1. Ethics and Ethical Theories
Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology, Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.

2. Morality and moral systems
Rules of conduct
Rules for individuals
Rules for social policies
Principles of evaluation

3. Justifying rules for moral systems
Religion – teachings of religious leaders
Philosophical ethics – appeals to reason
Law – codes determined by constitutions and legislation

4. Discussion stoppers People disagree on solutions. Who am I to judge?
They also agree on many things.
Who am I to judge?
Sometimes we have to make judgments.
Ethics is a private matter.
Morality is essentially a public system.
Morality is a matter for individual cultures.
Do in Rome as the Romans do.

5. Why ethical theories are needed
Follow the golden rule.
Doesn’t cover when others have different desires.
Follow your own conscience.
Some people think it all right to fly airplanes into towers.

6. Consequence based ethical theories
Bentham ( ) and Mill ( )
What results from an act
The ends justify the means
Principle of social utility measured by the resulting amount of happiness

7. Utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism – Act is good if it results in the greatest good for the greatest number.
What happens to minority?
Rule utilitarianism – Act is good if it comes from following rules that bring good to greatest number.
Should we base ethics on happiness and pleasure?

8. Duty-based ethical theories Deontological theories
Kant ( ) – Duties and obligations that people have to one another.
People have rational natures
People should never be treated as means to the ends of others
Each individual has the same moral worth as every other.

9. Rule deontology Kant’s categorical imperative
Rules that all individuals should be treated as ends in themselves and not means to an end.
Rules that can be universally binding for all people.
One person or group should not be privileged over all others.

10. Act deontology Ross (1930) - Problem if two conflicting moral duties
When conflict, consider individual situations
Prima facie (self-evident) duties.
Honesty, justice, helpfulness
Actual duty – What to do when have conflicts.
Use rational intuitionism.
Weigh evidence to decide course of action in particular case

11. Contract-based ethical theories
Hobbes( ) – Premoral state
state of nature where all free to do as like
People establish formal legal code
In each person’s self-interest to develop system with rules
Objections – Depends only on formal legal rules
Difference between ‘doing no harm’ and ‘doing good’.

12. Rights-based contract theories
Jefferson (1776) and Aquinas ( )
Natural rights or inalienable and self-evident rights
Legal rights – positive rights and negative rights
Negative rights
Privacy, no interference in right to vote
Positive rights
Education (in US through 12th grade)

13. Character-based ethical theories
Virtue ethics - Plato (427?-327 BCE) and Aristotle ( BCE)
Development of good character traits and habits
Be a moral person rather than just follow rules
Agent-oriented rather than action or rule-oriented
Develop character traits such as kindness, truthfulness, honesty, trustworthiness, helpfulness, generosity, and justice
More likely to work in homogeneous societies rather than our pluralistic one
Consequences often should be taken into account

14. Single comprehensive theory
Rawls (1971) and Moor (1999) – Just-Consequentialist Theory
Start with core values – ‘Do no harm’
Support justice, rights, and duties – ‘Do your duty’
Settle conflicts – two steps
Consider situation impartially without regard to specific case – choice between ethical vs. unethical policies
Consider consequences of specific case – choice between better vs. worse policies
Consider whether problem is disagreement about facts rather than value differences

15. Moor’s ethical framework
Deliberate from an impartial point of view
Does it cause any unnecessary harm?
Does it support individual rights, duties?
Select the best policy from the set
Weigh the good and bad consequences
Distinguish between disagreements about facts vs. disagreements about values