Law122 Final
What is ethics? ethics is critical, structured examination of how individuals and institutions should behave when their actions affect others
“critical”: it is about more than just describing existing patterns of behaviour
“structured”: it is about more than institutions, gut reactions; it is about providing reasoned arguments for why we should or should not behave certain ways
Examples of Ethical Statements
“I stopped to help at the accident scene because it was the right thing to do”
“It is good to donate to charity”
“It’s wrong to lie to your customers”
“Taking advantage of someone’s weaknesses is unethical”
Is any of this conduct unethical and illegal?
Ethical Reasoning
Ethics is most often easy – you were raised well, you do right thing most of time
Ethics becomes harder when important ethical values or principles conflict
Ethical judgments involves weighing competing values or principles – there is no formula for doing this
Right and wrong or bad .. good .. Best?
Sometimes there is a clear “right” answer, but sometimes there is not
Goal should be to think it through and provide good reasons for a better, rather than worse, course of action
If you make bad decision and asked about it, worst answer is to say you never thought about it
Ethical Principles and Values
A great deal of ethical thinking can be summarized by following 4 kinds of ethical reasons:
Consequences: we should promote good consequences, avoid bad ones, for all concerned, in the long run
Fairness/justice: we should make sure that good and bad consequences are distributed fairly; we should pay our debts, treat like cases alike
Rights and duties: we should protect rights, perform duties; these are often “nearly absolute”
Character/virtue: we should consider what kind of people we want to be, and what example we want to set
Ethical and Legal Reasoning
Ethical and legal reasoning share a lot in common:
Both involve reasoning about what it would be okay to do, or whether
“critical”: it is about more than just describing existing patterns of behaviour
“structured”: it is about more than institutions, gut reactions; it is about providing reasoned arguments for why we should or should not behave certain ways
Examples of Ethical Statements
“I stopped to help at the accident scene because it was the right thing to do”
“It is good to donate to charity”
“It’s wrong to lie to your customers”
“Taking advantage of someone’s weaknesses is unethical”
Is any of this conduct unethical and illegal?
Ethical Reasoning
Ethics is most often easy – you were raised well, you do right thing most of time
Ethics becomes harder when important ethical values or principles conflict
Ethical judgments involves weighing competing values or principles – there is no formula for doing this
Right and wrong or bad .. good .. Best?
Sometimes there is a clear “right” answer, but sometimes there is not
Goal should be to think it through and provide good reasons for a better, rather than worse, course of action
If you make bad decision and asked about it, worst answer is to say you never thought about it
Ethical Principles and Values
A great deal of ethical thinking can be summarized by following 4 kinds of ethical reasons:
Consequences: we should promote good consequences, avoid bad ones, for all concerned, in the long run
Fairness/justice: we should make sure that good and bad consequences are distributed fairly; we should pay our debts, treat like cases alike
Rights and duties: we should protect rights, perform duties; these are often “nearly absolute”
Character/virtue: we should consider what kind of people we want to be, and what example we want to set
Ethical and Legal Reasoning
Ethical and legal reasoning share a lot in common:
Both involve reasoning about what it would be okay to do, or whether