Slide 1Slide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Slide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Slide 32Slide 33Slide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40Slide 41Slide 42Slide 43Slide 44Slide 45Slide 46Slide 47Slide 48Slide 49Slide 50Slide 51Slide 52Slide 53Slide 54Slide 55Slide 56Slide 57Slide 58Slide 59Slide 60Slide 61Slide 62Slide 63Slide 64Slide 65Slide 66Slide 67Slide 68Slide 69Slide 70Slide 71Slide 72Slide 73Slide 74Slide 75Slide 76Slide 77Morality andMoral PhilosophyWe are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live -- Socrates.Morality is, at very least, the effort to guide one’s conduct by reason -- that is, to do what there are the best reasons for doing-- while giving equal weight to the interests of each individual who will be affected by what one does -- James Rachels.The purpose of ethical theory is to introduce clarity, substance, and precision of argument to the domain of morality.The terms ethical theory and moral philosophy are often used interchangeably.Ethical theories attempt to provide a normative framework for understanding and responding to problems in living a moral life.What is a normative judgment?What are some normative judgments you make each day?Ethical theory is a theory of “right” action.But what is right?What is the difference between moral behavior and prudent behavior?Morality is a Social Institution1. Morality is composed of a set of standards pervasively acknowledged by the members of a culture.2. We learn these moral rules along with other important social rules, and this is one reason why it is sometimes difficult to distinguish moral rules from other rules.Ethical TheoriesPhilosophies of Morality1. Relativism2. Legalism3. Divine CommandsEthical TheoriesPhilosophies of Morality5. The Social Contract6. Utilitarianism4. Natural LawEthical TheoriesPhilosophies of Morality7. Deontology8. Virtue EthicsRelativism1. Right and wrong are relative to the customs of one’s society.2. Cultural relativists appeal to anthropological data indicating that moral rightness and wrongness vary from place to place and that there are no absolute or universal moral standards that could apply to all persons at all times.Others of the Indians, dwelling to the East of these, are pastoral and eat raw flesh: these are called Padaians, and they practice the following customs:--whenever any of their tribe falls ill, whether it be a woman or a man, if a man then the men who are his nearest associates put him to death, saying that he is wasting away with the disease and his flesh is being spoilt for them: and meanwhile he denies stoutly and says that he is not ill, but they do not agree with him; and after they have killed him they feast upon his flesh: but if it be a woman who falls ill, the women who are her greatest intimates do to her in the same manner as the men do in the other case. For in fact even if a man has come to old age they slay him and feast upon him; but very few of them come to be reckoned as old, for they kill every one who falls into sickness, before he reaches old age (Book 3).HerodotusEach marries a wife, but they have their wives in common; for that which the Hellenes say that the Scythians do, is not in fact done by the Scythians but by the Massagetai, that is to say, whatever woman a man of the Massagetai may desire he hangs up his quiver in front of the waggon and has commerce with her freely. They have no precise limit of age laid down for their life, but when a man becomes very old, his nearest of kin come together and slaughter him solemnly and cattle also with him; and then after that they boil the flesh and banquet upon it. This is considered by them the happiest lot; but him who has ended his life by disease they do not eat, but cover him up in the earth, counting it a misfortune that he did not attain to being slaughtered. They sow no crops but live on cattle and on fish, which last they get in abundance from the river Araxes; moreover they are drinkers of milk. Of gods they reverence the Sun alone, and to him they sacrifice horses: and the rule of the sacrifice is this: -- to the swiftest of the gods they assign the swiftest of all mortal things (Book I).Can an action be legal but morally wrong? Can an action be illegal but morally right? Morality and LawAre rules of law moral rules?Divine CommandsMoral living consists in obedience to divine commands.How are we supposed to know what the gods command?Abraham Lincoln said of the Bible: “This Great Book … is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong”(Speeches and Writings, 1859–1865 [1989], 628).Divine CommandsHow are we supposed to know what the gods command?a. Prophetsb. Scripturec. TraditionDivine CommandsWhat if the gods have no reason for their commands?The commands are arbitrary and we have no reason to follow them.Divine CommandsWhat if the gods have some good reason for their commands?Then we have admitted there is a standard of righteousness independent of their commands.Natural LawUniverse is governed by reason or rational principle.Humans have reason within them and can therefore know and obey its law.Natural LawBecause humans have the faculty of choice they will not necessarily obey the law.Natural LawCicero... right reason in agreement with nature, of universal application, unchanging and everlasting. There will not be a different law at Rome and at Athens, and different law now and in the future, but one eternal and unchangeable law for all nations and for all times.Natural Law1. The natural law is given by God.. . . nothing other than the light of understanding infused in us by God whereby we see what is to be done and what is not to be done.Thomas AquinasOnly God can answer the question about the good, because he is the Good. But God has already given an answer to this question: he did so by creating man and ordering him with wisdom and love to his final end, through the law which is inscribed in his heart (cf. Rom 2:15), the "natural law". The latter "is nothing other than the light of understanding infused in us by God, whereby we understand what must be done and what must be avoided. God gave this light and this law to man at creation. Veriatis Splendor---Pope