ETHICS Reviewer – Preliminaries
Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong
Written by Louis P. Pojman & James Fieser
Cengage Advantage Books, Seventh Edition
C.I. Lewis – stated that “in all the world and in all of life there is nothing more important to determine than what is
right,” in his work The Ground and Nature of Right.
Socrates – stated that “we are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live,” in Plato’s Republic; also said
that “an unexamined life is not worth living”.
Kitty Genovese – young woman who was brutally stabbed in her neighborhood late at night.
✓ New York City reported the news.
✓ Three separate attacks lasting thirty-five minutes.
✓ Thirty-eight bystanders watched/listened; a seventy-year-old woman called for police who took two minutes
to arrive; Genovese was already dead.
✓ Only one other woman came out to testify to the police before the ambulance showed up an hour later.
✓ The bystanders reasoned “I didn’t know”, “I was tired”, and “Frankly, we were afraid”.
Ethics – branch of Philosophy that deals with how we ought to live; with the idea of the Good and concepts such as
‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
Philosophy – enterprise that begins with wonder at the marvels and mysteries of the world.
✓ Scientific experiments take place in laboratories while the philosophers’ is the mind.
Ethical – from Greek word “ethos”.
Moral – from Latin word “mores”.
Key Divisions of Ethics
• Descriptive Morality – actual beliefs, customs, principles, and practices of people and cultures; Sociologists
in particular pay special attention to the concrete moral practices of social groups around the world.
• Moral Philosophy/Ethical Theory – systematic effort to understand moral concepts and justify moral
principles and theories; analyzes key ethical concepts such as ‘right’, ‘wrong’, and ‘permissible’; explores
possible sources of moral obligation such as God, human reason, or the desire to be happy.
• Applied Ethics – deals with controversial moral problems such as Abortion, Pre-Marital Sex, Euthanasia,
Capital Punishment, and Civil Disobedience.
o “Theory without application is sterile and useless but action without a theoretical perspective is blind.”
Morality as Compared with Other Normative Subjects
• Religion – moral behavior is usually believed to be essential to a religion’s practice but neither the practices
nor principles of morality should be identified with religion.
o Secular Ethics is horizontal while Religious Ethics is vertical and grounded in revelation/divine authority.
• Law – instituted in order to promote well-being, resolve conflicts of interest, and promote social harmony
just as morality does but ethics may judge that some laws are immoral without denying their legal authority.
• Etiquette – concerns form and style rather than the essence of social existence; determines what is polite
behavior rather than what is right behavior in a deeper sense.
Traits of Moral Principles
• Prescriptivity – practical/action-guiding nature of morality; to advise people and influence action.
• Universalizability – must apply to all people who are in a relevantly similar situation.
• Overridingness – moral principles have predominant authority and override other kinds of principles.
• Publicity – must be made public in order to guide our actions and since we use principles to prescribe
behavior, give advice, and assign praise and blame.
• Practicability – must be workable and must not lay a heavy burden on us when we follow them.
Domains of Ethical Assessment
• Action
o Right Act – act that is permissible for you to do.
▪ Obligatory Act – morality requires you to do; not permissible for you to refrain from doing it.
▪ Optional Act – neither obligatory nor wrong to do; not your duty to do it nor is it your duty not to do it.
• Neutral Act
• Supererogatory Act – neither required nor obligatory but exceed what morality requires.
o Wrong Act – you have an obligation or duty to refrain from doing.
▪ Deontological – from Greek word “deon” meaning ‘duty’; inherently good or inherently bad.
• Consequences – if the consequences are on balance positive, the action is right; otherwise then it is wrong.
• Character – whereas some ethical theories emphasize the nature of actions or the consequences, other
theories emphasize character or virtue.
o Virtue – good character traits.
o Vice – bad character traits.
• Motive – we can ethically assess situations by examining the motive of the people involved.
