Ethics

Focus: morality, right/wrong, justice, where ethics comes from, what ethics means, etc.

UNIT 1: Normative Ethics

What is the right thing to do? What are the criteria for an action to be right?

Three subcategories of normative ethics:

• Consequentialism
  • focus: the outcome
  • as much good and as little harm as possible
  • John Stuart Mill & Jeremy Bentham
• Deontology
  • focus: action itself
  • is it aligned with duty?
  • universal pricinples
  • Immanuel Kant
• Virtue Ethics
  • focus: character of the actor
  • is the person good or bad?
  • How to become a good person, not “what is the right thing to do.”
  • Aristotle; a little idealistic, but very beautiful

Consequentialism: Hedonism

Underlying: What do we value?

Consequentialists say: Happiness and pleasure!

• Greatest Happiness Principle: the best action is that which maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain.
• Pleasure: can be both physical (usually lower) and/or mental (higher); the same is true for pain.
• Bentham: all pleasures are equal (though they can be different in quantity).
• Mill: a division between higher (intelectual) and lower (vulgar) pleasures, which are of different quality and strength.

UNIT 2: Meta-ethics

Questions the origin, definition, objectivity of ethical terms and judgments.

UNIT 3: Applied Ethics

Concrete dilemmas in ethics.

Examples:

• Bioethics
  • Euthanasia
  • Bioengineering
• Distribution of Wealth
  • Meritocracy vs. Social Security