Transcript A Key Question for moral theory

Introduction to Ethics
Theories of right and wrong
Dan Turton
Victoria University of Wellington
1
Teaser Questions



Do you generally know (morally) right
from wrong?
When you disagree with people about
a moral issue – what are you really
disagreeing about?
Are you ever unsure if an act is
morally wrong or not?
2
Morality vs. Ethics


What is the difference?
Some important questions related to
ethics
– Why do we think certain acts are
right/wrong?
– Why be moral?
– What makes an action morally right or
wrong?
3
The Key Question for Moral
Theories
Q1: What makes right acts right and wrong
acts wrong?
(A theory’s answer = its moral criterion)
Terminology
‘Wrong’ = Morally Forbidden
‘Right’ = Narrow: Morally Obligatory
= Wide: Morally Permissible
(includes should do and can do)
4
Example: Pushing In
Is pushing in generally wrong?
What makes pushing in wrong?
Is pushing in ever morally permissible?
What can make it (morally) OK?
5
Moral Theories

Not-so-good moral theories

Better moral theories
6
Divine Command Theory
Right acts are right because…
They are the actions that God
commands we perform
Problem: The Euthyphro Dilemma…
7
The Euthyphro Dilemma
Either
(1) The act is right only because God
commanded that we do it
Or
(2) God commanded that we do it because the
act is right for independent reasons
(1)= morality and God’s commands are arbitrary
(2)= abandon Divine Command Theory
8
The Law
Wrong acts are wrong because…
They break the law
Problem: Do we always feel like we have
done something morally wrong when
we break the law?
9
Cultural Relativism
Right acts are right because…
your culture approves of them
Four Problems:
1.
Can’t criticize other cultures
2.
Can’t criticize your own culture
3.
No moral progress
4.
It’s just not how we decide in the hard
cases
10
The Golden Rule
Right acts are right because…
they are the ones you would want done to you
Problems:
1.
People like different things (e.g.
Masochists)
2.
Is it how we decide in the hard cases?
11
Utilitarianism

Type of consequentialism

What makes right acts right?
– The right act is the one that, out of all of the
alternatives, is most likely to maximize the
overall utility

Utility is:
– happiness / the absence of suffering, or
– preference-satisfaction / not dissatisfaction
12
An Example: Euthanasia

Assess the options:
– 1) Leave them in pain
– 2) Help them to die


1 results in less net happiness than 2
Therefore, Utilitarianism asserts that 2
is the right choice
13
Kantianism

Type of deontological view

What makes right acts right?
– An act is right if its maxim treats humanity as an
end in itself and not merely as a means

Maxims are:
– Like policies
– What you intend to do in certain situations
14
An Example: Slavery

Assess the options:
– 1) Endorse slavery
– 2) Repeal slavery


1 results in rational beings being used as a
mere means to the slave-owners ends
Therefore, kantianism asserts that 2 is the
right choice
15
Break

Think about the better theories…

Can you see problems with them?
16
Problems with the Better
Theories…
What do you think?
17
The Tram Dilemma


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An out of control tram will soon
kill 5 people who are stuck on
the track.
You can flick a switch to divert
the tram to another track where
only one person is stuck.
Should you flip the switch?
Should you kill one person to
save five?
SWITCH
18
The Surgeon’s Dilemma

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You are a surgeon with
six patients.
Five of them need
major organ
transplants.
The sixth, an ideal
donor for all the
relevant organs, is in
hospital for a minor
operation.
Should you kill one
person to save five?
19
Jungle Dilemma

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You are trekking alone
in the Amazon.
You discover an evil
army officer and his
troops rounding up
villagers.
Unless you kill one, the
troops will kill six.
Should you kill one
person to save five?
20
Jungle Dilemma Cont.


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What if there are 2
villagers?
What if there are 10
villagers?
What if there are
100 villagers?
Can you ever kill
one innocent person
to save many?
21
Summing Up
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At least two moral theories seem
plausible…
But they disagree sometimes
So, they can’t both be right all of the
time!
Is there a right and wrong in such
situations?
22
Summing Up Cont.


Are some acts just right or wrong
(without explanation)?
What about killing innocent children?
– Innuits do it (for a reason)

What about torturing innocents?
– The US does this (for a reason)
23
The Meaning of Life
and the Good Life
Dan Turton
Victoria University of Wellington
24
Teaser Questions

Why are we here?

What makes life worth living?

What is the meaning of life?
25
Clarifying the Question

What do we really mean when we ask:
– ‘What is the meaning of life?’

Probably not:
– ‘What does it mean to be alive?’

Probably:
– ‘What, if anything, is the purpose for life?’

And possibly:
– ‘What, if anything, could make a life
meaningful?’
26
Purposes for Life


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‘What, if anything, is the purpose for
life?’
Religious purposes
Non-religious purposes
– Survival and reproduction
– Selfish purposes
– Moral purposes

There is no purpose
27
Meaning in Life

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‘What, if anything, could make a life
meaningful?’
Supernaturalism
Naturalism
– Subjective Naturalism
– Objective Naturalism

Nihilism
28
Meaning vs. Goodness

‘What, if anything, could make a life
meaningful?’

But is that the most interesting question?

Does a life have to be meaningful to be
good?

Would you rather your life be good or
meaningful?
29
The Good Life

‘What, if anything, makes a life good?’

What kind of ‘good life’?
– A good example of a life
– Aesthetically good
– Causally good
– Morally good
– Subjectively good
30
What Theories of WellBeing Do


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Describes the ultimate cause(s) of a
life being good for the one living it
Describes what intrinsically makes
someone’s life go well
Reduces all instrumentally lifeimproving things down to one or more
type of ultimately valuable thing
31
Break


Think about well-being (the
subjectively good life)…
What do you think makes a life good
for the one living it?
32
Theories of Well-Being

Mental state accounts
– E.g. hedonism

Desire-satisfaction accounts
– E.g. informed preference-satisfaction

Objective list accounts
– E.g. perfectionism
33
Making an Objective List

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What things intrinsically make a life go
well for the one living it?
Now check that those things are
intrinsically valuable
– By asking why they make someone’s life
go better for them

What are we left with?
34
Is Pleasure the Only
Thing of Value?

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Compare the lives of two men
Similarities:
– Both lived long lives, in which
they have experienced equal
pleasures from the same sources
– Sources: being loved by their
family and friends, achieving at
work and in hobbies etc.

Differences:
– One of them is mistaken about all
of the things he takes pleasure in
– The other is not

Whose life is better?
35
Is Informed PreferenceSatisfaction the Only Thing of
Value?


Compare the lives of two very
intelligent women
Similarities:
– Up to the age of 25, both women led
practically identical lives
– Throughout their whole lives they
always made fully informed decisions
– Both learned everything to know
about Heroin

Differences:
– At age 25, one of them tried Heroin,
became addicted and went on to live
a short life of much suffering
– The other did not try Heroin and
went on to live a normal life

Whose life is better?
36
Is Ideal Preference-Satisfaction
the Only Thing of Value?

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What makes a preference ideal?
Unless we remain very abstract about
what is ideal, then we appear to be
making another objective list
Is it important (for our well-being) to
get what we want?
37
Summing Up
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The ‘meaning of life’ is easy to work
out for religious people
But non-religious people can still find
meaning for their life by:
– Making their own meaning in their life, or
– Having a good life
38
Summing Up Cont.
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Understanding what is fundamentally
important in our lives is important for ethics
These intrinsically valuable things should be
at least considered when doing ethics
An moral theory that ignores what gives our
lives meaning and/or makes them good will
be a poor moral theory
39
The Morality of Meddling
with Human Life

What should we want most for our children?

What, if anything, is morally bad about unnatural processes?

Is it more loving to accept a child exactly as
they are or to encourage them to alter their
lives for their own benefit?
40
Meddling with Human
Life

Meddling = interfering where we
shouldn’t
– Making human life
– Modifying human life
41
Technologies for Making
Life


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IVF – In Vitro Fertilisation
PGD – Pre-implantation Genetic
Diagnosis
SCNT – Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
Artificial wombs
42
Technologies for
Modifying Life


Beware the fallacy of Genetic
Determinism!
PGD
– Choosing (genetic dispositions for)
specific characteristics

IVF with GE (Genetic Engineering)
– Creating (genetic dispositions for) specific
characteristics
43
Should We be Using These
Technologies to Enhance Our
Children?

Isolating the important moral issue
– Imagine the technology is:
Safe,
 Effective,
 Widely accessible, and
 Cheap

44
Should We be Using These
Technologies to Enhance Our
Children? Cont.

Types of enhancements or ‘goods’
– Relative goods

Height
– Absolute goods
Happiness, intelligence
 Note continuum

– Irrelevant goods
Hair colour, eye colour
 (Maybe) Deafness, sexuality

45
2 Reasons for Allowing
Enhancement

Procreative Liberty
– ‘The freedom to decide whether or not to have
offspring and to control the use of one’s
reproductive capacity.’

Moral analogy with educating our children
– Would you send your children to a school that
guaranteed the best physical, intellectual and
emotional education?
46
Break


Think about how you might object to
all or certain types of enhancement
To object to the moral analogy with
education, you need to show that
there is a morally relevant difference
between enhancement by technology
and enhancement by education
47
Objections Against All
Enhancement

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Wisdom of repugnance (Yuck!)
Rights of the child (which one?)
Rights of the child to object (not a difference e.g.
with nutrition)
Slippery slope to babies with wings
Brave New World (who will clean the toilets?)
All goods are relative (so enhancements don’t
improve things overall)
Too much ‘transforming love’ and not enough
‘accepting love’
48
Objections Against Some
Enhancements

Ban enhancements of some types of
‘goods’
– Relative, Absolute, or Irrelevant goods

Ban enhancements that decrease the
autonomy of the child
– Deafness, GE for mathematics
49
Some Practical Reasons Against
Enhancement

Can the technology ever really be:
– Safe?,
– Effective?,
– Widely accessible?, and
– Cheap?
50
Summing Up

As technology progresses, we need to know
if we should be doing some of the things
that we can do, or soon will be able to do

Can be hard to draw the line

Moral analogies can be hard to argue with
51
A Practical Guide to
Ethical Living
Dan Turton
Victoria University of Wellington
52
Plan for Today
Morality really up for grabs!
 1) Why be moral?
 2) Combine what we have learnt so far
 3) Construct a prudential/moral grid
 4) Fill it in
53
Teaser Scenario

Based on Plato’s Ring of Gygees

You have a ring that means you:
– Can do pretty much anything you please
– Never feel guilt
– Always get away with it

Would you act morally or immorally?
54
What Ought We Do?

Two main types of ought or should

Moral oughts
– You should be nice to your grandpa
because that is the right/nice thing to do

Prudential oughts:
– You should not drink from that bottle – it
has petrol in it!
55
Definitions (for today)

Immoral actions:
– Decrease the well-being of others
unnecessarily (without some
compensating benefit)

Moral actions:
– Increase the well-being of others

Amoral actions:
– Do not affect the well-being of others
56
Reasons for Acting
Immorally

Prudential reasons:
– $$$$$$$$
– Feeling good/pleasure
– Fulfilling your desires
57
Reasons for Acting
Morally

Altruistic reasons:
– Because it is good for others

Prudential reasons:
–
–
–
–
–

Respect and/or friendship of others
$$$$$$$$
Feeling good/pleasure
Fulfilling your desires
Fear of going to hell
Duty
58
Prudential Acts
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Prudential acts increase the well-being
of the actor
Anti-prudential acts decrease the wellbeing of the actor
Some acts are prudentially neutral
– E.g. spending $5 for an average icecream when you are already full
59
Prudential vs. Moral Acts
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All actions can be prudentially and
morally classified or rated if we have a
good enough definition of
Well-being (for prudential acts) and
Morality (for moral acts)
– Some think objective well-being is
enough here
60
Prudential vs. Moral Acts
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We can also make a grid
Useful for a practical guide to ethical
living
Being moral can be over-demanding
61
More Definitions (for
today)
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
Rationality, or acting rationally
Acting in such a way as to bring about
your goal in a logical manner,
considering the information available
to you
62
Discuss Grid
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How Well-being/morality fits in
Why the subjective/objective
distinction is important
Why some actions might be irrational
63
Discuss Grid (Cont.)
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Public goods problem
Why should we be the ones to
sacrifice, while others benefit?
E.g. Public transport
64
Break

Think about how you interpret the grid
– What well-being means to you
– Where you might be on the grid

Think about actions that are both
prudential and moral (ideal) that some
other people might not be aware of
65
Filling in the grid
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Come up with an idea
Evaluate costs and benefits to yourself
and others
Is it the most rational option?
66
Example Light Bulbs

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Kit out your home with Eco-bulbs
Costs/benefits to you:
– Cost $30-$50
– Saving approx $200 per year (big home)
– May be cheaper to replace old-style bulbs before
they expire

Costs/benefits to others:
– Environmental benefits

Other options:
– Candles
– Carrots
67
Your Turn
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Come up with an idea
Evaluate costs and benefits to yourself
and others
Is it the most rational option?
68
Some ‘Ideal’ Examples

Environmental:
– Kettle water rationing
– Water garden in evening
– Use biodegradable soaps etc
– Recycling (1 can = 3 hours of TV)
– Buying secondhand
– Brew your own beer
– Compost (50% of household waste)
69
More ‘Ideal’ Examples

Charity street collectors
– $2 to make yourself and others happy

Spending quality time
– With loved ones

The power of honest compliments
– Start your own compliment chains

Offering to help others
– Go about it in the right way
– Don’t be embarrassed
70
Some ‘Moral’ Examples

Donating money and/or getting involved with one
charity
– Helps you see the difference you are making
– You don’t have to feel bad when you don’t give

Car pooling
– www.carpoolnz.org
– The risk makes it hard to know the cost benefit to you

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Reporting things to council
Vaccines
Conscious consumption
– Depends on the cost but its worth trying!
71
How to Make the Most of
Moral Acts
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Acknowledge that you have done a good thing to
yourself
Consciously consider the benefits to others and
yourself at every opportunity
Don’t let others take advantage of your charity
Find like-minded people who appreciate the effort
you are doing for others
Experiment – find the moral acts that make you feel
best!
Be careful not to sacrifice too much of yourself for
others and burnout – you will help more in the end if
you never give more than you can
72
Summing Up

To live prudentially and/or morally we
need to have some idea of:
– What a good life is
– What makes acts morally right or wrong

To live ideally we need our beliefs
about these two things to be true
73
Summing Up (Cont.)

Once we have settled these problems
we can easily work on deciding what
we should do (prudentially and/or
morally)
74