1. Introduction to Ethics
Learning Objective:
To be able to explain the three different ways of doing ethics

2. Year 12 Ethics:
This year you will cover:
1. Significant concepts in issues or debates in religion and ethics
Environmental Issues:
Religious and ethical views on:
Stewardship
Animal welfare
Sustainability
Equality:
Religious and ethical concepts of:
Issues of gender, race and disability
Martin Luther King
Joni Eareckson Tada
2. A study of three ethical theories
Utilitarianism
Situation Ethics
Natural Moral Law
3. Application of ethical theories to issues of importance
War and peace
Sexual Ethics
Contraception, premarital sex, homosexuality, promiscuity…

3. Year 13 Ethics: 4. Ethical language
Meta- ethics
Cognitive and non- cognitive uses of language
Realism and Anti- realism
Language as factual or symbolic
The nature of ethical assertions
Emotivism and Positivism
Evaluation of the emotivism approach
The relationship between religion and morality
5. Deontology, Virtue Ethics and the works of scholars
A comparison of Kant and Aristotle
Kantian deontology
Aristotelian virtue ethics
Strengths and weaknesses of the theories
6. Medical ethics: beginning and end of life issues
Issues in medical ethics with a focus on beginning and end of life debates
Status of the embryo and value of life. Religious and secular views.
Assisted dying, euthanasia, palliative care. Religious and secular views.
Strengths and weaknesses

4. End of year 12 assessment 3 papers Philosophy Ethics Religion
8, 9, 20 mark questions
1 hour each paper

5. Example assessment material

6. If an individual follows them will they be ethical?
What is Ethics?
What is Ethics?
Now, write down any questions you have about ethics, or morality.
During the course of the year we are going to explore theories which suggest how humans should act in different situations. These theories provide rules that and guidelines that help us to make the right moral decisions.
What you need to do is to consider whether or not these theories are successful.
If an individual follows them will they be ethical?

7. What is ethics?
Ethics is a branch of philosophy (also known as moral philosophy). Ethics is the study of the principles that govern a person’s behaviour. There are four main branches of ethics: Meta- Ethics, Normative Ethics, Applied Ethics and Descriptive Ethics.

8. Ethics Virtue Theory Normative ethics Meta- ethics Applied ethics
Absolutist normative Ethics
Relativist normative ethics
Environment
Teleological
Sexual Ethics
Deontological
Virtue Theory
War and Peace
Situation ethics
Equality
Natural Moral Law
Utilitarianism
Kantian ethics
Medical Ethics

9. Branches of Ethics Each branch has a different objective.
Normative ethics aims to determine how people should act.
Descriptive ethics aims to compare how different groups of people have answered and responded to moral questions.
Meta-ethics aims to determine what (if anything) is meant by moral terms.
Applied ethics refers to any use of a normative theory to help make moral decisions about a particular topic e.g. Environmental Ethics

10. Branches of Ethics (continued)
Descriptive Ethics:
Descriptive ethics is similar to the type of issues you would have looked at during your GCSE. It looks at the ways groups of people, such as religious organisations, have responded to moral questions and issues.
Normative Ethics:
Normative ethics asks what things are good, bad and which behaviours are right and wrong. This is the traditional way of doing ethics.
Meta-ethics:
This is sometimes called ‘philosophical ethics’. Metaethical studies focus on the meaning and function of moral language. This means looking at exactly what the it means to say that something is right or wrong, good or bad.

11. Check your understanding
I will read out a question and you must decide whether it is asking a question concerned with normative ethics, descriptive ethics or meta-ethics.
How do each of the six world religions respond to the problem of evil?
What does ‘wrong’ refer to?
What does it mean to say that marriage is good?
Is murder ever justified?
What do Christian and Muslims traditions teach about alcohol and drugs?
If a person had to choose between sacrificing their daughter or a doctor, which should they choose?
Is it ever moral to torture another human being?

12. Types of normative ethics
Does anyone know the meaning of these two terms?
Relativism:
Ethical relativism is the idea that moral or ethical propositions do not reflect objective, universal truths, instead they make claims relative to social, cultural, historical or personal circumstances.
Absolutism:
Ethical absolutism is the idea that there are moral or ethical propositions which reflect objective, universal truths.
Actions are intrinsically right or wrong.
Objective: it is true regardless of the beliefs of an individual. It does not depend on a persons mind or persona. feelings/emotions
Which do you think Situation Ethics will be?

13. Relative Normative Ethics
There are two main ethical systems within normative ethics:
1. Teleological Ethics:
Concerned with ends or consequences.
‘Telos’ is greek for ‘end’.
Teleological ethics are sometimes referred to as consequentialist ethics as they believe that actions are right or wrong depending on the consequences of doing them.
Actions are not good in themselves, for example, volunteering for a charity is not intrinsically good (good in itself), it is good due to the consequences it creates (e.g. improving the lives of others).
Situation Ethics:
Actions are valued which produce the most love-filled result in any given situation.
Teleological theories:
Utilitarianism:
Actions are valued which produce the greatest amount of happiness and pleasure for the most amount of people.

14. Absolutist Normative Ethics
Natural Moral Law
There are a natural set of precepts which govern human flourishing. These precepts, such as reproduction, are things humans should always aim to fulfil, regardless of the consequences.
2: Deontological Ethics
Concerned with moral absolutes.
It is the nature of the act which determines whether it is right or wrong.
Actions are right or wrong in themselves, regardless of the consequences.
For instance, a deontological theory might hold that murder is wrong, this is because it is believed to be intrinsically wrong. Murder would be wrong even if killing one person would save 100 lives.
Kantian Ethics:
Categorical imperatives are rules in which all humans have a duty to uphold. These rules can be discovered through using reason alone.

15. Applied Ethics
Applied Ethics focusses on putting normative theories into practice.
For instance, when we study Situation Ethics, Utilitarianism and Natural Moral Law we will not only look at the theory itself but also how well it functions when applied to a real life ethical issue.
We will be applying the ethical theories to Peace and Conflict and Sexual Ethics.
What is utilitarianism? : teleological theory: could torture ever be moral?
On a teleological theory, could torture ever be justified?

16. Plenary: What does ‘teleological’ mean? What do deontologists believe?
If your name is chosen, you must answer one of the following questions:
What does ‘teleological’ mean?
What do deontologists believe?
What is the difference between normative and meta-ethics?
Give an example of a question concerned with descriptive ethics
What is applied ethics?
Situation Ethics and Utilitarianism are examples of which branch of ethics?

17. What is the difference between these two situations?
Utilitarianism: An Introduction
Can you think of an example where a desirable consequence justifies an ‘wrong’ action?
Can you give an example where are desirable consequence does not justify a ‘wrong’ action?
What is the difference between these two situations?

18. Introducing Utilitarianism:
You have just moved to a new country. You like your new house and the weather is great. Everything is going well although this country has a Life Lottery. Every month, one person is picked at random and they are killed for their organs. Their organs are all used and can help 20 different people who need transplants.
What would be the purpose of this type of system?
Could it ever be theoretically justified?
Bentham argues that humans are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham was a hedonist (greek for pleasure).
They want to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

19. Ethics Virtue Theory Normative ethics Meta- ethics Applied ethics
Absolutist normative Ethics
Relativist normative ethics
Environment
Teleological
Sexual Ethics
Deontological
Virtue Theory
War and Peace
Situation ethics
Equality
Natural Moral Law
Utilitarianism
Kantian ethics
Medical Ethics

20. Utilitarianism: Type of theory
From the diagram above you need to complete the following sentences:
Utilitarianism is a …………….ethical theory. This means that morality is derived from the potential …………….of actions.
This is a branch of ……………..ethics, which means that the theory aims to determine how individuals should ……in different situations.
Bentham argues that humans are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham was a hedonist (greek for pleasure).
They want to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

21. Utilitarianism: Type of theory
From the diagram above you need to complete the following sentences:
Utilitarianism is a Teleological Ethical theory. This means that morality is derived from the potential consequences of actions.
This is a branch of Normative Ethics, which means that the theory aims to determine how individuals should act in different situations.
Bentham argues that humans are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham was a hedonist (greek for pleasure).
They want to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.

22. Utilitarianism: the basics
In essence, Utilitarianism states that you should act in a way which will benefit the most amount of people in society. The rightness or wrongness is judged by it’s utility: the measure of how useful it is at producing goodness for the majority.
THINK/ PAIR/ SHARE:
Can you think of any examples of actions that might benefit the majority of people in society?
Why do they benefit the majority? What is the good consequence they produce?
Bentham argues that humans are motivated by pleasure and pain. Bentham was a hedonist (greek for pleasure).
They want to maximise pleasure and minimise pain.