Ethics

Ethics Study Guide Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832 C.E.) was a psychological hedonist. He believed that the desire for pleasure and aversion of pain were the only motivation for human actions. He defended the principle of utility and did not promote selfishness. The Principle of Utility states that an action is right if it produces at least as much (or more) of an increase in the happiness of all affected by it, than any alternative action. An action is wrong if it does not do this. Consequentialism , as its name suggests, is the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things. The most prominent example of this is consequentialism about the moral rightness of an act. This philosophy holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act. The paradigm case of consequentialism is utilitarianism, whose classic proponents were Jeremy Bentham (1789), John Stuart Mill (1861), and Henry Sidgwick (1907). Classic utilitarianism is consequentialist as opposed to deontological because of what it denies. It denies that moral rightness depends directly on anything other than consequences. The moral rightness of an act depends only on the consequences (as opposed to the circumstances or the intrinsic nature of the act or anything that happens before the act). Deontological Theories hold that the rightness and wrongness of actions do not depend entirely on considerations of goodness (value). Deontology, the science of duty, focuses on the rightness or wrongness of motives. The foremost modern defender of this theory is Immanuel Kant insisted that an act cannot be judged right or wrong based on the resulting consequences, which are often out of our hands or a matter of luck, but the principle that guides the action. He felt that people should act with the right intentions, according to the right principles, doing one’s duty for its own sake rather than for personal gain and without concern for consequences. Ethics based on deontology is often described as the “ethics of what is right.” A deontological ethical decision looks at the problem very differently than teleological theory. It looks at the moral obligations and/or duties of the decision maker, based on principles and rules of behavior. There are two types: • Strong deontological theories contend right or wrong is not dependent on good/bad. • Weak deontological theories believe good or bad is relevant to right or wrong but not decisive. And two subtypes: o Rule-based deontology holds that rightness or wrongness of an action depends on the actions keeping with a rule or rules. o Non-rule based deontology holds that the rightness or wrongness of an action does not depend on the actions keeping with a rule or rules. The distinction between strong and weak forms for all theories centers on the difference between what is relevant and what is decisive (all else is deemed irrelevant.) Divine Command Theory is an example of a deontological theory. It actually refers to a cluster of related theories that state an action is right if God has decreed that it is right. The basic tenet is that God’s will is the basis of morality. ©2018 Achieve Page 107 of 116