagree on an
  ethical issue?
• When people have different views, we can examine
  the facts and the reasoning (or supporting
  arguments) behind their beliefs and judgments to
  determine whose view is more reasonable.

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Moral reasoning

• What we try to do in ethics is to approach
  disagreements through open-minded discussions of
  alternative viewpoints.
• Because ethics is based on reason, we should be
  able to explain or justify our moral judgments
  through reasoned arguments, and thereby persuade
  others to accept our point of view.

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Moral reasoning

• One of the purposes of studying ethics is to
  learn how to think critically and develop skills
  of reasoning and argumentation.
• When dealing with an issue, not only should we
  familiarize ourselves with different viewpoints,
  we should also be able to explain why we agree or
  disagree with these viewpoints.

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Moral reasoning

• To think critically and reason well about an
  issue, we should
• understand the background or situation
• think open-mindedly and raise relevant questions
• gather and evaluate information

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Moral reasoning

• examine different viewpoints and their supporting
  arguments
• develop a standpoint or position of our own
• construct reasoned arguments to support our own
  position

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Moral reasoning

• An argument is composed of a premise (or several
  premises) supporting a particular conclusion.
• Premises are reasons or evidence offered to
  support a belief or judgment, and the conclusion
  is the belief or judgment that the premises are
  intended to support.

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Moral reasoning

• Reasoning is the act of drawing (or deriving) a
  conclusion from a premise or a set of premises.
• Consider the following example
• Second-hand smoke can cause cancer. premise
• Therefore, smoking in public areas should be
  banned. conclusion

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Moral reasoning

• In this example, the premise second-hand smoke
  can cause cancer is a fact that lends support to
  (i.e. provides the reason or justification for)
  the conclusion that smoking in public areas
  should be banned.

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Moral reasoning

• Generally speaking, arguments are either valid
  (logical) or invalid (illogical).
• A further distinction can be made between
  deductive arguments and inductive arguments.

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Moral reasoning

• A deductive argument is valid or logical if the
  conclusion follows logically (or necessarily)
  from the premises
• All lizards are reptiles. premise 1
• All reptiles are animals. premise 2
• Therefore, all lizards are animals. conclusion

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Moral reasoning

• Consider the following
• All children are afraid of the dark.
• Dorothy is afraid of the dark.
• Therefore, Dorothy is a child.
• Is this a valid deductive argument? Why or why
  not?

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Moral reasoning

• An inductive argument is one in which a general
  conclusion is drawn from particular facts or
  observations. For example
• My cat is lazy.
• My friends cats are lazy too.
• Therefore, all cats are lazy.

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Moral reasoning

• Consider the following
• I have read 100 comic books. They are all very
  interesting. Jason just gave me a new comics. I
  havent read it, but I know it must be very
  interesting.
• Is the above a valid argument? Why or why not?

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Moral reasoning

• Here, the argument can be broken down into 2
  parts 1 The 100 comic books I have read are
  interesting therefore, all comic books are
  interesting (an inductive argument) and 2 If
  all comic books are interesting, the one that
  Jason gave me must be interesting (a deductive
  argument).

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Moral reasoning

• Part 1 of the argument (inductive) is invalid
  because the premise about particulars (I have
  read 100 interesting comic books.) does not
  necessarily support the general conclusion (All
  comic books are interesting.)
• Part 2 is a valid deductive argument.

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Moral reasoning

• An inference from a number of particular facts or
  observations to general conclusion is called
  generalization.
• Generalizing from a limited set of facts or
  observations, however, is not always reliable.
  This is called the problem of induction or the
  problem of the black swan.

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Moral reasoning

• For centuries, people of the West thought that
  all swans were white (a general conclusion that
  was believed to be true).
• The belief that all swans were white was proven
  wrong with the discovery of black swans in
  Australia in the 17th century.

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Moral reasoning

• Philosophy in general and ethics in particular
  often have to deal with questions and issues that
  do not have model answers.
• Although there are usually no model answers to
  controversial moral issues, some arguments are
  clearly better than others.

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Moral reasoning

• There are good arguments as well as bad ones, and
  much of the skill of moral reasoning consists in
  discerning the difference.
• Good arguments are relevant, valid, and well
  supported by evidence (facts, observations,
  statistics and examples).

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Moral reasoning

• A relevant argument addresses exactly the
  question that has been asked.
• A valid argument is a logical argument.
  Constructing a valid argument requires good
  reasoning skills.

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Moral reasoning

• When we evaluate our own or other peoples
  arguments, we should consider the following
  questions
• Is the evidence relevant?
• Are the facts correct?
• Is the reasoning logical?
• Are there any counterarguments?

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Moral reasoning

• It is useful to keep in mind that assessment of
  your performance will largely be based on the
  quality of the arguments you make in
  presentations, assignments and the examination.

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Moral reasoning

• There is usually no need to memorize a lot of
  information. The more important thing to do is to
  think critically about ethical issues.
• It is usually necessary to 1 consider different
  views 2 analyze and evaluate arguments and
  3 construct reasoned arguments to support your
  own view.

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Fallacies

• Reasoning, as we have seen, is the act of
  deriving a conclusion from a premise or a set of
  premises.
• A fallacy is an error in reasoning. An argument
  is fallacious if the premise or premises do not
  support the conclusion.

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Fallacies

• Because there are hundreds of ways an argument
  can go wrong, there are hundreds of different
  types of fallacies.
• As examples, we will focus on four types of
  fallacies namely, false analogy, begging the
  question, the straw man and the slippery
  slope.

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Fallacies

• Two things may have superficial similarities, but
  they are not exactly the same.
• False analogy is the mistake of overlooking the
  dissimilarities between things.

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Fallacies

• For example, you may think that a person is lazy
  just because you have seen that the persons
  brother is lazy.
• This is likely to be a case of false analogy
  because having the same biological parents may
  have little or nothing to do with the character
  trait of laziness.

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Fallacies

• Another common fallacy or error in reasoning is
  called begging the question or arguing in a
  circle. Consider the following statement
• Abortion should be permitted because women
  should be allowed to make choices.

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Fallacies

• Since to permit has exactly the same meaning as
  to allow to choose, the above statement simply
  repeats itself without giving any real
  explanation.
• Further argument or information would have to be
  given to explain why women should be allowed to
  choose abortion.

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Fallacies

• The straw man fallacy is an error in reasoning
  that we commit when we attribute a poorly
  reasoned argument to someone who never actually
  made that argument.

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Fallacies

• Here is an example
• The Buddha thinks that desire is the root cause
  of suffering. The best way to extinguish ones
  desire is to commit suicide. Therefore, the
  Buddha encourages people to commit suicide.

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Fallacies

• When someone criticizes Buddhism for encouraging
  people to commit suicide, they are attacking a
  straw man because the Buddha never says anything
  to that effect. The Buddha does not think that
  committing suicide is the best or only way to
  extinguish desire.

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Fallacies

• Slippery slope arguments are often put forward to
  criticize certain proposals or initiatives on the
  grounds that putting them into practice would
  lead to terrible outcomes in the long run.

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Fallacies

• It usually involves a prediction that serious,
  avoidable harm will follow if some new policy is
  introduced or some legal, social or political
  reform is carried out.
• Once the Pandoras box is open, there is no way
  of preventing the dreadful consequences.

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Fallacies

• A slippery slope argument typically states that a
  relatively small first step will cause a chain
  of related events and eventually result in a
  disaster of some sort.
• It usually involves making a claim that A leads
  to B, B leads to C, and so on. And things only
  get worse and worse.

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Fallacies

• Here is an example
• If we legalize soccer betting, more people will
  be addicted to gambling. As the number of
  pathological gamblers increases, there will be
  more crimes and other social problems. We must
  think twice before allowing this to happen.

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Fallacies

• Whether a slippery slope argument is sound or
  not depends to a large extent on the availability
  of evidence.
• If there is insufficient evidence for the
  slippery slope effect, then it can be regarded as
  a fallacy.

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Principles and theories

• Moral principles are general rules or standards
  for evaluating conduct.
• Examples of moral principles include the Golden
  Rule (Treat others as one would wish to be
  treated oneself.) and the principle of equality
  (Like cases should be treated alike.)

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Principles and theories

• Many ethical arguments consist of principles
  being applied to the facts of particular cases,
  for example
• All humans should be treated equally.
• African Americans are humans.
• Therefore, it is wrong to discriminate against
  African Americans.

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Principles and theories

• A theory can be seen as a framework of principles
  and related concepts that can be employed to make
  sense of people, things, actions, events, and
  situations.
• Theories can be employed to analyze, explain and
  deal with different types of problems.

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Principles and theories

• Moral theories serve two main purposes in the
  study of ethics
• They provide reasons or justifications for our
  own actions and decisions.
• We can rely on them to evaluate the actions and
  decisions of others.

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Principles and theories

• There are two broad theoretical approaches to
  moral reasoning
• Consequentialism holds that we should choose
  the available action with the best overall
  consequences.
• Deontology holds that we should act in ways
  circumscribed by moral rules irrespective of
  consequences.

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Principles and theories

• In forthcoming lectures, we will focus more
  specifically on two contemporary moral theories,
  namely, utilitarianism and Kantian ethics.

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Principles and theories

• Utilitarianism, as an example of a
  consequentialist moral theory, proposes that we
  should judge whether an action is better than its
  alternatives by considering its actual or
  expected effectiveness in promoting general
  happiness.

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Principles and theories

• Kantian ethics, on the other hand, is an example
  of a deontological theory, according to which
  right actions are ones that conform to
  requirements of rationality and human dignity.

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Principles and theories

• Moral theories and principles should not be seen
  as ready-made solutions that can be applied
  mechanically to deal with moral problems.
• In fact, when two or more ethical principles or
  theories come into conflict in a particular
  situation, we may find ourselves caught in a
  moral dilemma.

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Principles and theories

• A dilemma is a situation in which we have to
  make a difficult choice between two (or more)
  alternatives.
• A moral dilemma occurs when we must decide
  between two (or more) conflicting actions. We
  have good reasons to perform each action, but the
  actions cannot both be performed.

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Principles and theories

• Here is an example
• A child is crying in the street. No one is
  helping her. You need to go to your best friends
  wedding because you promised to be the cameraman
  for him. If you help the child, you will not be
  able to arrive on time, and your friend will be
  sad and angry. What should you do?