The Moral Point of View

The Moral Point of View ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Why Study Ethics? • Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. • Analogy: morality is a lot like nutrition. • Principal concern: health • The role of experts • Disagreement ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation • Professional discussions of ethical issues in journals. • We come back to ideas again and again, finding new meaning in them. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Ethics and Morality • Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about how to live a good life • Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Moral Health • The goal of ethical reflection is moral health. • Thus we seek to determine what will nourish our moral life and what will poison it. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Ethical Inventory • Take the ethical inventory on pp. 8-10 now or on the web at: • http://ethics.sandiego.edu/ActiveWebSurvey/theory/ . • Return to your answers after finishing each chapter. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

The Moral Point of View • What makes something a moral issue? • Content: • duties, rights, human welfare, suffering, character, etc. • Perspective: • impartial, compassionate, etc. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Example: Cheating Imagine a situation in which you see a classmate cheating. There are several elements from a moral point of view: • Some people are hurt by the cheating • There is deception in the situation • Cheating seems to be unfair to those who don’t cheat • There are conflicting values—honesty, loyalty, etc. • There are questions of character. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

The Language of Moral Concerns • Some philosophers have argued that moral issues are characterized by a particular kind of language—terms such as duty, obligation, right, and good. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Impartiality Many philosophers have argued that the moral point of view is characterized by impartiality, that is, I don’t give my own interest any special weight. • Immanuel Kant • John Stuart Mill ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Compassion • Other philosophers have seen the origin of the moral life to be in compassion, feeling for the suffering of other sentient beings. • Josiah Royce: “Such as that is for me, so is it for him, nothing less.” ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Universally Binding • Moral obligations, some philosophers maintain, are universally binding and that is what gives them their distinctive character. • Kant: morality is a matter of categorical imperatives. • Distinguish between hypothetical and categorical imperatives. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Concern for Character • Philosophers from Aristotle onward have seen the primary focus of morality to be character. • Two questions: • What ought I to do? (Kant and Mill) • What kind of person ought I to be? (Aristotle) ©Lawrence M. Hinman

The Focus of Ethics • Ethics as the Evaluation of Other People’s Behavior • We are often eager to pass judgment on others • Ethics as the Search for Meaning and Value in Our Own Lives ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Ethics as the Evaluation of Other People’s Behavior • Ethics often used as a weapon • Hypocrisy • Possibility of knowing other people • The right to judge other people • The right to intervene • Judging and caring ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Ethics as the Search for Meaning and Value in Our Own Lives • Positive focus • Aims at discerning what is good • Emphasizes personal responsibility for one’s own life ©Lawrence M. Hinman

What to Expect from a Moral Theory Functions of theory: • Describe • Explain • Give strength (Stockdale) • Prescribe • Open new possibilities • Wonder ©Lawrence M. Hinman

What to Expect from a Moral Theory, 2 What is ethics like? • Physics • Clear-cut, definitive answers • Engineering • Several possible ways of doing things, many ways that are wrong ©Lawrence M. Hinman

The Point of Ethical Reflection • Ethics as the evaluation of other people’s behavior • Sources of mistrust about moral judgments • Hypocrisy • Knowing other people • The right to judge • Judging and intervention • Judging and caring • Ethics as the search for the meaning of our own lives ©Lawrence M. Hinman

Conclusion:Ethics & Good Health • Ethics is like nutrition • One studies bodily health, the other moral health • Significant disagreement in both fields • Still there is a significant common ground. ©Lawrence M. Hinman

The Moral Point of View