Download Ethics, Morals, Codes, and Laws

Ethics, Morals, Codes, and Laws
COMU2020 Phil Graham
Week 4
Regulation and Codes of Conduct
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Overview of Australian regulatory bodies
ABA
PRIA
ADMA
AAA
“Codes of Conduct”
Ethics
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How do we ask and answer ethical
questions?
What are “ethics”?
How do we identify ethical issues?
How do these differ from moral issues?
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Is there a difference?
Ethics .. cntd
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Ethics and morals are traditionally treated
as separate
Ethics are different intellectual framework
and morality is patterns of practice
Ways of “seeing” and ways of doing are
treated as separate
BUT … Ethics are always applied
Ethical frameworks
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Origins of ethics
The ethical question: how ought we live?
Normative ethics
Virtue Ethics, Consequentialism, Deontology
Normative frameworks
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Virtue ethics (A. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)
‘Golden mean’ is a balance among all the virtues.
‘arête (excellence or virtue) phronesis (practical or moral
wisdom) and eudaimonia (usually translated as
happiness or flourishing.)’ Hursthouse (2003).
Virtue do not inhere in a single good act, but is a way of
being that is infused throughout a person. It is also
called ‘character ethics’.
The dominant form of ethics throughout the West for
many centuries.
What questions can we ask within this framework?
eg the un-virtuous character, defining virtue, rules …?
“Intelligence and courage”
Normative frameworks
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Deontology
Rule-based ethics.
Says we are duty bound to live according to rules,
regardless of the consequences.
Kant’s categorical imperative is an updated deontology:
“Since by nature (according to Kant) the moral law is
universal and impartial and rational, the categorical is a
way of formulating the criteria by which any action can
pass the test of universality, impartiality, and rationality.
That is its only function” (Pecorino, 2002).
Kant is saying that any ethical principle must be
applicable in a universal way, in all circumstances.
Deontology is opposed to consequentialism.
What are its weaknesses? What questions can we ask?
Normative frameworks
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Consequentialism
A part of utilitarian ethics.
The overarching principle is that the rightness of an act
depends on its effects upon society.
The utilitarian bent is that the rightness of an act is
assessed in terms of “the greatest good for the greatest
many”.
The principle privileges the social over the individual.
What are the flaws? What questions can be asked.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consequentialism/
Metaethics
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Study of where ethics arise from.
Moral philosophy, metaphysics of ethics
Relativism—individual, cultural, temporal (?)
‘Objective vs realist’ perspectives
‘Psychological issues’
‘Altruism vs egoism’
‘Male vs female morality’
Fieser (2003).
Questions? Assumptions? Criticisms?
Applied Ethics
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According to some, that branch of ethics that is
concerned with contentious issues, such as
bioethics, cloning, abortion, human rights – in
short, all the kinds of issues that inform new
policies.
But all ethics are applied in a very real sense.
Therefore social practice is the most appropriate
framework for applied ethics (Isaacs and
Massey, 1994).
Social Practice Ethics
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An applied ethics that is based in social context, socialisation, and
professional contexts.
It focuses on the human nature of engagement, and how
engagements are shaped by ways of seeing, being, and acting that
we acquire through our engagements.
It is fundamentally a communicative ethics that recognises persons
are those who engage in social life, not, eg, institutions,
philosophies, and so on, though these most certainly
It recognises power imbalances, social justice, and most
importantly, that ethics are inseparable from all social interaction
The “ought” of social practice is oriented towards having sensibilities
towards others as persons and being aware that what we do has
direct effects on those persons.
In turn, this has a direct effect on the overall ethical character of
the social systems we inhabit.
Communication plays an integral role, including media practices.
Conclusion
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Laws and codes are neither ethics nor morality
Ethics are an aspect of every human interaction
Ethics are always applied
The ethical is a dimension of human experience
concerned with producing the good life.
It is incumbent upon each of us as individuals to
be aware of our role in the constitution of the
ethical dimension of social life.
References
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Aristotle, A. The Nicomachean Ethics. Penguin.
Hursthouse, R. (2003). "Virtue Ethics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Fall 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2003/entries/ethics-virtue/
Pecorino, P. A. (2002). Ethical Traditions.
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/pecorip/SCCCWEB/ETEXTS/MEDICAL_ETHICS
_TEXT/Chapter_2_Ethical_Traditions/Categorical_Imperative.htm
Sinnott-Armstrong, W. (2003). "Consequentialism", The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
URL http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2003/entries/consequentialism/
Fieser, J. (2003). Ethics. http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm