Ethics and Moral Principles, Cheat Sheet of Ethics

Download Ethics and Moral Principles and more Cheat Sheet Ethics in PDF only on Docsity! Lesson 1. Ethics and Philosophy Notion of Philosophy  Philosophy has always been known as “love of wisdom” — Pythagoras of Samos.  Philosophy is derived from two Greek words: 1) Philo – Love 2) Sophia – Wisdom  The search for truth and living the highest kind of life – Hinduism ‘Darsana.’  Philosophy as free, rational and independent search for knowledge and truth by which we may live life well without fellow human in the world. It was meant to be for all rational beings, an enduring desire to pursue the wisdom that can give a more profound meaning and purpose to life.  Is all about our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and the world.  Philosophy is the development of these ideas, the attempt to work them out with all their implications and complications. It is the attempt to see their connections and compare them with other people’s.  Philosophy is the attempt to coordinate a number of different ideas into a single viewpoint and defending what you believe against those who are out to refute you.  Philosophy is a reflection. It is stepping back, listening to yourself and other people (including the great philosophers) and trying to understand and evaluate what it is that you hear, and what it is that you believe. Four (4) Primary Features of Philosophy 1) Articulation. Putting your ideas in clear, concise, readily understandable language. 2) Argument. Supporting your ideas with reason from other ideas, principles, and observations to establish your conclusions and overcome objections. 3) Analysis. Understanding an idea by distinguishing and clarifying its various components. 4) Synthesis. Gathering together different ideas into a single, unified vision.  Philosophy, through reflection and by means of articulations and argument, allows us to analyze and critically examine our ideas, and to synthesize our vision of ourselves and the world, to put the pieces together in a single, unified, defensible vision.  Synthesis is the ultimate aim of philosophical reflection, and scattered ideas and arguments are no more philosophy than a handful of unconnected words is a poem. Seven (7) Branches of Philosophy 1) Metaphysics- is the study of ultimate reality. It inquiries into the nature of reality. What kind of reality is the universe? Is it matter or mind? Or is the universe some sort of a spiritual being? Was the universe created? Do things operate by chance, or is there an intelligence at the heart of things? Is the universe friendly or unfriendly to humans? Of what value is our knowledge of ultimate reality? 2) Epistemology- the theory of knowledge. It raises questions such as: how do we know? What is the source of knowledge? Is there a limit to what we can know? How do we know that our knowledge is true? What is knowledge for? 3) Ethics- the study of morality. It deals with the norms of right and wrong, good and bad action. Is morality absolute or relative? What are ethical theories? What is the role of morality in society? Why do we have to be moral? 4) Politics- theory of an ideal state. It deals with questions related to why people form political organization. What makes for an ideal state? What is the best form of government? For whom and for what does the state exist? Who should have the right to rule? Should politics be divorced from morality and religion? Why do people have political ideologies? Should the state exist for the individual, or should the individual exist for the state? 5) Logic- the study of correct reasoning. It raises questions like: what is reasoning? What different is there between deduction and induction? How do we determine the validity of reasoning? What are the so- called Material, Formal and Semantical fallacies? Why should we be logical in reasoning? 6) Theology- the study of God. It is an inquiry as to whether God is a reality or just a fiction of the human imagination. How does God look like? Is God a person, or a formless being? Are there arguments which prove or disprove the existence of God as a supernatural being? What does Pantheism or Deism, or Agnosticism, Atheism say about God? Why do people need God? 7) Anthropology- the philosophy of human. It deals with question of human’s origin, nature and destiny. Is human a creation of God, or a product of evolution by natural selection? Is man free to determine his/her destiny. Or is he/she determined by forces beyond his/her control? Does human have a purpose in this vast universe? Does human have a soul that survives after death? What is human’s future in the universe? Can human maintain his/her immorality on earth? Ethics  It is a philosophical study of morality.  The word is also commonly used interchangeably with “morality” – means that the subject matter of this study is to study moral principles.  When we do moral philosophy, we reflect on how we ought to live.  Idea- is the intellectual image of a thing, or the intellectual apprehension of a thing.  Term- refers to the verbal expression of an idea. It is an articulate sound which serves as a convention sign of an idea.  Four (4) Types of Term 1) Singular Term- one which stands for a single individual. (Ex. Mr. Santos, Quezon City.) 2) Particular Term- one which stands for an indefinite number of individual of a class. (Ex. Some animals, some students.) 3) Universal Term- stands not only for a class as a whole but also for each member of that class. (Ex. Man, animal, soldier, rat, cat etc.) 4) Collective Term- refers to a group or collection of objects or individuals regarded as a unit. (Ex. Family, army, crowd, society, etc.)  Judgment- is the agreement or disagreement of one idea with another idea. It is an act of the mind affirming an idea by another idea, or denying an idea from another idea. (Ex. Sampaguita is a flower.)  Proposition- is the verbal expression of judgment. It is a statement in which something is either affirmed or defined, – definition is a statement that gives the meaning of a term.  Two (2) Types of Proposition 1) Affirmative Proposition- wherein the predicate term affirmed the subject term. (Ex. Mary is beautiful.) 2) Negative Proposition- it is wherein the predicate is denied by the subject. (Ex. Mary is not beautiful.)  Argument- is a series of propositions where the last proposition supposedly follows from or is supported by the first proposition. The last proposition is called conclusion, and the first proposition is called the premises.  Premise: if the ground is wet, therefore it rains.  Premise: The ground is wet.  Conclusion: Therefore, it rains.  Idea is term, judgment is the affirmation and negation between two terms, proposition is the verbal expression of the judgment, and argument is the agreement or disagreement of 3 propositions.  Validity – it holds if the conclusion follows its premises, or the premises follows the conclusion. It focusses on the structure or form of the argumentation.  Soundness (Truthness)- if it is valid and all of its premises are true.  We need to prevent to commit fallacy in our argumentation. Types of Syllogism 1) Categorical Syllogism- a syllogism that composed of 3 terms and 3 premises.  It declares something.  Follows a subject copula predicate structure.  Have 2 premises and 1 conclusion.  Major Premise- is the first premise and that contain the major term and the middle term.  Minor Premise- is the second premise, it contains the middle term and the minor term.  Conclusion- contains the major term and the minor term. Example:  Student form PUP are smart. – Major Premise  Mary is a student in PUP. – Minor Premise  Therefore, Mary is smart. – Conclusion.  Major term is found in the major premise and it is the predicate of the conclusion.  Minor term is found in the minor premise and it is the subject of the conclusion.  Middle term only appears in the premises. Example: Argument Validity Truth Value The murder of Mr. Howard is the killer. P is M. True Anna is not the killer. S is not M. ? Therefore, Anna is not the murderer of Mr. Howard. Therefore, S is not P. ? A good person is someone who does not steal. M is not P. True Henry is a good person. S is M. True Therefore, Henry is someone who does not steal. Therefore, S is not P. ? 2) Hypothetical Syllogism- Does not follow typical subject copula predicate structure. It refers in their proposition and gives condition. Can either be:  Conditional Syllogism- uses if and then. Have antecedent and consequence. Example: Argument Validity Truth Value If Leni wins, therefore Marcos loses the Presidential election. If P then Q. True Leni wins. P. True Therefore, Marcos loses the Presidential election. Then, Q. (Modus True Ponens) If Leni wins, therefore Marcos loses the Presidential election. If P then Q. True Marcos did not lose the Presidential election. Not Q. True Therefore, Leni did not win. Then, Not P. (Modus Tollens) True  Disjunctive Syllogism- uses either and or. Has 2 disjuncts that should exclude each other. Example: Argument Structure Truth Value Either Leni or Marcos wins. Either A or B Leni wins. A True Therefore, Marcos did not win. Therefore not B. (Ponendo Tollens = Incomplete ) True Either Anna or Rosemarie killed Mr. Howard. Either A or B Anna did not kill Mr. Howard. Not A True Therefore, Rosemarie killed Mr. Howard. Therefore B. (Tollendo Ponens) Maybe false Mary is either honest or dishonest. Mary is honest. Therefore, Mary is not dishonest. (Complete)  Conjunctive Syllogism- use words not both, and. Has 2 conjuncts. There are two moods in disjunctive syllogism. 1. Complete Disjunction- which is exclusively disjunctive and total contradiction (Ponendo Tollens). 2. Incomplete Disjunction- which is not exclusively disjunctive, or the disjuncts has a possibility of being true or false at the same time and has only one fallacy (Tollendo Ponens). Argument Structure Truth Value Either Leni or Marcos wins. Either A or B Leni wins. A True Therefore, Marcos did not win. Therefore not B/ (Ponendo Pollens). True Either Anna or Rosemarie killed Mr. Howard. Either A or B Anna did not kill Mr. Howard. Not A True Either Anna kill or did not kill Mr. Howard. Either A or B Maybe false Anna did not kill. Not A. Therefore, Anna did not kill Mr. Howard. Therefore, B. 3) Conjunctive Hypothetical Syllogism- uses both not, and. Has 2 conjuncts. Example: Argument Structure Truth Value Anna could not have been in both Chicago and Kentucky when Mr. Howard was murdered in Chicago. Not A and B True Anna is in Chicago at the time of his murder. A True Therefore, she was not in Kentucky when Mr. Howard was murdered. Therefore not B (Ponendo Tollens) Tue Rosemarie cannot be both in the house of Mr. Howard when he was murdered and at the market as the same time. Not A and B True Rosemarie was not in the market. Not B True Therefore, Rosemarie was in the house of Mr. Howard when he was murdered. Therefore, A. (Tollendo Ponens) ? 4) Fallacy on Conditional Syllogism- uses if and then, if you:  Reject the antecedent  Accept the consequent  It should always follow the: ◾ If A then B. ◾ A ◾ Therefore B. ◾ If A then B. ◾ Not B. ◾ Then not A.  But the world is a confusing mixture of overlapping societies and groups and individuals do not necessarily follow the majority view.  We are part of various family, professional, religious and peer groups. These groups often have conflicting values.  We are multicultural to some extent.  Cultural Relativism doesn’t try to establish common norms between societies. There is no exhausted list “society approved” or “correct” on a society.  If we say that “racism is wrong” we mean that “my society disapproves of racism,” but this begs the questions, which society we are referring to? As we are multicultural based on the family, region, religion etc.  Hence cultural relativism does not respond to the problem of moral diversity. Moral Diversity  Since CR does not have any exhaustive list of accepted morality in a certain society, this leave us to the problem of moral diversity.  Moralist believes that moral diversity is the proof of moral relativism.  There’s a truth to be found in moral matters, but no culture has a monopoly on this truth. Different cultures need to learn from each other. Difficult cultures need to learn from each other. To see the error and blind spots in our own values, we need to see how other cultures do things, and how they react to what do. Learning about other cultures can help us to correct our cultural biases and move closer or to the truth about how we ought to live. Moral Realism  Also called objective view, objective values. Claims that some thinks are objectively right or wrong, independently of what anyone may think or feel.  Dr. Martin Luther King, for example, claimed that racist actions were objectively wrong. The wrongness of racism was a fact. Any person or culture that approved of racism was mistaken. In saying this, King wasn’t absolutizing the norms of his society; instead, he disagreed with accepted norms. He appealed to a higher truth about right and wrong, one that didn’t depend on human thinking or feeling. He appealed to objective values.  Morality is a product of culture.  Cultures disagree widely about morality.  There is no clear way to resolve moral differences.  Since morality is a product of culture, there can’t be objective moral truths.  The problem with this reasoning is that a product of culture can express objective truths. Every book is a product of culture; and yet many book express some objective truths. So too, a moral code could be a product of culture, and yet still express some objective truths about how people ought to live.  Objective Truths- are truths no matter what are the circumstances.  What are objective truths?  It is 7 am today = not objective truth but we just defined that it is so.  Male are taller than female = not objective, but it begs the questions what is tall?  Male has more concentration of androgens, and female has more concentration of estrogens?  I think therefore I am?  Since cultures disagree widely about morality, there can’t be objective moral truths.  But the mere fact of disagreement doesn’t show that there’s no truth of the matter, that neither side is right or wrong. Culture disagree widely about anthropology or religion or even physics.  Yet there may still be a truth of the matter about these subjects.  But what are these truth? There’s no clear way to resolve moral differences  Since there’s no clear way to resolve moral differences, there can’t be objective moral truths. There may be clear ways to resolve at least many moral differences.  Moral Skepticism- if there is a morality, we cannot know it.  Moral Nihilism- there is no morality. Lesson 5. Eastern Ethics 1) Confucianism- it emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, human heartedness, justice and sincerity. Text under Confucianism are: The Analects, The Mencius, and The Xunxi.  “The good on the level of the state and the level of the individual”  Primary aim of Master Kung is to nurture and develop a person so that this person might be someone who can be useful to the state, rather than to become scholar who will be part of a certain social class.  An ideal state must have a ‘moral character’ in the sense that the state should have no other end than the perfection of human relationships and the cultivation of virtues of the individual, and that the morality of the state must be the same as the morality of the individual. Moral characteristics of the Confucian society:  Everyone must follow Li- social rules and rituals.  Everyone must follow the Rectification of Names- there is government when the prince is prince and the minister as minister, when the father is father and the son is a son.  Xiao- son must have filial piety.  Zhong- an official must have loyalty towards his/her ruler.  Ren- a ruler must have benevolence towards his/her people.  Junzi- a virtuous person must have a comprehensive set of virtues. Virtues of a Junzi  Ren- benevolence, humanness  Yi- righteousness or justice  Li- proper rite  Zhi- integrity or trust  Yong- courage  Shu- reciprocity or the golden rule  Ren-Zheng- a benevolence politics where the state adopts just and benevolent policies regarding the distribution of external goods, as well as, policies that may be characterized as ‘universal altruism’ in the sense that a virtuous person cares about everyone in the world.  De-Zheng- a ‘virtue-based’ politics where the ruler wins the allegiance and trust of the people not through laws or coercion, but through the transformative power of virtuous actions.  The central idea of Confucianism is that it is not enough for a state to be strong and prosperous, it must have moral character – virtues intimately connected with politics.  Confucians are internalists as they define virtuous actions in terms of internal factors to the agents such as intensions, motives, emotions or deep dispositions. They are also deontologists as they believe in the existence of constraints on the promotion of the good. 2) Buddhism- it teaches that the core of the problem in our life is desires or craving and in order to fulfill such end of man or goal of man is to follow Eightfold paths.  There are ills (heya) and their causes (heya-helu) and also cure (hana) and a path (hanpaya) exists. The world ‘nidana’ have causative factors that constitute four noble verities, these are:  Duhkha (Suffering)- includes old age, disease, decay and unpleasant experiences and death.  Samudaya (Cause)- Duhkha is connected with the desire (kama), form (rupa) and formlessness (a-rupa), hellish, animal, ghostly demonical, human and divine, none of which is free from suffering (duhkha).  Nirodha (Ssuppression)- stopping all craving.  Marga (Way)- man alone is the only creature that can attain nirvana (emancipation).  Karman (Action)- pushes the heya-helu into motion, but this karman does not have a divine factor.  The law of karman tries to cover the three dimension of time by conceiving man in his present life as a creature of the past and an agent of the future. The invisible thread that connects the past, present and future is the moral will be working in concert with the intellectual factor which contributes to rebirth and if perfect leads to salvation.  Both samsara and nirvana are dependent upon the operation of the intellect. The chain of causation (pratitya-samutpada) is constituted by twelve being responsible for the next one in order: ◾ Avidya- ignorance ◾ Upadana- attachment ◾ Samskara- confrontations ◾ Bhava- existence ◾ Vijnana- consciousness ◾Jali- birth ◾ Nama-rupa- name and form ◾Jara-marana- old age & death ◾Sadayata- six fields of sense-organs ◾ Sparsa- contact ◾ Vedana- sensation ◾ Trsna- desire or craving  If a being in any of the realms of desire (kama-loka), form (rupa-loka) and formlessness (a-rupa-loka) had acted in the past life under the influence of ignorance, he must have piled up a stock of impression or conformation which operates to bring about a renewal of existence, which is the present embodiment.  A fresh longing for rebirth is produced by the accumulation of the merits and demerits which a generated for karman.  This fresh samskara is responsible for the next embodiment or birth and the inevitable effect of birth is now find ourselves, with their broad or narrow range of options, are themselves the product of earlier decisions, as they in their turn were products of decision before them and so on.  All karma is ultimately bad because it binds us to this world of illusion; it is mechanism by which conditional existence maintains itself existence, which gains meaning only through activities characterized by Maya, and therefore by definition ultimately unrewarding, so long as anyone remains subject to Maya, this binding mechanism continues to operate.  Samskara is the name of this binding process. Samskara means impression or consequence. It describes the tendencies in each person’s character that have arisen as a result of thoughts, intentions and related actions throughout his or her existence, this includes not only this present life but also an indeterminate number of previous lives or cycles of experience.  Thus so long as one is subject to karma, the process of samsara is inevitable.  Samsara may be described as well, as the domain of karma.  Karma then spreads its tentacles timelessly, over the past, present and future, working itself out according to the laws of causality.  There are Three (3) types of Karma: i. Prarabda Karma. Karma that is the consequence of deeds begun before that is, karma borne in this life as a result of deeds performed in an earlier existence, the consequences of which are still working themselves out. ii. Sanchita Karma. The accumulated Samskaras or karmic deposits that we built up in the past lives and await fruition in some future life; these deposits are the network of subliminal Samskaras (or activators) that form the subconscious or depth of memory (Smrii). iii. Agami Karma. This is the karma arising from actions in this present life, which will work themselves out, according to the same inexorable natural law of cause and effect.  The doctrine of karma is often represented as deterministic, even fatalistic, and there are certainly elements of fatalism in the teaching. But, taking from this quote, the karma we get is the karma we have freely chosen, and nobody but ourselves is responsible for where or what we are. So there is both determinism and free will in this Hindu teaching.  Some would say that karma effects your caste system or the caste system into which you are brought into.  There are four (4) caste system in Hindu: i. Brahmans / Brahamanas (Priestly Caste). This comprises the educated class of religious and academic leaders; priests, scholars, philosophers. ii. Kshatriyas (Caste of Warriors). Comprising both military people and politicians and civil authorities. iii. Viashyas (Merchants and Farmers). Those who produce the nation’s financial and economic resources. iv. Shudras. The lowest of the four major castes, the workers and servants.  But there is a caste lower than Shudras, they are the Pariahs or outcast, who are outside the caste system, they are generally left to perform the most menial and undesirable tasks.  Some would say that you need achieve the highest of all castes, the Brahmans to reach the goal of humans, but some would say that there is no need to go higher on your caste system to do this.