ETHICAL THEORIES

“THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.” -- SOCRATES

ELMER L. JOVER, UP VISAYAS

 ETHICS (MORAL PHILOSOPHY)

Branch of philosophy that involves questions about morality and

the perception of good and evil, of right and wrong, of justice, and
virtue.
ETHICS: DEFINITIONS

• While morals or morality refers to customs, ethics extend to

the mean habitual conduct or character.

• Ethics can also be the study of what is right or good in

human conduct or character.
THE FUNDAMENTAL
ELEMENTS OF A COMPLETE
ETHICAL SYSTEM
1. A definition of good

2. A definition of what is right in terms of good.

3. A statement/knowledge claim of the moral principle in

clear terms
DEFINITION OF GOOD: INSTRUMENTAL
GOOD VS. INTRINSIC GOOD

Intrinsic Good are those that are pursued for their own sake.

E.g. “Happiness is the greatest good of all human life.”- Aristotle (we do
not pursue some higher good)

Instrumental Good are those that are used as means for attaining some other
good.
e.g. wealth, awards, beauty, jobs
NATURE OF ETHICS

• It is a normative science - seeks to determine norms, ideals

or standard, in this case, of human conduct or character

• It is a science because it aims at systematic explanation of

rightness and wrongness.
4 MAIN BRANCHES

1. Descriptive Ethics
2. Normative Ethics
• Virtue
• Deontological
• Consequentialism (Teleology)

3. Meta Ethics
4. Applied Ethics
1. DESCRIPTIVE ETHICS

• Comparative Ethics
• Deals with what people actually believe (or made to
believe) to be right or wrong, and accordingly holds
up the human actions acceptable or not acceptable
or punishable under a custom or law.
2. NORMATIVE ETHICS

“doing to other as we want them to do to us”

• Prescriptive Ethics
• Deals with “norms” or set of considerations how
one should act.
A.VIRTUE ETHICS (ARISTOTLE)

• Focuses on one’s character and the virtues for

determining or evaluating ethical behavior.

4 Cardinal Values
1. Prudence
2. Justice
3. Temperance
4. Fortitude (Courage)
B. DEONTOLOGICAL ETHICS

• Duty Ethics
• Focuses on the rightness and wrongness of the
actions rather than the consequences of those
actions.
3 Deontological Theories
1. Kantian Ethics
2. Moral Absolutism
3. Divine Command Theory
KANTIAN ETHICS

• Human beings occupy special place in creation and

there is an ultimate commandment from which
all duties and obligations derive.

1. Universality
2. Reciprocity
 MORAL ABSOLUTISM

• There are absolute standards against which moral

questions can be judged.
• Against these standards, certain actions are right
while others are wrong regardless of the
context of the act.
• E.g. Killing is always immoral even in self-
defense.
 DIVINE COMMAND THEORY

• Action is right if God

has decreed it to be right.

• The rightness of any action

depends upon that action
being performed because it
is a duty.
C. CONSEQUENTIALISM (TELEOLOGY)

“morally right action would

produce good outcome while
morally wrong action would
produce bad outcome”

“the ends justify the means“

SEVERAL THEORIES UNDER TELEOLOGY
1. Utilitarianism - right action leads to most
happiness of greatest number of people
2. Hedonism - anything that maximizes pleasure is
right
3. Egoism - anything that maximizes the good for
self is right
4. Asceticism - abstinence from egoistic pleasures
to achieve spiritual goals is right action
5. Altruism - to live for others and not caring for
self is right action
3. META ETHICS

• Analytical ethics
• Deals with the origin of the ethical concepts themselves.
• Questions what goodness or rightness or morality itself is.
 SOME THEORIES UNDER META-ETHICS
1. Naturalism and Non-naturalism - moral language is cognitive and
can be known to be true or false.
2. Emotivism - deny that moral utterances are cognitive, holding that
they consist of emotional expressions of approval or disapproval
3. Prescriptivism - moral judgments are prescriptions or prohibitions of
action, rather than statements of fact about the world.
 4. APPLIED ETHICS

• Deals with the philosophical examination,

from a moral standpoint, of particular
issues in private and public life which are
matters of moral judgment.
• Rightness or wrongness of social,
economical, cultural, religious issues
6 KEY DOMAINS

1. Decision ethics - ethical decision making process

2. Professional ethics - for good professionalism
3. Clinical Ethics - good clinical practices
4. Business Ethics - good business practices
5. Organizational ethics - ethics within and among
organizations
6. Social ethics
7. Digital Ethics
TWO TYPES OF ETHICAL SYSTEM
BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF
INTRINSIC GOOD
1. Monist – there is only one thing that is intrinsically good

E.g. Hedonism – believes that only pleasure is intrinsically

good.
“Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign
masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we
ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do”. Jeremy
Bentham (1748 - 1832)

2. Pluralist – believes that there are more than one intrinsic

good.
E.g. Plato believed that the good life is a balance of
wisdom, courage, sensual pleasure, etc.
 WHAT IS RIGHT? WHAT YOU
OUGHT TO DO?
The Two Camps:
1. Deontologists – judging the rightness of an act by
considering the act alone. So long as you obey the
clear provisions, your actions are right. E.g. Ten
Commandents of God

2. Teleologists -- the rightness of an act is judged and

evaluated in terms of its consequence, that is, of
maximizing the intrinsic good such as happiness.
The teleologist is further divided on the issue of the beneficiary
of right actions:

1. Egoism
– envisions that the beneficiary of the act is the moral agent
himself.

If the beneficiary is another person yet you expect that

person to do the same to you? This is dubbed as
enlightened egoism (as when we help other people as part of
promoting one’s self-interest.

2. Utilitarianism
– calculates the beneficiary of the good to be a particular
class or sector (limited utilitarianism) or all humankind
(universal utilitarianism)
KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS OF THE MORAL
PRINCIPLES: STATEMENT OF VALUE VS. STATEMENT
OF OBLIGATION

Statement of Value
– deals with the estimate of the worth or value of an act,
object, person, event, etc., i.e. What is good?

Statement of Obligation
– deals with what you ought to do, your duty and obligation
THE FUNDAMENTAL
ELEMENTS OF A COMPLETE
ETHICAL SYSTEM
1. A definition of good

2. A definition of what is right in terms of good.

3. A statement/knowledge claim of the moral principle in

clear terms
DEONTOLOGICAL
THEORIES
- AN ACT IS MORALLY RIGHT ON THE BASIS OF THE NATURE
OF THE ACT ALONE. THE CONSEQUENCES ARE UNIMPORTANT.
HOW TO JUDGE THE NATURE
OF AN ACT?
1. For Pure Deontology – the nature of an act is
judged on the basis of its conformity to an
immutable (unchanging) moral rule.

2. For Mixed Deontology – it is also believed that

the consequences of the act have some
bearing on our assessment of the nature of the
act.
RULE-DEONTOLOGIST
VS. ACT-DEONTOLOGIST
1. Rule-Deontologist – an act is right if it is consistent with
the moral rule. It is wrong if it is inconsistent.

2. Act-Deontologist – considers the rules significant only

in so far as they provide the guidelines in the application
of specific acts
TELEOLOGICAL
THEORIES
- THE BASIS FOR ASCRIBING RIGHT OR WRONG RESTS SOLELY
ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ACT, I.E. THE GOOD THE ACT
PROMOTES
TWO TYPES OF ETHICAL SYSTEM
BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF
INTRINSIC GOOD

1. Monist – there is only one thing that is intrinsically good

2. Pluralist – believes that there are more than one intrinsic good.
THE BASIC DISAGREEMENT AMONG
TELEOLOGISTS CONCERN THE
NATURE OF THE INTRINSIC GOOD
TELEOLOGISTS Under Monism…

▪ Quantitative hedonism
– emphasizes the pleasure calculus of intensity, duration, certainty, nearness,
ability to reproduce, purity, and extent of pleasure

▪ Qualitative hedonism
– defines good as intellectual pleasure. “It is better to be a human being
dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.” –
JS Mill (1806-1873)

▪ Egoistic Hedonist
– is basically concerned on with his own self-interest. “Eat, drink, and be
merry; for tomorrow you might die!” –Epicurus (341-270 BC) and the Cyrenaics
TELEOLOGISTS UNDER PLURALISM…
NON-HEDONISM.
a. Limited Utilitarianism:
“Money is not, properly speaking, one of the subjects of
commerce, but only the instrument which men have agreed upon
to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for another.” –
David Hume (1711-1776)

b. Ideal Utilitarianism:
“The right action is always that which will produce the greatest
amount of good as a whole… an ideal end or good which
includes but not limited to pleasure.” – Hastings Rashdall
c. Act-utilitarian – an act is right or wrong solely on
the basis of the consequences of the act. E.g.
Cheating on the board exam may maximize
pleasure (probability of higher score) and minimize
embarrassment of a failing grade.

c. Rule-utilitarian – an act would be checked against

the utility of the rule which already determined the
morally wrong consequence of such action.
IMMANUEL KANT’S
CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE
 WHO IS IMMANUEL KANT (1724-
1804)?

• was a German born in Konigsburg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia.

• Kant never left town and produced his most influential work late in life.
• He was a professor in logic and metaphysics 1770; was deeply interested in
the natural sciences, astronomy and geophysics.
• He influenced the school of speculative idealism whose adherents include
Fichte and Hegel
According to Kant, no act is considered good without
qualification except good will.

Good will – acting with the right intentions, in accordance

with the correct maxims, doing one’s duty for the sake of
duty (not for oneself or for the greater number)
“A good will is good not because of what it effects or accomplishes, nor because
of its fitness to attain some proposed end; it is good only through its willing, i.e. it is
good in itself.”-- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
ACTING IN CONFORMITY WITH
DUTY AND ACTING FOR THE
SAKE OF DUTY

• In conformity with duty (or according to duty): doing

something out of fear of authority, punishment or some
other reasons

• For the sake of duty: acting with the rational recognition that
our actions are in accord with a moral obligation of being
rational agents
• For Kant, moral principles are logical principles. An act is
wrong because it rests on a maxim that is contradictory and
absurd.

To illustrate, consider “Stealing is good!”. Can I will that such

maxim becomes a universal law for everyone to follow?

Everybody will steal from somebody else.

1. The very institution of trust in your neighbor will be
undermined.
2. Where there is no trust, the very possibility of stealing
would be very difficult. So the maxim of stealing is self-
contradictory.
3. The absurd result will be chaos and disorder
“ THAT ACTION IS IMMORAL WHOSE INTENT CANCELS AND
DESTROYS ITSELF WHEN IT IS MADE A UNIVERSAL RULE.”

• The faculty of reason is at the center of morality...

…and the single ultimate rule, i.e the Categorical Imperative is the sole
criterion of morality.
 THE CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE
1. Formula of “UNIVERSAL LAW”: Act only on that maxim
whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a
universal law.
2. Formula of “LAW OF NATURE”: Act as if the maxim of your
actions were to become (through your will) a Universal Law of
Nature.
3. Formula of “END IN ITSELF”: Act to use humanity…always as
an end, never simply as a means.
4. Formula of “AUTONOMY”: Act that your will can regard itself
at the same time as making universal law through its maxim.
5. Formula of “KINGDOM OF ENDS”: Act as if you were always
through your maxim a law-making member in a universal
kingdom of ends
THE CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE IN FIVE PRINCIPAL
WAYS
1. Formula of “UNIVERSAL LAW”
2. Formula of “LAW OF NATURE” --
3. Formula of “END IN ITSELF”
4. Formula of “AUTONOMY”
5. Formula of “KINGDOM OF ENDS”

The five versions state the same moral law; the

difference is only in terms of emphasis.
THE CATEGORICAL
IMPERATIVE IN FIVE PRINCIPAL
WAYS
1. Formula of “UNIVERSAL LAW”: we are not allowed to
make any concession in favor of our own self-interest.
2. Formula of “LAW OF NATURE”: he is saying that the
moral law is not identical to the law of nature.
3. Formula of “END IN ITSELF”: never use anybody as a
means for attaining your end.
4. Formula of “AUTONOMY”: to treat person as a means
would be to treat him as object, not as a rational moral
agent.
5. Formula of “KINGDOM OF ENDS”: this clarifies that the
moral law is not imposed from the outside but emanates
from your own will.
 TAKE AWAY

• We have to obey the moral law, since it is the law of human reason. If we
don’t obey it, we contradict our own nature.

• Self-contradiction is the foundation of all immoral acts.

“THE UNEXAMINED
LIFE IS NOT WORTH
LIVING.”
-- SOCRATES