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PHIL 215
Lecture #2
Last Lecture:
Virtue-Based: - Character Traits - Kind of Person: has the virtues - Results: being the best you can be, morally Duty-Based: - Duty (not God, not Reason); isn't about character; all about actions - Not results; obeying rules, following correct procedures

Today:
1. Finish Moral Theory 2. Case Study Method

Consequentialism:
- Consequences of actions - Measurable - Verifiable - Not about character or intention

Utilitarianism:
- A form of consequentialism - Pleasure - Usefulness - Bentham - Secularist; Believed in health care, free vaccination; Democracy.

- "Greatest Happiness for the Greatest Number" (1750) - "Ethical Science" - J.S. Mill

Hedonistic Calculus
- A or B - How much pleasure vs. how much pain does each give? - (e.g. 200 units of net utility from 250 units of pleasure and 50 units of pain)

Strengths of Utilitarianism:
1. We like pleasure; pain is a drag 2. Historic Link & Progressive Reform 3. Greatest Happiness for Greateset Number of People seems impossible to avoid in a democracy. (--> Politics Utilitarian Common English-Speaking World) 4. World be better: what can I do to make the world a better / happier place? 5. Critically reflect on our lifestyle choices Peter Singer: - Famous current-day Utilitarian. - Believes strongly in vegetarianism because of animals capacity for pain

Weaknesses of Utilitarianism:
1. Aristotle: Pleasure is not the only, or even the main, human good. 2. End Justifies the Means. (All about the end, the result). This raises the problem that Utilitarianism allows for controversial means. But this is only for the greatest number - leaving minority rights at a disadvantage. 3. Nozick: a) The Experience Machine - It would be a very incomplete world if everyone was just hooked up to pleasure machines in the name of a utilitarian world. b) Utility Monsters - Utilitarianism would justify the situation where some people would be allowed to inflict pain onto others as long as the pleasure they receive is greater than the pain they output. 4. Problems with the Calculus: a) Presuppose we know the future b) Arbitrary c) Too Complex to be Desirable (Occams Razor) 5. Too Demanding on the Self?

Rights-Based Theory:
- Entitlements that people have to the ingredients of a minimally good life)

- What you want, no matter what you want - All purpose means to achieve your goals - $$$ - Freedom / Liberty - Food - Life - Pursuit of Happiness - Property - The most flexible theory. To determine whether you can do something, ask whether you will violate someone elses rights. - Rationality: My right ends where your nose begins! John Locke (1650): - Medical Doctor who went on to become a Political Activist - 2 Routes: - (God Route) Asserts that if we are to perform that duties that God impose on us, it must follow that God must want your rights respected (to perform these duties) - (Reason Route) Asserts that if we are to survive + pursue happiness, we must have rights. - Social Contract; Consensus

Strengths of Rights-Based Theories:

1. Compelling: - What you want, no matter what you want. - How can anyone deny that? 2. No Ends Justifying Means problem here: - Always must respect rights while performing means. 3. Least Demanding Moral Theory, allowing greatest individual (...?) 4. Ethic of Our Age - Multicultural, globalized world

Weaknesses of Rights-Based Theories:

1. Criticism that the Rights idea comes from of Western civilization. (Even though origin of ideas should not mar their merit) 2. Too Selfish - me & my rights 3. (Aristotle) Standards are not high enough. 4. Legalistic, Artificial, Binary Duty-based (Whats the difference between this and the Dutybased theory? 1) Duty-based is more demanding, 2) Duty-based includes intention, Rightsbased considers only action and whether they violate rights) 5. Internal Dispute within Rights-theory: re: which Rights do we actually have? (see below)

6. Individualist Fantasies - This theory indulges in individualistic fantasies. There needs to be other regards, such as community.

Distinction between 1st Generation Rights & 2nd Generation Rights:

1st Gen (Civil & Political) - Life, liberty, property - Due process - Political Participation - Pursuit of Happiness - Negative Rights - Affordable, Reasonable, True Rights, WellGrounded, 2nd Gen (Socio-Economic Rights) - Have all of 1st Gen Rights + Subsistence Rights - Basic Eduction - Basic Health Care - Unemployment Support - Positive Rights - Duty-bearer actually has to DO something.

1st Gen theorists find 2nd Gen rights too overbearing. 2nd Gen theorists insists that taxation is not that demanding. (mid-lecture break)

Feminist Ethics:
1982, Carol Gilligan (Harvard): In a Different Voice - a million copies sold 1. Descriptive (factual): - Men and women think about morality and ethics differently 2. Prescriptive (value-laden): - Womens Way is Better (Some controversy over the validity of her research; study sample size is 29. Her focus is on qualitative research over quantitative) - Her findings: Men - Men are fundamentally self-oriented toward - Men dont trust others: Disconnect; Lack of trust - Abstraction - Universality (whereas women are more context-sensitive, more likely to make exceptions) - Rationality - On Kants work: Suffers ridiculous Women - Women presuppose trust; much more socially connected - Women are more concrete, context sensitive - Women view the world through close, intimate personal relationship (how women view ethics and morality) - The ideal human relationship that delivers all of these qualities is that of motherhood.

emotional poverty - Men are more able to transcend / bend the world, whereas women are more present. - Believes that Mens entire social view is captured by sports: a) set of rules, b) competitive, c) lack of trust

Strengths of Feminist Ethics:

1. Diagnoses some flaws of other ethical theories (especially: abstraction, no room of emotion) 2. Two Genders May View Things Differently 3. Some Psychological Evidence behind her view 4. Wouldnt the world be a better place if we were all good mothers?

Weaknesses of Feminist Ethics:

1. Isnt this Crass Gender Stereotyping? 2. Shouldnt we all be treated as individuals? 3. Whos a good mother? Vagueness 4. Is it true that the mother-child relationship is the best model? (Issues: inequality in the relationship + total dependence)

Case Study Method:

(Refer to the 2-page handout) Majority of grades will focus on this **Conflict of Interest: In our case: - is NOT a power-struggle between 2 people / parties - is WITHIN one person - is a conflict between a persons subjective motives vs. objective duties.

Next week: - Code of Ethics - Enron Scandal

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