Duty Ethics and Utilitarianism AOK: Ethics Duty Ethics and Utilitarianism

Recap Moral Relativism Self-Interest Theory Theories of Ethics Lack of Foundation, Diversity Argument Common core values, Justify our values Self-Interest Theory Definitional Argument Evolutionary Argument Hidden Benefits Argument Fear of Punishment Theories of Ethics Religious Ethics Duty Ethics Utilitarianism

Duty Ethics Ethics is fundamentally a matter of doing your duty and fulfilling your obligations

Duty Vs. Rights We take the idea seriously that people have duties Teacher to teach Doctor to cure People prefer to talk about rights over duties Rights and duties are like two different sides of the same coin…they go together EXAMPLE: If there is a duty not to steal then there must be a corresponding right to property. If there is a right to life, there must be a corresponding duty not to kill

Questions… Imagine that you and a group of colonists have just arrived on a fertile and uninhabited planet and decide to make a ten-point declaration of rights. What rights would you include? How would you justify your choices?

Questions What difference do you think it would make if he replaced the UN Declaration of Human Rights with a UN Declaration of Human Duties?

Questions If everyone has the right to life, who exactly has a duty to keep alive the thousands of people that starve to death every day? Do you?

Kant and his approach to ethics If we agree that duty ethics is viable, then we need to know what are duties are…HOW? Intuition? What if we have different ideas? Table of Commandments? Who justifies them? KANT has an answer!!

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 German Philosopher According to him, our duties are NOT arbitrary. We can determine them in an objective way using REASON

Kant and Duty Ethics Kant: The way to decide if something is your duty is to see whether or not you can consistently generalize it. Imagine you are waiting in the lunch line. Wondering: Is it ok to jump the line? Ask yourself, what would happen if everyone did that? Answer: CHAOS! There would be no line! So if you try and generalize it, you get a contradiction. “Jump the line whenever you want.” Therefore, it is your duty NOT to jump the line

Kant and Duty Ethics Imagine you want to break a promise because it is inconvenient to keep. What would happen if everyone broke their promises when they felt like it? There would be no such thing as a promise…it is another contradiction. (vow) Since you cannot generalize the rule, “break your promises whenever you feel like it,” then it is your duty to keep your promises!

Kant’s Motivation? Special Pleading: make excuses to justify our own behavior that we would not find acceptable if they came from someone else Our EGOSISM: encourages us to think that while rules generally should be respected, we are special and they do not apply to us Example: Casual lying

Something to think about… Al Ghazali (1058-1111) If you want to know the foulness of lying for yourself, consider the lying of someone else and how you shun it and despise the man who lies and regard his communication as foul. Do the same with regard to all your own vices, for you do not realize the foulness from your own case, but from someone else’s. What does this quote mean? In what ways does it apply to you?

Kant’s Ethics The heart of his approach? Adopt a dual conception of ourselves as not only me but also one among others Golden Rule: Do to other what you would want done to you Veil of Ignorance This is confusing X does p to Y…you do not know if you are going to be X or Y “You cut, I choose.”

Values and Dignity Kant: no individual should be given special treatment, but also, no individual should be discriminated against. Kant: Never good to sacrifice one’s self for the greater good Reverse the dual conception of self Not only one among other, but also me. Only one me, only one life Therefore, never be treated as a mere means to a further end.

Values and Dignity There is a crucial difference between objects and people. Objects can have value, but only people can have dignity. According to Kant, if something has value it can be replaced by something else of equal value. If something has dignity, it is irreplaceable. Since individuals have dignity, it is never right sacrifice their lives for the greater good.

Importance of morals Kant: the moral value of an action is determined by the motive for which it is done rather than the consequences that follow from it. If you are trying to be helpful, but it turns out badly, we do not usually blame you. You meant well. If you wanted to hurt someone, but did not succeed, you would still be considered a bad person.

Importance of Motives Kant: In order to be truly moral, our actions should be motivated by reason rather than feeling. Feelings are too unreliable to justify our values What if you feel like helping someone today, but not tomorrow? What if you feel like helping person A, but not person B? Kant wanted to avoid this problem Base values on reasons not feelings Insists that reason tells us that we have certain duties regardless of what we may feel

Motives Three motives for doing good Kant only finds value in duty. You expect something in return Sympathy Duty Kant only finds value in duty. Moral praise not deserved for the 1st one Moral praise not deserved because you cannot help being sympathetic and friendly PARADOXICALLY: a naturally anti social person deservers for moral praise for being kind and friendly than a naturally sociable person?

Motive Questions If a cat jumps into a crib to try and attack a baby, who deserves more praise for removing it: someone who likes cats, or someone who is frightened of cats?

Motive Questions Who deserves more praise: a person who helps another person because they like them, or a person who helps another person even though they don’t like them?

Criticisms of Kant Rule Worship Conflicts of Duty Moral Coldness

Rule Worship Moral Absolutism: The belief that certain moral principles should ALWAYS be followed regardless of the context Kant: It is always wrong to lie. Is it? Rule Worship: Blindly following a moral rile without regard to the consequences

Justified? You should respect the rules of the road, but it’s OK to drive through a red light if you are late for work. You should respect the rules of the road, but it’s OK to drive through a red light if you are taking a critically ill person to the hospital.

Justified? You should keep your work, but it is OK to break a social engagement if something more interesting comes up. You should keep your word, but it is OK to break a social engagement if you have just contracted an infectious disease.

Justified? You should pay your taxes, but it is OK not to pay them if you are short on money this year. You should pay your taxes, but it is OK not to pay them if they are being spent on nuclear arms programs.

Justified? Murder is wrong, but it would have been OK to assassinate Hitler in 1942. Murder is wrong, but it would have been OK to kill someone planning a terrorist attack.

Conflicts of Duty Kant leaves us no way of resolving conflicts of duty For some dilemmas there appears to be no criterion in accordance with which our duties can be ranken

Conflicts of Duty If a person has been unfaithful to their partner, should they confess and make their partner unhappy, or say nothing and deceive them?

Conflicts of Duty If your grandmother and a world-famous doctor are trapped in a burning building and you only have time to save one of them, should you save your grandmother because she is a family member, or the doctor because she is more useful to society?

Conflicts of Duty If your wife is dying of a rare disease and you cannot afford to but the drugs that will cure her, are you justified in stealing the drugs?

Conflicts of Duty If a terrorist group takes a civilian hostage and threatens to kill them unless the government releases five convicted terrorists, should the government give in to their demands?

Moral Coldness Kant’s approach seems to be too focused on reason at the expense of feelings No place for feelings may result in inhumanity Gives morals a cold and heartless feel We could argue: feelings connect us to others and reason isolates us Reason has its limits and that it might be better to sometimes follow our hearts?

Reflect “Don’t do unto others as you would have them do to you – their tastes might be different.” George Bernard Shaw