Tapsearch Com EditorIntroduction
Thanks for joining me at the ethics box this glorious Monday morning. This week you can look forward to reading these great posts…
Tuesday: The role of God?
Wednesday: The objective good?
Thursday: Are we all selfish?
Friday: Let’s get a little Kantian…
Next weeks focus: The ethics of Sex
Today I’ll introduce you to the very basics of ethical theory.
The fundamental question in ethics is: how are we to live our lives? Ethics is about deciding what is right and what is wrong, about how one ought to behave, and about what our goals and motivations should be. However in the process of considering ethical questions deeper questions arise. What does is mean for an action to be right or wrong? What is the basis of our judgements, where does ethics come from? Is there only one correct answer to ethical quandaries? Is ethics even possible?
So what does this all mean? Let’s take an example action: putting my rubbish in a bin. The goal of ethics is to determine the value of this action. Is it the right thing to do? Is there a better action I should perform instead? In order to address these questions we need a process for doing so, perhaps a set of criteria against which actions should be evaluated. Forming a process for determining the value of actions is perhaps the most important aspect of ethics. We need to decide what it is that defines the moral value of an action. Answers to this question are numerous and divergent. Hence the further question arrises as to whether more than one answer is possible, if indeed any answer is possible, to ethical problems.
I am going to call the process by which we determine the value of actions our ‘ethical framework’. The ethical framework is made up of basic rules, or axioms, and general rules, or principles. For example; one ethical framework belongs to Christianity. The axioms of this framework are the realm of theology. The foremost of these axioms is the existence of an omnipotent god. It is not our purpose here to define what god is but we do need a basic definition. For this purpose I will define god as an omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and omni-benevolent (all good) higher being. This may or may not be what all of Christianity means by God but it is close enough for our purposes.
So what we want to know is what role god plays in ethics. Not being a believer it is perhaps presumptions of me to attempt an answer. I hope I get close and do no offend anyone (note that if you feel I have erred on this you are more than welcome to post a comment and I will do my best to answer you). God can either be seen as the ‘good maker’ or the ‘good seer’. God as good maker is the source of moral laws. The good is simply what accords with god’s will. God as good seer perceives the objective good and relates this to us. The good exists outside of God and she/he/it knows the good and teaches us. The trouble with god as good seer is that she/he/it was defined as all powerful but now is without the power over right and wrong. Further god is defined as all good. If god makes the good then to describe she/he/it as all good is meaningless. To do so is to effectively say; ‘God acts in accordance with her/his/its will’. Also we may tend to think that even if God said that murder was right it would still be wrong. Either way, religion provides an ethical framework. With the existence of God as the primary axiom, with specific rules (eg the 10 commandments), and with religious texts and theology providing the general rules or guiding principles.
As we can see the issue is far from simple. These are the sorts of problems that plague all ‘ethical frameworks’. We will return to religion and ethics in the future. We will also look at other ethical frameworks. For example, we will look at consequentialist frameworks such as utilitarianism, as well as non-conseguentialist frameworks such as daeontology (duty ethics) as well as looking at the Kantian categorical imperative.
I’ll finish this introduction by offering a few definitions…
Ethics: is primarily concerned with how we ought to live.
Ethical framework: the system of axioms and principles that enables one to make moral evaluations.
Consequentialism: encompasses all ethical frameworks which make moral evaluations according to the consequences of actions.
Non-consequentialist: ethical frameworks make moral evaluations according to something contained in the act itself regardless of consequences.
Daeontology: a non-consequentialist ethical framework built around duty.
Categorical imperative: Kantian ethical framework in which moral evaluations of actions are made according to whether those actions should be universalised. We should act only in ways that could be universalised.
Utilitarianism: ethical framework that makes moral evaluations according to how well an action produces some result, the ultimate good. Eg J S Mill believed moral evaluations should be based upon the degree to which actions produce happiness, the well known slogan being “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”.
… and by recommending a few books…
Peter Singer’s Ethics Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994
and,
John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism Published by Longmans, London 1891 (note that this essay can be found in many books).
Tuesday: The role of God?
Wednesday: The objective good?
Thursday: Are we all selfish?
Friday: Let’s get a little Kantian…
Next weeks focus: The ethics of Sex
Today I’ll introduce you to the very basics of ethical theory.
The fundamental question in ethics is: how are we to live our lives? Ethics is about deciding what is right and what is wrong, about how one ought to behave, and about what our goals and motivations should be. However in the process of considering ethical questions deeper questions arise. What does is mean for an action to be right or wrong? What is the basis of our judgements, where does ethics come from? Is there only one correct answer to ethical quandaries? Is ethics even possible?
So what does this all mean? Let’s take an example action: putting my rubbish in a bin. The goal of ethics is to determine the value of this action. Is it the right thing to do? Is there a better action I should perform instead? In order to address these questions we need a process for doing so, perhaps a set of criteria against which actions should be evaluated. Forming a process for determining the value of actions is perhaps the most important aspect of ethics. We need to decide what it is that defines the moral value of an action. Answers to this question are numerous and divergent. Hence the further question arrises as to whether more than one answer is possible, if indeed any answer is possible, to ethical problems.
I am going to call the process by which we determine the value of actions our ‘ethical framework’. The ethical framework is made up of basic rules, or axioms, and general rules, or principles. For example; one ethical framework belongs to Christianity. The axioms of this framework are the realm of theology. The foremost of these axioms is the existence of an omnipotent god. It is not our purpose here to define what god is but we do need a basic definition. For this purpose I will define god as an omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and omni-benevolent (all good) higher being. This may or may not be what all of Christianity means by God but it is close enough for our purposes.
So what we want to know is what role god plays in ethics. Not being a believer it is perhaps presumptions of me to attempt an answer. I hope I get close and do no offend anyone (note that if you feel I have erred on this you are more than welcome to post a comment and I will do my best to answer you). God can either be seen as the ‘good maker’ or the ‘good seer’. God as good maker is the source of moral laws. The good is simply what accords with god’s will. God as good seer perceives the objective good and relates this to us. The good exists outside of God and she/he/it knows the good and teaches us. The trouble with god as good seer is that she/he/it was defined as all powerful but now is without the power over right and wrong. Further god is defined as all good. If god makes the good then to describe she/he/it as all good is meaningless. To do so is to effectively say; ‘God acts in accordance with her/his/its will’. Also we may tend to think that even if God said that murder was right it would still be wrong. Either way, religion provides an ethical framework. With the existence of God as the primary axiom, with specific rules (eg the 10 commandments), and with religious texts and theology providing the general rules or guiding principles.
As we can see the issue is far from simple. These are the sorts of problems that plague all ‘ethical frameworks’. We will return to religion and ethics in the future. We will also look at other ethical frameworks. For example, we will look at consequentialist frameworks such as utilitarianism, as well as non-conseguentialist frameworks such as daeontology (duty ethics) as well as looking at the Kantian categorical imperative.
I’ll finish this introduction by offering a few definitions…
Ethics: is primarily concerned with how we ought to live.
Ethical framework: the system of axioms and principles that enables one to make moral evaluations.
Consequentialism: encompasses all ethical frameworks which make moral evaluations according to the consequences of actions.
Non-consequentialist: ethical frameworks make moral evaluations according to something contained in the act itself regardless of consequences.
Daeontology: a non-consequentialist ethical framework built around duty.
Categorical imperative: Kantian ethical framework in which moral evaluations of actions are made according to whether those actions should be universalised. We should act only in ways that could be universalised.
Utilitarianism: ethical framework that makes moral evaluations according to how well an action produces some result, the ultimate good. Eg J S Mill believed moral evaluations should be based upon the degree to which actions produce happiness, the well known slogan being “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”.
… and by recommending a few books…
Peter Singer’s Ethics Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford 1994
and,
John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism Published by Longmans, London 1891 (note that this essay can be found in many books).
