Transcript Ethics 2012

Exercise books!
• Can you put your name and ‘ToK’ on the
front?
• Write the date inside (underlined with a
ruler!
• Write the title ‘Utilitarianism’ (underlined
with a ruler!)
Ethics; What SHOULD we do?
• Dogs can’t/don’t ask this!
What is theft/stealing?
Moral Dilemmas
What would you do?
How did you decide?
The Sinking Lifeboat
• You're in a lifeboat with several other people.
The boat is overloaded and will capsize soon
killing everyone aboard unless you lighten the
load by one person. One of the passengers is
grievously injured and is certain to die soon, but
is fully alert and aware of everything that is going
on.
• Should you throw that person overboard,
knowing that that would save everyone else?
• Could you?
Fat man
• A fat man leading a group of people out of a
cave and is stuck in the mouth of that cave.
There is no chance of rescue and no other way
out. They are starting to die through lack of
water. The only way out is to kill the man and
hack his body out of the hole. What should they
do?
Fat man
• A fat man leading a group of people out of a
cave and is stuck in the mouth of that cave.
There is no chance of rescue and no other way
out. They are starting to die through lack of
water. The only way out is to kill the man and
hack his body out of the hole. What should they
do?
• What if it was pregnant woman?
The Crying Baby
•
It's war time, and you're hiding in a basement with a
group of other people. Enemy soldiers are
approaching outside and will be drawn to any
sound. If you're found, you'll all be killed
immediately. A baby hiding with you starts to cry
loudly and cannot be stopped. Smothering it to
death is the only way to silence it, saving the lives of
everyone in the room. Assume that the parents of
the baby are unknown and not present and there will
be no penalty for killing the child.
• Could you be the one who smothered it if no one
else would?
• What if the baby was your own child?
Sophie’s Choice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ9bht5H2p4
• Sophie is arrested and sent to Auschwitz
with her two children. Upon arrival, the
Germans make Sophie decide which child
will be sent to the childrens’ camp (and
live) and who will be sent to the gas
chambers (and die).
• How would you decide?
Hostage
• A terrorist has taken this class hostage.
The terrorist has given YOU the choice.
Either YOU shoot someone in the class
(dead) and he will spare everyone else, or
the terrorist will kill 2 members of the class
(chosen at random).
• What would YOU do?
• How would you decide?
How did you decide?
What part did self preservation play?
How important is the qualification:
“is fully alert and aware of everything” ?
Did it make a difference if you
actually had to push the man?
What if you changed the numbers of people?
Did it make a difference because it was
a baby and not an adult?
Would it make a difference
if it you did know the child and parents?
Would it make a difference was your own baby?
Difficult questions?
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Is abortion ever justified?
Should drugs be legalised?
Should alcohol be made illegal?
Are there limits to free speech?
Is there such a thing as a “just” war?
Should we execute murderers? Rapists?
• How do we justify our opinion?
Ways we could use to decide
Utilitarianism
• The greatest happiness of the greatest
number
• YouTube - TOK Ethics--Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism
• Simple and coherent theory
• Rational
• Egalitarian
Utilitarianism
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How would a utilitarian justify the following;
Eating ice-cream every day
Wearing seat-belts in a car
Forcing a child to learn the piano
Voluntary euthanasia
Involuntary euthanasia
Abortion
Can you write the answers in your
exercise book please!
Utilitarianism – problems?
Utilitarianism – problems?
• Hard to quantify – 20 scoops of ice-cream
= ⅓opera?
• Do we want to be happy all the time. CAN
we be happy all the time?
Can we have
pleasure without
pain?
Pleasure v happiness
• Is happiness the sum of pleasures? Can
you have many pleasures and still be
unhappy?
• What is the connection between money
and happiness?
• Would you be happier in a world where
you earn $50 000 a year and all your
friends earn $25 000, or a world where
you earn $100 000 and all your friends
earn $250 000?
Bertrand Russell
“To be without some of the things you want
is an indispensable part of happiness”
Other arguments against
• Bad pleasures?
Moral relativism
• There are no universal values; our values
are determined by the society we grew up
in
Moral relativism
• In your books can you list two arguments
for moral relativism?
Arguments for moral relativism
• Diversity argument – The shear variety of
moral practices means that morals must
be relative.
• Eg. Burning widows, keeping slaves,
genital mutilation, killing adulterers,
cannibalism etc.
Arguments for moral relativism
• Lack of foundations argument – There is
no independent moral reality to test our
decisions against. We cannot see or
perceive right or wrong or measure it.
• We cannot use reason to get from “is” to
“ought” (People are starving, I have plenty
of food, therefore I ought to give some of
my food to the starving)
Against moral relativism?
Can you write
down 2
arguments
against moral
relativism?
Arguments against moral
relativism
• There seem to be in fact some core values
accepted by all cultures (limit violence,
protect property, promote honesty)
• Moral intuition tells us some things are
wrong?
• Tribe v tribe?
• What moral overlap is there between the
world’s largest religions?
Cultural imperialism
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmXUmdrhAIk
Cultural imperialism
To what extent
do you think
American values
are being
adopted in
Poland? Can
you write three
examples in your
book?
‘Laws’ of morality?
• believers/ theists
understand God’s laws
through prayer, sacred text
and authority figures
• atheists/ social scientists
understand natural laws
though study of sociobiological behaviour
in both cases arguments are usually about
interpreting, defining or understanding generally
agreed
principles e.g.
• killing another human is right under
certain circumstances e.g war
• sexual urges should be controlled
sexual relations e.g. marriage are mainly
between man and women as the basis for
family
• parents have control over their children
under certain circumstances e.g. while
they live at home
Kant
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCm
Jevigw
Kant
Can you
summarize
Kant’s view in
your books?
Consequentialism v Deontology
• Consequentialism – Only the
consequences of an action matter
• Deontology – the consequences don’t
matter – the moral judgement is in the act
alone
Attempted murder?
Kant = Deontologist
• Morality is derived from rationality – there
IS an objective morality. Categorical
imperative - there are no grey areas – only
right and wrong.
3 maxims
1. Universality – something is only OK if you
think it would be OK for everyone to do it
all the time
3 maxims
2. Every human being is an end rather than
a means to an end – you are NEVER
allowed to use a person for the goals of
others – there is no ‘greater good’ and you
can never lie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglUmgYG
xLM
3 maxims
3. You should therefore behave as if you are
the moral authority of the Universe
The role of reason in ethics
• Facts and evidence, data and statistics, are
used to support ethical decisions; but are they
used to make them?
• Problems of social science e.g; correlation does
not equal causation, ethics of experimenting…
• Problem of distinguishing principles from
practice: i.e: evidence helps us apply moral
positions, not determine the principles.
• Use (and misuse) of logic e.g: deduction and
induction used to justify positions.
• Problems of premises and false logic.
• Is reason and logic the best way to make ethical
decision anyway?
Reason is and
ought only to be,
the slave of the
passions, and can
never pretend to
any other office
than to serve and
obey them.
David Hume,
18th century Scottish philosopher,
Or should we reason harder?
Self-interest - Darwinism
Egoism/altruism
We build ethical arguments and
decisions around chosen principles
Egoism or Altruism
• egoism- self interest first
• altruism – benefits others first, by sacrifice
Problem:
• paradox – ultimately, anything can seen as
egoistic e.g we are ‘good’ to others
because of our benefit. But if egoism
explains everything it explains nothing
Is good behaviour simply
motivated by fear?
Do we expect moral
consistency?
• An anti-abortionist who supports the death
penalty?
• A vegetarian who buys leather shoes?
• A socialist who educates their children at a
private school?
• A politician whi advocates “family values”
but who has an extra-marital affair?
• An environmental activist who drives an
SUV?
Quotations
• Stuck on the walls and windows between
here and Mr Porter’s room are quotations
about ethics (14 in all)
• Read them and COPY into your book your
favourite 3 quotations. Be prepared to
explain to the class why you chose those 3
quotations (and you CANNOT say
‘because they were the shortest’!)
• You have 15 minutes!
Next lesson?