1. Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong
Louis J. Pojman
and James Fieser
Seventh Edition

2. Chapter One: What is Ethics? What is it to be a moral person?
What is the nature of morality?
Why do we need morality?
What function does morality play?
How do I know what is the good?
These are the questions posed by the author in the introductory Chapter One. 2

3. What is Ethics? Are moral principles absolute?
Are moral principles relative to social groups or individual decisions?
Is morality only in the view of the person being moral?
Is there a time for me to act immorally?
How can I justify my moral beliefs?

4. What is Ethics? What is the basis of morality?
Which ethical theory best justifies and explains moral life?
What is morality’s relationship with
religion?
law?
social etiquette?

5. “Moral” vs. “Ethical”
Terms “moral” and “ethical” are often used interchangeably but both derive their meaning from the idea of “custom”
The term “moral” comes from
the Latin (meaning “mores”)
and
the Greek (meaning “ethos”)

6. Certain Practices of Peoples and Cultures
“Morality” refers to
Certain Customs
Certain Precepts
Certain Practices of Peoples and Cultures
Positive or Descriptive Morality:
is used to describe actual beliefs
and customs of a culture

7. “Moral Philosophy” Refers to philosophical or theoretical
reflection on morality
Your author terms these theories
“Ethical Theories”
These theories come from moral
philosophical reflections.

8. Values, Virtues, Principles
“Ethics”
Refers to the whole domain of
morality and moral philosophy
Both areas are connected by common concerns in different ways through:
Values, Virtues, Principles
And Practices

9. Ethics and its Subdivisions
(1) Descriptive morality
(2) Moral philosophy (ethical theory)
(3) Applied ethics

10. (1)Descriptive Morality
Refers to actual beliefs, customs, principles, and practices of people and cultures.
Example: Sociologists pay attention to moral practices of social groups and treat them as cultural “facts”

11. (2) Moral Philosophy The systematic effort to
understand moral concepts and
justify moral principles and theories.
Moral Philosophy analyzes key ethical concepts such as “right”, “wrong”, and “permissible”.

12. (2) Moral Philosophy Explores possible sources of moral
obligation such as God, human
reason, or the desire to be happy
Seeks to establish principles of right
behavior that may serve as action guides for individuals and groups

13. (3) Applied Ethics
Deals with controversial moral problems such as abortion, premarital sex, capital punishment, euthanasia, and civil disobedience

14. Morality as Compared with Other Normative Subjects
Morality has a distinct action-guiding, or normative, aspect which is also shared with other practices such as religion, law and etiquette.
Morality differs from religion, law and etiquette.

15. Morality and Religion
Moral behavior is usually essential to religion’s practice
Neither the practices nor principles of morality should be identified with religion
Practice of morality need not be motivated by religious considerations
Moral principles need not be grounded in revelation or divine authority
Religious and Secular ethics have two different orientations which often generate different moral principles and evaluation standings. However, they need not do this. Both religious and secular ethics can and do agree. 15

16. Morality and Religion
Religious ethics grounded in revelation or divine authority
Ethics is characterized by its grounding in reason and human experience
Some versions of religious ethics hold that reason can discover what is right or wrong even apart from divine revelation
Religious and Secular ethics have two different orientations which often generate different moral principles and evaluation standings. However, they need not do this. Both religious and secular ethics can and do agree. 16

17. Morality and Law Many laws are instituted in order to:
promote well-being
resolve conflicts of interest
promote social harmony

18. Morality and Law Morality also does all of these three.
Ethics may judge that some laws are immoral without denying that they have legal authority
Some aspects of morality are not covered by law. For example: There is no general law against lying except in certain situations like perjury when one is under oath in a court of law. 18

19. Law and Morality Differ
Some aspects of morality are not covered by law, ie. Lying in general
Intention plays a role in determining legal character of an act, once the act has been committed but bad intentions themselves are not illegal but can be immoral
English law of 1351 against treason made it a crime to think about killing the king, but there was no way the law could enforce or fathom a person’s thoughts or intent. Morality can hold an individual responsible for their intent and a person can suffer punishment for their intent even if they never commit the action. 19

20. Morality and Etiquette
Etiquette determines what is polite behavior
Morality determines what is right behavior in a deeper sense
To disregard or defy etiquette in some cases can be considered immoral
Social etiquette deals with the customs people in each culture habitually use and term acceptable. These behaviors help our society to flow smoothly. None of the social rituals claim any moral superiority over another. However, once a social custom is adopted, the practice of that custom appears as a moral rule that defers respect to all people in that society. Not obeying the social customs could be termed in some cases immoral by society. 20

21. Limitations of Religion, Law, & Etiquette
Religion –Rests on authority that may lack certainty or agreement on authority credentials or how authority would rule in new cases. Reason may not be able to persuade.
Law – Every social ill cannot have a law and not all rules can be enforced
Etiquette – Does not go to the heart of what is important for existence

22. Traits of Moral Principles
Central to morality are moral principles which have have these five traits:
Prescriptivity
Universalizability
Overridingness
Publicity
Practicability

23. Prescriptivity The practical or action-guiding, nature of morality.
Moral principles generally put forth as commands or imperatives
Intended for use: to advise and influence action
Used to appraise behavior, assign praise and blame, and produce feelings of satisfaction or guilt

24. Universalizability
Moral principles must apply to all people who are in a relevantly similar situation.
Exemplified in the Golden Rule
Applies to all evaluative judgments.
An extension of the principle of consistentcy

25. Overridingness
Moral principles have predominant authority and override other kinds of principles
Take precedence over considerations including aesthetic, prudential, and legal ones
Religion is a special case where a command may override a normal moral rule
Moral principles must have authority to take precedence over other considerations and have the hegemonic authority to do so at any time. 25

26. Publicity
Moral Principles must be made public in order to guide our actions
Necessary because principles are used to prescribe behavior, give advice, and assign praise and blame
Keeping a moral principle secret would be self-defeating
It is necessary for moral principles to be made public so that they are known by all, used and known to prescribe behavior in society, can be used to give advice, and can be used to assign praise or blame. 26

27. Practicability
A Moral Principle must be workable and its rules must not lay a heavy burden on us when we follow them
Rules must take human limitations into consideration so as to prevent moral despair, deep or undue moral guilt, and ineffective action

28. Domains of Ethical Assessment
Most ethical analysis falls into one or more of the following domains:
Action
Consequences
Character
Motive
The rules of right conduct are evaluated and from this decisions are made. 28

29. Action Actions are usually termed right or wrong.
‘Right’ can be an ambiguous term.
Right can mean
Obligatory or
Permissible

30. Right Action
1. A right act is an act that is permissible for you to do. It may be either:
a. An obligatory act – is one that morality requires you to do; it is not permissible for you to refrain from doing it
b. An optional act – An act not obligatory or wrong to do; not your duty to do or not to do
In the optional act, if you did it or did not do it, neither would be wrong. 30

31. Wrong Action
2. A wrong act is one you have an obligation, or a duty, to refrain from doing: It is an act you ought not to do; it is not permissible to do it.

32. Supererogatory Acts
These actions are within the range of permissible acts.
Also known as highly altruistic acts.
These acts are neither required nor obligatory
They exceed what morality requires.
They go beyond ‘the call of duty.’

33. Complete Scheme of Acts
1. Right act (permissible)
a. Obligatory act
b. Optional act
(1) Neutral act
(2) Supererogatory act
2. Wrong act (not permissible)

34. Deontological Theories
Emphasize the nature of the act
Some acts are inherently good or right and some acts are inherently wrong or bad
Kant defended a principle of moral duty he calls the categorical imperative
Deontological theories have in common the view that we have an inherent duty to perform right actions and avoid bad actions

35. Consequences
Actions based on the foreseeable outcome of a course of decision
Ethical theories that focus primarily on consequences in determining moral rightness or wrongness are called: Teleological Ethics
Utilitarianism is the most famous of these and requires us to do what is likeliest to have the best consequences

36. Character
Ethical theories that emphasize character, or virtue are virtue theories
Good character traits are virtues
Bad character traits are vices
Aristotle maintained that the development of virtuous character traits is needed to ensure that we habitually act rightly
Vital to empower our character with the tendency to do good

37. Motive
Ethically assess situations by examining the motive of the people involved
Virtually all ethical systems recognize the importance of motives
For a full assessment of any action it is important to take the agent's motive into account
Seemingly identical acts may differ morally due to a difference of motives

38. Conclusion Ethics has enormous practical benefits:
Can free us from prejudice and dogmatism
Has comprehensive systems from which to orient individual judgments
Helps us to think more clearly about moral problems
Shows how principles and values relate to one another
Gives us some guidance in how to live
“State of Nature” according to Hobbes means that people in society are insecure because they have reason to fear one another due to the fact of human equality and ability to harm one another and our human desire to fulfill our personal goals. Hobbes emphasized that humans create a ‘social contract or covenant’ and agree to give up personal liberty in order to set up rules over us that we know we must obey. These rules we agree are to be enforced by the might of the ruler or the state. Where there is no enforceable law, there is neither right or wrong, justice or injustice. 38

39. Answering Initial Questions
What is the nature of morality, and why do we need it?
What is the good, and how will I know it?
Is it in my interest to be moral?
What is the relationship between: morality and religion?
morality and the law?
morality and etiquette?
Rules formed over time become internalized and hopefully hold us back from violent animal impulse and responses. 39