Philosophy - Ethics

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Pluralism & Pragmatism  Values in Ethics  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Philosophers have sought to answer what is the summum

bonum (ultimate good)?  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Plato argued that justice is the highest good.  Aristotle insisted that the life of intellectual virtue is the

highest good.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Kant insisted that the overriding ethical principle is to

follow the categorical imperative.  Bentham posited that the highest good was to seek the

highest amount of pleasure over pain.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Their difference withstanding, they all agree on the same

basic assumption: there is one unified overall fundamental good, and that good should organize and direct all our

ethical considerations.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  For this to be so, there must be a truth to ethics, and that

means ultimately that there must be a unified whole.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  For example: In science, if biology holds a theory that is in

conflict with geology and both are in conflict with chemistry, then something is wrong.

 The same idea appeals to ethicists: if there is an ethical truth it must be unified.

 Pluralism & Pragmatism

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 Dissenters to this idea are Value Pluralists. Value pluralism (pluralism, moral pluralism) is the view that values do not

have to exist in a unified order.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  There are multiple values and all of them are legitimate

genuine values that may sometimes be in conflict, and there is no objective way of placing those values in ranking

order.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Those who favor a unified theory may believe that there

are many different values, but they all share the same defining property (eg: approved by God, increase

happiness, diminish suffering, contribute to wisdom, etc.)  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Whereas pluralists insist that there is no property that

these diverse values have in common, no unifying characteristic.

 Pluralism & Pragmatism  Value Pluralism differs from Political Pluralism, in that, a

political pluralist believes that citizens of the state should be free to pursue their own values as long as they don’t harm or interfere with others citizens, but at the same time s/he may believe that her or his values are “true” and others are false. Value pluralists believe that there is no one “truth,” or supreme good, but many goods with no

clear order among them.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Judith Jarvis Thompson argues that there is an irreducible

plurality of goods.

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 E.g.: Deborah is a good mother, a good friend, a good soldier, and a good judge; but it is difficult to imagine a “quality of goodness” that makes Deborah good in all of

these distinctive roles.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Friendship is a good, along with courage, open-

mindedness and integrity, but is there a good making quality among them all? Are not these goods at times in

conflict? Ex: Friendship and commitment to integrity  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Bernard Williams offers as an argument for Value

Pluralism, “The Argument from Regret”  The person who chooses medical school over

becoming a concert violinist.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  Ethical Pragmatists favor the testing of various ethical

systems and are ready to consider new approaches to ethics, as such there is a natural affinity between Pluralism

and Pragmatism.  Pluralism & Pragmatism  A Pragmatist through ethical experimentation, however,

may conclude that s/he has discovered a single dominant value as the most plausible, and thus reject pluralism.

 Pluralism & Pragmatism  Pragmatists believe that moral principles may indeed be

true, just as scientific principles, but insist that our traditional notion of truth (philosophy and ethics as well as

science) is hopelessly muddled .

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Care Ethics  The Neglect of Women’ s Ethical Views  Until recently very few women were writing about ethics.  Many of those who had been writing were so thoroughly

acculturated into a male dominated philosophical outlook that they adopted the same assumptions and perspectives

as their male counterparts.  The ethics of care, considered a feminist/female

contribution to ethics emphasizes the value of fostering relationships, paying as much to personal details as abstract principles And recognizing the importance of affection and care for others.****not all feminists subscribe to these ideas… ..

 Psychological Studies of Ethical Reasoning  The result of male dominated Psychological studies of

Ethical Reasoning severely undervalued the importance of family and personal relationships in psychological health, misrepresented the process of psychological and moral development, and distorted our perspective of healthy psychological function. Contemporary Psychological

research has attempted to correct this.  Contemporary care ethics has extended that correction to

ethics.  The Care Perspective on Ethics  Sympathy is the basic moral capacity, not law-discerning

or consequences-calculating reason.  The Relationship of caring to rules.  Rationalized/reasoned obligations do not take the place of

affection and care, rather they should function together.  Example: Paternalist Doctor …  Caring and Utilitarian Ethics.

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 Treating our special relationships as merely a subset of pleasurable sensations to be entered into the utilitarian calculation seems an inadequate representation of the

basic moral worth of these relations  Example: My three or your four, who should get the

medicine?  Care Ethics and Impersonal Duties  Under Kantian, utilitarianism, social contract views, duty is

impersonal, that is, what is done for one should be done for all.

 Care ethics focuses on duties that we owe to our special relations, i.e. Family, friends, social circle…Because such basic felt obligations are probably more fundamental than

any rule we could devise for their justification. 

Perils of "Feminine" Ethics  man : head :: woman : heart  “Behind every successful man there is a good woman. ”  Discussion: Is there a distinct feminine Ethics or is ethics

gender-neutral?  Women and Ethics:

Womanly Virtues  A virtuous woman is demure, quiet, modest, chaste… .  A man of virtue is proud, ambitious, aggressive, brave, and

strong.

 Egoism and Relativism

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 Egoism  “Whatever benefits me is the right thing to do!”  Egoism  Psychological Egoism- the view that as a matter of

empirical psychological fact-all behavior is selfish, or self interested.

 Ex: Buying a cup of Coffee, Giving to Charity  Egoism  Criticisms of Psychological Egoism-  Not a single act can be excused as non-egoistic…

Nothing could count as an unselfish act, since every purposeful act has some selfish motivation, and the

egoist is redefining all motivations as selfish.”  On the contrary: Altruism exists  Charles Darwin’s Birds  Egoism  Ethical Egoism- the claim that we ought to always act in

a way that is self-interested  Egoism  Individual Ethical Egoism- Everyone ought to do what

benefits me!  Egoism

Why Care for Others?-  Your conscience will bother you  Your life will require constant deception  You will cut yourself off from genuine relations  Egoism  Universal Ethical Egoism-everyone should pursue what is

to his or her individual self-interested advantage  Discussion  Is Universal Ethical Egoism “natures way”?

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 Relativism  “Whatever my culture approves is the right thing to do!”

or “The Right thing is culturally relevant.”  Relativism

Sociological Relativism and Cultural Relativism Sociological Relativism, in particular, is the understanding that different cultures have different customs, standards, and moral codes that can be empirically observed by

sociologists and anthropologists.  Cultural relativists do not believe that there are any

universal ethical principles, but that ethical principles are relative to culture.

 Relativism  Ex: Monogamy, contraceptives, spanking,  Can you think of other examples?  Relativism  Benefits of Cultural Relativism-  Points out that other cultures have values unlike our

own, not better or worse, but different.  It helps us examines the motives and consequences of

one culture trying to reform another. Tragedy strikes when one culture tries to reform another to its own, eg:

European New Worlders/ puritans, USA in Iraq  Cultural Relativists remind us that some of our notions of

morality and right and wrong simply come from our traditions.

 Ex: Women Ministers/ Rabbis  Relativism

Criticism of Cultural Relativism

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 How do people from conflicting cultures come to a mutual decision on what is right.

Ex: Pregnant Catholic Girlfriend and Atheist Baby- Daddy

 Ethical Reform is impossible, because my culture is always right.

 Cultural Relativism seems to weaken an trivialize our ethical concerns.

Relativism

 Grounds for Cultural Relativism-  The culture of a moral system develops in such a

manner that they are the best for their particular situation. Ex: Child extermination in China

 There are no good grounds for ethical claims, and therefore no basis for criticizing any existing cultural

practice.