1. Chapter 3: How Can I Know What is Right?

2. Introduction
Ethical skeptics – doubt whether there is such a thing as moral truth
Ethical relativists – deny that there are any universally valid moral principles
Ethical absolutists – claim there are moral absolutes
Teleological ethical theories – consequences determine the rightness of an action
Deontological ethical theories – advocate doing what is good regardless of the consequences

3. Kant and the Categorical Imperative
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
Published The Critique of Pure Reason, which revolutionized western philosophy

4. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Immanuel Kant
Good will is the only thing that can be conceived as good without qualification
Action of duty has moral worth not in the purpose to be attained, but by the principle of volition irrespective of desire
Duty is the necessity to act out of reverence for the law

5. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals Immanuel Kant
The Categorical Imperative
“I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law.”

6. Utilitarianism
Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) proposed the ethical theory of utilitarianism
Utilitariansim – teleological theory that what makes an action right are its consequences
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873)- “The greatest happiness for the greatest number”
Hedonism – the highest good is pleasure

7. What Utilitarianism Is John Stuart Mill
Actions are right in proportion to their promotion of happiness and wrong as they tend to produce pain
The ultimate sanction of utility is subjective– the conscientious feeling of the mind
Evidence that something is desirable is that people desire it

8. Revaluation of Values Some relate associate morality with religion
Ethical nihilism – idea that there is no answer to what is right
Ethical emotivism – claim that moral judgments express the appraiser’s attitudes of approval or disapproval
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) believed that religion and human reason had failed to answer what is right

9. Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche
Criticizes past attempts to understand morality
Criticizes morality as defined by classes in the social system

10. On the Genealogy of Morality Friedrich Nietzsche
“Good” was not originally “unegoistic actions”, but distinction of the noble class as opposed to those who are common, vulgar, or “bad”
Slave revolt in morality
Inversion of the aristocratic value equation by the Jews
Ressentiment – recover losses through imaginary revenge
The good is those who are powerless, sick, poor, etc.
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11. The Ethic of Care
Carol Gilligan proposed that there is a distinction between male and female concepts of morality
While men emphasize reciprocity in relationships, women emphasize response, such as care, love, and trust, etc.

12. Caring Nel Noddings Natural and ethical caring Obligation
“I must” and “I want”
Obligation
Moral imperative
Dependent upon relationship
Right and Wrong
Problem of Justification
Women and Morality: Virtue

13. Moral Relativism
Is there a balance between a moral relativism that holds all human actions as equal in moral worth and a moral universalism or absolutism that holds to one set of moral values?
David Wong attempts to find this middle ground

14. Relativism David Wong
Meta-Ethical Relativism – the doctrine of relativity of moral truth and justifiability
Normative Relativism – one should never pass judgment on others with different values or try to conform them to one’s own
Wong proposes a middle ground of
not holding to one single morality without denying that some moralities might be false or inadequate
Allowing to pass judgment on significantly different values