Louis P'Pojman Ethics: discovering right and wrong

1
Louis P.PojmanEthics discovering right and wrong
2
Ethical theories
3
Normative subjects
4
Traits of Moral Principles

• Prescriptivity
• Universalizability
• Overridingness
• Publicity
• Practicability
• Pojman p 7

5
What and how do we evaluate
6
Types of action

• Right Wrong
• (permissible) (not permissible)
• Obligatory
• Optional
• Neutral
  Supererogatory
• Pojman p 10

7
The Purposes of Morality

• To keep society from falling apart.
• To ameliorate human suffering.
• To promote human flourishing.
• To resolve conflicts of interest in just ways.
• To assign responsibility for actions.
• Pojman p 18

8
Ethical Relativism

• 1. The Diversity Thesis
• there are no universal moral standards held by
  all societies
• 2. The Dependency Thesis
• to act in a certain way is relative to the
  society
• 3. The Conclusion
• there are no absolute or objective moral
  standards
• Pojman p 28

9
Ethical Subjectivism

• Solipsism
• Atomism
• Escapism
• Pojman p 33

10
Ethical Conventionalism

• Conservative
• Totalitarian
• Intolerant
• Pojman p 41

11
The doctrine of natural law

• 1. Morality is a function of human nature.
• 2. Reason can discover valid moral principles by
  looking at the nature of humanity and society.
• Pojman p 45

12
The key ideas of the natural law tradition

• Human beings have an essential rational nature
• Reason can discover the laws for human
  flourishing
• The natural laws are universal and unchangeable
• Pojman p 47

13
The doctrine of double effect

• an act is morally permissible
• The Nature-of-the-Act Condition
• The Means-End Condition
• The Right-Intention Condition
• The Proportionality Condition
• Pojman p 48

14
Moral absolutism and objectivism
15
Prima facie principles

• valid rules of action
• that one should generally adhere to
• but that, in cases of moral conflict,
• may be overridable by
• another moral principle.
• Pojman p 51

16
Minimal principles of the core morality

• Do not kill innocent people.
• Do not cause unnecessary pain or suffering.
• Do not steal or cheat.
• Keep your promises and honor your contracts.
• Do not deprive another person of his or her
  freedom.
• Do justice, treating equals equally and unequals
  unequally.
• Reciprocate Show gratitude for services
  rendered.
• Tell the truth, or, at least, do not lie.
• Help other people, at least when the cost to
  oneself is minimal.
• Obey just laws. Pojman p 52

17
Justification of Moderate Objectivism

• Human nature is relatively similar, having a
  common set of needs and interests.
• Moral principles are functions of human needs and
  interests, instituted by reason.
• Some moral principles will meet human needs and
  promote human interests better than others.
• These principles can be said to be objectively
  valid principles.
• Therefore an objectively valid set of moral
  principles is applicable to all humanity.
• Pojman p 53-54

18
The attraction of ethical relativism

• 1. The option that absolutism and relativism are
  the only alternatives.
• 2. Objectiviam is confused with realism.
• 3. The move from descriptive cultural relativism
  to normative ethical relativism.
• 4. Drive to moral nihilism and relativism because
  of the decline of religion in Western society.
• 5. As metaethics so ought also ethics be morally
  neutral (amoral). Pojman p 56-58

19
Egoism

• The doctrine that it is morally right
• always to seek one's own self-interest without
  regard for others.
• Pojman p 71

20
Four types of egoism

21
Ethical egoism

• 1. The Economist Argument
• individual selfinterest in a competitive
  marketplace produces a state of optimal goodness
  for society at large
• 2. The Argument for the Virtue of Selfishness
• altruism is suicidal
• 3. The Hobbesian Argument
• because we are predominantly psychological
  egoists it is morally permissible to act entirely
  out of self-interest Pojman p 72-74

22
A critique of ethical egoism

• 1. The Inconsistent Outcomes Argument
• morality is not a guide to action
• 2. The Publicity Argument
• egoist must act alone, atomistically or
  solipsistically in moral isolation
• 3. The Paradox of Egoism
• in order to reach the goal of egoism on emust
  give up egoism and become (to some extent) an
  altruist
• 4. Counterintuitive Consequences
• helping others at one's own expense is morally
  wrong
• Pojman p 76-78

23
Altruism

• The theory that
• we can and should
• sometimes act
• in favor of others' interests.
• Pojman p 66

24
Four types of altuism

25
Reciprocal Altruism

• No duty to serve those
• who manipulate us,
• but willing to share with those
• willing to cooperate.
• Pojman p 80

26
Axiology

• -10..........................0....................
  .....10
• negative neutral positive
• evil/disvalue (value neutral) highest
  value
• Pojman p 85

27
Value

• (to be of worth)
• intrinsic
• worthy in itself
• (because of its nature)
• 
  instrumental
• creation of
  choosers
• (because of its consequences)
• Pojman p 86-87

28
Plato's question

• Do we desire the Good
• because it is good,
• or is the Good good
• because we desire it?
• Pojman p 85

29
Schema of the Moral Process

• ACTIONS
• Failure weakness of will leads to guilt
• DECISIONS
• Failure perverse will leads to guilt
• JUDGMENTS Weighing
• Failure error in application
• PRINCIPLES
• Normative question What ought I do?
• VALUES Objects of desire or objects existing
  independently of desires
• FORMS Hierarchies of beliefs, values,
• OF LIFE and practices cultures or ways of life
• RATIONAL Of ethical theories
• JUSTIFI- 1. Impartiality
• CATION . 2. Freedom
• 3. Knowledge Pojman p 95

30
The Relation of Value to Morality

• Values are rooted
• in cultural constructs
• (in whole forms of life)
• and
• are the foundation
• for moral principles
• upon which
• moral reasoning is based.
• Pojman p 96

31
Views of happiness
32
Plan-of-life

• an integrated whole
• freely chosen by the person
• possible to realize
• Pojman p 97

33
The happy life
34
Standard of happy life

• exclude being
• severely retarded,
• a slave,
• a drug addict
• include being
• a deeply fulfilled,
• autonomous,
• healthy person
• Pojman p 100

35
Happiness

• is a life in which exist
• free action
• (including meaningful work),
• loving relations, and
• moral character,
• and
• in which the individual is
• not plagued by guilt
• and anxiety but
• is blessed with
• peace and satisfaction. Pojman p 100

36
Traditional morality
37
Utilitarianism

• The Greatest happiness
• for the greatest number
• Pojman p 107

38
Punishment
39
Hedonic calculus

• make quantitative measurements
• and
• apply the principle impartially
• Pojman p 110

40
Criteria of pleasure and pain

• intensity
• duration
• certainty
• nearness
• fruitfulness
• purity
• extent Pojman p 110

41
Moral experts

• Those who have had
• wide experience of
• the lower and higher pleasures
• almost all give
• a decided preference
• to the higher type.
• Pojman p 111

42
Act-Utilitarianism

• An act is right
• if and only if it
• results in as much good
• as any available alternative.
• Pojman p 112

43
Rule-Utilitarianism

• 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.
• Pojman p 113

44
Negative responsibility

• we are responsible
• not only
• for the consequences
• of our actions (doing),
• but also
• for the consequences
• of our non-actions (allowing)
• Pojman p 114

45
3 kinds of consequences
46
The strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism

• strengths
• an absolute system with a single priciple with a
  potential answer for every situation
• morality has the substance promoting human
  flourishing.
• weaknesses
• there are two superlatives in one principle -
  either the greatest pleasure or to the greatest
  number
• the problem of knowing the comparative future
  consequences of actions. Pojman p 115-117

47
External objections to utilitarianism

• 1. no rest
• 2. absurd implications
• 3. violates integrity
• 4. neglects justice
• 5. contradicts notion of publicity
• Pojman p 118-120

48
Man and morality

• Is morality
• made for man,
• or
• is man
• made for morality?
• Pojman p 124

49
Deontological systems

• act- norm-
• deontologism deontologism
• intuitionism decisionism
• (illumination)(existentsialism)
• norm-
  norm-
• intuitionism
  rationalism
• Pojman p 131-133

50
Weaknesses of act-deontologism

• 1. There is no way for any arguments
• with an intuitionist.
• 2. Rules are necessary also
• to moral reasoning.
• 3. Because different situations
• share common features,
• it is inconsistent to prescribe
• different moral actions. Pojman p 131-132

51
Prima facie

• principles duties
• conditional actual
• self-evident the intuition
• a plural set decides
• not absolute in context
• Pojman p 1133/145

52
Prima facie duties

• Promise-keeping
• Fidelity
• Gratitude for favors
• Beneficence
• Justice
• Self-improvement
• Non-maleficence Pojman p 133-134

53
Intuition

• is internal perception
• that both
• discovers
• the correct moral principles
• and
• applies
• them correctly
• Pojman p 133

54
Influences on Kants ethical thinking

• pietism
• the good will as the sole intrinsic good in life
• Rousseau
• human dignity as the primacy of freedom and
  autonomy
• rationalism versus empiricism
• innate ideas versus tabula rasa
• Pojman p 135-136

55
Kant on morality

• Morality
• is ground on our rational will -
• reason
• is sufficient for establishing
• the moral law as transcendent and
• universally
• binding on all rational creatures.
• Pojman p 137

56
Empiricism

• moral principles
• feelings and desires
• human nature
• All knowledge and justified belief
• is based in experience.
• Pojman p 136

57
The categorical imperative

• Act only according
• to that maxim
• by which you can
• at the same time will
• that it would become
• a universal law.
• Pojman p 139

58
The Golden Rule

• Do unto others
• as you would have them
• do unto you
• Pojman p 106

59
The Principle of Ends

• So act as to treat humanity,
• whether in your own person
• or in that of any other,
• in every case as an end and
• never as merely a means.
• Pojman p 146

60
The Principle of Autonomy

• Every rational being
• is able to regard
• oneself as a maker
• of universal law.
• Pojman p 149

61
Kant and religion

• the unconditional worth and equal dignity of
  humanity, and natural purposes in nature and
  human nature guarantees the ultimate
  justification of morality
• but that presupposes the ideas of
• God,
• who enforces the moral law and rewards moral
  persons in proportion
• immortality,
• since "ought" implies "can there must be an
  afterlife in which we make progress.
• Pojman p 150-151

62
Mixed deontological ethics

• the principle of beneficence
• One ought not to inflict evil or harm.
• One ought to prevent evil or harm.
• One ought to remove evil.
• One ought to do or promote good.
• the principle of justice
• Treat every person with equal respect
• Pojman p 152-153

63
Critique of Deontic ethical systems

• 1. they lack a motivational component
• and morality is reactive.
• 2. they are founded on a theological-legal model
  that is no longer appropriate.
• 3. they ignore the spiritual dimension of life
  and morality is just calculation.
• 4. they overemphasize the principle of autonomy
  and neglect the communal context of morality.
• Pojman p 159-162

64
The virtues

• are
• excellences of character,
• trained behavioral dispositions
• that
• result in habitual acts
• Pojman p 163

65
Virtue ethics

• Realizing Imitating
• the ideal type the ideal individual
• Pojman p 163

66
Virtues by Aristotle

• intellectual moral
• (may be taught (must be lived
  directly) to be learned)
• Pojman p 163

67
Happiness by Aristotle

• Moral virtues
• (education)
• and
• proper social institutions
• (health, wealth, good fortune)
• Pojman p 164

68
the Golden Mean

• virtues are a mean
• between
• excess and deficiency
• at the right time,
• toward the right objects,
• for the right reason,
• in the right manner
• Pojman p 164

69
Types of Relationships between Virtue Ethics and
Deontic ethics

• 1. Pure Aretaic Ethics
• 2. The Standard Deontic View
• 3. Complementarity Ethics
• Pojman p 166-167

70
The Paradox of Morality

• Why should I be moral?
• 1. For the harmony of your soul.
• 2. God will reward or punish people.
• The Ultimate Question
• Is the commitment to live by moral principles
• a decision grounded on reason or
• is it an arbitrary choice?
• Pojman p 183-184

71
Morality and Self-Interest

• When reason to be moral
• is based on self-interest,
• then the rational person
• will be an egoist and
• promote morality for everyone else
• but will violate it
• whenever he or she can
• safely do so.
• Pojman p 184

72
The Prisoner's Dilemma

• 1. Both cooperate - both benefit
• 2. Both cheat - both loose
• 3. You cooperate and I cheat - I benefit
• 4. I cooperate and you cheat - you benefit
• Pojman p 186

73
The Entropy Principle

• Because of limitations in
• resources, intelligence, knowledge, rationality
  and sympathy,
• the social fabric tends to become chaos.
• Morality is antientropic
• it counters the set of limitations,
• expands our sympathies, and
• contributes to the betterment of the human
  predicament
• Pojman p 231

74
The benefits of the moral life

• friendship
• mutual love
• inner peace
• moral self-esteem
• freedom from moral guilt
• A human life without the benefits of morality
  is not fulfilled life.
• The more just the political order,
• the more likely self-interest and morality will
  converge.
• Pojman p 188-189

75
Religion and Ethics

• 1. Does morality depend on religion?
• a. morality depends on divine will
• b. reasons for action are independent
• 2. Is religious ethics essentially
• different from secular ethics?
• a. religion is irrelevant (Kant) or
• inimical to morality (secularists)
• b. religion enrich morality
• Pojman p 193

76
The Divine Command Theory

• 1. Morality originates with God.
• 2. Moral rightness means willed by God.
• 3. Therefore no further reasons
• for action are necessary.
• Pojman p 194

77
Criticism of religious morality

• 1. If good means "what God commands,"
• then it is merely the tautology
• "God commands us to do what
• God commands us to do."
• 2. Religious morality is arbitrary
• if there are no constraints on what
• God can command, then
• anything can become a moral duty.
• Pojman p 196

78
Humanistic Autonomy

• is higher-order reflective control
• over ones life
• rational beings can discover
• objective moral principles
• which enable human beings to flourish
• independently of God or revelation
• by using reason and experience alone.
• Pojman p 198

79
Religion enrich morality

• If God exists, then good will win out over evil.
• If God exists, then cosmic justice reigns in the
  universe.
• If theism is true, then moral reasons always
  override nonmoral reasons.
• If theism is true, then God loves and cares for
  us his love inspires us.
• If God created us in his image, then all persons
  are of equal worth.
• Pojman p 202-204

80
Religion and motive

• 1. God is holy
• 2. God rewards
• 3. God loves us

81
Weaknesses of religious morality

• 1. Religion may be used as a powerful weapon for
  harming others.
• 2. The arguments for God's existence are not
  obviously compelling.
• Pojman p 204-205

82
Civil religion

• scientism
• capitalism
• nationalism
• W. Beach

83
Is Ought

• Fact Value
• refer to what refer to what
• is signified is signified
• by empirically by an
• verifiable evaluative
• statements sentence
• (some object (we are evaluating
• or state of affairs or
  apprising
• exists)
  something)
• Pojman p 208-209

84
The Naturalistic Fallacy

• 1. Fact
• 2. Therefore, value.
• Pojman p 212

85
Moores intuitionism

• 1. The Humean Thesis
• (Ought statements cannot be derived from is
  statements)
• 2. The Platonic Thesis
• (Basic value terms refer to nonnatural
  properties)
• 3. The Cognitive Thesis
• (Moral statements are true or false they are
  objective claims about reality, which can be
  known)
• 4. The Intuition Thesis
• (Moral truths are discovered by the intuition
• they are self-evident upon reflection)
• Pojman p 216

86
Logical Positivists

• the meaning
• of a sentence
• is found in its method
• of verification
• Pojman p 216

87
Noncognitivism

• moral statements
• are without
• cognitive content
• emotivism, prescirptivism.
• Pojman p 218

88
Emotivism

• 1. Moral language is expressive of
• emotions or feelings,
• without cognitive content.
• 2. Moral language is imperative,
• not descriptive.
• 3. Moral language aims at persuading
  influencing another persons actions.
• Pojman p 218

89
Prescriptivism

• moral judgments
• (1) are prescriptive judgments that
• (2) exhibit logical relations and
• (3) are universalizable -
• involve principles that
• allow a rational procedure
• in cases of conflict.
• Pojman p 220

90
The Logic of Moral Reasoning

• A valid moral argument
• must contain at least
• one ought (imperatival) premise
• in order to reach
• a moral conclusion.
• Pojman p 222-223

91
Criticism of Prescriptivism

• 1. is too broad
• 2. permits the trivial
• 3. misses the point of morality
• 4. no constraints on altering one's principles
• Pojman p 227-230

92
Fact-Value Positions
93
Neonaturalism

• values can sometimes
• be derived from facts
• certain facts
• entail values.
• Pojman p 227

94
Moral objectivism

• moral judgments
• are not truths about the world,
• but judgments about
• how we ought
• to make the world
• Pojman p 235

95
Cognitivism versus Noncognitivism
96
Direction of fit
97
Moral properties

• are functional
• to fulfil the purpose of morality
• to promote human flourishing
• and ameliorate suffering
• Pojman p 244

98
Moral realism

• thought experiments
• as well as
• anthropological and sociological data
• confirm
• our moral theory
• which principles
• are objective guidelines
• for our action
• Pojman p 252

99
A moral minimalism

• calling us to adhere
• to a core of necessary rules
• in order for society to function
• morality is
• social control
• and
• defensive
• Pojman p 255

100
Virtue ethics

• The duty to grow
• as a moral person
• to take on
• moral responsibility,
• to increase competence
• in making moral choices
• to develop
• moral capacities
• to experience happiness.
• Pojman p 257

101
The moral hero

• experiences a sense of aesthetic ecstasy
• at accomplishing moral deeds
• that are out of the realm of possibility
• for the average moral person.
• Pojman p 258

102
Suggestions

• Identify the problem you want to analyze.
• As clearly as possible, state the problem and
  what you intend to show.
• Set force your arguments in logical order, and
  support your premises with reasons. It helps to
  illustrate your points with examples or to point
  out counterexamples to opposing points of view.
• Consider alternative points of view as well as
  objections to your own position. Try to meet
  these charges and show why your position is more
  plausible.
• Apply the principle of charity to your opponents
  reasoning. That is, give his or her case the
  strongest interpretation possible, for unless you
  can meet the strongest objections to your own
  position, you cannot be confident that your
  position is the best.
• End your paper with a summary and a conclusion.
  That is, succinctly review your arguments and
  state what you think youve demonstrated. In the
  conclusion it is always helpful to show the
  implications of your conclusion for other issues.
  Answer the question Why does it matter?
• Be prepared to write at least two drafts before
  you have a working copy. Make sure that your
  arguments are well constructed and that your
  paper as a whole is coherent.
• Regarding style write clearly, and in an active
  voice. Avoid ambiguous expressions, double
  negatives, and jargon. Put other peoples ideas
  in your own words as much as possible, and give
  credit in the text and in bibliographical notes
  whenever you have used someone elses idea or
  quoted someone.
• Include a bibliography at the end of your paper.
  In it list all the sources you used in writing
  your paper.
• Put the paper aside for a day, then read it
  afresh. Chances are you will find things to
  change.
• When you have a serious problem, do not hesitate
  to contact your teacher.
• Pojman p 269-270