Overview of Ethics

Ethics are moral values.

There are three levels

Meta-ethics/ ethical theory

-Are there objective values?

Normative-ethics

Theories of right and wrong

Applied ethics

Apply theories to specific issues

-Why talk about theories that are relative?

-What is right and wrong?

Relativism

Counter intuitive

Depends on culture

Individual decides what's best

Nihilism

There is no right or wrong

Absolutism

There are objective universal values

Egotism

Everyone should pursue their own self interest

Consequentialism

satisfy everyone as a whole

rightness or wrong is determined by consequences

no action is right or wrong in itself

Utilitarianism

Pleasure is good; pain is bad

The right action is pleasurable

Deontology

Bound to do and not to do regardless of consequences

Must fulfill certain duties and forbidden from violating others rights

Justification:

Reflective Equilibrium

trys to balance moral intuitions and theory

build theory that systematizes and justifies the intuitions

Apply to new kinds of cases