Section I Theory Primer Weeks 1 2 What is a moral theory Six essential moral theories 1 consequentalism what are the consequences rule consequentialism is the view that the rightness or wrongness of an action depends on whether it is required permitted or prohibited by a rule whose conse quences are best so if a rule is changed in the sports world the people that know the sports world best should make the decision not some outsider Natural Law Theory An action is right if and only if and because in performing the action one does not directly violate any of the 2 NL T basic values doing something good even if it has some bad consequences must satisfy this the doctrine of double effect DDE An action that would bring about at least one evil effect and at least one good effect is morally permissible if and only if the following conditions are satisfied Intrinsic permissibility The action in question apart from its effects is morally perrnisible Necessity It is not possible to bring about the good effect except by performing an action that will bring about the evil ef fect in Nonintentionality The evil effect is not intended it is neither one s end nor a chosen means for bringing about some intended end Proportionality The evil that will be brought about by the action is not out of proportion to the good being aimed at Kantian Moral Theory 3 the golden rule seems right but can be very wrong at times Humanity formulation An action is right if and only if and because the action treats persons including oneself as ends in themselves and not as mere means Universal Law An action is right if and only if one can both a consistently conceive of every one adopting and act ing on the general policy that is the maxim of one s and also b consistently will that everyone act on that maxim 4 Rights Based Moral Theory legal rights vs moral rights moral judgment 5 Virtue Ethics Sometimes our moral thinking is dominated by thoughts about what sort of person one would be if one were to perform some action The thought of living up to certain ideals or virtues of what a morally good person is like is crucial here virtue vs vices HonestylDishonesty Courage Cowardice Justice Injustice Temperance Intemperance Bcneficence Selfishness Humility Arrogance Loyalty Disloyalty Gratitude Ingratitude Ethics of Prima Facie Duty 6 one moral action may be overridden by another Coping with many moral theories to understand a moral issue you first have to understand the issue which in tum requires that you con sider the various rea sons that reflective people bring to bear in thinking and debating the issue at hand Such rea sons as I have just indicated are often developed systematically in a morallheory So com ing to understand moral theory helps pro vide a kind of moral illumination or insight into moral issues Notes The two main concepts of ethics are those of the right and the good The structure of an ethical theory is then largely determined bv how it defines and connects these two basic notions Just because something is not wrong does not make it always right intrinsic value that is being intrinsically good or bad extrinsic value that is being extrinsically good or bad Moral theory tries to answer l What makes an action right or wrong what best explains why right acts are right and wrong acts are wrong 2 What makes something good or bad what best explains why intrinsically good things are intrinsically good and simi larly for things that are intrinsically bad or 3 What is the proper method supposing there is one for reasoning our way to corrector justified moral conclu sions about the rightness and wrongness of actions and the good ness and badness of persons and other items of moral evaluation Theoretical Aim of the moral theory tries to discover the features of the subject that makes it right or wrong good or bad Practical Aim offers practical advice on how we might arrive at certain moral verdicts In class notes Conceptual Analysis and the evaluation of arguments what the majority of people think a concept to be evaluation arguments type of arguments 1 deductive VALIDITY ONLY a property of deductive arguments true preserving good deductives will be valid at least with a premises and a conclusion the truth of the premises supporting facts equals the truth of the conclusion supported by premises ex p1 all men are mortal p2 socrates is a man c1 socrates is mortal A B B C A C p1 all deer have thumbs p2 bambi is a deer c1 bambi has thumbs the premises can be false but the premise is saying IF its true so you can say p1 all human have tails p2 john is a human c1 john has a tail valid p1 if you are pregnant then you are a women p2 jan is a women p3 jan is pregnant INVALID fallacies begging the question assuming what you are trying to prove and equivocation a pun using a term in an argument multiple times to mean different things begging the question p1 abortion is the unjust killing of an innocent unborn fetus c1 abortion is murder assuming the definition of murder looks valid but doesnt really work because its not proving anything 2 inductive 3 and adductive another property of deductive arguments is soundness soundnesss happens when a argument is valid and its premises are in fact TRUE so the socrates one is sound but the bambi one is not equivocation p1 killing an innocent human being is murder p2 abortion is the killing of an innocent human being p3 abortion is murder p1 nothing is better than a nice juicy steak p2 moldy bread is better than nothing c1 moldy bread is better than a nice juicy steak two meanings of nothing Moral Theory setting forth moral principles of right con duct and value that are supposed to explain what makes an action or other object of evalua tion right or wrong good or bad thus satisfying the theoretical aim as well as principles that can be used to guide moral thought in arriving at correct or justified decisions about what to do thus satisfying the practical aim moral theory should talk about value how things get to be good and bad tells us if something is intrinsically good like if pleasure is intrinsically good that means pleasure is the only thing that is good brain performs the moral theory almost instantly however helps us make key decisions quickly Morally required morally permissible morally prohibited With a moral theory you are more consistent and more under standable to people as well as having the ability to judge other people on what they might do in the future suppose you
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