Ethics: Theory and Practice

Jacques P. Thiroux
Keith W. Krasemann

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 Chapter One

The Nature of Morality

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 Five Branches of Philosophy

• Epistemology (study of knowledge)

• Metaphysics (study of the nature of reality)
• Ethics (study of morality)
• Aesthetics (study of values in art or beauty)
• Logic (study of argument and reasoning)

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 Ethics and Morality
• Ethics comes from the Greek ethos, meaning
character
– Pertains to the individual character of a person or
or persons
• Morality comes from the Latin moralis,
meaning customs or manners
– Pertains to the relationship between human
beings

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 Amoral and Nonmoral
• Amoral = having no moral sense, or being
indifferent to right and wrong
– This term can be applied to very few people
– The complete absence of a sense of right and
wrong may be caused by physical trauma to the
brain
– In addition, some criminal types are amoral
despite moral education

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 Amoral and Nonmoral
• Nonmoral = outside the realm of morality
altogether
– Inanimate objects are neither moral or
immoral, but could be used immorally
– Many areas of study are in themselves
neither moral nor immoral

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Scientific Approach to the Study of
Morality

• This approach is most often used in the

social sciences and, like ethics, deals with
human behavior and conduct
• The emphasis in this approach is empirical

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Scientific Approach to the Study of
Morality
• This approach is also descriptive because it
involves the observation of human behavior
and the description of those observations
• In this approach, the observers make no
value judgments as to what is morally right
or wrong

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 Philosophical Approach to Ethics

• Normative Ethics
– Deals with norms (or standards) and
prescriptions
– Goes beyond observation and description
and makes normative moral value
judgments

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 Philosophical Approach to Ethics

• Analytic Ethics
– Rather than being descriptive or
prescriptive, analyzes ethical language
and the rational foundations of ethical
systems

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 Synthesis of Approaches

• The complete study of ethics demands a

reasonable synthesis of ethical views
– Requires the use of descriptive, normative,
and metaethical approaches
– Ethicists draw on data and results of
experiments from the natural, physical, and
social sciences

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 Synthesis of Approaches

– They also must examine their language,

logic, and foundations
– Finally, ethicists should contribute
something toward helping all human beings
live with each other more meaningfully and
more ethically

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 Morality and its Applications
• There is a difference between ethics and
aesthetics
• The terms good, bad, right, and wrong can be
used in a nonmoral sense, usually in
references to how someone or something
functions
• Manners, or etiquette, differs from morality
even though the two are related

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 Four Aspects of the Application of
Morality

• Religious morality is concerned with human

beings in relationship to a supernatural
being
• Morality and nature are concerned with
human beings in relationship to nature

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 Four Aspects of the Application of
Morality

• Individual morality is concerned with

human beings in relationship to themselves
• Social morality is concerned with human
beings in relationship to other human
beings
– This is the most important category

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 Who is Morally
or Ethically Responsible?
• At the present time, only humans can be
considered to be moral or immoral; therefore,
only humans should be considered morally
responsible
• Some recent experiments suggest that in the
future certain animals could be taught to be
moral

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 Objective Views of Morality

• Values come from some supernatural being or

beings
• There are moral laws embedded in nature
itself
• The world and objects in it have value with or
without the presence of valuing human beings

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 Subjective View of Morality

• In opposition to the objective views, some

believe that morality and values reside
strictly within human beings and that there
are no values or morality outside of them

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 Criticism of Objective View

• It is difficult to prove conclusively the

existence of any supernatural being(s) or to
prove that values exist outside the natural
world
• There is a difference between “natural laws”
and “moral laws”

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 Criticism of Objective View

• There is no conclusive evidence that

“natural moral laws” exist
• It is impossible to think of things of value
without someone valuing them

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 Criticism of Subjective View

• Because aspects of the world and nature can

be valued whether or not human beings exist,
values would not seem to be totally subjective
• It is true that there are many things in the
world, such as art, science, politics, and music
that are valued only by human beings, but
there are many others that are valuable
whether human beings are around or not

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 The Synthesized View: Values are
Both Objective and Subjective
• Values are determined by three variables:
– The first variable is the thing of value, or the thing
valued
– The second is a conscious being who values, or
the valuer
– The third is the context or situation in which the
valuing takes place

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 Theory on the Origin of Morality

• If values are both objective and subjective, it

is possible to construct the following theory
concerning the origin of morality:
– It comes from a complex interaction between
conscious human beings and material, mental, or
emotional “things” in specific contexts
– It stems from human needs and desires and is
based on human emotions and reason

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 Customary Morality
• Customary (or traditional) morality is based on
custom or tradition
• This is the first type of morality that we
encounter
• Customary morality is presented to members,
often accepted without analysis or critical
evaluation, throughout childhood and adult
years

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 Reflective Morality
• Reflective morality is the careful examination
and critical evaluation of all moral issues
whether or not they are based on religion,
custom, or tradition
• All customs, traditions, systems of ethics,
rules, and ethical theories should be carefully
analyzed and critically evaluated before we
continue to accept or live by them

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 Morality and the Law

• Morality is not necessarily based on law

• However, the law provides a public
statement to guide humans in their
behavior and to protect them from doing
harm to persons and property

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 Morality and the Law

• Some laws have more or less moral impact

than others, but the relationship between
law and morality is not reciprocal
• What is moral is not necessarily legal and
what is legal is not necessarily moral

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 Morality and Religion
• Throughout history, religion served as a
powerful institution for getting people to
behave morally
• But, the fact that religion may have preceded
formal legal or moral systems, or that it may
have provided very powerful and effective
sanctions for morality, does not prove that
morality must of necessity have a religious
basis

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 Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

• Kohlberg’s theory sets up three distinct

levels of moral thinking, and each level is
arranged in two stages
– Preconventional Level
• The Punishment and Obedience Orientation
• The Instrumental/Relativist Orientation

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Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

– Conventional Level
• The Interpersonal Concordance
• The “Law and Order” Orientation
– Postconventional Level
• The Social Contract Orientation
• The Universal-Ethical-Principle Orientation

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 Preconventional Level
• Terms like good and bad, or right and wrong
are interpreted in terms of either physical or
hedonistic consequences of action
– Stage One: Moral decisions are made in response
to authority
– Stage Two: Moral decision making is conditioned
primarily by self-interest

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 Conventional Level

• Similar to the customary or traditional

morality, which is unreflective and consists
in maintaining or conforming to the
expectations of others

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 Conventional Level
– Stage Three: Conformity with the group,
living up to other’s expectations, and
earning the approval of others by being
“nice”
– Stage Four: Concerned with maintaining
social order for its own sake or as an end in
itself

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 Postconventional Level

• Also called the autonomous or principled

level
• Requires reflective morality and the ability
to effectively engage ethical reasoning
apart from, or independently of, group
identification and authority

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 Postconventional Level
– Stage Five: Understand that there are ends
beyond the law and that laws are crafted to
bring about these ends; views laws as a social
contract
– Stage Six: Right is defined by the decision of
conscience in accord with self-chosen ethical
principles appealing to logical
comprehensiveness, universality, and
consistency

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 A Working Definition of Morality

• Morality, or ethics, deals basically with

human relationships—how human beings
treat other beings so as to promote mutual
welfare, growth, creativity, and meaning as
they strive for good over bad and right over
wrong

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