1 27 15 01 27 2015 What is Ethics Is it what people want Is it a view of what is good in life Is it a normative order posing reasonable demands on how to live act feel with regard to oneself and or others Ethics disposition or custom emphasizing individual character Moral same thing just emphasizing social expectations Some propose a controversial distinction Ethics theory of the good life what is valuable Morality Theory of right conduct what we owe to each other o Example 1 Berta takes a religious life to be the correct conception of the good life However she respects the right of others to be atheists However she still thinks that they lead a misguided life o Example2 Berta loves sports and thinks life without it is impoverished She still understands that she cannot impose this world view on others A Possible response How do you know hat kid of rights we should respect Don t we have to know which ones are important Namely those that protect valuable activities Is morality the right thus dependent on ethics the good after all In this course we will be dealing with Questions of the right Questions of the good And their relationships o How doe these different questions come up for example in the context of Abortion Ethical issue because it s the mothers right to chose the good life Moral issue is people have the right to live Genetic enhancement Ethical issue because the good life is getting a nose job etc personal choice Moral issue because it s a community choice because its affects everyone Morally wrong nobody should be doing it Where do Ethical judgments come from Feelings Socialization Moral facts Intuitions Principles Which method Reflective equilibirium Some people have the intuition considered judgment that a hospital visitor should not be killed in order to harvest his organs to rescues five or 50 fatally ill patients How do we reach acceptable coherence We may say that no just war can ever b justified Or we allow hospital visitors to be harvested Or we revist our underlying principle and make it more fine grained DDE It is wrong to intentionally kill one person in order to save many Different ethical outlooks Deontological arguments The focus is on principles about what the rights of others require us to do Consequentialist Arguments The focus is on a person displaying an excellent character Virtue ethical arguments Example Organ harvesting Is it wrong for a doctor to kill one to save five o Deontological Yes it is wrong o Consequential ethics No it s the right thing to do o Virtue what kid of attitude would such an act display How should I properly feel about killing an innocent Ethics and Law What is law o Rules of external behavior enforced by society that is backed by sanctions o How is ethics different from law Two examples Lying is not illegal Is it always permissible to lie It is illegal to break into a pharmacy Is it always impermissible to steal medicine even in order to save your friend s life Politics as a struggle for power deliberating together about the common good Among other things politics determines Laws whether abortion is made easier or more difficult How taxes are distributed Suppose a majority decided to issue a law that you deem to be unjustdo you have the right to resist on ethical grounds Example racial laws in Nazi Germany Row vs Wade in the U S Death penalty in U S 01 27 2015 01 27 2015