The Moral Point of View

The Moral Point of View Sandra FoyBioethicsFal Semester, 2004

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Why Study Ethics?  Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. Analogy: morality is a lot like nutrition.  Principal concern: health The role of experts Disagreement

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The Moral Point of View  What makes something a moral issue? Content:  duties, rights, human welfare, suffering, character, etc. Perspective:  impartial, compassionate, etc.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.”

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Universal y 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.

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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What to Expect from a Moral TheoryFunctions of theory: Describe Explain Give strength (Stockdale) Prescribe  Open new possibilities Wonder

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What to Expect from a Moral Theory, 2What is ethics like? Physics  Clear-cut, definitive answers  Engineering  Several possible ways of doing things, many ways that are wrong

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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

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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.

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