1. Is torture wrong? If so, why?
A madman who has threatened to explode several bombs in crowded areas has been apprehended. Unfortunately, he has already planted the bombs and they are scheduled to go off in a short time. It is possible that hundreds of people may die. He refuses to say anything and requests a lawyer to protect his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination. In exasperation, some high level official suggests torture. This would be illegal, of course, but the official thinks that it is nevertheless the right thing to do in this desperate situation. Do you agree? If you do, would it also be morally justifiable to torture the mad bomber’s innocent wife if that is the only way to make him talk? Why?
Is torture wrong? If so, why?

2. The Trolly Problem

3. Ethics
Ethics: moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity.
Generally, the goal of ethical theory is to provide a systematic answer to the question: “how should we behave?”

4. Theory 1. Moral Objectivism
Moral Objectivism: What is morally right or wrong doesn’t depend on what anyone thinks is right or wrong. 'Moral facts' are like 'physical' facts in that what the facts are does not depend on what anyone thinks they are.  They simply have to be discovered.
The position that moral truths exist independently from opinion. 
E.g., Divine Command Theory – what’s right is what God commands; what’s wrong is what God forbids

5. Theory 2. Moral Relativism
Moral Relativism: What is morally right or wrong depends on the prevailing view in the society or culture we happen to be dealing with.
Often presented as a tolerant view: ‘if moral relativism is true, no one has a right to force his moral views on others.’
Increasingly popular in recent years
Did this change with Sept. 11?

6. A Bad Argument for Moral Relativism
The 'Cultural Differences' Argument  
Claim: There are huge differences in moral beliefs from culture to culture and era to era.
E.g., Some cultures endorse the killing of elderly members of the tribe, we condemn such actions.
Conclusion: There is no objective fact as to which of these beliefs is correct, morality is relative.

7. Why is the Cultural Differences Argument Weak?
I. Controversy regarding how much fundamental disagreement about morality there really is
II. Differing opinions regarding an issue don’t prove there is no fact of the matter about that issue
Imagine relativism about the shape of the earth (e.g., in the 1400s)

8. Objectivist Theories
Suppose for the moments that objectivism is true. What are the objective facts of morality?
Main Candidates:
Consequentialism
Deontological Theories
Principilism

9. Theory 3: Consequentialism
Consequentialists maintain that whether an action is morally right or wrong depends on the action's consequences. 
In any situation, the morally right thing to do is whatever will have the best consequences.
Consequentialist theories are sometimes called teleological theories.

10. What Kind of Consequences?
Consequentialism isn't very informative unless it's combined with a theory about what the best consequences are.
Utilitarianism is such a theory.
Utilitarianism is the most influential variety of consequentialism

11. Utilitarianism
The Basis of Utilitarianism:  ask what has intrinsic value and assess the consequences of an action in terms of intrinsically valuable things.
Instrumental Value - a thing has only instrumental value if it is only valuable for what it may get you
e.g., money
Intrinsic Value - a thing has intrinsic value if you value it for itself
i.e., you’d value it even if it brought you nothing else
What, if anything, has intrinsic value?

12. Only Happiness has Intrinsic Value
What Utilitarians Think Is Intrinsically Valuable:  happiness (or pleasure or satisfaction…)
"actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness." (John Stuart Mill's Greatest Happiness Principle)
In other words, judge an action by the total amount of happiness and unhappiness it creates

13. Theory 4: Deontology 'Duty Based' Ethics
Deontologists deny that what ultimately matters is an action's consequences. 
They claim that what matters is the kind of action it is. What matters is doing our duty.
There are many kinds of deontological theory
e.g., The 'Golden Rule' - "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you."

14. Kantian Deontology
Immanuel Kant ( ) is the most influential deontologist.
Rejecting Consequentialism:  "A good will is good not because of what it effects or accomplishes." Even if by bad luck a good person never accomplishes anything much, the good will would "like a jewel, still shine by its own light as something which has its full value in itself."

15. The Categorical Imperative
Kant claims that all our actions should be judged according to a rule he calls the Categorical Imperative. 
First Version:  "Act only according to that maxim [i.e., rule] whereby you can at the same time will that it become a universal law."
Second Version:  "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means."
Important to treat people as autonomous agents

16. Problems
Deontology: What if doing your duty has repugnant consequences?
Kant on telling lies
Consequentialism: What if you have to do something that seems wrong in order to produce the best consequences?
Convicting the innocent

17. Theory 5: Principilism Principilism attempts to have it both ways
Popularized by Beauchamp and Childress
Principles of Biomedical Ethics
The ‘Georgetown Mantra’
Now the dominant theory in medical ethics

18. Four Principles 1. Autonomy 2. Beneficence 3. Non-maleficence
4. Justice
1 & 4 are deontological
2 & 3 are consequentialist
It is really possible to have it both ways?

19. Alternative Approaches
Virtue Ethics
Ethics of Care

20. The Point
We won’t try to settle the question of what the best theory is
Think of them as tools to draw upon

21. Next Sept. 26 11-11:40 Small Group – CS Case 1
Sept :45-12:20 Confidentiality
Read: Doing Right, Chapter 3