Health Sciences 2610F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Applied Ethics, Meta-Ethics, Contract
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Moral Theories
Good or Evil: Who decide?
Right or wrong? Good or Bad?
golden rule: do unto others as you would want to do unto you
5 C’s of Morality - why are people driven to do good/bad things
1. cooperation
2. compromise
3. compassion
4. conquer
5. conflict
Charlie Problem: if you had two choices to make, both difficult and justifiable, looking at
benefits and risks, one position will directly harm or benefit you and the latter will
harm/benefit the other person; how do we balance this?
what do we owe to somebody else
Sources of Morality
Subjectivism: The view that right actions are those sanctioned by a person
based on conscience; what is right or wrong to you
gut feeling
problem: no/lack of consensus due to different oppinion
Relativism: The view that right actions are those sanctioned by one’s culture
context matters
what needs to weigh in? forces us to look at dilemma in context to specifics and
big picture
problem: different groups agree to different sets of norms (all relative to
something, what is the something)
Moral Objectivism: The view that there are moral norms or principles that are valid or
true for everyone
end of day there is one over all truth
must be some common basis that exists independently
if i can see it and touch it, it is there
Forces us to look at facts, issues, rational and logical way to filter and come to a
decision
Prob: authority (presses mass number of people and assert their right or wrong
POV that makes it unquestionable
Prob: rationality is a double edged sword: looking at facts and logic, but skilled
person can rationalize anything
Purpose of laws
Consequences hang in balance with amount of badness of what you’ve done
Obligate and enforce social order
create social cooperation
protect the vulnerable
guide actions
resolve conflicts
Laws
Legally binding (what can and can’t I do)
Premised on political views
Not necessarily moral or ethical in themselves
Stealing is illegal but what if it was for a small child, or to save a life
Overlap of law moral and ethic: intercept but are not mutually inclusive of each other
What Ethics is all about
Ethics: The study of morality using tools and methods of philosophy
not always finding the dichotomy of right or wrong, but the best possible
methods
Metaethics: Study of meaning and justification of basic moral beliefs
addressing uniformalities
fundamentally idealogical
what makes a good citizen, patient?
Normative Ethics: Search for, and justification of, moral standards or norms
john and sis get candy - he shares candy with his sis; what if he takes her
candy? and she doesn’t care? is it ethically justifiable?
i saw i want i take
Applied Ethics: The use of moral norms and concepts to resolve practical moral issues
being pragmatic
health care: people have no health insurance and are bleeding to death
Bioethics: Applied ethics focused on health care, medical research and medical
technology
Moral Theories
Deontological Theory: the rightness of actions is determined partly or entirely by their
intrinsic value
primarily focused on big picture in metaethics
what ought we to do/not do in a situation, what is our obligation?
intention behind choices
how things turn out is influenced by chance, circumstance and other unforeseeable
things that sway outcomes from what your intentions were
Document Summary
Good or bad? golden rule: do unto others as you would want to do unto you. 5 c"s of morality - why are people driven to do good/bad things: cooperation, compromise, compassion, conquer, con ict. Subjectivism: the view that right actions are those sanctioned by a person based on conscience; what is right or wrong to you gut feeling problem: no/lack of consensus due to di erent oppinion. Forces us to look at facts, issues, rational and logical way to lter and come to a decision. Prob: authority (presses mass number of people and assert their right or wrong. Prob: rationality is a double edged sword: looking at facts and logic, but skilled person can rationalize anything. Consequences hang in balance with amount of badness of what you"ve done. Obligate and enforce social order create social cooperation protect the vulnerable guide actions resolve con icts. Legally binding (what can and can"t i do)
