Transcript Philosophy 224

Philosophy 224
Ethical Theory: A Primer
Some Important Questions

Ethical Theories attempt to provide
systematic answers to general moral
questions like these.
– What makes an act right or wrong?
– What is it about persons that makes them the
proper objects of moral praise or blame?
– How can we be confident that we’ve come to
acceptable solutions to our moral quandaries?
The Aims of Ethical Theory
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There are two basic aims of Ethical theory.
1. Practical Aim: identify a decision procedure that
can be used to guide correct moral reasoning
about matters of moral concern.
2. Theoretical Aim: identify the features of actions
or persons that make them right or wrong, good
or bad.
These aims are generally understood to be
interrelated; satisfying one depends on and
makes reference to the other.
The Role of Moral Principles

For philosophical ethics, moral principles
are general ethical statements that establish
conditions under which moral evaluation can
proceed.
– An action is obligatory if and only if God
commands it (Divine Command Theory).
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Moral principles are the point of contact
between the practical and theoretical aims of
an ethical theory. They both specify the
theoretical features and serve as the basis of
a decision procedure.
Categories of Moral Evaluation
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Right or Wrong and Good or Bad are
the basic categories of moral
evaluation.
Philosophical ethics divides these
basic categories in to two groups:
1. Categories of Deontic Evaluation;
2. Categories of Value.
Deontic Categories
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Deontic categories are used primarily to
evaluate the rightness or wrongness of
action.
Typically, philosophers have identified three
basic deontic categories:
1. Obligatory: we ought to act; we have a duty to act;
2. Wrong: we ought not to act; we have a duty to avoid
acting;
3. Permissible: an action is neither obligatory or wrong.
Value Categories
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Value categories are used to assign the predicates
good, bad or neutral to persons or things.
Something can be valuable in one of two ways:
1. Intrinsically: a thing is valuable in and of itself;
2. Extrinsically: a thing is valuable by reference to some
intrinsically valuable thing.
In philosophical ethics, theories about value are
theories of intrinsic value.
The basic value categories are thus:
1. Intrinsically good;
2. Intrinsically bad;
3. Intrinsically neutral.
Structure of an Ethical Theory
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Given these two basic categories of
moral evaluation, it should not be
surprising that philosophical ethical
theories typically exhibit:
– A Theory of Right Conduct in which the
deontic categories are fleshed out;
– A Theory of Value in which an account of
intrinsic moral (and often nonmoral) value
is spelled out.
The Role of a Theory of Human Nature
As we’ve already noted, philosophical ethical
theories rely on an account of human nature.
 Such a theory should and does play a key
role in specifying both the theory of right
conduct and the theory of value.
 Evaluation of these elements of an ethical
theory requires evaluation of the theory of
human nature on which they rely.
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Evaluating Ethical Theories
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In addition to a consideration of the
adequacy of the theoretical foundations of a
particular theory, there are a number of
intratheoretical features which a successful
ethical theory must exhibit.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Consistency (of moral verdicts).
Determinacy (or moral verdicts).
Intuitive Appeal (correspond to our intuitions).
Internal Support (for and from our considered moral
judgments).
Explanatory Power (why we have the intuitions and
judgments we do).
Natural Law Theory
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TV: Some thing or state of affairs is intrinsically good
iff its realization is part of what perfects human
beings; intrinsically bad iff it involves the destruction
of what perfects human beings; neutral iff it is neither
perfecting nor destroying.
TRC: An action is obligatory iff failing to perform it
would result in the violation of the goods required for
human perfection; wrong iff performing it would be
violative; permissible iff performing or failing leaves
the basic goods untouched.
Utilitarianism
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TRC: An action is obligatory iff it has a higher
utility than any other alternative action an
agent could perform; wrong iff it has less
utility than another alternative; permissible iff
it has as high a utility as any other alternative.
 TV: For utilitarianism, the TV is essentially a
definition of utility. Some historical examples
include: pleasure, happiness, desire
fulfillment.
Kantian Ethical Theory (Deontology)
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Categorical Imperative: “So act that you use
humanity, whether in your own person or in the
person of any other, always at the same time as an
end, never merely as a means.” (The Groundwork of
the Metaphysics of Morals)
TRC: an action is obligatory iff failing to perform it
would fail to respect humanity; wrong iff performing it
would fail to respect humanity; optional iff neither
performing it nor failing to perform it would fail to
respect humanity.
TV: Respect for humanity amounts to respect for the
capacity in oneself and others to freely choose one’s
ends.