Ethics

Kantian Ethics

Situation Ethics

Utilitarianism

Natural Moral Law

NML involves 4 strands of law

Eternal Law, the unchanging reason of God, absolute for all people and all times, can only be achieved by God.

Divine Law, the direct word of God which helps people to make their moral decision making. This can include the 10 commandments or the Sermon on the Mount.

Natural Law, which uses the physical world to allow us to make moral decision, reasoning that is shown through the natural world, one way in which God displays his reasoning to humans.

Human Law, the laws people come up with in response to the higher tiers of law, the lowest tier of law and can be broken if it conflicts with any of the other laws.

There are three universal maxims:

Principle of Law

Principle of Ends

Principle of Autonomy

Joseph Fletcher

Jeremy Bentham

Aquinas

Believed that every person has a 'telos' or end goal that we all move towards, the telos for all human beings is eudaimonia, happiness and flourishing.

He believed that moral actions could only come from free, rational human beings. We have to be genuinely free to make moral decisions and make them using our reason.

To Aquinas, being in the presence of God is the end goal for humans, the human 'telos'.

Aquinas believed that all humans were given the ability to reason by God, so he created the primary precepts to teach humans how they should apply there reason.

1.Worship God. 2.Live in and ordered society. 3.To reproduce. 4. Educate the young. 5. defend the innocent and preserve life.

Real and apparent goods, real goods in line with the primary precepts and God's wishes, apparent goods seem enjoyable and so tempt us but do nothing in promoting human flourishing..

Doctrine of Double Effect

There are situations in which a single outcome has two separate effects. Aquinas states that a person will be judged on the intent of their actions, if the intent was to do good then the action cannot be bad.

Possible Strengths

Natural law can be applied in so many different ways making widely transparent which is a strength as it allows for many different circumstances to be taken into account.

Some say it offers clarity and consistency in its answers to ethical problems.

It offers a way of looking at the world which is absolute and applies to all times and cultures.

It combines religious ideas with reason allowing people to use their own decision making in situations.

It is fairly easy to establish to establish what is right and wrong using natural law, making it a helpful system.

Weakness' of NML

The way natural law is applied can vary widely, this can be seen as a weakness as it is not always clear.

Our understanding of what is natural is not always accurate and and not always unchanging, for example the views towards homosexuality have widely changed over the past years.

Aquinas bases a lot of his teachings off a belief in God, which not everyone follows.

The world has changed a lot since Aquinas was writing his ideas, this has meant that some applications of natural law might seem inappropriate today. For example, the use of artificial contraception is used a lot today but might bring about controversy as it can be seen to limit the precept of reproduction.

Fletcher had three approaches to moral thinking, legalism (decisions based on laws), antinomian (having no laws at all) and situational (looking at the context and adopting an appropriate law to do the most loving thing.

Fletcher believed that the third path was the better out of the three, he was influenced by other theologians such as Bath and Bonhoeffer who believed that Christian ethics should rely on the teachings of the bible too heavily.

Agape Love

Fletcher believed that Agape love should be at the centre of all ethics, it is unconditional and reflects the love given by God. It teaches people to love their neighbour and their enemies, it is also a self-sacrificing version of love. People should be guided by the 'law of love' to do the most loving thing.

Six Propositions

  1. The only thing that is intrinsically good is agapeic love.
  1. Love is the ruling norm of Christian ethics.
  1. Justice is love distributed. Justice is when people act in a loving way towards other people.
  1. Love does not depend on emotional likes and dislikes but is an act of will, a deliberately chosen attitude.
  1. Love should be the goal of a moral action, and if it is, then the means of getting to that goal are not important.
  1. Love should be considered in the context of each situation as it arises. Rules should not be made without the context of the moral situation being a serious consideration.

The four working principles

Pragmatism

This is about practicality in the real world, instead of following the rules of philosophy a theologian looks for something that will work in the practical circumstance.

Personalism

People matter more than laws, the needs of people should be considered when making moral decisions.

Relativism

Conscience

Rules are not fixed and absolute but can be changed according to the situation.

Conscience is not seen as a reliable set of internal rules, but as activity, the use of reasoning in making moral judgements.

Consience

According to Fletcher, the conscience does not guide human action and is not a store of reliable rules to which people can refer. Does not form an inner voice that displays the divine truth, instead it describes what people are trying do when they make moral decisions and weigh things up.

Strengths of Situation Ethics

It is relative so allows for consideration of an individuals circumstances when making moral decisions.

Does not have the same problem as Natural Law in becoming out of date as society progress', because the system is flexible.

It could be considered quick and easy as a method of decision-making, because it simply recommends acting using Agapeic Love.

It gives people autonomy by giving them the responsibility of choosing their own actions without obeying the rules of others.

It could be considered to fit well with a person's Christian faith and the 'what would Jesus do' approach to moral thinking.

Weakness' of Situation Ethics

It is relative, so does not give clear rules to help people know what to do in all circumstances.

It can be difficult to apply because it is not always clear what is the most loving action in a situation.

It is difficult to work out which people should be considered in the efforts to find a loving action, or if an action would be loving for one person but then the opposite for another.

Since the process is relative it can be seen to allow people to justify any of their actions on the grounds that they thought it would bring about the most loving action.

Principle of Utility

Kantian ethics is deontological and focus' on the duty to do good and avoid evil. Kant believed that there was objective and absolute moral law, not just law that has been invented by society.

Moral law can be known and understood through reason.

Kant believed that the only thing that can be called good without any qualification is good will, an action is good if it is done for the right reasons, the same action is not good however if it is done for another virtuous gain.

Morality should not be driven by emotion, we should do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

Kant believed that knowledge could be divided into two kinds

HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVES - refer to the rules we must follow if we want to achieve particular results.

Knowledge that comes from sense experience, 'a posteriori'

Knowledge that we have first hand, 'a priori' knowledge

We do not need experience to know what is right and wrong.

Moral knowledge comes from within

We bring additional knowledge of what is right and wrong from

We cannot tell is something is morally right by looking at it.

Because we are making moral judgements, Kant believed that moral knowledge must be synthetic.

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES - refers to the rules that must be followed with no 'ifs'. They must be followed regardless of what you want to achieve in the end result and regardless of our personal preference.

Moral laws must be able to be universal, they should be rules that apply to everyone at all times and in all cultures.

People should not treat others as a means to an end, they should treat others as people, not as tools to get what they want.

People should act as if their behaviour is setting the laws in an ideal kingdom. Imagine we live in an ordered society of rational people.

Kantian Ethics

Strengths of Kant

Weakness' of Kant

Kant's way of thinking is widely appealing, everyone follows the same set of rules to make their decisions, making things absolutely right and wrong.

Kant emphasises human reasoning, giving autonomy to people to act thoughtfully rather than just simply following commands.

Quick and easy to use once people understand the categorical imperatives, as rules are rules, making them easy to apply.

Kant recognises the dignity and worth of other human beings, whatever their status in society.

Kantian ethics can be seen as cold and lacking in compassion for people's individual circumstances.

Some argue that Kant fails to recognise the importance of human emotion in moral decision-making.

Kant does not tell us what to do if duties conflict, he does not give guidance about how to make a choice.

Religious believers might argue that Kant seems to give human reason a more important place in morality than he gives to God.

Bentham introduced Utilitarianism, he wanted to find a way of doing ethics that did not rely on rules or the Church.

He believed that everyone desires pleasure and avoids pain.

The principle of utility is otherwise known as the greatest happiness principle, it believes that the best course of action to take is the one which maximises happiness for the greatest number of people.

Hedonic Calculus

Bentham devised the calculus as a way of measuring whether an action would bring about maximum happiness and avoid pain.

The calculate this, there are seven factors to consider:

  1. Intensity - will it be intense pleasure or just mild.
  1. Duraiton - how long is the pleasure likely to last?
  1. Certainty - will it definitely bring pleasure, how likely is it?
  1. Propinquity - how far off is the pleasure or pain.

5 - Fecundity - is the pleasure likely to lead to other pleasures too

  1. Purity - will it bring pure pleasure or will it there be some pain involved as well?
  1. Extent - how far-reaching will the pleasure be; will it affect a lot of people.

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill

In his book 'Utilitarianism', JSM added to the works of Bentham by making a distinction between higher and lower pleasure.

Mill stated that the quality of the pleasure should also be included in the calculus, intellectual, aesthetic, social and spiritual pleasures.

It is better to be a human dissatisfied that a pig satisfied, he would not be content with just seeking sensual pleasures.

He thought that Art and Culture should be considered more important than pleasures such as getting drunk..

Rule Utilitarianism

The focus of rule utilitarianism is on the common good, rather than on each individual act.

It looks to create the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people in the long run.

It considers what is best for society and what would happen if everyone behaved this way, as well as looking at the individual circumstances.

Rule utilitarians recognise general rules that exist for the benefit of everyone, such as promise-keeping and truth-telling.

Act Utilitarianism

In act utilitarianism, each action is considered on its own.

It looks at the balance of pleasure and pain that is likely to be produced by that particular action in those circumstances.

There is no duty to adopt a particular approach because a different situation might involve different people with different interests.

It avoids setting up rules, an act might bring about maximum pleasure in one set of circumstances, but the same act might bring about pain in another.

Strengths of Utilitarianism

Weakness' of Utilitarianism

It is flexible and allows for changes in public opinion as well as differences in individual circumstances.

The hedonic calculus can be time-consuming and difficult to work out, and moral decisions often have to be made quickly.

It involves reason and sensible consideration of different options.

It does not depend on on an external authority such as religion, but allows people to make there own decisions based on what they think is best.

It is based on practicality and on the observation that everyone wants to be happy.

It is based on outcomes which are relatively straightforward to see and measure.

Every individual is considered regardless of their social status.

Some people argue that happiness is not a sufficient goal for ethics, goodness and happiness are not the same.

We are not always good at guessing what will make us happy, and it is even harder to work out what will make other people happy.

Some people argue that the morality of an action should not be judged by its outcome but by its motivation.

It does not make any reference to God.

If the greatest happiness for the greatest number is always the principle, then those who are minority, who are made happy by different things, lose out.