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Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
University of San Diego Director, The Values Institute
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 1
Why Study Ethics?
n Moral concerns are unavoidable in
life.
n Analogy: morality is a lot like
nutrition.
– Principal concern: health
– The role of experts
– Disagreement
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 2
Ethics as an Ongoing
Conversation
n Professional discussions of ethical
issues in journals.
n We come back to ideas again and
again, finding new meaning in them.
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 3
Ethics and Morality
n Morality: firstorder set of beliefs and
practices about how to live a good
life
n Ethics: a secondorder, conscious
reflection on the adequacy of our
moral beliefs.
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 4
Moral Health
n The goal of ethical reflection is moral
health.
n Thus we seek to determine what will
nourish our moral life and what will
poison it.
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Ethical Inventory
n Take the ethical inventory on pp. 810
now or on the web at:
– http://ethics.sandiego.edu/ActiveWebSurvey/theory/ .
n Return to your answers after
finishing each chapter.
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 6
The Moral Point of View
n What makes something a moral
issue?
– Content:
• duties, rights, human welfare, suffering,
character, etc.
– Perspective:
• impartial, compassionate, etc.
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Example: Cheating
Imagine a situation in which you see a
classmate cheating. There are several
elements from a moral point of view:
– Some people are hurt by the cheating
– There is deception in the situation
– Cheating seems to be unfair to those who
don’t cheat
– There are conflicting values—honesty, loyalty,
etc.
– There are questions of character.
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The Language of Moral Concerns
n Some philosophers have argued that
moral issues are characterized by a
particular kind of language—terms
such as duty, obligation, right, and
good.
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 9
Impartiality
Many philosophers have argued that
the moral point of view is
characterized by impartiality, that is, I
don’t give my own interest any
special weight.
– Immanuel Kant
– John Stuart Mill
n Other philosophers have seen the
origin of the moral life to be in
compassion, feeling for the suffering
of other sentient beings.
n Josiah Royce: “Such as that is for
me, so is it for him, nothing less.”
n Philosophers from Aristotle onward
have seen the primary focus of
morality to be character.
n Two questions:
– What ought I to do? (Kant and Mill)
– What kind of person ought I to be?
(Aristotle)
n Ethics as the Evaluation of Other
People’s Behavior
– We are often eager to pass judgment on
others
n Ethics as the Search for Meaning and
Value in Our Own Lives
n Ethics often used as a weapon
n Hypocrisy
n Possibility of knowing other people
n The right to judge other people
n The right to intervene
n Judging and caring
n Positive focus
n Aims at discerning what is good
n Emphasizes personal responsibility
for one’s own life
Functions of theory:
n Describe
n Explain
n Give strength (Stockdale)
n Prescribe
– Open new possibilities
– Wonder
1/30/2006 ©Lawrence M. Hinman 17
What to Expect from a Moral
Theory, 2
What is ethics like?
n Physics
– Clearcut, definitive answers
n Engineering
– Several possible ways of doing things,
many ways that are wrong
n Ethics as the evaluation of other people’s
behavior
– Sources of mistrust about moral judgments
• Hypocrisy
• Knowing other people
• The right to judge
• Judging and intervention
• Judging and caring
n Ethics as the search for the meaning of
our own lives
n Ethics is like nutrition
– One studies bodily health, the other
moral health
– Significant disagreement in both fields
– Still there is a significant common
ground.