Ethics Extensive Notes on Lectures and Readings
,Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics Course 3
Knowledge clip week 1 3
Chapter 1 – Doing The Right Thing
3
Lecture 2: Aristotle 6
Knowledge clip week 2 6
Chapter 8 - Who Deserves What / Aristotle 7
Readings 9
Quiz
9
Lecture 3: Utilitarianism and Libertarianism 13
Chapter 2 – The Greatest Happiness principle/ Utilitarianism 14
Chapter 3 – Do we own ourselves/ Libertarianism 14
Readings 17
Quiz
17
Lecture 4: Kant 19
Knowledge clip week 4 19
Chapter 5 - What matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant 21
Readings 30
Quiz
30
Lecture 5: Rawls 32
Chapter 6 – The Case for Equality / John Rawls 33
Readings 39
Quiz
39
Lecture 6: Communitarianism 41
Knowledge clip week 6 41
Chapter 9 – What Do We Owe One Another/ Dilemmas of Loyalty 43
Chapter 10 – Justice and The Common Good 47
Readings 47
Quiz 47
,Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics Course
Ethos: character, customer or habit
Ethics is set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values
Knowledge clip week 1
Ethical decisions from organizations, governments, societies or people need to
consider:
- What are the alternatives, the possible actions that one can take
- Who are the stakeholders, who will be affected
- The consequences of an action, how they will be affected
Core to ethical decision making is the ability to balance clashing values -> Clash
of ethical values because there are different principles and notions of good
- No clash of values, no ethical problem
Ethical behavior is not: religious beliefs; feelings and emotions; the law; social
conventions; scientific knowledge
Artistole: virtue
Kant: human dignity and self-determination
Utilitarians: consider the outcome, the consequences of our actions, and how
much pleasure and happiness or harm they bring to people
John Rawls: understand our position in society and understand that the core of
our existence lies in the idea that we are sharing one another's fate
Communitarians: consider the community of humans when making ethical
decisions
Chapter 1 – Doing The Right Thing
Justice: maximizing welfare, respecting freedom, and promoting virtue
- Welfare: providing incentives for people to work hard supplying good that
other people want
➢ Society’s welfare is not served by asking high prices for goods in
hard times
- Freedom: people choose for themselves what value to place on the things
they exchange
➢ Not truly free and buyers under duress have no freedom but are
forced out of necessity
, - Virtue: cultivating the attitudes and dispositions, the qualities of
character, on which a good society depends
➢ Being greedy as vendor in trying times is not virtuous
Should law be neutral toward competing conceptions of virtue - justice involves
virtue as well as choice?
- Aristotle: justice means giving people what they deserve, determine what
virtues are worthy of honor and reward, find what is the most desirable
way of living
- Kant/ John Rawls: just society respects freedom to choose own
conception of the good life, and principles of justice that define our rights
should not rest on any particular conception of virtue or of the best way
of living
Outrage is anger at injustice
Justice & Welfare: prosperity contributes to individual and societal welfare -
utilitarianism: maximize welfare by seeking the greatest happiness for the
greatest number
Justice & Freedom: respecting individual rights
- Laissez-faire: free-market libertarians believing justice consists in
respecting and upholding voluntary choices made by consenting adults
- Fairness: egalitarians arguing markets are neither just nor free, justice
requires policies that remedy social and economic disadvantage, giving
everyone a fair chance at success
Justice & Virtue: legislation of morality, virtue in culture, societies, religion
Just society distributes goods (income & wealth, duties & right, power &
opportunities) by giving each person their due
Examples of rights and wrongs
- Price gouging: is it ethical to ask for more money as a vendor when times
are hard after a hurricane?
- Purple Heart: is it ethical to give veterans that suffer from psychological
problems (PTSD) not the same right for receiving a medal of honor as
veterans suffering from physiological injuries?
- Financial bailouts: was it ethical to bail out Wall Street and CEO banks
when they were responsible for the financial crisis (failure)?
,Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics Course 3
Knowledge clip week 1 3
Chapter 1 – Doing The Right Thing
3
Lecture 2: Aristotle 6
Knowledge clip week 2 6
Chapter 8 - Who Deserves What / Aristotle 7
Readings 9
Quiz
9
Lecture 3: Utilitarianism and Libertarianism 13
Chapter 2 – The Greatest Happiness principle/ Utilitarianism 14
Chapter 3 – Do we own ourselves/ Libertarianism 14
Readings 17
Quiz
17
Lecture 4: Kant 19
Knowledge clip week 4 19
Chapter 5 - What matters is the motive / Immanuel Kant 21
Readings 30
Quiz
30
Lecture 5: Rawls 32
Chapter 6 – The Case for Equality / John Rawls 33
Readings 39
Quiz
39
Lecture 6: Communitarianism 41
Knowledge clip week 6 41
Chapter 9 – What Do We Owe One Another/ Dilemmas of Loyalty 43
Chapter 10 – Justice and The Common Good 47
Readings 47
Quiz 47
,Lecture 1: Introduction to Ethics Course
Ethos: character, customer or habit
Ethics is set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values
Knowledge clip week 1
Ethical decisions from organizations, governments, societies or people need to
consider:
- What are the alternatives, the possible actions that one can take
- Who are the stakeholders, who will be affected
- The consequences of an action, how they will be affected
Core to ethical decision making is the ability to balance clashing values -> Clash
of ethical values because there are different principles and notions of good
- No clash of values, no ethical problem
Ethical behavior is not: religious beliefs; feelings and emotions; the law; social
conventions; scientific knowledge
Artistole: virtue
Kant: human dignity and self-determination
Utilitarians: consider the outcome, the consequences of our actions, and how
much pleasure and happiness or harm they bring to people
John Rawls: understand our position in society and understand that the core of
our existence lies in the idea that we are sharing one another's fate
Communitarians: consider the community of humans when making ethical
decisions
Chapter 1 – Doing The Right Thing
Justice: maximizing welfare, respecting freedom, and promoting virtue
- Welfare: providing incentives for people to work hard supplying good that
other people want
➢ Society’s welfare is not served by asking high prices for goods in
hard times
- Freedom: people choose for themselves what value to place on the things
they exchange
➢ Not truly free and buyers under duress have no freedom but are
forced out of necessity
, - Virtue: cultivating the attitudes and dispositions, the qualities of
character, on which a good society depends
➢ Being greedy as vendor in trying times is not virtuous
Should law be neutral toward competing conceptions of virtue - justice involves
virtue as well as choice?
- Aristotle: justice means giving people what they deserve, determine what
virtues are worthy of honor and reward, find what is the most desirable
way of living
- Kant/ John Rawls: just society respects freedom to choose own
conception of the good life, and principles of justice that define our rights
should not rest on any particular conception of virtue or of the best way
of living
Outrage is anger at injustice
Justice & Welfare: prosperity contributes to individual and societal welfare -
utilitarianism: maximize welfare by seeking the greatest happiness for the
greatest number
Justice & Freedom: respecting individual rights
- Laissez-faire: free-market libertarians believing justice consists in
respecting and upholding voluntary choices made by consenting adults
- Fairness: egalitarians arguing markets are neither just nor free, justice
requires policies that remedy social and economic disadvantage, giving
everyone a fair chance at success
Justice & Virtue: legislation of morality, virtue in culture, societies, religion
Just society distributes goods (income & wealth, duties & right, power &
opportunities) by giving each person their due
Examples of rights and wrongs
- Price gouging: is it ethical to ask for more money as a vendor when times
are hard after a hurricane?
- Purple Heart: is it ethical to give veterans that suffer from psychological
problems (PTSD) not the same right for receiving a medal of honor as
veterans suffering from physiological injuries?
- Financial bailouts: was it ethical to bail out Wall Street and CEO banks
when they were responsible for the financial crisis (failure)?
