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Ethics - Coggle Diagram
Ethics
Elements of thought
Purpose
My purpose should be
Considering my own rights and needs as well those of others
Question at issue
Key ethical question(s) I am trying to answer is/are
Write out the issue in several ways
Implications and consequences
Important implications for myself and others
What consequences are likely to follow if you act on the conclusions you have come to?
Interpretation and inference
Main inferences/conclusions coming to in reasoning through the ethical issue
Is there more than one way to interpret the information?
Concepts
Key ethical concepts and principles that should guide thinking
Most relevant for reasoning through the issue
Assumptions
Main assumptions using in reasoning through the ethical issue
How do your assumptions affect the way you see the ethical issue?
Point of view
Points of view needed to be consider before coming to conclusions about the ethical issue
Consider more than one way of looking at the situation
Information
Most important information to answer the ethical question
Understand and take into account the needs and viewpoints of relevant others
Skills and traits
Skilled in breaking reasoning down
Into its component parts
Proficient in assessing reasoning
Clarity
Accuracy
Relevance
Depth
Logicalness
Breadth
Intellectually
Humble
Empathic
Perseverant
Cultivate important intellectual traits
Example and encouragement
Learn to respect the rights of others
Not simply focus on fulfilling our desires
Ethical decisions
Depth of understanding
Ethical principles mean only when manifested in behavior
Force only when embodied in action
Live an ethical life
Develop command over our native egocentric tendencies
Not enough to advocate living an ethical life
Entails doing what is right
Despite everything
Including powerful selfish desires
Requires
Ethical insights
Intellectual skills
Tremendous amount of money
Spent on persuading to see the events of the world in one way
Generate predispositions
See something on the side of good and other thing on the side of evil
Humans typically take themselves to be on the side of good
Inconsistencies in human behavior
Saying one thing and doing another
Applying one standard to ourselves and another standard to others
Function
Development of ethical reasoning abilities
Live an ethical life
Create an ethical world
Highlight acts of two kinds
Which enhance
the well-being of others
Warrant praise
Ethical acts
Goal
Can do so only if is knew what is ethically right
Can't do if is systematically confused the sense of what is ethically right
With self-interest, personal desires, or social taboos
Necessary to learn the art of self- and social-critique
Ethical self-examination
Recognize the pervasive everyday pitfalls of ethical judgment
Moral intolerance
Self-deception
Uncritical conformity
Own ethical feelings and judgments
Only few achieve it
Often a subtle mixture
Ethical insight and moral prejudice
Ethical truth and moral hypocrisy
Pseudo and genuine morality
Identify what is genuinely ethical
Despite
Moral contradictions
Self-interest
Egocentric desires
Which harm or diminish the well-being of others
Warrant criticism
Human nature strong tendency toward
Egoism
Propensity to be focused almost exclusively on theirselves
And those closely connected with them
Few people act consistently on ethical principles when dealing with “outsiders"
Prejudice
Self-justification
Selp-deception
Exacerbated by
Sociocentric cultural influences
Actively combated only through systematic cultivation of
Fair-mindedness
Honesty
Integrity
Self-knowledge
Deep concern
Welfare of
others
Leave them away
What is?
Domain
Set of concepts and principles
Guide us
Make ethical decisions
Determine what behavior helps or harms sentient creatures
Ethically wrong
Torture
Callous
Brutal
Genocide
Callous
Oppresive
Slavery
Mustached
Cruel
Sexism
Hypocritical
Racism
Prejudiced
Murder
Spiteful
Vindictive
Assault
Greedy
Fraud
Egotistical
Deceit
Deceitful
Disingenuous
Intimidation
Selfish
People are capable of either helping or harming others
Contributing to or damaging the quality of their lives
Line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being
Universally defined
Other documents
UN Declaration of Human Rights
Transcultural and trans-religious
E.g.
Being kind
Open-minded
Impartial
Truthful
Honest
Compassionate
Considerate
Honorable
Basis for ethics
Ultimate basis for ethics
Human behavior has consequences for the welfare of others
Theoretically capable of understanding when we help and when we harm
Capacity to put ourselves imaginatively in the place of others
Recognize how we would be affected
If someone were to act toward us as we are acting toward others
Even young children
Unfortunately much clearer awareness of the harm done to them
Than of the harm they do to others
Everyone has an ethical responsibility
Respect the rights of others
Including
Freedom
Well-being
Help those most in need of help
Seek the
common good
Not merely their own self-interest and egocentric pleasures
Strive in some way to make the world more just and human
Egocentrism
Fundamental barrier
Tendency to judge the world from a narrow, self-serving perspective
Humans typically masterful
Self-deception and rationalization
Often maintain beliefs that fly in the face of the evidence
Often engage in acts that blatantly violate ethical principles
Possible to learn to think critically through ethical issues
Practice and sound instruction
Acquire the disposition and skills
Required to analyze and evaluate situations
Opposing ethical perspectives
Willing to face the fact that every one is prone
Egoism
Prejudice
Self-justification
Self-deception
Root of virtually every unethical act
Lies some form and degree of self-delusion
Flaw in thinking
E.g. Hitler
Erroneous beliefs that Jews were inferior to the Aryan race
Cause of much human suffering
Kinds of thinking
Rational thinking
Considers the rights and needs of others
Strives to see things as they are
Egocentric thinking
Strives to gain its selfish interests
Strives to validate its current ways of thinking
Pathological dispositions inherent in egocentric thought
Egocentric memory
Natural tendency to “forget” evidence that doesn't support our thinking
Egocentric myopia
Overly narrow point of view
Egocentric righteousness
Natural tendency to see ourselves as in possession of “The Truth”
Egocentric hypocrisy
Natural tendency to ignore flagrant inconsistencies
Egocentric oversimplification
Natural tendency to ignore real and important complexities in the world
More
Egocentric blindness
Natural tendency to not notice facts and evidence that contradict our favored beliefs or values
Egocentric immediacy
Natural tendency to over-generalize immediate feelings and experiences
Egocentric absurdity
Natural tendency to fail to notice when our thinking has “absurd” implications