Summary KUL Ethics and Philosophy Business Engineering E. Kollar

Philosophy & Ethics - D0I86a
Eszter Kollar, Mario Josue Cunningham Matamoros, Helder De Schutter

Week 2: Moral Philosophy and Moral Reasoning....................................................................................................................................................5
Opening Context................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5
1. The Point of Moral Philosophy........................................................................................................................................................................ 5
2. Traditions of Moral Philosophy........................................................................................................................................................................ 5
3. The Nature of Moral Inquiry.............................................................................................................................................................................5
4. Moral Reasoning – Methods and Tools........................................................................................................................................................... 6
(a) Formal Logic......................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
(b) Informal Reasoning...............................................................................................................................................................................6
(c) Thought Experiments & Moral Intuitions............................................................................................................................................... 6
(d) Special Moral Arguments......................................................................................................................................................................7
5. Plan of the Book.............................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
6. Chapter Review (Key Learning)...................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Week 3 – Free Will and Moral Responsibility...........................................................................................................................................................8
1. Free will and moral evaluation: Why is there a problem?................................................................................................................................8
2. What does it mean to have free will?.............................................................................................................................................................. 8
3. Schopenhauer’s Challenge to Free Will.......................................................................................................................................................... 8
4. Determinism: General Idea............................................................................................................................................................................. 8
5. Sociological Determinism................................................................................................................................................................................ 9
6. Psychological Determinism (Introduced).........................................................................................................................................................9
7. Physical / Scientific Determinism.................................................................................................................................................................... 9
8. Determinism and Moral Responsibility (Premise 2)........................................................................................................................................ 9
Aristotle’s conditions.................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
9. Incompatibilism..............................................................................................................................................................................................10
10. Moral Compatibilism....................................................................................................................................................................................10
Causal vs moral responsibility..................................................................................................................................................................10
11. Frankfurt’s Rejection of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities....................................................................................................................10
12. Strawson: Responsibility as Social Practice................................................................................................................................................10
13. Law, Bentham, and Determinism................................................................................................................................................................ 10
14. Responsibility and the Global Economy...................................................................................................................................................... 11
1. Structural Harm and the Responsibility Problem..................................................................................................................................11
2. Limits of the Traditional Responsibility Model...................................................................................................................................... 11
3. Young: Political Responsibility..............................................................................................................................................................11
4. The Social Connection Model and Social Structures........................................................................................................................... 11
5. The Nadia Case and Structural Injustice..............................................................................................................................................11
Overall Conclusion................................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Week 4 - The Social Contract.................................................................................................................................................................................. 12
1. The Question at Stake...................................................................................................................................................................................12
2. Plato’s Starting Point: Morality as a Human Compromise.............................................................................................................................12
3. Hobbes and the State of Nature....................................................................................................................................................................12
4. Morality as a Tool of Power........................................................................................................................................................................... 12
5. Reinterpreting the Contract Positively........................................................................................................................................................... 12
6. Cooperation, Game Theory, and the Prisoner’s Dilemma.............................................................................................................................13
7. Morality as Internalised Cooperation.............................................................................................................................................................13
8. The Problem of Conflicting Interests............................................................................................................................................................. 13
9. Rawls’s Reconstruction: Justice as Fairness................................................................................................................................................ 13
a) The Original Position and the Veil of Ignorance...................................................................................................................................13
b) Rawls’s Two Principles of Justice........................................................................................................................................................ 13
c) The Role of Institutions........................................................................................................................................................................ 13
d) Connection to the Social Contract....................................................................................................................................................... 14
10. Beyond Self-Interest: The Moral Sense of Justice...................................................................................................................................... 14
11. Expanding the Moral Aim: From Restraint to Flourishing............................................................................................................................ 14
12. Applying Contract Reasoning to Real Cases.............................................................................................................................................. 14
13. Summary of Development...........................................................................................................................................................................14
14. Central Idea.................................................................................................................................................................................................14
Week 5: Consequentialism and Utilitarianism....................................................................................................................................................... 15
1. Introduction: The Core Idea...........................................................................................................................................................................15
2. The Method of Consequentialist Reasoning................................................................................................................................................. 15
3. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)......................................................................................................................................................................15
4. Critiques of Bentham’s Theory...................................................................................................................................................................... 16
5. John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)........................................................................................................................................................................ 16
6. Measuring Happiness....................................................................................................................................................................................17
7. Major Objections to Consequentialism..........................................................................................................................................................17
8. Application: Global Poverty........................................................................................................................................................................... 17
9. Peter Singer: Effective Altruism and Global Ethics....................................................................................................................................... 17

, 10. Strengths and Continuing Influence............................................................................................................................................................ 18
Week 6: Kantian Deontology and Onora O’Neill’s Interpretation.........................................................................................................................19
1. Kant in Context: Reason, Autonomy, and Enlightenment............................................................................................................................. 19
2. Kant’s Critique of Utilitarianism (Five Points)................................................................................................................................................ 19
3. The Good Will – The Core of Morality........................................................................................................................................................... 19
4. Imperatives: Hypothetical vs. Categorical..................................................................................................................................................... 19
5. The Categorical Imperative – First Formulation: Universal Law (the “Principle of Universalizability”).......................................................... 20
6. Maxims and Moral Worth.............................................................................................................................................................................. 20
7. The Categorical Imperative – Second Formulation: Humanity as an End.....................................................................................................20
8. Onora O’Neill – “Between Consenting Adults”.............................................................................................................................................. 21
a. Three Misinterpretations...................................................................................................................................................................... 21
b. Kantian Alternative – Possible Consent............................................................................................................................................... 21
c. Applications.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 21
Week 7: Feminism and the Ethics of Gender.........................................................................................................................................................23
1. What is feminism? Aims (slide 2).................................................................................................................................................................. 23
2. Basic concepts (slides 4 & 11)...................................................................................................................................................................... 23
3. Persistent gender inequalities (slide 5)......................................................................................................................................................... 23
4. Two ethical directions (slide 7)...................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Ethics of Equality......................................................................................................................................................................................23
Ethics of Difference.................................................................................................................................................................................. 23
5. Ethics of Care (slides 8–10).......................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Core idea..................................................................................................................................................................................................24
Why this matters...................................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Key features............................................................................................................................................................................................. 24
The Heinz Dilemma (Gilligan’s example)................................................................................................................................................. 24
Misunderstandings................................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Everyday application................................................................................................................................................................................ 24
6. Patriarchy, Power, and Privilege (slides 12–16)............................................................................................................................................ 24
Patriarchy................................................................................................................................................................................................. 24
Sexism (Marilyn Frye).............................................................................................................................................................................. 25
Birdcage Analogy..................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
7. Gender Norms at Work and Home (slides 17–18)........................................................................................................................................ 25
A. The Ideal-Worker Norm (Joan Williams)..............................................................................................................................................25
B. Invisible Women (Caroline Criado Perez)............................................................................................................................................25
C. Domesticity and Emotional Labour......................................................................................................................................................25
What helps............................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
8. Justice, Gender, and the Family — Susan Moller Okin (slides 19–21)......................................................................................................... 25
Okin’s Main Claim.................................................................................................................................................................................... 25
Her Critique of Rawls............................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Why Families Matter for Justice............................................................................................................................................................... 26
Her Conclusion.........................................................................................................................................................................................26
9. Two Contemporary Strategies: Lean-in vs Social Reproduction (slides 22–23)........................................................................................... 26
Sheryl Sandberg – Lean In...................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Nancy Fraser – Ethics of Social Reproduction.........................................................................................................................................26
Combined Lesson.................................................................................................................................................................................... 27
10. Beyond the Binary and Intersectionality (slide 24)...................................................................................................................................... 27
Judith Butler – Gender Trouble................................................................................................................................................................ 27
Sojourner Truth – Ain’t I a Woman?......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Kimberlé Crenshaw – Intersectionality.....................................................................................................................................................27
Broader Implication.................................................................................................................................................................................. 27
Week 8: Ethics of Race and Diversity.....................................................................................................................................................................28
1. Faces of Racism............................................................................................................................................................................................28
1.1 Interpersonal and Symbolic Forms.................................................................................................................................................... 28
1.2 Social and Spatial Dimensions...........................................................................................................................................................28
1.3 The Racialised Body.......................................................................................................................................................................... 28
1.4 Extreme Historical and Contemporary Forms.................................................................................................................................... 28
2. Defining Race: Biological and Traditional Conceptions.................................................................................................................................28
2.1 Traditional (Biological) Theory of Race.............................................................................................................................................. 28
2.2 Central Criticism.................................................................................................................................................................................28
3. Conceptions of Race Beyond Biology........................................................................................................................................................... 28
3.1 Racial Eliminativism........................................................................................................................................................................... 28
3.2 Race as a Social Construct................................................................................................................................................................29
4. Conceptions of Racism................................................................................................................................................................................. 29
4.1 Racism as Ideology............................................................................................................................................................................29
4.2 Institutional Racism............................................................................................................................................................................ 29
4.3 Structural Racism...............................................................................................................................................................................29
5. Race and Justice: Distributive vs Corrective Justice.....................................................................................................................................30
5.1 Distributive Justice............................................................................................................................................................................. 30
5.2 Corrective Justice...............................................................................................................................................................................30
6. Racism in Philosophy and Mills’ Critique.......................................................................................................................................................30

, 6.1 Mills’ Diagnosis.................................................................................................................................................................................. 30
7. Mills’ Hypotheses for Philosophy’s Blindness............................................................................................................................................... 30
7.1 Social Demography of Belief..............................................................................................................................................................30
7.2 Methodological Limitations.................................................................................................................................................................30
8. The Racial Contract – Charles Mills.............................................................................................................................................................. 30
8.1 Core Idea........................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
8.2 Function of the Racial Contract..........................................................................................................................................................31
8.3 Definition............................................................................................................................................................................................ 31
9. Mills’ Critique of Rawlsian Justice................................................................................................................................................................. 31
9.1 Social Ontology.................................................................................................................................................................................. 31
9.2 Conceptual Map................................................................................................................................................................................. 31
9.3 Theory of History................................................................................................................................................................................31
10. Distributive Paradigm and its Limits............................................................................................................................................................ 31
11. Ideal vs Non-Ideal Theory........................................................................................................................................................................... 32
11.1 Ideal Theory (Rawls)........................................................................................................................................................................ 32
11.2 Non-Ideal Theory..............................................................................................................................................................................32
12. Retrieving Liberalism for Racial Justice – Thomas Shelby......................................................................................................................... 32
12.1 Rawls’ Original Formulation............................................................................................................................................................. 32
12.2 Shelby’s Racial Extension................................................................................................................................................................32
13. Mills’ Critique of Shelby............................................................................................................................................................................... 32
13.1 Distributive vs Rectificatory.............................................................................................................................................................. 32
13.2 Normative Description......................................................................................................................................................................32
14. Mills’ Non-Ideal Racial Justice.....................................................................................................................................................................32
14.1 Racially Sensitive Liberalism............................................................................................................................................................32
14.2 Modified Veil of Ignorance................................................................................................................................................................33
14.3 Aim................................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
Week 9 - Ethics of Immigration and Refuge...........................................................................................................................................................34
I. Framing the Debate: Why Immigration Ethics Matters...................................................................................................................................34
1. What is at stake?..................................................................................................................................................................................34
2. The conventional view..........................................................................................................................................................................34
3. Borders as coercive............................................................................................................................................................................. 34
4. Three normative assumptions (Slide 6)............................................................................................................................................... 34
II. Open vs Closed Borders: The Philosophical Landscape.............................................................................................................................. 34
1. Conceptual meaning............................................................................................................................................................................ 34
III. The Case for Open Borders......................................................................................................................................................................... 35
A. Phillip Cole: Right to Exit → Right to Entry (Slide 9)............................................................................................................................35
B. Joseph Carens: The Ethics of Immigration (Slides 10–13)..................................................................................................................35
IV. The Case for Closed Borders.......................................................................................................................................................................36
A. Wellman: Freedom of Association (Slides 15–20)...............................................................................................................................36
B. Pevnick: Associative Ownership (Slides 21–22)..................................................................................................................................37
V. Ethics of Refuge............................................................................................................................................................................................ 37
A. Scale and context (Slides 24–25)........................................................................................................................................................ 37
B. Who is a refugee? (Slides 26–27)....................................................................................................................................................... 38
C. Grounds of State Duties (Slides 28–32).............................................................................................................................................. 38
Week 10 - Ethics of climate change........................................................................................................................................................................ 40
1. Climate Protests............................................................................................................................................................................................ 40
2. Ethical Questions.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 40
3. Basic Moral Framework.................................................................................................................................................................................40
4. Climate (In)Justice.........................................................................................................................................................................................40
5. What Should We Do (Collectively as Humanity)?......................................................................................................................................... 41
5.1 Mitigation............................................................................................................................................................................................41
5.2 Adaptation.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 41
5.3 Compensation.................................................................................................................................................................................... 41
5.4 Who should pay?............................................................................................................................................................................... 41
6. What Should I Do (Individual Action)?...........................................................................................................................................................41
6.1 Private strategies (reduce carbon footprint)....................................................................................................................................... 41
6.2 Collective strategies........................................................................................................................................................................... 41
7. Intergenerational Justice............................................................................................................................................................................... 41
8. Principle of Easy Rescue – Theoretical Challenges......................................................................................................................................41
8.1 The duty of rescue (basis)..................................................................................................................................................................41
8.2 Application to climate change............................................................................................................................................................ 42
9. Three Objections to Duty of Rescue (Moellendorf)....................................................................................................................................... 42
9.1 Objection 1:........................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Non-existent claimant...............................................................................................................................................................................42
9.2 Objection 2:........................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Climate change is not a pure rescue case............................................................................................................................................... 42
9.3 Objection 3:........................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
Non-identity problem................................................................................................................................................................................ 42
10. Intergenerational Distributive Justice.......................................................................................................................................................... 42
10.1 Distributing benefits and burdens of energy use..............................................................................................................................42

, 10.2 Critique of utilitarianism....................................................................................................................................................................42
10.3 Discounted utilitarianism.................................................................................................................................................................. 42
10.4 Intergenerational equality model...................................................................................................................................................... 43
Week 11 - Markets and morality.............................................................................................................................................................................. 44
1. What Markets Are..........................................................................................................................................................................................44
Core definition.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Ideal model...............................................................................................................................................................................................44
Norms embedded in markets................................................................................................................................................................... 44
Market failures..........................................................................................................................................................................................44
2. Moral Arguments FOR Markets.....................................................................................................................................................................44
a) Liberation character → Equal relations................................................................................................................................................44
b) The Invisible Hand → Welfare and prosperity..................................................................................................................................... 44
c) Freedom...............................................................................................................................................................................................44
3. Moral Limits of Markets................................................................................................................................................................................. 44
4. Approach I: Value-of-Goods Argument......................................................................................................................................................... 45
Anderson’s Mode of Valuation Theory..................................................................................................................................................... 45
Case 1: Military Service (Sandel).............................................................................................................................................................45
Case 2: Commercial Surrogacy............................................................................................................................................................... 45
5. Approach II: The Fairness Argument............................................................................................................................................................ 46
6. Approach III: Social & Political Effects.......................................................................................................................................................... 46
6A. Economic Approach (slide p. 15).......................................................................................................................................................46
6B. Essentialist Approach (slide p. 16).................................................................................................................................................... 46
6C. Egalitarian Approach (Debra Satz)....................................................................................................................................................47
7. Key Theme Across All Arguments............................................................................................................................................................ 47
1. Why work matters for justice......................................................................................................................................................................... 48
2. Criteria for identifying the goods of work....................................................................................................................................................... 48
3. The bads of work...........................................................................................................................................................................................49
3.1 monetary bads................................................................................................................................................................................... 49
3.2 non-monetary bads............................................................................................................................................................................ 49
3.3 basic requirement of justice............................................................................................................................................................... 50
4. The central goods of work............................................................................................................................................................................. 50
4.1 excellence.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 50
4.2 social contribution.............................................................................................................................................................................. 50
4.3 community..........................................................................................................................................................................................50
4.4 social recognition............................................................................................................................................................................... 50
5. Why these goods matter for justice............................................................................................................................................................... 51
6. Can markets deliver these goods? critique of the libertarian view................................................................................................................ 51
7. policy implications and reform directions.......................................................................................................................................................52
7.1 supporting individuals outside the workplace.....................................................................................................................................52
7.2 reshaping labour markets and job design.......................................................................................................................................... 52
Week 13 – Meritocracy and Affirmative Action......................................................................................................................................................53
1. Introduction: Meritocracy............................................................................................................................................................................... 53
2. Michael Sandel – The Tyranny of Merit.........................................................................................................................................................53
3. Introduction: Meritocracy (philosophical problem).........................................................................................................................................54
Why the ideal itself is flawed.................................................................................................................................................................... 54
Rawls: social bases of self-respect.......................................................................................................................................................... 54
4. Meritocracy (1): What is merit?..................................................................................................................................................................... 54
5. Merit as innate talent..................................................................................................................................................................................... 54
6. Merit as effort and hard work.........................................................................................................................................................................54
7. Merit as qualifications....................................................................................................................................................................................55
8. Meritocracy and Equality of Opportunity....................................................................................................................................................... 55
Objections................................................................................................................................................................................................ 55
Andrew Mason’s distinction......................................................................................................................................................................55
9. Rawls: Formal Equality of Opportunity.......................................................................................................................................................... 55
“Careers open to talents”......................................................................................................................................................................... 55
Rawls’ critique.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 55
10. Rawls: Fair Equality of Opportunity............................................................................................................................................................. 56
11. Iris Marion Young – The Myth of Merit.........................................................................................................................................................56
12. The distributive paradigm and affirmative action.........................................................................................................................................56
Formal Equality of Opportunity.................................................................................................................................................................56
Fair Equality of Opportunity......................................................................................................................................................................56
13. Young’s critique of merit and job hierarchies...............................................................................................................................................56
14. Justice beyond merit and distribution.......................................................................................................................................................... 57

,Week 2: Moral Philosophy and Moral Reasoning
Opening Context
●​ Quote from Epicurus: philosophy is essential for all ages; it is the “health of the soul”.

●​ Aristotle’s view: young people are not ready for moral philosophy (lack life experience and
self-control). But immaturity can be present at any age.

●​ Author’s stance: moral philosophy is valuable for anyone mature enough to reflect on life.

1. The Point of Moral Philosophy
●​ Morality vs. Moral Philosophy:

○​ Morality: taught early in life (sharing, fairness, not lying).

○​ Moral Philosophy: reflective, systematic thinking about morality, often later in life.

●​ Practical purpose: not necessarily solving immediate dilemmas but helping develop a moral outlook.

○​ Clarifies what matters morally.

○​ Helps shape reasoning, attention, emotions, and relationships with people, animals, and the
environment.

○​ Guides goals and influence on others.

●​ Philosophers’ contributions:

○​ Plato: objectivity of moral truths.

○​ Aristotle: morality as character as much as action.

○​ Kant: respect for rational beings.

○​ Bentham & Mill: happiness as foundation of morality.

○​ Nietzsche: morality not tied to mere social approval.

●​ Disagreements: e.g., Kant vs. utilitarians on happiness, Nietzsche’s dismissal of happiness as trivial.

●​ Philosophy’s aim: to present options, inspire reflection, not dictate one correct view.

2. Traditions of Moral Philosophy
●​ Western philosophy: central to history, culture, literature, politics, debates on war, peace, life, and
death.

●​ Non-Western traditions (Chinese, Indian, Arabic, African): rich and insightful, sometimes influencing
Western thinkers.

●​ Book focus: primarily Western, but others mentioned (especially in cultural relativism).

3. The Nature of Moral Inquiry
●​ Morality is puzzling: not like science (facts/experiments), nor like fiction (imagination).

●​ Key questions:

○​ What are moral standards?

○​ Where do they come from?

○​ Are they objective (like maths) or variable (like fashion)?

Three branches of moral philosophy:

1.​ Meta-ethics: questions about the nature of value and morality (where rules come from, authority,
objectivity).

○​ Example: child asking “Who says I have to?” → challenges authority and sources of morality.

, 2.​ Normative ethics: what moral rules, standards, or ideals we ought to follow.

○​ Norm = standard, but can mean average (statistical) or ideal (what should be).

○​ Raises deeper questions: where do ideal standards come from?

3.​ Applied ethics: analysis of concrete moral problems (abortion, war, terrorism, sexual consent).

○​ Starts from a specific problem and applies normative theories.

○​ Different from normative ethics (general principles first).

4. Moral Reasoning – Methods and Tools
●​ No single “rulebook”; philosophy is evolving.

(a) Formal Logic
●​ Argument = reasoning from premises to conclusion.

●​ Validity: if premises are true, conclusion must be true.
○​ Example: “Socrates is a man; all men are mortal; Socrates is mortal” (valid).

●​ Invalidity: premises don’t guarantee conclusion (e.g., “Socrates is mortal, all humans are mortal,
therefore Socrates is human” – invalid).

●​ Soundness: valid argument with true premises.

●​ Fallacies:In philosophy and logic, the terms validity and soundness describe two distinct qualities of a
deductive argument.Validity

○​ Equivocation (same word, different meanings – “banks” of rivers vs. financial institutions).

○​ Circular argument (begging the question – assuming what is to be proved).

Feature Validity Soundness



Criteria Only requires a correct logical structure. Requires a correct logical structure AND true
premises.



Relationship to Truth The premises and conclusion can be false. The conclusion must be true (since the
premises must be true).



Focus Form/Structure of the argument. Form/Structure and Content (Truth).



(b) Informal Reasoning
●​ Analogy: comparing morality to maths (objective truths) or fashion (changeable). Useful, but limited.

●​ Induction: generalising from repeated observation (e.g., “all swans are white”). Useful but not proof.

●​ Inference to Best Explanation (abduction): choosing the best theory to explain evidence (e.g.,
smoking → lung cancer vs. alternative cause).

(c) Thought Experiments & Moral Intuitions
●​ Imaginary cases to test or illustrate theories.

●​ Godwin’s fire example: save Archbishop Fénelon or your mother? → utilitarian logic vs. moral intuition.

●​ Foot’s trolley problem: sacrifice one to save five – differences in intuition between pushing vs. steering
cases.

●​ Role: test moral theories against our intuitions.

●​ But intuitions can be unreliable (compare with counterintuitive science like gravity).