LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS

I. Why study ethics?

We study ethics for a variety of reasons.

1. Moral and ethical decisions are unavoidable in life. We need to be aware of this, and also to be ready to think about moral issues when they arise. If we have some sort of preparation ahead of time (either informally, through prior experience in our every day lives, or through formal classroom class room instruction), we are less likely to get caught be surprise and/or be bulldozed into to making overly quick, poorly-thought-out choices. This is true in our personal lives, our professional lives, and also our social and civic lives.

2. The study of ethics also helps us to understand other people, other cultures, and other ways of thinking. This is especially true in locations such is the Washington, D.C. area (and other urban regions) where there are large numbers of immigrants. It is also true if we ever work or travel abroad.

3. The author of our textbook, Dr. Hinman, points out that ethics are a lot like nutrition: you have to have it to have a decent life. Nutrition is essential for our physical health…and ethics is essential for our moral health. Some things enhance our moral life, and other hurt it, or even poison it. Just as with physical nutrition, however, there is debate. Some things are pretty much universal and timeless (“Don’t eat rotten meat”, or “murder is wrong”), while other things change greatly with time and place (“Are eggs good for us, or bad?” or “What sort of obligation do we have to help those who are poor or disabled?”). Ethics helps us think which issues are in which category.

4. Even more broadly, ethics and morality helps us think about what kind of people we are, and what kind of people we wish to become—both individually and collectively.

II. Where do we actually get our moral and ethical norms and ideas from?

The answer is: a lot of places, and many overlap with each other. These include:

1. Parents and family. The way our parents treat us can have a major influence on what we later see as being “just” or “unjust.” This can play a major role in the way see family values, gender issues, treatment of those younger or older than us, the way we see authority, etc.

2. Adult experience—we see what works and doesn’t work for us and those around us.

3. Conscience—which as both “inborn” and also trained aspects.

4. Religion—“the book” (the New Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, the Koran, the Vedas, the Sutras, etc.), tradition, religious reasoning, personal inspiration/revelation.

5. Law—which has elements of reason, tradition, and religion. (In the West, our legal traditions are greatly influenced by the Greeks, the Romans, and the Jews.)

6. Tradition—what those we came before did. Sometimes this was for good reasons, other times (like which side of the road to drive on) is just convention.

III. Another issue that we need the face is: what is the difference between “ethics” and “morality”?

1. The author of the book suggests that the difference is that morality is what we think and do as we try to live a good life, while ethics is how we describe and explain these actions and attitudes when we reflect upon them.

2. Another common definition is that “morality” is primarily concerned with our personal intentions and actions, while “ethics” deals more with our interactions with other people and groups of people.

Both of these definitions have uses. However, the truth is that at present there is no clear formal distinction between the meanings of the words. Thus, we need to be careful when we use them, so that everybody understand what the other person is actually talking about!

IV. What Do We Look For in a Moral and Ethical System?

Other the course of this class, we are going to look at a n

umber of different ethical systems. Before we start, however, we should first think about what we think about characteristics that a moral system should have. This sounds odd at first, but actually it will make sense as we go.

1. Many argue that a moral point of view should be impartial. In other words, it should not give special weight to needs and desires of any one person or group of people. (Example: the notion that the child of a federal judge who sells drugs should receive the same punishment as the child of a migrant worker convicted of the same crime.)

2. Many also believe that a moral system should have an element of compassion, or sensitivity to the needs and suffering of others. (Example: a person who steals because he or she is starving should probably be treated differently from a person who steals for sport, even though the physical crime in each case is identical.)

3. A moral system should be universally binding. (Rules should apply equally to all—there should not be a separate set of laws for, say, black people and white people, or rich people and poor people, or men and women.)

4. There should be a concern for character: what should I do? What kind of person do I want to be? There should be rational patterns that can help a reasonable person know what to do in a situation, and to help them assess their own moral standing. An ethical system should also help provide the strength and conviction needed to help a person stand up for what is right, and to resist what is wrong.

However, we also need to be aware that there can be a dark side to ethics.

1. Ethics can be used as a tool used to condemn the actions of others.
2. The difference between caring and condemnation.
3. The problem of understanding individuals and groups well enough to assess them correctly.
4. The question of who has the right to judge other people.
5. The question of who has the right to intervene.
6. Hypocrisy—a perennial problem!

Hopefully, our commitment to impartiality, compassion, universality, reason, and character will help us to overcome such problems.

V. The Problem of Ultimate Truth

There is one other issue that we must address before we continue on: the question of whether ethics and morality are absolute, relative, or something else.

Some people believe ethical truth is unique and absolute. This is called ethical absolutism. To a particular question, there is only one answer, which should be held with absolute conviction. The problem is that in the modern world, we find a number of groups claiming “absolute truth” for their ethical systems. While this sort of belief is often associated with conservative religious groups, they also appear in the political world as well—the Divine Right of Kings, Marxism and Leninism, etc. The strength of absolutism is that it clearly recognizes that sometimes judgments must be made, and decisive action taken.

Opposing this is ethical relativism, which holds that ethical truth can vary between times, groups, and individuals. The good thing about this is that it recognizes diversity of viewpoint and the need for tolerance and understanding. It also recognizes that people with good intentions can honestly come to different conclusions, even when given the same information.

Much of the time—especially in the United States—we can get away with holding either an absolutist or a relativist view for long periods of time. However, at times people are forced to look at each of these views and to realize their shortcomings. Absolutism doesn’t always recognize that different groups can learn from each other. It also doesn’t always deal well with mixed societies—resulting, in extreme cases--in war and hardship. Ethical absolutism also appears to have serious trouble policing its own internal corruption.

Ethical relativism, on the other hand, can become shallow indifference--they can do whatever they want “over there,” so long as it doesn’t bother me. While this is sometimes marketed as a sort of easy-going live-and-let-live tolerance, it can easily slide into a sense of skepticism (“values are really just political tools”), alienation (“What I think really doesn’t matter anyway, so why bother?”) and indifference (“Whatever.”) Thus relativism can have trouble standing up to manifest injustice. It also suffers from an internal paradox: if we tolerate everything, can we tolerate intolerance? Or, if we demand that tolerance must be tolerated, are we in fact making an absolute claim?

Dr. Hinman, the author of our textbook, advocates ethical pluralism. This means a number of things:

1. We recognize that there are a variety of groups that do not always agree. The trick is to figure out how to live together.

2. While we may believe that our particular group has the best overall answers to life’s problems, we also recognize that our own particular group may not be correct on everything 100% of the time.

3. It also recognizes that other groups probably feel the same way. Ideally, this allows the groups to “keep each other honest,” making sure that no particular group has total power over everything.

4. Most groups actually have enough similarities to allow them to recognize a number of common standards as to what is required and what is forbidden (rules of property, of marriage, of poor relief, of common defense, etc.)

5. Most groups also recognize that there are some areas where differences of opinion may be possible (forms of education, voting ages, etc.)

VI. Ethical Systems That We Will Examine in This Class

In this class we will examine a number of ethical systems. Note that some are better for certain problems than others.

1. Ethical Egoism—“I know what’s best for ME!” This system says that your main ethical goal should be to look out for your own interests. While you may help others if you so choose, nobody should require you do so.

2. Utilitarianism—“The greatest good for the greatest number.”

3. Ethics of Duty—“Do the right thing.” This system was formalized by I. Kant. One should always do one’s professional and social duty. If one is a parent, they should care for their children. If one is a doctor, they should care for the sick, regardless if they can pay immediately.

4. Ethics of Rights—Justified in a variety ways, rights have become increasingly important over the past 50 years.

5. Ethics of Virtue—“Good people make good decisions.” Here the focus is less on what to do in a particular situation, than with developing a good overall character who will generally make good choices.

6. Religious ethics—“Do what God tells you” or “Follow the Path.” Used in both traditional societies and the modern world, the ethical systems of the world’s great religions have helped people make decisions for thousands of years.