Next exam?

Exam 1 Nov 18, 2011

Material: everything until the session before the
exam
Moral Relativism

Natural Law
Who determines right and wrong?
Some theories of ethics
Kant
Utilitarian
Natural Law
Sartre
Emotivism
Religious ethics
Situationists
 True or False

Leaders often act as though they

have their own code of ethics.
Leader versus Subordiate
moral relativism
moral relativism versus cultural relativism
Ends justify the means?
Moral exceptionalism holds that there is something
morally special about leaders or leadership
 relativism
Relativism explains why people behave as they do

Relativism does not justify their behavior.



Poets have the right to

break rules

Justification is in the end

product; the poem.

Of course, no ethical
implications could be
derived here
Students of ethics are often very attracted to
relativism. Relativism seems to be a sensible
response to intractable moral disagreement,
given that we cannot prove that our own moral
beliefs are correct.
Revolutionary Figures
If you're not a socialist at the age of 20 you
have no heart. If you're not a conservative at the
age of 40, you have no brain.
 The Question of Evolution
(Evolution versus Revolution)
Portrait of Hesire, from a wooden door in
his tomb, c. 2778-2723 BC
 Heart versus Mind
Application in Ethics
Application in leadership
Scientists may be in the business of laughing at
their predecessors, but owing to an array of
human mental dispositions, few realize that
someone will laugh at their beliefs in the
(disappointingly near) future.
JoJo is the favorite son of Jo the
First, an evil and sadistic dictator
JoJo is given a special education and
is allowed to accompany his father
and observe his daily routine. JoJo
takes his father as a role model and
develops values very much like
Dad's.
As an adult, he does many of the
same sorts of things his father did,
including sending people to prison
or to death or to torture chambers
on the basis of whim.
JoJo's may lack "the ability to know
the difference between right and
wrong. A person who, even on
reflection, cannot see that having
someone tortured because he failed
to salute you is wrong plainly lacks
the requisite ability."
How can leaders claim ignorance of the fact that
practices such as torture are wrong? Their
immoral behavior hardly lends itself to a cultural
explanation.
 the infamous five
Hitler, Mao, Mussolini, Stalin, and Pol Pot...were
alienated, estranged, or openly hostile toward their
fathers. Joseph Stalin's father, who periodically beat him
and his mother, was a violent alcoholic and was eventually
killed in a brawl when Stalin was eleven years old. Pol
Pot's parents sent him to live with an older brother and
his wife, who adopted him when he was six, so his
relationship with his parents was distant or resentful at
best, despite his brother's claim about the lack of open
conflicts with them. Adolph Hitler's father, who died when
he was eight, drank heavily and was brutally violent
toward his family. Mussolini's father drank too much,
womanized, and was intermittently employed. Mao
Zedong hated his father for beating him and his brothers
and for shaming him in front of others, and constantly
bucked his authority.--Arnold Ludwig
Many good leaders were raised in supportive
environments.
Examples:
1. Pinochet of Chile "was the first of six children and his
mother's favorite,"
2. Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier, or "Baby Doc," was a
"spoiled child" whose mother "came up with the
clever idea of special tutoring for Jean-Claude with
somebody else taking notes while he slept."
3. Indonesia's Sukarno "spent much time during his
childhood with his grandmother, who believed he was
a saint with supernatural powers."
Many good leaders came from deprived
backgrounds
But how do you explain the misbehavior of
people who got a good upbgringing?
Probably no leader was more privileged
as a child than Egypt's King Farouk I, who
reigned from 1936 to 1952.
Farouk grew up in palatial splendor, with
nursemaids and servants devoted to
making all of his infantile wishes come
true. As the only son of his parents, he
was the natural heir to the throne. Bored
by her life in her husband's harem,
Farouk's mother turned all her attention
on her precious son. He had a private
tutor. To prepare him for wisely ruling his
kingdom, his tutor taught him about his
divine right to rule and his genealogical
connections with the Prophet
Muhammad.
Result? My way only as a child.
Moral education is not limited to the
relationship between parent and child.
What other sources?
Friends
Extended family
Society
Religion
Natural Law versus Positive Law
Natural Law
 Optional Extra Readings
http://rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/natural_la
w/index.htm
http://rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/natural_la
w/biography.htm
http://rsrevision.com/Alevel/ethics/natural_la
w/biography.htm
 Term to learn
Hedonistic ethical theories: pleasure (and the
absence of pain) are the only ultimately good
ends towards which to aim.
 Another term to learn
Deontological ethics: based on duty
 Another term to learn
Teleological ethics: ethics based on purpose
 Kantian ethics: Deontological
Natural law: Teleological
Natural Law
 Are the Human Rights Universal?
(in other words, would could there be people
who would publically speak that Human
Rights has a negative value in it?)
Universal Declaration of Human Rishts

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the

inherent dignity and of the
equal and inalienable rights of
all members of the human
family is the foundation of
freedom, justice and peace in
the world,
 Which laws are more important, the local laws
or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Are laws created out of a need to improve
society? Or is there something more solid?
Dostoevsky
The eyes of these happy people were
radiant and their faces were intelligent,
expressing the serenity of those who have
supremely fulfilled themselves. But there
was also simple, childlike joy in their faces
and voices. When I looked into their eyes I
understood everything! This earth hadn't
been desecrated by the Fall of Man; its
inhabitants still lived in an earthly
paradise. Only here paradise extended
over the entire earth.
 The truth is that... I ended up by
corrupting them all! Yes, in the end, I
corrupted the lot of them!
 They began talking in different languages.
As the bacteria spread they began talking
of honour, fraternity, independence, and
what's mine and what's yours, and the
more depraved they became, the more
they applauded these ideas.
 Very soon, blood was shed for the very
first time
 And, as they became criminals, they
invented the idea of justice. They began
drawing up huge codes of law; and to
maintain their law they erected scaffolds;
and the notion that they had once been so
happy made them laugh; and they called it
a dream.
I wandered among them, crying, pleading, I held
up my arms to them in despair, accusing,
hating myself. I had done it I said. I was
responsible. I had infected them with
contamination, corruption, vice, and lies.

But they just laughed at me and called me a

madman and a fool. Finally they warned me
that I was becoming dangerous and that they
would lock me up in a madhouse if I didn't
shut up.
Conclusion of previous slides:
According to this story, Dostoyevsky does not
believe that the law is a natural outcome, but
an artificial one created to meet needs.
Lets take a look at the theorists who did
believe that the laws are natural:
 Aristotle

Aristotle distinguished between two types of

justices (and therefore two types of laws):

natural justice/law conventional justice/law

The story of Cain and Abel before the ten commandments
Which is harder to formulate?

conventional law

natural law
 How about this:
Everything was made for a reason

And based on the rationale of nature (how

things are made), we can deduce the natural
law

This is the basic motto of Natural Law theorists

 Natural law not to be confused with laws of nature!!
Natural law is ethics, while laws of nature is physics
Yet natural law and laws of nature are related
(one is inspired by the other)
Morality is not an arbitrary set of rules for
behavior. The basis of moral obligation is
found, first of all, in the very nature of man.
 The basic moral truth is simply to "do
good and avoid evil."
And this is innate in humans
 Eating is a universal phenomenon for human
beings.
Questions Biography Writings Reading For Next Time

L A W
 Eternal Law
"the whole community of the universe is
governed by Divine Reason. Therefore, the
very notion of the government of things in
God, the Ruler of the universe, nature of a
law. And since the Divine Reason's conception
of things is not subject to time but is eternal
therefore it is this kind of law must be called
eternal."
 Natural Law
"the natural law is nothing else than the
rational creature's participation of the eternal
law.
natural law consists of broad general
principles that reflect God's intentions for man
in creation.
 Human Law
Conventions
Yet should be based on natural law
 Human Law
"that which is not just seems to be no law at
all"
"if in any point it deflects from the law of
nature, it is no longer a law but a perversion
of law."
Divine Law
 Aristotle vs Aquinas

Divine Law: "it was necessary that besides the

natural and the human law, man should be
directed to his end by a law given by God."

Aristotle does not mention anything about

Divine Law
 Aristotle vs Aquinas

Aristotle supposed that the state could provide

for all the needs of man because he knew only
about man's natural needs. Aquinas, on the other
hand, believed that in addition to his material or
natural needs, man also has a supernatural end.
The state is not equipped to deal with this more
ultimate end of man. It is the church that directs
man to this end.
 Three levels
.
 Three levels
.
1- PROTECT

2- CONTINUE

3- PEACE
 Three levels
1- As a rational being man is under a basic natural
obligation to protect his life and health, in which
case suicide and carelessness are wrong.
2- The natural inclination to propagate the species
forms the basis of the union of man and wife, and
any other basis for this relation would be wrong.
3- Because man seeks for truth, he can do this best
by living in peace in society with his fellow men,
who are also engaged in this quest.
 Three levels
1- As a rational being man is under a basic natural
1- PROTECT
obligation to protect his life and health, in which
case suicide and carelessness are wrong.
2- The natural inclination to propagate the species
forms the basis of the union of man and wife, and
any other basis for this relation would be wrong.
2- CONTINUE
3- Because man seeks for truth, he can do this best
by living in peace in society with his fellow men,
who are also engaged in this quest.
3- PEACE
 According to Aquinas:
Law has to do primarily with reason.