Chapter 1
Understanding
Ethics
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Learning Outcomes
• Define ethics
• Explain the role of values in ethical decision
making
• Understand opposing ethical theories and their
limitations
• Discuss ethical relativism
• Explain an ethical dilemma and apply a process
to resolve it
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Ethics
• Manner by which one tries to live one’s life
according to a standard of right or wrong
behavior
• In both how one thinks and behaves toward
others and how one would like them to think
and behave toward others
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Ethics (continued)
• Factors that influence ethics
• One's upbringing
• One’s religion
• One's social traditions and beliefs
• Society: Structured community of people
bound together by similar traditions and
customs
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Understanding Right and Wrong
• Moral standards - Principles by which
judgments are made about good and bad
behavior based on:
• Religious beliefs
• Cultural beliefs
• Culture: Particular set of attitudes, beliefs, and
practices that characterize a group of individuals
• Philosophical beliefs
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Understanding Right and Wrong
(continued)
• Sources of beliefs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Family and friends
Ethnic background
Religion
School
Media
Personal role models and mentors
• Morality - Collection of influences built over a
person’s lifetime
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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How Should One Live?
• Standards of ethical behavior are absorbed by
osmosis from everyone around
• Ethical behavior can be based on experience of
human existence rather than any abstract
concepts of right and wrong
• Morals and values - Set of personal principles
by which one aims to live one’s life
• Value system: Set of personal principles
formalized into a code of behavior
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Value of a Value
• Intrinsic values: Quality by which a value is a
good thing in itself
• Pursued for its own sake, whether anything
comes from that pursuit or not
• Instrumental values: Quality by which the
pursuit of one value is a good way to reach
another value
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Value Conflicts
• Impact of a value system on individuals can be
seen in the extent to which their daily lives are
influenced by those values
• Occur when one is presented with a situation
that places one’s value system in direct conflict
with an action
• Personal value system - Specific choices and
responses to a situation by an individual
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Doing the Right Thing
• Categories under which individuals classify
ethics
• Simple truth
• Question of someone’s personal integrity as
demonstrated by behavior
• Rules of appropriate individual behavior
• Rules of appropriate behavior for a community
or society
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The Golden Rule
• Do unto others as you would have them do
unto you
• Problem with the rule is the assumption that
others would follow the same principles as one
would do
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Ethical Theories
• Virtue ethics: Concept of living one’s life
according to a commitment to the achievement
of a clear ideal
• Criticism - Societies can place different
emphasis on different virtues
• Utilitarianism: Ethical choices that offer the
greatest good for the greatest number of
people
• Criticism - Idea that the ends justify the means
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Ethical Theories (continued)
• Universal ethics: Actions that are taken out of
duty and obligation to a purely moral ideal
rather than based on the needs of the situation
• Universal principles are seen to apply to
everyone, everywhere, all the time
• Criticism - Reverse of the weakness in ethics for
the greater good
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Ethical Relativism
• Concept that the traditions of one’s society,
one’s personal opinions, and the circumstances
of the present moment define one’s ethical
principles
• Implies some degree of flexibility as opposed to
strict black-and-white rules
• Offers the comfort of being a part of the ethical
majority in the community or society
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Ethical Dilemmas
• Situations in which there are no obvious right or
wrong decisions, but rather a right or right
answers
• Occur when the decision one must make
requires one to make a right choice knowing full
well that one is:
• Leaving an equally right choice undone
• Likely to suffer something bad as a result of that
choice
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be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part.
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Ethical Dilemmas (continued)
• Contradicting a personal ethical principle in
making that choice
• Abandoning an ethical value of one’s
community or society in making that choice
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Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
• Sleep-test ethics
• Ethics of intuition
• Individuals should rely on their personal
insights, feelings, and instincts when facing a
difficult problem
• Process for solving an ethical problem
• Analyze the consequences
• Analyze the actions
• Make a decision
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Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 1)
• Arthur Dobrin’s questions
• What are the facts?
• What can one guess about the facts one doesn’t
know?
• What do the facts mean?
• What does the problem look like through the
eyes of the people involved?
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Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 2)
• What will happen if one chooses one thing
rather than another?
• What does one’s feelings tell oneself?
• What will one think of oneself if one decides
one thing or another?
• Can one explain and justify one’s decision to
others?
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Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (continued 3)
• Application of Arthur Dobrin’s model is based
on the following key assumptions:
• Sufficient time is there for the degree of
contemplation that such questions require
• Enough information is available to answer the
questions
• Dilemma presents alternative resolutions for
one to select from
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Ethical Reasoning
• Looking at the information available while
resolving an ethical dilemma
• Drawing conclusions based on that information
in relation to one’s own ethical standards
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Figure 1.1 - Lawrence Kohlberg’s
Stages of Ethical Reasoning
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