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MORAL REASONING
A thinking process with the objective of determining whether an idea is right or wrong. It also refers to the reasoning process by which human behaviors, institutions or policies are judged to be in accordance with or in violation of moral standards. Moral standards are standards on which the judgement of morally right or wrong, or morally good or bad is made.
Legal Standard
One must not act in a way that deprives others of their civil rights.
WII.fm
Whats In It For Me?
Shows a limited interest in the needs of others, but only to a point where it might further the individual's own interests.
As a result, concern for others is not based on loyalty or mutual respect, but rather a "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours" mentality.
LEVEL TWO : CONVENTIONAL STAGES Stage Three : Good interpersonal relationship Living up to what is expected of people and seeking approval from others by pleasing or helping others by trying to be a "good boy" or "good girl" to live up to these expectations. It judges the morality of an action by evaluating its consequences in terms of a person's relationship, which now begin to include things like respect, gratitude
Stage Four : Maintaining the social order Fulfilling agreed-to duties and obligations, by displaying obedience toward authority, fixed rules, laws and maintenance of social order. An act is therefore wrong, regardless of motives or circumstances if it violates a rule.
Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice is carried with an obligation to disobey unjust (unfair) laws.
In this way action is never a means but always an end in itself; the individual acts because it is right, and not because it is instrumental, expected, legal, or previously agreed upon.
Ethical Theories
Justice and Fairness Deontology
Teleology Theory
Teleology is derived from the Greek word telos, which means ends, consequences and results. Teleological theories study ethical behaviour in terms of the results or consequences of ethical decisions. It focuses on the impact of decision-making. It evaluates decisions as good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable, in terms of the consequences of the decision.
Consequentialism (contd)
Weaknesses in Consequentialism
No common unit of measurement for happiness, nor is one persons happiness the equivalent of another persons happiness. The distribution and intensity of happiness. Example : Giving RM100 each to two persons vs. Giving RM100 to 100 persons.
Deontological Ethics
Deontology evaluates the ethicality of behavior on the motivation of the decision-maker. An action can be ethically correct even if it does not produce a net balance of good over evil for the decision maker or for society as a whole. It says in this situation I should do such and such.
Distributive justice
Distributive justice concerns with a fair distribution of societys benefits and burdens. Three main criteria for determining the just distribution : Need (taxation systems) Arithmetic equality (distribution of cake: the person who cuts the cake get the last piece) Merit (if one person contributes more to a project then that person should receive a greater proportion of the benefits from the project)
Compensatory justice
Compensatory justice concerns with finding a just way of compensating people for what they lost when they were wronged by others.
Example : Personal liability for automobile accidents; if someone damages your car through no fault of your own, that person has the duty to pay for restoration of the wholeness of the car.
Retributive justice
Retributive justice has to do with just imposition of punishment and penalties upon those who do wrong.
The wrongdoer needs to be punished, especially if the wrong was done intentionally, so that justice is served, wrongdoers behavior is changed.
Theories of Justice
1. Egalitarian 2. Libertarian
Egalitarian
All human beings are equal in some fundamental respects.
Each person has an equal claim to societys goods and services. Equal proportion differences. regardless of individual
Libertarian
People are free to choose the kind of contribution they want to make to the economic system. Human are free to act according to their own purposes.
People do not reserve equal economic returns since they do not all make the same contribution.
Reward compensated with effort.
Virtue Ethics
Virtue ethics focuses on the moral character of the decision maker rather than the consequences of the action (consequentialism) of the decision maker (deontology). It recognizes that there are personalities. many aspects to our
Each of us has a variety of character traits that are developed as we mature emotionally and ethically. Virtues are those character traits that dispose a person to act ethically and thereby make that person a morally good human being.
Golden Rule DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU = DONT DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU DONT WANT OTHERS DO TO YOU
Important Terms
Ethical relativism : the theory holds that morality is relative to the norms of one's culture. That is, whether the action is right or wrong depends on the moral norms of the society in which it is practiced. The same action may be morally right in one society but be morally wrong in another. For the relativist, there are no universal moral standards that is, standards that can be universally applied to all people at all times.
Important Terms
Ethical egoism : an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable only to the agent performing the actions.
Ethical altruism : an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favorable than unfavorable to everyone except the agent.
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