Transcript Bobby tells his elderly neighbour that he will

Three Ethical Philosophers
Aristotle
Kant
Levinas
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)
Student of Plato
People find happiness
in community
Happiness is NOT the
same as Pleasure
Pleasure is only
momentary; happiness
is experienced by the
person who lives well
and acts well
Goal of Life Happiness
Aristotle and Reason
Aristotle believed that we are
intended to be rational
We must base our actions on reason
We should use our ability to reason to
develop good character
He believed a good person would use
reason to control desire
We continue to choose virtuous things
so our actions become habits
Example of Virtues becoming
Habits
If you want to be a person who is
brave, you strive to do brave acts
(you make a conscious decision to
constantly practice “brave acts” until
they become habit or part of WHO
you are)
Aristotle and the Mean
Aristotle believed we needed to maintain
balance in our lives
We should avoid excess but not
necessarily avoid something completely
Generosity would be the mid-ground between being a
wasteful spendthrift and being a miser.
Wasteful Spendthrift
Miser
Courage and the Mean
To be courageous,
you should avoid
some but not all
dangers.
(There is a
difference between
being wreckless and
being courageous)
Can you think of an
example?
To be polite is to be courteous in some but not in ALL
situations
Be Courteous!
Don’t talk during the
movie!
Immanuel Kant--Individual
Aristotle believed
that the “good”
person sought
happiness in
community
Kant’s ethics is
more individual;
we discover ethics
by discovering our
inner convictions
Kant and Duty
Kant believed a human action is
morally good when it is done for the
sake of duty.
Example: Being kind to your friend is
praiseworthy but it is NOT a moral
act. It becomes a moral act when you
are kind to someone when you don’t
feel like being kind.
Your moral worth is not measured by the result of
your actions but by WHAT MOTIVATES THEM.
For example: Bobby tells his elderly neighbour
that he will shovel her driveway for her.
HELPING YOUR NEIGHBOUR IS A POSTIVE
MORAL ACTION, ISN’T IT?
Bobby knows that his
elderly neighbour
keeps LOTS of cash in
a “tin” that she keeps
on her kitchen
counter.
His plan is to take the
cash when his
neighbour invites him
in for hot chocolate
after he shovels her
driveway.
After he shovels the snow, Lily invites him in
for hot chocolate and Bobby notices the tin
is NOT in the kitchen.
Lily gives him his hot chocolate and pays
him $10.00 for shovelling her driveway.
Bobby leaves.
Bobby did a great
job shoveling the
driveway.
By helping his
neighbour, did
Bobby perform a
moral action?
According to Kant, we
must look at Bobby’s
motivation. Bobby’s
motivation for
“helping” his
neighbour was to steal
from her. Therefore,
he did NOT perform a
moral act by shoveling
Lily’s driveway.
Groups of 3-4
Create a scenario where you
demonstrate your understanding of
“Your moral worth is not measured by
the result of your actions but by
WHAT MOTIVATES THEM.”
Kant and how we treat others
The person as an end, not as a
means don’t use people
Example: It is wrong for a coach to
take on twelve athletes in order to get
funding for the team, while secretly
intending to play only six of them on a
regular basis.
Kant’s use of MORAL MAXIMS
Kant believed that an action must
have an objective principle in order
to be ethical
OBJECTIVE: PERCEIVED BY
OTHERS; INDEPENDENT OF ONE
INDIVIDUAL’S THOUGHT
A principle must apply to EVERYONE
not just YOU- Kant’s Maxims
Kant’s Maxims
“I should act in a way that I would
want everyone else in the world to
act”
Example: I will return the wallet I
found because I want to live in a
world where honest actions are
practiced.
Use Kant’s Maxim to explain whether
or not you should run the red light
because there is no one around.
To run the red light or not to run the
red light—that is the question?
According to Kant’s maxim, you
should not
Why? Do we want to live in a world
where people choose “fun” over
other’s safety? Where the law is
disregarded for one’s own “thrill”?
Where one is wreckless with their
concern for their own safety?
Emmanuel Levinas
Influenced by the
tragedies of the
Holocaust; prisoner
of war for five
years
Experienced a
profound contrast
between Western
philosophy and his
own deep rooted
Jewish faith
Emmanuel Levinas Ethics of the
Face
The Good is interested, not in what is in
common among things, but in what is
absolutely unique about each person or
thing.
Finding what is unique in others is finding
traces of “the good” or God
The face of “the Other” stirs up the
goodness in us
The face forces you to realize that your are
someone concerned mostly about yourself.
It makes you responsible.
Levinas believed that a person’s face is a
“NO”: a refusal to reduce the person’s
face as being the same as other faces or
deny the face its uniqueness.
He goes even further to translate this NO into the
commandment: YOU SHALL NOT MURDER.
You are NOT to take the “otherness” away.
In the Other, you see one who is not your equal, but your superior.
The Face is an authority, “Highness, Holiness, Divinity”
The Other
The Face