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Roots of
ethical decision making
Fred Wenstøp
21/07/2015
Fred Wenstøp
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Normative theories of
decision making
• Teleological ethics
• Deontological ethics
• Teleos = goal
• Consequential ethics
• To deon = duty
• Should you help somebody in
distress on the Sabbath if that
means work? Matth.12,12
– David Hume (1711-76)
• Utilitarianism
– Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
– John Stuart Mill (1806-73)
– Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Rule based management
– Max Weber (1864-1920)
• Utility theory
– Von Neumann, Morgenstern ‘40
– Keeney, Raiffa 1976
• Management by objectives
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David Hume (1711-76)
• Reason cannot be the basis of morality
– Reason can show us the best way to achieve our ends,
but it cannot determine our ultimate desires
• “‘Tis not contrary to reason to choose my total ruin, to prevent
the least uneasiness of an Indian”
– Beliefs are formed through cause-effect analysis
• Hume’s law
– There is a gulf between facts and values, between “is”
and “ought”
• Inherited Sympathy is one basis for morality
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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
• Duty based ethics
– Rational action cannot be based on a single individual’s
personal desires, but must be in accordance with
something he can will to be a universal law
– Actions posses moral worth only when we do our duty
for its own sake, not because of its consequences
• Kant’s categorical imperative
– “So act that you treat humanity in your own person and
in the person of everyone else always at the same time
as an end and not merely as means”
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Utilitarianism: Bentham and Mill
• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
– Choose actions to maximise the sum of happiness over
all people
– Several dimensions of happiness:
• Maximise: Intensity, durance, probability
• Minimise: Time delay
– The dimensions of happiness must be weighted
• John Stuart Mill (1806-73)
– The most influential utilitarian
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Von Neumann and Morgenstern
• John von Neumann and Oscar Morgenstern
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Formalisation of the theory of utility
Rationality defined as consistency through axioms
The principle of rationality as utility maximisation
One dimensional theory of utility
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Max Weber
• Rule base Management
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Logic of appropriateness
Obligation
Identity
Duty
Rules
• People do what they believe they are supposed to do
• Followers of standard rules
• Organizational learning through rule building
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Keeney and Raiffa
• Dichotomy between facts and values
– Good decision analysis requires the separation between
objective facts and subjective values
• Multi-objective decision making
– Formalisation of weighting
• Value focused thinking
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Damasio: Origins of values
Neocortex
Prefrontal
lobes
Amygdala
Stimulus
Feelings
Emotional response
from the body
Secondary emotions trigger
Primary emotions trigger
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