He believed as Absolutists believe today , we should be able to apply moral rules to everyone without making allowances for different people or circumstance , thus suggesting laws should be ‘universalisable’ . In an absolute moral system a rule applies to everyone. An example of Absolute Rules are the 10 commandments, rules which state what is wrong and thus what shouldn’t be done by all people of all cultures at all times; the 10 commandments state that ‘Murder is Wrong’ this gives us a moral proposition which if we are absolutists we can easily determine as right or wrong however, if we are relativists we would question the situation of the murder, the culture and the reason behind the murder. Furthermore Moral Relativism comes in various strengths and forms. Cultural Relativism can be defined on a basic level with the quote by St Ambrose ‘When in Rome do as Romans do’.
Further, it holds that (4) the good is prior to the right, that (5) right action is action that responds no defectively to the good, that (6) there are a variety of ways in which action can be defective with respect to the good, and that (7) some of these ways can be captured and formulated as general rules. (Mark Murphy, Standard Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2002) 2. Duty Ethics Duty ethics is sometimes called Deontological ethics. This approach to ethics is concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions. Deontologists believe that (1) do the right thing, (2) do it because it is the right thing to do, (3) Don’t do wrong things and (4) avoid them because they are wrong.
Meta ethics tries to make sense of the terms and concepts used in ethical theories. Some people believe that ethical language is extremely meaningful as they argue it is essential to be able to define terms such as “good” and “bad” before we can even begin to discuss ethical theories. However others disagree with this and argue that moral statements are subjective so cannot be meaningful as they cannot be described as either true or false. Those who hold cognitive theories about ethical language would argue that ethical statements are meaningful as they are about facts and can therefore be proved true or false. Ethical Naturalism is a cognitive theory of Meta ethics which holds the belief that ethical statements are the same as non ethical ones, so can be verified or falsified in the same way.
Assignment Two Incorporating Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development into the Justice System P Strayer University Assignment Two Incorporating Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development into the Justice System I think that justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. For instance, a theory that’s economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; same as laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well arranged they are, they must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. All people possess and inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override. This is the reason that justice denies that the loss of freedom for some is made right by a greater good that’s shared by others. Just does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a small amount are out weighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many.
The second approach is Non-Cognitivism, this is the view that ethical language cannot be known and understood, due to subjectivity. One Cognitivism theory is that of Ethical Naturalism, it states that one can determine the moral value of an object or person simply through empirical observation. For example one can determine that “the knife is good, because it is sharp”. The term good here denotes that the object serves its purpose and is of use. In the writings of Principa Ethica(1903);G.E Moore criticises the cognitive stance of Ethical naturalism of Naturalistic fallacy.
I think is a plausible idea since you cannot give what you do not have. For example, a blind man cannot help another blind man to cross the road. It is very important to note here that before you help anyone, you must be capable of helping. In short, Peter Singer’s analysis that, “we ought to prevent evil whenever we can do so without sacrificing something of comparable moral significance” is uncompromisingly convincing and the pragmatic use of this conclusion would help have better human relations.
“Economists are ethical consequentialists: we judge actions and policies solely on the basis of their consequences/outcomes.” (Morey 4). To determine whether something is good or right in Economical Ethics you have to look at a few things such as: utility, cost benefit analysis, efficiency and externalities. Dexter has a preference for killing people. He works with his constraints such as the law to maximize his utility and not get caught. Because Dexter is
Explain moral relativism. (25 marks) The theory of moral relativism is an ethical approach to situation ethics which asserts that there are no universally true moral principles, as all moral principles held by a person or society are relative to their circumstances, culture and religion - this means that there are no actions which are and will always be wrong. Instead, if an action seems good to you then for you it is morally right and vice versa, however there is no way that we are able to objectively identify which opinion is the correct one. A soft form of moral relativism is Cultural Relativism which states that moral codes differ from culture to culture or from religion to religion, for example some cultures believe polygamy or arranged marriages to be morally right, whereas a catholic society would believe that monogamy is the only moral way of life. Subjective Relativism on the other hand is a much more extreme stem of moral relativism as it is based on the view of an individual alone and therefore then can be absolutely no debate as all values are relative.
Perhaps more so than Emotivists, Prescriptivists see ethical language as fairly meaningful. They believe that the terms used are able to create absolute rules that everyone ought to follow. It would seem that ethical language is seen by many as very meaningful, although for varying reasons. However agent centred theories such as Virtue Ethics would argue that our main focus of morality should be on becoming as virtuous as possible, rather than deciding what is meant by ethical language. Therefore it would seem that perhaps morality should be more focussed on individuals’ actions rather then defining what is meant by ‘good’ and
The connection between critical thinking and ethics is that there are no general hard and fast rules regarding the application of ethics in various situations, which is especially pertinent considering the fact that what may be ethical in one situation may be considered unethical in another context. I use my reasoning skills (rationality) to determine both the universal rules that each person should follow (autonomy)and the process that will assure fairness and justice for all in the community. My blind spot my belief that motive justifies method or overconfidence in process. I believe that a consistent process results in a just outcome for all, I sometimes trust the process too much. Ethics plays a very important role in a professional setting.