Ethical outlooks

Ethical outlooks
For the Greeks ethics and politics were two sides of the same coin.

Ethical outlooks
Act based/Contemporary
Consequentialists
What matters: Benefit What doesnt matter:

Intentionalists
What matters: Duty What doesnt matter:

Why you did something Exceptional circumstances Whether you promised not to Outcomes

Ethical outlooks
Act based/Contemporary

Consequentialists Benefit Ethical Egoism

An act can only be moral if you do it, so you must do it b/c you want to

Intentionalists Duty

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill 1806-1875

Utilitarianism Published 1863 An act is right if and only if if causes the greatest happiness to the greatest number (Or maximizes the value of the consequences)

Ethical outlooks
Act based/Contemporary

Consequentialists Benefit Ethical Egoism

An act can only be moral if you do it, so you must do it b/c you want to

Intentionalists Duty Kantianism

Utilitarianism
Greatest happiness to the greatest number

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals Published 1785 Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law. Never act in such a way that you treat Humanity, whether in yourself or in others, as a means only but always as an end in itself.

Ethical outlooks
Act based/Contemporary

Consequentialists Benefit Ethical Egoism

An act can only be moral if you do it, so you must do it b/c you want to

Intentionalists Duty Kantianism

Dont treat others only as means Your maxims must be universalizable

Utilitarianism
Greatest happiness to the greatest number

Obligationism
Follow the law for the sake of the command

Ethical outlooks
Contemporary Conflict between
Duty Self-interest

Classic Greek No necessary conflict, only shortsightedness

Character based Who do you want to be?

Act based Consequence or intention based

Techn vs. Action

Like know-how (techn)
You have to learn by doing [II.i, 1103a32] You have to know how to act [II.iv,
1105a32]

Unlike know-how You have to choose the acts for their own sake
making something isnt strictly speaking acting

The acts have to reflect your character

A skilled dentist could ruin your teeth if they wanted to. But a virtuous action is always preferable

You have to understand the particularities of the situation

Virtue Ethics

Ethical outlooks
Myths of the Fall
Sin and Guilt

Beauty (Kalos)
Justice

Virtue (Arete)

Ethical outlooks
Contemporary Classic Greek

Ethical outlooks
In Classical Greek there is no word for sin. The nearest is: or Hamartia which means to miss the mark Plato has Socrates repeat in no less that 3 dialogues that: No one does wrong willingly

Kalos
Ancient
Good Noble Beautiful

Contemporary
Hungry Poor Meek

Justice

Ancient Larger scope Right thing to do Relation btw individuals Opposite: Pleonexia or greediness

Contemporary Smaller scope Legal rights Relation btw individual and state Opposite: Violation of a rule

Justice
Justice is the Virtue of the Soul Justice is the Virtue of the City (Plato) What it is to be a person
Harmonious relation btw parts of the soul

What it is to be a polis
Harmonious relation between part of city

How the two go together

Different Takes
Justice

Ancient Appropriate actions Larger Scope Balance btw individuals

Good and Good at Who you are Good, Noble, Beautiful

Contemporary Legal term Smaller scope Btw individuals and the state

Virtue

Good divorced from good at External standard

Hungry, poor, and meek

Goodness

Virtue or Excellence
Greek 101.07 Aristos = best Aret = bestness Aristocracy = power to the best

Virtue or Excellence
Functionalism
Axes are for chopping so A good/virtuous axe is one that chops well and an axe is able to chop in virtue of it being sharp therefore Sharpness is an axes virtue Sharpness makes an axe and axe and makes an axe a good axe

Virtue or Excellence
Humans have some essential function (political and/or intellectual) so the human virtue will involve: justice and/or thinking and being just and/or thinking well will make you a human well, that is, you will flourish

Virtue or Excellence
An excellent axe chops well
sharpness is a virtue but an axe doesnt have to be sharp morally

A excellent human is successful morally

courage is a virtue but one has to perform the courageous act, morally/courageously the function of a human is therefore intrinsically moral in a way that the function of an axe isnt.

Virtue or Excellence
Why should being virtuous make you flourish? Well anything natural can flourish. We, for instance, are naturally political so we can build just societies in which we flourish.

Virtue or Excellence
Four approaches to ethical decisions Plato Aristotle Kant Hume

Virtue or Excellence
Plato Aristotle

justice courage moderation wisdom (holiness)

Feeling j, c, m + generosity munificence self-worth honor/ambition even temper friendliness truthfulness wittiness

Thinking
techn phronsis episteme/scient ific nous/intellectua l (philo)sophia

Virtue or Excellence
Plato
Knowledge (of the definition) of the virtues (Socratic Period) Happier if you are put to death but lead a virtuous life. Reason using your spirit to control your desires (Republic)

Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics

 Our discussion will be adequate if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of, for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits; it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician scientific proofs.

Virtue or Excellence
Aristotle
There are no universal moral laws because practical wisdom (phronesis) involves specificity so moral action isnt about following rules

Virtue or Excellence
Aristotle
The basis of morality is habituated feeling. For any situation and for any person there is the right way to feel. e.g., You should desire chocolate consistent with your need for food and constitution, consistent with excelling in life, not too much, not too littlethe golden mean. e.g., cowardice courage foolhardiness (again this isnt a rule to help us choose)

Virtue or Excellence
Aristotle
Those who truly excel (those lucky enough to have been brought up the right way) feel the right way and want to do the right thing. The rest of us (who arent vicious) struggle with weak will ((in)continence)but doing the right thing makes it easier to feel the right way next time. (Punishments can also help.) Art (specifically tragedy) can help us rebalance our feelings.

Virtue or Excellence
Aristotle
Where does deliberation come it? The light under which we think about things makes a big difference to how we feel about them. (You are enjoying a meal and then I tell you, you are eating cat.) We can deliberate the means we are going to use toward our goal of fulfillment.

Us vs. Aristotle
We are worried about ethical skepticism (nihilism) ethical relativism (Thrasymachus) To skepticism, Aristotle would reply,
Did your parents teach you nothing? Ethics isnt about proving that we are right, but an analysis of how we flourish and how we can flourish better.

To relativism, Aristotle would reply

as social animals, our flourishing must be social. We can only flourish in a social context and if that society flourishes. But whether there are other ways of flourishing at other times and places, why does that matter?

Kant 1724 - 1804

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals 1785 Practical Reason 1788 Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law.

Virtue or Excellence
Kant
Emotions cloud your judgment You need rational criterion by which to know what correct action is. Then emotions are irrelevant.

Hume 1711-1776
Treatise 1740

Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals 1751

Virtue or Excellence
Hume
Reason cant motivateonly feeling can do that. Reasons cant conflict with feelings since they only deal with what is matters of fact or relationships between ideas (although they can help us figure out means to an end.) Thus Reason is, and ought only to be a slave to the passions. Treatise [2.3.3.4]

Ethical outlooks
Virtue/Ancient Not: Should I do this?
but

Am I the kind of person who does this?