Socsci 1100 - Ethics
Socsci 1100 - Ethics
Socsci 1100 - Ethics
3 FOUNDATION of ETHICS
1. virtue ethics
2. consequentialist ethics
3. deontological or duty-based ethics.
MORAL FOUNDATIONS THEORY
Moral Foundations Theory was created by a
Ethical Perspectives group of social and cultural psychologists to
Utilitarian ethics understand why morality varies so much across
focuses on the greatest good for the greatest cultures yet still shows so many similarities and
number of people, recurrent themes.
Deontological ethics In brief, the theory proposes that several innate
emphasizes that certain actions, regardless of and universally available psychological systems
their outcomes, are inherently right or wrong. are the foundations of “intuitive ethics.” Each
Virtue ethics culture then constructs virtues, narratives, and
highlights the importance of developing virtuous institutions on top of these foundations, thereby
character traits and acting in accordance with creating the unique moralities we see around the
those traits world, and conflicting within nations too.
MORAL FOUNDATION THEORY Understanding Ethics-related Key Terms (Moral
argues that there are five basic moral Theories)
foundations: Ethical intuitionism
(1) harm/care, is the meta-ethical view that normal ethical
(2) fairness/reciprocity, agents have at least some non-inferentially
(3) ingroup/loyalty, justified ethical beliefs and knowledge
(4) authority/respect, and Ethical intuitionism is the idea that true, objective
(5) purity/sanctity. information about morality is accessible to
1) Care/harm: people just through intuition
This foundation is related to our long evolution as Ethical intuitionism also holds that there can exist
mammals with attachment systems and an ability no complete scientific or empirical
to feel (and dislike) the pain of others. It underlies deconstruction of moral goodness, as it is
virtues of kindness, gentleness, and nurturance. fundamental and non-natural.
2) Fairness/cheating An example of ethical intuition:
This foundation is related to the evolutionary if someone intuitively believes that lying is wrong
process of reciprocal altruism. It generates ideas in principle, despite not having a specific
of justice, rights, and autonomy. [Note: In our argument for this belief. The person may decide
original conception, Fairness included concerns not to lie simply because lying seems to be a bad
about equality, which are more strongly thing. This would be a case of acting based on
endorsed by political liberals. However, as we ethical intuitions.
reformulated the theory in 2011 based on new Emotivism
data, we emphasize proportionality, which is the view that moral judgments do not function as
endorsed by everyone, but is more strongly statements of fact but rather as expressions of the
endorsed by conservatives speaker’s or writer’s feelings.
3) Loyalty/betrayal Emotivism is a theory that claims that moral
This foundation is related to our long history as language or judgement are neither true nor false;
tribal creatures able to form shifting coalitions. It express our emotions; try to influence others to
underlies virtues of patriotism and self-sacrifice agree with us.
for the group. It is active anytime people feel that When an Emotivist says lying is bad, they're
it’s “one for all, and all for one.” giving the instruction "don't tell lies", while an
4) Authority/subversion Emotivist who says lying is good is giving the
This foundation was shaped by our long primate instruction "do tell lies" - and we can see that
history of hierarchical social interactions. It there is a clear disagreement between them
underlies virtues of leadership and followership, Bad points of Emotivism
including deference to legitimate authority and Emotivism says that moral statements just
respect for traditions. express our feelings
5) Sanctity/degradation It become unpopular with philosophers because
This foundation was shaped by the psychology the theory that led the Emotivists to think that
of disgust and contamination. It underlies moral statements were meaningless has fallen
religious notions of striving to live in an elevated, from favour.
less carnal, more noble way. It underlies the in practical terms, Emotivism falls down because
widespread idea that the body is a temple which it isn't very satisfying. Even (most) philosophers
can be desecrated by immoral activities and think moral statements are more than just
contaminants (an idea not unique to religious expressions of feeling
traditions). the difference between it's perfectly possible to imagine an ethical
normative and descriptive claims. debate in which neither party has an emotion to
Normative claims make value judgments express.
Descriptive claims do not make value Non-philosophers also think there is more to
Judge ethics than just the expression of an attitude of
an attempt to influence behaviour. They want a METAETHICS vs NORMATIVE ETHICS
better explanation and foundation for shared (2 major branches of ethics)
standards of morality than Emotivism can Metaethics
provide. focuses on determining the meaning and
Objectivism objectivity of moral concepts of good and bad, or
Objectivism holds that reality is an right and wrong
absolute—that facts are facts, regardless of Normative ethics
anyone’s hopes, fears, or desires. attempts to determine which character traits are
There is a world independent of our minds to good and bad, which actions are right and wrong
which our thinking must correspond if our ideas
are to be true and therefore of practical use in
living our lives, pursuing our values, and
protecting our rights.
we ought to desire things that are good—with an
emphasis on the goodness of the thing-in-itself
apart from our subjective responses
There must be objective reasons that ground our
subjective and emotional responses to things
Objectivists hold that values have an objective
reality— that they are objects available for
knowledg
Subjectivism
Subjectivism is the theory that perception (or
consciousness) is reality, and that there is no
underlying, true reality that exists independent of
perception.
It does not claim that "all is illusion" or that "there
is no such thing as reality", merely that the nature
of reality is dependent on the consciousness of
the individual. In an extreme form, it may hold
that the nature and existence of every object
depends solely on someone's subjective
awareness of it.
Types of subjectivism
Metaphysical Subjectivism
is the idea (as described above) there is no
underlying, true reality that exists independent of
perception or consciousness.
Ethical Subjectivism (or Moral Subjectivism)
is the meta-ethical belief that ethical sentences
reduce to factual statements about the attitudes
and/or conventions of individual people, or that
any ethical sentence implies an attitude held by
someone. It is therefore a form of Moral
Relativism in which the truth of moral claims is
relative to the attitudes of individuals.