1. Introduction to Philosophy Lecture 15 Ethics #1 (Intro.)
By David Kelsey

2. Ethics
Ethics: the systematic investigation into the nature of morality.
Morality is the code of conduct or system of principles that a person or persons follow as guidelines for their actions.
When we study morality we study it’s concepts. Some include:
Good & Bad
Right & wrong
Prescription & Prohibition
Permissibility & impermissibility
Virtues such as courage

3. What morality isn’t?
Some related concepts that we don’t study when we study Morality:
Religion:
Religion: stories, supernatural beings
More than just a guide to conduct…
Etiquette:
a part of morality
applies to less ‘serious’ actions
Law:
Rules, penalties and officials
morality and law overlap…

4. Moral claims Moral claim (also called moral judgments):
non-factual claims that assert that some moral property such as Rightness is instantiated in some object or action or event.
A moral property is any way that something can be morally.
Examples:
Examples of moral claims:

5. Moral Arguments
A moral argument is one which asserts as its conclusion a moral claim.
Abortion example…

6. Deriving Moral Value Judgments
Inferring a value claim: We cannot derive or infer a value claim from merely factual claims.
Elliot’s father example: we might argue that Elliot’s father depends upon Elliot so Elliot ought to take care of his father.
The problem: we are deriving a value claim, that Elliot should take care of his father.
Support from value: So if we are trying to infer a value claim, at least one of the supporting propositions must be a value claim.
We need something that links the 2 claims
For example…

7. Critiquing moral reasoning
What if we come across a moral argument we disagree with?
If you agree with the facts
yet you disagree with the conclusion
you must try to show the moral principle false.
Showing a moral principle false: how do you show a moral principle false?
You simply find a what?
Abortion is unnatural…

8. A note about Relativism
Moral relativism: A very popular view in ethics is moral relativism.
This says: What is right or wrong depends upon and is determined by one’s group or culture.
Confusion: often times, the following 2 claims are confused:
1. What is believed to be right and wrong may differ from group to group, society to society, or culture to culture.
2. What is right and wrong may differ from group to group, society to society, or culture to culture.
Problems with MR: So what’s wrong with moral relativism?
Universal or nearly universal moral judgments…
True and False…
No correct answers…
Settling Disagreements…

9. Ethics: it’s three areas
The Discipline of Ethics can be divided into three sub-disciplines, which together comprise it wholly.
They are:
Normative Ethics
Applied Ethics
Meta-ethics

10. Normative Ethics Normative Ethics: This is second order ethics
Here we aim to find the answer to the question: “What ought I do?”
Here we also aim to construct general guidelines for the making of a moral judgment.

11. Applied Ethics Applied Ethics: First order ethics
Here we look to specific cases in which we must determine what the right action or the permissible action is.
Here we make moral judgments.

12. Meta-ethics Meta-ethics Third order ethics
The study of the nature of moral judgments.

13. Normative ethics
Normative Ethics: aims to provide a set of guidelines for making moral judgments.
In this class we will look at three such sets of guidelines.
They are:
Utilitarianism
We will look at the theory of John Stuart Mill
Deontology
We will look at Immanuel Kant’s theory
Virtue Theory
We will look at the theory put forth by Aristotle