Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

Jeremy Bentham, “The Principle of Utility”
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Consequentialism: the rightness or wrongness
of an action depends entirely on its
consequences
–
Utilitarianism: a version of consequentialism.
The rightness or wrongness of an action
depends entirely on the utility of its
consequences.
–
Utility: the net balance of pleasure vs. pain that
would be produced by the action, taking into
account all creatures affected by the action
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

Jeremy Bentham, “The Principle of Utility”
–
Bentham's principle of utility: “that principle
which approves or disapproves of every action
whatsoever, according to the tendency which it
appears to have to augment or diminish the
happiness of the party whose interest is in
question.”
–
How to measure utility: Bentham's felicific
calculus
•
The seven features of Bentham's calculus:
intensity, duration, (un)certainty, propinquity,
fecundity, purity.
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

St. Thomas Aquinas, “Treatise on Law”
–
Aquinas presents a classical version of the
natural law theory of morality.
–
Natural law: that part of God's eternal law that
concerns how human beings ought to conduct
themselves
–
All moral obligations follow from a first precept
which is the core of natural law.
–
This first precept is self-evident and thus known
by all.
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

St. Thomas Aquinas, “Treatise on Law”
–
The first precept of natural law: “good is to be
done, evil is to be avoided.”
–
The natural inclinations of human beings
indicate which ends are intrinsically valuable.
–
These inclinations are a part of human nature.
Thus, morality is ultimately grounded in facts
about human nature.
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

Immanual Kant, “The Moral Law”
–
Kant's fundamental principle of morality: the
Categorical Imperative
–
The Categorical Imperative is formulated in
three ways:
•
•
•
–
In terms of universal law
In terms of humanity as an end to itself
In terms of the kingdom of ends
Kant applies the first formulation to four issues:
suicide, false promises, allowing one's talents to rust,
helping others in need
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

Immanual Kant, “The Moral Law”
–
First formulation: “Act only on that maxim
whereby thou canst at the same time will that it
should become a universal law.”
–
Second formulation: “Act as to treat humanity,
whither in thine own person or in that of any
other, in every case as an end withal, never as
means only.”
–
Third formulation: appeals to “a systematic
union of rational beings by objective laws, i.e., a
kingdom which may be called a kingdom of
ends”
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

John Locke, “Natural Rights”
–
Locke accepts a natural law conception of
morality, but in the textbook selections he
focuses on “natural” rights.
–
Examples of our natural rights:
•
•
•
•
–
The right to life
The right to health
The right to liberty
The right to possession
“The state of nature has a law of nature to
govern it, which obliges everyone...”
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

John Locke, “Natural Rights”
–
Locke allows for situations where the natural
rights of an individual may be justifiably
violated.
•
•
–
The right to punish transgressors of the natural
law may justify harming another.
The right to taking reparations may justify taking
another’s property.
“And thus it is that every man in the state of
nature has the right to kill a murderer, both to
deter others from doing the like injury, which no
reparation can compensate.”
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory
•
Aristotle, “Virtue and Character”
–
Characteristics of the good
•
•
–
The good is the end of action.
The good is complete.
Criteria of completeness
•
•
•
“[A]n end that is always [choiceworthy, and also]
choiceworthy in itself, never because of
something else, is unconditionally complete”
Happiness meets this criterion.
Happiness is also self-sufficient, according to
Aristotle.
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

Aristotle, “Virtue and Character”
–
The best good of a human being is determined
by the function of a human being.
–
This function is to live a life that involves activity
in accordance with virtue.
–
Thus, the good life is essentially involves this
kind of activity.
–
How virtue is acquired
•
•
“Virtue of thought arises and grows mostly from
teaching, and hence needs experience and time.”
In other words, virtue is acquired through
habituation, rather than from “a process of nature”
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

W.D. Ross, “What Makes Right Actions Right?”
–
Ross is a moral pluralist—i.e., he holds that
there is a plurality of irreducible moral rules that
are basic in moral thought.
–
These moral rules are distinct from one another
and may conflict at times.
–
Contrast this with Bentham's principle of utility
and Aquinas' first precept of natural law, each of
which is supposed to be a single moral principle
which produces all other obligations.
Chapter 2: Readings in Moral
Theory

W.D. Ross, “What Makes Right Actions Right?”
–
Ross endorses a form of the ethics of prima
facie duty.
–
We have a prima facie duty to do something
when there is some moral rule which gives us a
moral reason to do that thing.
–
In cases where we have conflicting prima facie
duties, morality requires that we use our moral
judgment to determine which duty overrides
which.
–
What we ought to do (after all prima facie duties
are weighed appropriately) is a proper duty.