The Ethics Toolkit

Principles to Apply
(10 minutes)

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Kantian Ethics
• A priori reason (take a step back from the
situation)
• Universalise (what if everyone did this?)
• Not just means, but end (dignity, respect – how
would it feel if I was this person?)
• Summum bonum, not the aim, but the result
• Autonomy (work it out yourself)
• Motive is vital – duty for duty’s sake – the ‘good
will’

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Utilitarianism - Hedonic Act
• Pleasure the one intrinsic good
• Maximise pleasure for maximum number and
assess number experiencing pain
• Apply hedonic calculus (intensity, extent, purity
etc)
• Quantity of pleasure (not quality)
• Individual decides

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Utilitarianism – Weak Rule
• Not Mill’s term – Urmson’s (about Mill)
• Maximise Happiness for maximum number (also
calculate misery)
• Generally abide by rules which experience has
shown most produce happiness (social utility)
• When moral dilemma, apply act utilitarian
calculation (personal judgement)
• Wisdom and experience needed to assess
consequences

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Natural Law
• Consider proper telos or purpose of human beings
• The end defines the good primary precept (absolute)
• Aquinas – to reason well to achieve Eudaimonia
• The excellent life involves judgement – to work out
secondary precepts (not absolute – ‘proximate
conclusions’)
• God has given us synderesis (an innate habit of
thinking, orientated towards the good ends)
• Conscience is part of the reasoning/judging process

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Situation ethics
• One intrinsic good – agape (sacrificial love – Good
Samaritan)
• Four working principles (P,P,P,R)
• We appropriate the value of goodness by faith
(positivism)
• “Principled relativism” - one principle, agape,
relative to consequences (situationally applied)
• Not legalism or antinomianism – somewhere
between
• People come first

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Issues Surrounding
• Euthanasia (autonomy, social consequences, dignity, sanctity & quality of
life) Oregon USA
• Business ethics (stakeholders, profit, globalization) Enron, Trafigura, Ford
Pinto, Rana Plaza factory
• Sexual ethics (autonomy, social consequences, procreative function, unitive
function, pleasure) Gay marriage 2013, sex outside marriage, sexual
rights and duties

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