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Christian Ethics Lecture Week 5a

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17 views22 pages

Christian Ethics Lecture Week 5a

Uploaded by

bytesizetransformation
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the
least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:39-40
Does Everyone have a right to healthcare?
• If so, what do we have a right to?
• Who has the duty to provide it and how far does their duty extend?
Ethics
• Based on the tenets of reason (rationally verifiable is justifiable).

• Ethical principles need not derive authority from religious doctrine


but promote independent and responsible individuals capable of
making decisions that maximize own well-being while respecting well-
being of others.
What is the relationship between ethics and
religion?
Theology

Philosophy

Ethics
(Moral Philosophy)

Applied Ethics
(Bioethics, Christian
Ethics,
Public Health Ethics,
Business Ethics, etc.)
Relationship between Faith/Revelation and Reason
 The relationship between religion and ethics is about the relationship
between revelation and reason.

 Deity reveals insights/ “revelation” about life and its true meaning (insights
are collected in texts- Bible, the Torah, the Koran, etc.).
Important Goal of Religion and
Ethics
PUBLIC COOPERATION:
 How do we best live together?
 What principles will guide a just and good and peaceful
coexistence?

Problem between Religion and


Ethics
Different Conceptions of THE GOOD, RIGHT and JUSTICE
What makes ethics Christian?
Conversation and Analysis,
Obligation and Value
Are
Located in a context of Christian faith, practice, and theology.
Task of Ethics:
• Forming the connection between:

• Virtue
• Principles
• Individual, institutional, and societal understandings of the right and the good,
• Motivation to do the right and good

(Pellegrino and Thomasma, 1996).


Ethics is concerned with
• Normative evaluation of actions
• Internal motivations and intensions of the moral agent acting.
Various Dimensions of an
Action:
The person acting
Motive of person acting
Nature of the act itself
Consequences of the action
Ethical Theory: Utilitarianism
 Consequentialist Theory.

 John Stuart Mills (1806-1873).

 Jeremy Betham (1748-1832)

 Replace reliance on God, tradition, intuition


with reasoning about facts and their
consequences.

 Human nature: seek to improve well being.

 Ultimate good: greatest well being (pleasure/ happiness;


preference satisfaction) of the whole.
Utilitarianism continued…

• GOAL: greatest total happiness.

• Often sacrifices individual rights/freedoms in favor of the “general” welfare


Criticism of Utilitarianism

• Relative value differs from person to person;

• Difficult to measure precise calculations of utility;

• Justice and rights


Kantian Deontological Ethics
• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

• Knowledge of right/wrong belongs to the realm of reason

• Focus: Duty

• Significance of Categorical Imperative

• Individuals have a special status that must not be violated regardless of consequences.

• What makes a choice right is conformity with a moral norm.

• Right has priority over good


Strengths of Deontological Ethics

1. Categorical prohibition of actions like killing innocent persons no


matter the good consequences that can result from doing so.

2. Permits each to pursue own ends (projects) free of any demand


that we shape our projects so as to make everyone else well off. **No
matter how morally good the consequences, some choices are just
morally forbidden/wrong.
Virtue Ethics
• Central question: What kind of person should I be?
Virtue Ethics

 Origin in ancient Greek philosophy (particularly, Aristotle)


 Downplays importance of moral rules, principles
 Focus: virtues/moral character
 Virtue: not just a character trait; a disposition which is well entrenched in its possessor
Our choices reveal something about our conception of the good life: Eudiamonia (human
flourishing; happiness)

Virtue: achieving balance between extremes of excess and deficiency (the mean)
Virtues
• Represent the excellent states of important human emotional and
intellectual capacities

• Play a significant role in human flourishing

• Play an important epistemological role in the good life

• Provide motivation for consistently performing right actions.


Why virtue ethics embraced by
contemporary philosophers?
• Prevailing ethical schools of thought (utilitarianism, deontology) neglect
dealing with:

• motives,
• virtues and moral character,
• moral education
• friendship and family relationships
• role of emotions in our moral life and
• fundamentally important questions of what sort of person should we be
Criticism of Virtue Ethics
 On what grounds do virtuous moral agents make their judgment? Is it not arbitrary?

Are virtues really timeless human excellences?


-Cultural traditions, community membership and role obligations play a crucial part in determining what
are considered virtues and the kinds of activities that count as virtuous.

Does not produce principles (unable to provide guidance for actions)

WWVD? (What would the virtuous person do?)

Cultural relativity

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