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Ethics: The Study of Right and
Wrong

The Ancients (5th-4th Centuries BC)
– Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

The Moderns (17th-19th Centuries)
– Descartes, Hume, Kant
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Contemporary Schools(20th Century)
– Positivism, Existentialism, Pragmatism
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Lowell Kleiman
Descriptive Ethics: The Study
of Actual Codes of Conduct
History
 Cross-Cultural Anthropology
 Ethnic Studies

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Lowell Kleiman
Normative Ethics: The Study of the
Universally Valid Code of Conduct
– Ethnocentrism
• There is a Universally Valid Code.
• We have it.
– The Ethnocentric Fallacy
• Error of Judging Others By Standard Not Their Own
• Mathematics as a Normative Model
– Mathnocentrism
– The Mathnocentric Fallacy?
– Moral Skepticism
• Metaphysical Certainty
• Common Sense Fallibility
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Ethical Theory

Religious Authoritarianism
– It is right if sanctioned by deity.
– Is something right because God says so,
or does God say so because it is right?
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Individualism
– Egotism
If it suits me, it is right.
– Egoism
If it suits the agent, it is right.
– The Prisoner’s Dilemma
– Morality as a set of agreements that optimize, not
maximize, self-interest.
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Ethical Theory (Cont.)
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Utilitarianism
– Act
It is right if it leads to more good than harm.
– Rule
It is right if it leads to more good than harm
as a rule.
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Traditional Moralism
– Established Morality
It is right if it is the custom.
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Ethical Theory (Cont.)

Traditional Moralism (Cont.)
– The Categorical Imperative
• If it is right, it is universalizable;
• It treats others as an end-in-themselves, not just as a
means to an end;
• It is motivated by a sense of duty defined by the moral
law.
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Pragmatism
– If, at the end of inquiry, we say it is right, it is
right.
– From moral skepticism to common sense
fallibilism as practical necessity.
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Applied Ethics
Biomedical
 Business
 Legal
 Science
 Virtual (Computer) Ethics
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Lowell Kleiman
MetaEthics: The Study of the
Foundations of Normative Ethics

Subjectivism
Morality as in the eye of the beholder.
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Objectivism
Morality as a matter of fact.
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Positivism
Morality as venting.
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