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Morality
Morality: the basis for a choice
among significant options
Are we born with the knowledge of
right and wrong, or are we taught the
difference?
When is inhumanity humane?
“The end may justify the means as long
as there’s something that justifies the
end.”
- Leon Trotsky
Is self-interest moral?
Enlightened Self-Interest:
Serving the self in order to have
an effective government that
provides for people better than
they could provide for themselves.
Can true altruism exist?
Where do we see examples?
Utilitarianism:
Bentham: felt that humans were pleasure/pain beings.
Human action derives from a desire for pleasure & a fear of pain.
Motives (means) do not matter, but consequences (ends) do
“Greatest Good for the Greatest number. “
.
Mill: different than Bentham - felt that there was difference in
the qualities of pleasure, where as Bentham felt there was only
differences in quantity of pleasure. Mill felt that intellectual
pleasure are of higher value than gluttonous pleasures.
“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied
than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates
dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
Kant –
Moral decisions should be based on reason
He focuses on motives/actions rather than
consequences. Moral actions come from a sense of
duty.
“Saving your enemy is more moral that
saving your friend”
Why?
Universal actions
Can we will that this act be universally applied?
Moral Absolutism –
There are absolute moral laws (right and wrong)
that apply to all people despite the culture, values
or context that they are applied. The number and
laws depend on how absolute a person is, but they
agree that there is at least one moral law.
Moral Relativism –
Beliefs about right and wrong have no universal
meaning, to each their own.
“I’ll do what I think is right, and you do what you
think is right.”
Sometimes called ‘situational ethics’.
In our text, we are given the example of a terminally
ill woman whose husband who was being
overcharged by the pharmacist for his wife’s
medicine. Should he steal the medicine?
Does gender affect our moral judgments?
Sacrificing for a moral belief
Where do we see this in modern culture?