Welcome to our first class in this course on philosophical ethics. We’re going to be exploring ethical theories, and trying to think through ethical issues more systematically and consistently. We’ll also be seeing how these theories play out in practice.
But first, we need to do some introductions. If we’ve not met before, I’m Will Buckingham, and I’m leading the course this semester. If you want to find out more about me, you can have a look at my website.
Introductions
We’ll start with introductions. We can take our time with this, to get to know each other.
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What is your name? Please tell us your preferred name, and your full name. If you could also type your Burmese name in the chat, that would be helpful (I want to improve my Burmese, and pronounce your name better!)
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What pronouns do you prefer?
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Where do you live?
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Tell us one ethically (slightly) bad thing you like to do.
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Tell us one ethically good thing you like to do.
About the Course
There is a syllabus provided on Canvas in handy reference format under the “syllabus” tab. But this may go out of date. We may change direction as we go along if things get interesting! The beauty of seminar classes is that they are really flexible.
We’ll be talking about a number of things in this session:
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The aims and the shape of the course
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The readings
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How we will work together
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Attendance, participation and academic integrity
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Grading
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Office hours
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Extra resources
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Language policies
Questions
We will discuss any questions in the session, but if you have any other questions, email me on will.buckingham@parami.edu.mm!
About Ethics
What is ethics? As a philosophical discipline, ethics is about thinking through — and putting into practice — ideas about what is good and bad. Ethics is also sometimes referred to as “moral philosophy.” Some people like to make a distinction between “ethics” and “morals”, but there is no single agreed distinction. “Ethics” comes from the Greek language, while “morality” comes from Latin. In this course, we will be relaxed about this terminology. But I lean towards using the language of “ethics” rather than “morals” because to my ear, it sounds a bit richer in content, and perhaps a little less judgemental.
We’re not going to define ethics at the start of this course. Fixed definitions may not be useful to us in exploring the range of different ways human beings have gone about reflecting on goodness and badness. Instead, as we go on, we’ll see the various ways that the language of ethics (or morality) is used. For now, the following are the kinds of questions that have an ethical dimension:
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Can I sometimes lie, if it helps realise a higher aim—or prevents serious harm?
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What makes a person good?
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What duties do I have to others? To myself? To the truth?
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Is it okay to steal my sister’s chocolate bar?
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Is cheating always wrong?
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Should I be vegetarian?
You can come up with a list of your own. A lot of what we end up talking about when we talk to each other is ethics. When you say: “He ought to…”, “she should…”, “I was appalled by her behaviour…”, “they are a good person…”, “they shouldn’t get away with it…”, “my dog is a good boy…”, “my cat is so naughty, I don’t know what to do with her…”, “We have a responsibility to speak out…”, “I deserve higher marks…” and so on, we are talking about ethics. We are talking about rights and duties, responsibilities and rules, virtues and vices.
In this semester, we’ll talk about all this and more!
Philosophy & Ethics
When philosophers talk about ethics, the things that they are talking about can be broken down into several distinct areas. Here’s a bit of jargon.
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Metaethics — questions about the nature and the foundations of ethics.
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Normative ethics — questions about how we should act ethically (what norms we should follow)
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Applied ethics — questions about ethics within specific contexts.
So questions like “What is goodness?” belong to metaethics. Questions about whether we should always do as our parents want us to belong to normative ethics (they are about the norms we follow). And questions about how to resolve a particular ethics issue — do we take the suffering dog to the vet to “put it out of its misery” — belong to applied ethics.
There are other kinds of questions as well, as we will see. But this is a good starting point for thinking through.
Why is Ethics Hard?
We’re going to read a passage together from Plato’s Euthyphro about why ethics is hard. You may have read this text elsewhere in your studies at Parami, but this passage is particularly relevant for our topic today. The context is that Socrates is talking to the young man Euthyphro, who is taking his father to court. But the conversation here is about the interesting question: what are the questions that cause us dispute? It comes from section 7b-d of the text.
SOCRATES: We have also stated that the gods are in a state of discord, that they are at odds with each other, Euthyphro, and that they are at enmity with each other. Has that, too, been said?
EUTHYPHRO: It has.
SOCRATES: What are the subjects of difference that cause hatred and anger? Let us look at it this way. If you and I were to differ about numbers as to which is the greater, would this difference make us enemies and angry with each other, or would we proceed to count and soon resolve our difference about this?
EUTHYPHRO: We would certainly do so.
SOCRATES: Again, if we differed about the larger and the smaller, we would turn to measurement and soon cease to differ.
EUTHYPHRO: That is so.
SOCRATES: And about the heavier and the lighter, we would resort to weighing and be reconciled.
EUTHYPHRO: Of course.
SOCRATES: What subject of difference would make us angry and hostile to each other if we were unable to come to a decision? Perhaps you do not have an answer ready, but examine as I tell you whether these subjects are the just and the unjust, the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad. Are these not the subjects of difference about which, when we are unable to come to a satisfactory decision, you and I and other men become hostile to each other whenever we do?
EUTHYPHRO: That is the difference, Socrates, about those subjects.
This question points to an intriguing idea. We think that ethics—the discussion of good and bad, right and wrong—is the solution to our problems. And maybe it is. But it is also the source. Disagreeing about what is good and what is bad is hard because it seems we have no way of measuring that can help us come to an agreement.
Discussion
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Is it true that ethical questions are more likely to cause anger and division than questions of fact? On what evidence?
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Is there a clear way of “measuring” or “weighing up” ethical questions, to help us come to a decision?
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What methods do you use to resolve these kinds of ethical questions? How do you work out what is good and bad?
Homework
We’re going to dive into reading and theory next week. But I want to just stay with some very simple questions for the time being. So before next session, write up to 200 words on the following question, and post to canvas. You need to post before 12am the night before your next class to get your participation points.
Think of a time recently that you have faced a big (or small) ethical decision. What was the decision? How did it feel to be undecided? And how did you finally decide what to do?