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Module 1 – Ethical TheoryKey Concepts from Kant’s EthicsTerm Definition Deductive ArgumentArgument where the truth of the premise is intended to guarantee the truth of the conclusion Premise Indicators Include the terms for, because, since & given that Conclusion IndicatorsTherefore, ...

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Terms  Module 1 – Ethical Theory Term Definition Deductive Argument where the truth of the premise is intended to guarantee the Argument truth of the conclusion Premise Indicators Include the terms for, because, since & given that Conclusion Therefore, thus, hence, so & consequently Indicators Reflective Context of moral philosophy, end point of a process of moral deliberation Equilibrium that involves going back & forth between moral principles & what they imply about specific cases Original Position Hypothetical situation from which people are to choose the principles of justice to regulate the major social institutions People are equally powerful, equally intelligent, self-interested, and ignorant of their own advantages and disadvantages in the real world  Supererogat Morally good to do, but is not morally required ory  Hedonism View pleasure as the sole intrinsic good (and pain as the sole intrinsic) bad Things like health, income, freedom and friends can be good as a means insofar as they tend to lead to pleasure and diminish pain  Consequenti Right act is entirely determined by its consequences alism Right act promotes the most net good or the least net bad  Equal No one’s good is to be counted as more important than anyone else’s Consideration (Impartiality)  Situational Whether an act is right or wrong depends on the particular situation Ethic  NonRightness of an act is not solely determined by the goodness of its consequentialists consequences  Deontologist Morality as a matter of one’s (moral) duty s  Rule Right thing to do is to follow the best rule Best rule is defined as the one that, if consistently followed, will produce Utilitarianism the greatest amount of net good (well-being) for all concerned  Humanity “A rational being” Being that is capable of freely making his or her own decisions, of setting goals for himself or herself, and of following moral rules  Means Only “A thing” Something that is not capable of freely making its own decisions

Key Concepts from Kant’s Ethics  Categorical State what one ought to do regardless of one’s desires

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Module 2 – Euthanasia

Euthanasia

Intentional act, or omission, that brings about the death of another individual for that individual’s own health-related good

MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying)

When a healthcare professional assists a patient in dying - Either by providing with means to commit suicide, performing euthanasia on the patient

Active

Killing

Passive Voluntary Active

Let die Patient freely consents to and receives active euthanasia

Non-voluntary

Patient who cannot express a wish to live or die is actively euthanized

Active Principle

View that it is wrong to kill, because life is sacred - Human life, specifically innocent human life is sacred

Moral Permissibility

Reasons that explain why killing an innocent person is wrong, often don’t

of VAE

speak against or actually support the moral permissibility

Sanctity of Life

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Module 4 – Abortion  Sentience Ability to perceive one’s environment and experience sensations such as pain, suffering, pleasure or comfort  Ability to receive internal sensation and information from its Abortion

environment, and then interpret this as an emotion  Intentional termination of a pregnancy with the intent and result

Zygote

of killing the prenatal organism  Single diploid cell that results from the merging of a sperm and

Embryo

ovum through a process of fertilization  Developing organism, from moment of conception until about

Fetus

the end of eight week  Eight weeks until birth

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Cognitive and physical symptoms that result from an extra copy

Down Syndrome   Amniocente

or part of a copy of chromosome 21  Extra chromosome disrupts normal course of development  Prenatal diagnostic procedure performed in order to detect fetal

sis 

abnormalities  Needle used to remove sample of amniotic fluid, containing skin

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cells from the fetus  Presuppose what you want to prove

Beg the Question  Sympathy

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Metarule  Principle of

follow  Instructs us to interpret an author’s claim and arguments in the

Charity  Fallacy of

best possible light  Term in two different senses so as to make an argument that is

Equivocation  Caesarean

not valid appear valid  Delivery of a fetus by surgical incision through the abdominal wall

Section by Choice  Autonomy

and uterus  Self-determination, right of the patient to choose her course of

Choose rules that people with ordinary human sympathies could

care without undue interference

Module 6 – Two-Tier Healthcare  Two-Tier 1. Care accessible to all HealthCare

2. Care accessible only to those with means (private insurance, personal insurance etc.)

Primary Social

Good that everyone (or almost everyone) needs to live well

Goods Negative Rights

Rights to non-interference

Positive Rights Robust Advantage

Rights to be provided with money, goods, services, and so on We should bias our decisions about allowing differences so as to provide

Principle

a robust advantage to the least advantaged

Sympathy Metarule

Any strict rule against complicity that required us to ignore such sympathies would be rejected or modified in the original position

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Module 7 – Alternative Medicine Complement  Kinds of drugs, therapies, practices, and so on, that are not used

ary & Alternative Medicine

in conventional Western medicine  Ex. acupuncture, homeopathy, naturopathy

Module 1: Ethical Theory 

Descriptive Ethics

Week 1-3

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Describes a certain population’s beliefs about some ethical issue o Ex. sociologist may want to determine what British Columbians believe about the ethics of euthanasia o Ex. historians want to determine what Canadians believed about the ethics of euthanasia at a given point of time

Normative Ethics  Determine not what people happen to believe but what they ought to believe about some ethical issue and why o Philosophers seek to answer by consulting reason or argument o Examining relevant arguments  

What makes acts morally wrong or right Address general theoretical questions about what sorts of things matter, morally speaking o Also concerned with practical or applied issues

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Relies primarily on the use of reason or argument, as opposed to empirical investigation in order to solve their questions

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Normative Ethical Theory  Set of very general principles, which attempt to explain what makes morally right acts right, morally wrong acts wrong etc. o Ex. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” 

Involves examination of concrete moral problems o Ex. Abortion, euthanasia, animal rights fall falls into applied or practical ethics

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Meta Ethics

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Attempt to understand the nature of morality o Questions asked about mortality o Ex. When asking if a person has a moral right to die, first need to clarify what is meant by a “moral right”

Argument  Defined as a set of statements o One is conclusions, others are premises  Premises  Evidence or reasons given in an attempt to support the conclusion 

Conclusion  Point on is trying to prove

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Arguments can fail in two different ways: o Weak premise o Fail because its premise, even if all true, do not prove the conclusion

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Strong argument, not enough to prove the conclusion, must also contain all true premises o Premises that logically support its conclusion, contains no false premises

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Standard Form  Listing each individual premise above the line, stating the conclusion below the line o Ex. (P1) it is wrong to kill innocent human beings o (P2) Euthanasia is the killing of an innocent human being

o © Therefore, euthanasia is wrong  Logically (or deductively) Valid Argument  If the premises are all true, then the conclusion must be true  Argument to fail, must fail because it has a false (or weak) premise o No flaws in either of the premises, then one will be forced, logically to accept   

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the conclusion that euthanasia is wrong Sound argument o Logically valid argument that has all true premises

Logically (or deductively) Invalid Argument  Premises, even if all true, fail to prove that the conclusion must be true o (P1) Euthanasia on children is illegal o © Therefore, euthanasia on children is immoral 

Argument is invalid because the truth of the premise fails to prove the truth of the

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conclusion Unsound argument o Argument contains either a false premise, or is logically invalid, or both

Moral Arguments  Have a moral claim in the conclusion o Ex. arguments that conclude hat euthanasia is morally permissible or that euthanasia is morally wrong are moral arguments

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Moral arguments to be valid, must contain at least one premise that contains a moral premise Determine whether a moral premise is true or false are in order o Is the premise vulnerable to counterexamples? o Is the premise independently plausible?

Inductive Arguments  One uses premises to try to support a conclusion, the intent is not for the premises to guarantee the truth of the conclusion o Intent is for the premises to give one good reason to think the conclusion is 

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probably true Premises only need to make the conclusion probably true

Cultural Relativism  Nature of right and wrong  No objective truth in ethics, morally right and wrong are solely determined by one’s culture o Ex. Sexual norms, oral sex, homosexuality o “Who are we to judge”

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Cultural Differences Argument (CDA)  Principle argument for Cultural Relativism  Argument takes fact of moral disagreement between cultures as evidence for the claims that there is no objective truth in ethics o Right and wrong are merely culturally determined  (P1) Different cultures have different moral codes

 

© Therefore, there is no objective truth in ethics, morally right and

wrong are solely determined by one’s culture Logically invalid? o Just because people disagree about moral matters is no proof that there is no truth to morality  People may disagree about an argument, doesn’t mean there is no

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objective truth about these matters Weak premise? o All cultures will have some common elements of a moral code  If observation correct, basic piece of evidence offered in support of CR – ethical disagreement – is undermined

Arguments against Cultural Relativism  Implies that the moral values of one’s own culture are necessarily true o Solely determined by one’s culture, invalid because no one believes that 

one’s culture is morally perfect CR is the view that morality is determined by one’s culture and there is no objective

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truth in ethics, follows that moral values of all other cultures are true for those cultures Moral progress can occur, one goes from a worse way to a better way

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Utilitarianism  Normative ethical theory, seeks to determine which acts, rules, policies, laws etc. are 

morally right (or wrong) and why Classical Act Utilitarianism o Right acts (or policies, or rules, or laws etc.) are those that produce the greatest net amount of pleasure, or the least net amount of pain  Everyone’s pleasure and pain are given equal consideration o Rightness of an act is to be determined solely by its results  Act that will produce the best net results is the morally right thing to do

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Consequentialism o Only consequences matter in the evaluation of the rightness or wrongness of actions  Right act, in any given circumstance, is the optimific act  Most net good, or the least net bad o Consequences are the sole determinant of right action  Act that fails to produce the best net consequences is the wrong thing

 

to do Embrace idea of impartiality

Rule Utilitarianism  Traditional (act) utilitarianism requires that one perform the optimific action in any particular situation, rule utilitarian requires one to follow the optimific rules o Even if doing so on that particular occasion wont produce the best 

consequences May not be able to give a coherent response to the objections that focuses on peoples rights

Key Objections to Utilitarianism  Too simple o Moral rightness and wrongness of an act also depends on different factors o Frequent inability to know the long-term consequences   

Hedonism is flawed theory of the good Unable to recognize the importance of special relationships Too demanding

Non-consequentialism  View that the rightness of an act is not solely determined by its consequences  Consequences of an act are one factor in determining the rightness of an act o Not the only factor 

Ethical Absolutists o Consequences of an act play no role in making an act right or wrong 

Acts are always morally wrong (or morally right), regardless of their consequences

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Kant  Influential ethical absolutist  There are some acts that are always morally wrong to perform, some acts were right 

(or wrong) regardless of their consequences Universal Law Test o Act only on those maxims which you can, at the same time, will to become a universal law o “Act only on principles that you could will everyone doing all the time”  Morality must ought to apply to everyone equally

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Step 1: Identify the maxim (principle) behind the action Step 2: Universalize the maxim o Transform the maxim into a universal law (everyone acts on that principle, all the time) Step 3: Consider whether the universalized maxim can be consistently willed o If it can be consistently willed, then the act is morally permissible o If it cannot be consistently willed, then determine why it cannot be consistently a universal law



Then the act violates a perfect duty and is morally forbidden

Ex. Universal Law  Consider shoplifting o Principle I am acting under: “I will shoplift” o Maxim changes into a universal law “Everyone will shoplift all the time” o Maxim cannot be willed as a universal law, shoplifting is morally wrong  

Humanity Version of the Categorical Imperative  Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or the person of another, always as an end and never as a means only o Act so that you treat rational beings always as rational beings and never as 

things Behave morally is to respect a rational being (being able to make her own decisions)

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as a rational being (being able to make her own decisions Behave immorally is to treat a rational being (being able to make her own decisions) as if she were a thing (being unable to make her own decisions)

Prima Facie Duty  Duty is a conditional o Ex. duty to tell the truth, duty to promote others’ well-being, duty to repay 

debts One out to follow one’s prima facie duty unless it is overridden by some other more pressing prima facie duty in that situation o Duties are self-evidently known to be true  Known by anyone of normal psychological development o Once one reaches a certain level of maturity one should just know what one’s prima facie duties are

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Right thing to do is to follow that prima facie duty that is most pressing or most

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important in that situation Right and wrong is a matter of doing one’s duty, but one’s duty is not simply producing the best consequences o One ought to do is follow one’s strongest duty in that particular situation

Principalism  Any attempt to provide a formula to solve moral problems will be overly simplistic and will ultimately result in given wrong answers o Accept morality is messy o All we can do is be sensitive to the situations we find ourselves in, be aware of the prima facie duties involved, make the best judgment about which duty is most pressing Contractarianism  View that the justified moral rules are those that self-interested, rational individuals would unanimously choose, under certain conditions, for their own benefit  

Challenges for Contractarianism  Found to be either incomplete or misguided  Concern: inability to give a satisfactory explanation of our moral obligations to those who are rational beings o Lack of clarity in determining what people in the original position would actually choose when it comes to some issues

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Thomas Hobbes’ Social Contract Theory  People are thought of as choosing the moral rules from what he calls a state of nature o Time and place with no organized government or society, no recognized social rules, a time and place where each is completely free to do as he or she 

pleases In order to escape the state of nature, to have a better life, people would make agreements with one another

o Agree to rules that are justified moral rules o Rational, self-interested people are primarily self-interested, want to live and 

to have a better life There are objective moral truths o Those being whatever rules rational people will choose in order to escape the state of nature and to facilitate social living o Product of people’s rational choices

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Challenges for Social Contract Theory  Unable to satisfactorily explain all of morality  Views moral obligations as being justified because it is in each individual’s interest to agree to them o Problem because morality is not always in the person’s best interest

Rawls’s Social Contract Theory  Concerned with explaining the principles of justice that are needed to regulate the 

major institutions in society (e.g. tax code, political constitution) Appropriate principles of justice (or moral rules in Hobbes’s case) as an agreement between rational individuals for their mutual benefit o Differs from Hobbes in description of the initial situation from which the moral rules (or principles of justice) are to be chosen  Hobbes: initial situation is the state of nature  Rawls: initial situation is what he calls the original position

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Original Position  Pretend that the people choosing the principles of justice are rational, selfinterested, but behind a veil of ignorance

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Veil of Ignorance o Imagine that the people choosing the principles of justice are ignorant of any particular facts about themselves  They do not known their gender, whether or not they are wealthy or poor, religious or secular etc. o Purpose is to ensure that the principles of justice are chosen in an unbiased or fair way  People choosing the principles of justice will be unable to bias their choices to suit their particular circumstances

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Aristotle Virtue Theory  “What is the best life for a human being” o Basic claim is that good life involves a life of virtuous activity o Good person is one who consistently manifests the moral and intel...