Session 2
General Ethical Theories
Ethical Relativism
• Ethical relativism is the theory that holds that morality
is relative to the norms of one's culture. That is, whether
an action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms
of the society in which it is practiced. The same action
may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong
in another.
Ethical Absolutism
• Moral absolutism is an ethical view that all actions are
intrinsically right or wrong. Stealing, for instance, might
be considered to be always immoral, even if done for the
well-being of others (e.g., stealing food to feed a starving
family), and even if it does in the end promote such a
good.
Absolutism and Relativism
• What is the difference between Absolutism and
Relativism?
• Ethical absolutism holds that moral commands are
true at all times. This means that they're true in all
cultures and situations.
• In contrast, moral relativism views moral values as
entirely relative to different societies and contexts.
General Ethical Theories
• The general categories of ethical theory includes:
• Deontological Ethics (Kantian Ethics)
• Consequentialist Ethics (Egoism & Utilitarianism)
• Virtues Ethics (Plato)
Deontological Ethics
• In moral philosophy, deontological ethics or deontology is the
normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be
based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series
of rules, rather than based on the consequences of the action
• Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to distinguish right
from wrong.
• Often associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed
that ethical actions follow universal moral laws, such as “Don’t lie.
Don’t steal. Don’t cheat.”
Deontological Ethics
• For instance, a deontologist will always keep his promises
to a friend and will follow the law. A person who adheres
to deontological theory will produce very consistent
decisions since they will be based on the individual’s set
duties.
Duty-based Ethics
8
Drawbacks of Deontology Ethics
• For example, suppose you’re a software engineer and learn that a
nuclear missile is about to launch that might start a war. You can
hack the network and cancel the launch, but it’s against your
professional code of ethics to break into any software system without
permission. And, it’s a form of lying and cheating. Deontology
advises not to violate this rule. However, in letting the missile launch,
thousands of people will die.
• So, following the rules makes deontology easy to apply. But it also
means disregarding the possible consequences of our actions when
determining what is right and what is wrong.
Utilitarianism
• An action is good if its benefits exceeds its harms
• An action is bad if its harms exceed its benefits
• Utility: tendency of an object to produce happiness or
prevent unhappiness for an individual or a community
• Happiness = advantage = benefit = good = pleasure
• Unhappiness = disadvantage = cost = evil = pain
• An action is right (or wrong) to the extent that it
increases (or decreases) the total happiness of the
affected parties.
Utilitarianism
• . There are two types of utilitarianism, act utilitarianism and rule
utilitarianism
• Act utilitarianism subscribes precisely to the definition of utilitarianism
—a person performs the acts that benefit the most people, regardless of
personal feelings or the societal constraints such as laws.
• Rule utilitarianism takes into account the law and is concerned with
fairness. A rule utilitarian seeks to benefit the most people but through
the fairest and most just means available. Therefore, added benefits of
rule utilitarianism are that it values justice and includes beneficence at
the same time
Trolley Problem
14
Fat man problem:
(Another version of Trolley
problem)
15
Trolley Case
• What about the consequences in both versions of Trolley
Problem?
• Do you think the choices, irrespective of the
consequences make difference???
• Yes or No??? Why???
Virtue Ethics
• The virtue ethical theory judges a person by his/her
character rather than by an action that may deviate from
his/her normal behaviour.
• It takes the person’s morals, reputation, and motivation
into account when rating an unusual and irregular
behaviour that is considered unethical.
Virtue Ethics
• One weakness of virtue ethical theory is that it does not
take into consideration a person’s change in moral
character
THE END
