Transcript 2525032k9 - Ursula Stange

What are We
Talking About?
What is
Morality?
Chapter 1
Singular Moral
Judgments
vs.
Moral Principles...
• The Beanery
Edward Kienholz
Singular Moral
Judgments
vs.
Moral Principles...
The Death of Socrates
Jacques-Louis David
• Conflicting principles...
So, back to our arguments...
• Premise 1 states the case (the way the world is)
• Premise 2 appends a moral principle
-----------------------------------------• The conclusion follows from the interplay
Moral arguments are arguments with a
moral judgment as the conclusion
• We describe the case: the way the world is
• We append a moral principle
-----------------------------------------• We conclude based on the interplay
1.1 The Problem of Definition
• “Moral philosophy is the attempt to achieve a
systematic understanding of the nature of
morality and what it requires of us…
• Socrates: We are discussing no small matter,
but how we ought to live
1.2 Baby Theresa.....Anencephaly
1.2 Baby Theresa dilemma...
• Parental decision: allow her organs to be
harvested to benefit other newborns.
• Legal resolution: "Florida law does not allow
the removal of organs until the donor is
dead."
Moral arguments are arguments with a
moral judgment as the conclusion
The parents:
• Transplanting Baby Theresa’s organs would
benefit other children without harming her.
• If we can benefit someone, without harming
anyone else, we ought to do so.
-------------------------------------• Therefore, we ought to transplant the organs.
Moral arguments are arguments with a
moral judgment as the conclusion
Anonymous ethicists:
• Transplanting Baby Theresa’s organs would be
using her as means for another’s ends.
• It is wrong to use people as means.
-------------------------------------• Therefore, we ought not transplant the
organs.
Moral arguments are arguments with a
moral judgment as the conclusion
One more argument:
• Taking Baby Theresa's organs would be killing
her to save another.
• It is wrong to kill one person to save another.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Therefore, we ought not to take her organs for
transplantation.
On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
Dr. Norman Fost, director of the University
of Wisconsin's medical ethics program:
• "The problem is almost entirely one of a
slippery slope...“
• "We have to be careful who we take organs
from, because there are a lot more than
anencephalic infants out there."
On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University of
Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics:
• "There's a refusal to accept the reality of
death at work in this...
• "And an overvitalistic understanding of
personhood, one dependent on biological
functions."
On the Baby Theresa dilemma...
Dr. John Fletcher, director of the University of
Virginia's Center for Biomedical Ethics:
• “...what makes us human is what goes on
upstairs in the brain, not downstairs in the
brain.”
1.3 Conjoined Twins
• Siamese Twins
•
•
•
•
•
•
Chang and Eng
Born in 1811
Travelled with the circus
Married two sisters
Fathered 21 children
Died in 1874
1:3
Jodie and Mary
Jodie and Mary
• Pro-separation:
• Separating the twins will save the one; otherwise both
will die.
• When it's a choice between saving one of two people
or letting both die, we should save the one.
---------------------------------------------------------• :. The twins should be separated.
Jodie and Mary
• Anti-separation:
• Mary is an innocent human being and the separation
will kill her.
• It's wrong to kill an innocent human being.
------------------------------------------• :. The twins shouldn't be separated.
1.4
The Latimer Case
Mercy or Murder?
• 12 year old Tracy
Latimer, killed by her
father in 1993
• Quadriplegic and
severely mentally
disabled, she
functioned at the
level of a threemonth old and was
in constant pain…
1.4
The Latimer Case
• Argument against Latimer’s action:
• Killing Tracy was discrimination against the
handicapped.
• It is wrong to discriminate against the handicapped.
-------------------------------------• :. Tracy's father did wrong: he shouldn't have killed
her.
1.4
The Latimer Case
• Rachels’ response:
• Discrimination against the handicapped?
• It’s discrimination only if there is no good reason for
the different treatment....
1.4
The Latimer Case
• Euthanizing Tracy was "opening the doors to other
people to decide who should live and who should
die."
• It is wrong to do things which would open the doors...
• -----------------------------------------------------• :. Euthanizing Tracy was wrong and shouldn't have
been done.
1.5 Reason and Impartiality
• Moral judgments must
be backed by good
reasons.
• Morality requires the
impartial consideration
of each individual’s
interests.
1.5 Reason and Impartiality
• Pages 12 and 13:
• We describe the case: the way the world is
• We append a moral principle
-----------------------------------------• We conclude based on the interplay
1.5 Reason and Impartiality
• Moral judgments must
be backed by good
reasons.
• Morality requires the
impartial consideration
of each individual’s
interests.
Impartiality...and emotion...
Impartiality...and emotion...
Impartiality...and emotion...
Impartiality...and emotion...
The morally right thing to do...
• is always whatever there are the best reasons
for doing...
Jane Addams,
founder of Hull House
• The essence of
immorality is the
tendency to make an
exception of myself.
1.6 The Minimum Conception
of Morality
• The effort to guide
one’s conduct by
reason...to do what
there are the best
reasons for doing...
James Rachels
Suicide and Euthanasia
• What is the difference?
• What are the reasons for?
• What are the reasons against?