Ethics. Always a difficult subject for people. Where do we find the blueprint for our actions that help us live healthy, happy, productive lives, free of worry and in harmony with others? Philosophical thinkers have weighed in on this issue down through the ages, and their thoughts can be roughly sorted into categories we might want to take the time to explore.
Main Ethical Theories
Religion Based: Divine Command Theory - The divine command theory asserts that an action is morally right if the action is in harmony with God's commands.
Consequence Based: Utilitarianism - A utilitarian believes that an action is morally right if it maximizes overall well-being and happiness.
Duty Based: Deontology - A deontologist believes that an action is morally right if the motive behind the action is good.
Agent Centered: Virtue Ethics - A virtue ethicist holds that an action is morally right if an agent who has all the virtues would have performed the action.
To prepare for the meeting you might want to look these up in your favorite search engine and see where your ideas fall. Where would an atheist most likely feel comfortable? A person strongly committed to the Bible? A pagan? A Buddhist? A humanist? You can see where I am going.
Enjoy the process. If we were doing this "the old way", I'd have several volumes of books arrayed on my coffee table when you arrived that address this topic in many different ways. The popularity of the concepts leads to a plethora of authors who like to talk about it. Including me, apparently.
Leave a comment, please. I'd like to know where you all stand.
Thanks Desmond for your blog on the subject of ethics. It seems like every society has a different ethical belief system and people conform to avoid pain and punishment. I think its conformity for survival.
ReplyDeleteI am emailing you lyrics to a song I wrote, it says it all for me. Nancy
Sorry I've been checked out of Big Questions for a while. I was reminded of it when searching for information about the choir meeting tonight.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is quite broad which limits the ability to really get into any of these subjects - especially with my Zoom connection challenges. Offhand, I'll offer the observation that utilitarianism is tempting and indeed popular. However, it comes with significant dangers. If a benefit to the collective is great enough it will justify the harm to the individual without limit. In the popular Marvel movies, Thanos is an illustration of utilitarianism gone wildly wrong. In contrast, Captain America is expressly not utilitarian, or at minimum he checks it with value based principles, "We don't trade lives." Google searching will readily show examples of more analysis. See for example, https://www.vox.com/summer-movies/2018/5/17/17343442/avengers-infinity-war-captain-america-thanos-sequel-moral-dilemma
Further, it's worth going outside of the philosophers of the Western tradition. The Bhagavad Gita is worthy of consideration although it takes work to unpack it as it goes through a series of answers and objections to the question of what is the right action for Arjuna faced with the dilemma of either killing his kinsmen or shirking his duty as a warrior.
ReplyDeleteThe text can be found here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2388/2388-h/2388-h.htm