1. Morality

2. What is Morality? Deceptively easy question
A means of determining right and wrong

3. Utilitarianism
Morality is the greatest good for the greatest number of people
Morally good actions produce the greatest utility
Utility is typically happiness or pleasure

4. Jeremy Bentham First real utilitarian philosopher
All actions are motivated by pursuit of pleasure
The Hedonic Calculus

5. John Stuart Mill Mental pleasures are greater than physical pleasures
The Harms Principle: “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.”

6. Rule Utilitarianism
Calculating utility for every action is a lot of work!
Instead, evaluate the utility of rules, then follow the rules
Solves some of the more pressing issues with utilitarianism

7. Negative Utilitarianism
Do the least harm to the least number of people
Pain is a greater motivator than pleasure
Problem of painless euthanasia

8. Pros of Utilitarianism
Everybody understands utilitarian calculus
Weighing impacts in round is easy
Relatively simple to run and works with a large variety of cases and impacts
It just works

9. Cons of Utilitarianism
Very hard to quantify happiness
Who’s happiness do we prioritize?
Majoritarian abuses
Making people happy isn’t always the best course of action

10. Utilitarianism in Healthcare

11. Consequentialism Morality of an action is based on its consequences
An ends based framework. Also referred to as Teleology

12. Variants of Consequentialism
Rule Consequentialism
Mohist Consequentialism
State level consequentialism
Ethical altruism
Auguste Comte
Best consequences for everybody else

13. Deontology Actions are moral in and of themselves
Adherence to rules or duties determines morality
Means not ends
Intentions and motives, not outcomes

14. Deontology Variants Contractarianism
Morality determined through social pressures and outside influences, like contracts
Divine command theory
Rights Theory

15. Pros of Deontology Allows you to discount consequentialist impacts
You don’t need to defend plans or implementation
Gives you a clear definition of morality

16. Cons of Deontology Moral grey areas What happens when duties conflict?
Layperson’s understanding of deontology can be limited
Often collapses into utilitarianism

17. Deontology in Healthcare

18. Immanuel Kant German philosopher born in 1724
Attempted to apply practical reason to morality
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals
Hypothetical duties are not morally binding

19. The Categorical Imperative
Act only according to that maxim by which you can also will that it would become a universal law.
Moral actions are intrinsically good
The only thing we can know is good is will

20. The Categorical Imperative
Humans are independent moral agents who are ends in and of themselves
“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end”

21. Pros of Kant Absolute morality, clear positions and definitions
You can disregard edge cases and hypothetical situations
Avoids a number of subjective or relativistic criticisms of morality

22. Cons of Kant Could I lie to a Nazi? Conflicting universal claims
Universal moral systems are unrealistic, nobody actually follows them
Why is Kant’s view of what morality should be universal?

23. Moral Relativism
Morality is dependant on the individual or social group
Subject to cultural and social pressures
Can differ wildly from person to person, place to place

24. Descriptive relativism
Moral disagreements exist
It’s not up to us to condemn or praise different moral systems
Default position for most anthropology and sociology
Not a common debate position

25. Normative Relativism
Not only do moral disagreements occur, but you should tolerate those who disagree with you
Of course that might just be your opinion
This is the kind of relativism that makes morality more or less meaningless

26. Ethical Egoism People ought to act in their own best interest
Who better to know what I need than Me?
I can’t know what you need, and shouldn’t try to
James Rachels, Ayn Rand
More in the Capitalism lecture

27. Pros of Moral Relativity
Morality can be meaningless!
Multiple moral definitions can exist simultaneously
Allows you to disregard moral impacts
Very high specificity

28. Cons of Moral Relativity
Morality can be meaningless!
If moral relativity is true, moral definitions are hard to justify
Might force you to admit some awkward things

29. Relativity and Healthcare

30. Moral Skepticism
We can’t know enough about morals to make accurate moral judgments
Doesn’t disallow the existence of absolute moral truth
Epistemological skepticism: Moral beliefs don’t respond to evidence
Morals are similar to the beliefs of the paranoid or insane

31. Moral Nihilism Basically amorality
Even if things aren’t necessarily moral or immoral, actions can be preferable
Expressivism: Morals have no objective truth, but are still expressed as strong opinions
Error theory: Lack of observable morals leads to no possible moral judgments, all moral proclamations are mistakes

33. Ethics of care Morality is determined by caring for individuals
Highly dependant on interpersonal relations
Feminist, doesn’t conform to a hierarchy
More details in the Feminism lecture
Carol Gilligan

34. Legal Morality Law is a codified system of morality
Allows high specificity and a mix of absolute and relative morality
Laws can change and don’t always resemble modern morals
Jurgen Habermas

35. Pragmatic Ethics Morality could do with a dose of SCIENCE!
Morals evolve through hypothesis and testing
Draws from a number of other philosophies
Mostly descriptive, has been criticized for mixing up normative and descriptive morality

36. Situational Morality Context is everything
Can’t make blanket assertions about morality without taking circumstances into account
Not as much a unified philosophy