Transcript Defining Terms - Bishop Seabury Academy

VALUES
Often generalized conceptions of ideals, customs,
institutions, and other prized phenomena that arouse an
emotional response in a given society or individual person
MORAL(S)
Often relative to a time and a place, these are specific
customs, manners, or principles that are socially
acceptable.
Morals often have to do with the relationships between
individuals. An individual’s morals tend to be externally
imposed.
Morality from Latin “moralis,” meaning “customs or manners.”
ETHICS
A system of moral principals that direct an individual’s
actions, determining right conduct—honest and honorable
dealings
Ethics tend to be internally defined and adopted, often explicitly
and deliberately.
Ethics are also specifically germane to rules of right conduct in a
particular class of human action, such as law, medicine, education,
etc.
Ethics from Greek “ethos,” meaning “character.
The study of Ethics tends to emphasize the investigation,
understanding, articulating, and reifying of particular principles—so
as to guide one’s actions.
An “ethics” seems to imply that our actions may be more right
because of something—justification, inherent worth, outcome, and so
forth.
For the sake of this course, we will keep in mind the distinction
between these terms, but we will not be fussy about distinguishing
between them except to this extent: we understand that certain
moral and ethical codes exist in society, but whereas we
personally may take on a system of morals, we “construct” a
system of ethics.
1.) Scientific (or Descriptive) study of ethics—what Humans Do.
2.) Philosophical study of ethics
a. Prescriptive/Normative—what Humans Should Do.
b. Meta-ethical or Analytic—focus on language and foundations
of ethical systems. (What can make it the case that we
ought to do it?)
Q: How is ethics in human life related to Happiness?
Good = pleasure/happiness; Bad = pain/unhappiness (to some extent).
Excellence (art, life, justice, society, etc.); virtue; quality of experience.
Harmony & Creativity (war/peace, love/hatred, stability/instability, progress)
Q: Where does morality come from?
* Supernatural Origin? (objective)
(Shaky basis—what values, which religion, no religion?)
* Natural Law? (objective)
(Scientific laws are descriptive, not prescriptive—ex., gravity)
(Retrospective projection of prescriptive norms)
* Objective, extra-human Origin?
i.e., values existing inherently, not given by humans.
(Can something have value without having someone to value it?)
* Exclusively Anthrocentric? (subjective)
Protagoras: “Man is the Measure” (ex. Gold)
Many things have value without humans (to plants? animals?)
* Thiroux’s synthesis of objective and subjective theories, requiring:
The thing of value, or the thing valued.
A conscious being who values, or the valuer.
The context or situation in which the valuing takes place.
(ex, money)
Q: How is Customary (Received) Morality Significant in our Lives?
Early human development (child, adolescent, young adult).
Strength in long-held beliefs in developing social stability.
Moral culture, unity.
Q: Why is Ethical Inquiry Significant in our Lives?
* Is there an assumption of discovering “Rightness/Truth” behind laws or
beliefs, proving the latter more or less correct?
- Law can reflect morality, but laws may be unjust.
- How can we best discover “right” action against prejudice, custom?
* Is it important to have a rational basis to our morals & actions?
- Religion: which values, which religion, no religion?
- Can generate conflict.
* Socrates: The Unexamined Life?
* Nietzsche: a different approach but similar…
Thiroux: “All human beings have many needs, desires, goals, and
objectives in common”; they “need friendship, love, happiness, freedom,
peace, creativity, and stability in their lives, not only for themselves but for
others, too. . . . in order to satisfy these needs, people must establish and
follow moral principles that encourage them to cooperate with one another
and that free them from free that they will lose their lives, be mutilated, or
be stone from, lied to, cheated, severely restricted, or imprisoned. . . . what
could be more important than learning how to live more ethically and
improving the quality of your life and the lives of others around you?”
Einstein: “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality
in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on
it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.”
Thiroux’s “working definition” of Ethics:
“Morality deals basically with humans and how they relate to other
beings, both human and nonhuman. It deals with how humans treat
other beings so as to promote mutual welfare, growth, creativity, and
meaning and to strive for what is good over what is bad and what is right
over what is wrong.”