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Introduction to Ethics
I. What is ethics?
-- Reconceptualization and characteristication of Ethics
A. Original Meaning
The Greek designation: "Ethics" (--custom, habit)
The Latin designation: "Moral" (Mores)
"Ethics" and "Moral Philosophy" are used as synonymous, etymologically
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B. Three Related implications
A general pattern or "way of life" -- Buddhist or Christian Ethics
A set of rules of conduct or "moral code" -- Professional Ethics
Inquiry about ways of life and rules of conduct -- Philosophical Ethics
C. Five Types of Definition
1. Rationalistical definition
- Rational explanation;
- Abstractive understanding;
- Speculative justification;
- Priori knowledge;
- Theoretical discipline;
- Intellectual examination; and
- Reasoning inquiry
2. Empirical Definition
- Generalized observation
- Recognized experience
- Posteriori knowledge
- Objective discovery
- Experimental description
3. Practical Definition
- Guidance of action
- Science of conduct
- Examination of life
- Investigation of moral behavior
4. Functional Definition
- Moral discovery
- Moral interest
- Moral judgement
- Moral inquiry
- Moral argument
- Moral defend
- Moral academic study
- Moral assumption
- Moral criticism
- Moral construction
- Moral prediction
- Moral generalization
- Moral distinction
- Moral abstraction
- Moral theorization
- Moral classification
- Moral normalization
5. Structural Definition
- Framed theory
- Systematic inquiry
- Formalized study
D. Objects of Ethics
- Moral principles
- Moral orders
- Moral problems
- Moral judgements
- Moral codes
- Moral arguments
- Moral experiences
- Moral consciousness
- Moral methods
- Moral resolvation
- Moral natures
- Moral relations
- Moral actions
- Moral laws
- Moral criteria
- Moral evaluation
- Moral values
- Moral behaviors
- Moral norms
- Moral assumptions
- Moral rules
- Moral motivations
- Moral causality
- Moral reasoning
- Moral experiments
- Moral events
- Moral typology
- Moral predictions
- Moral functions
- Moral processes
- Moral systems
- Moral changes
- Moral characteristics
E. Comparative and Contrary Concepts
- Fact and value
- Value and obligation
- Good and bad
- Right and wrong
- Ethically good person and personal good ethicist
- Ethicist and moralist
- Morals (or morality) and ethics
- The moral, immoral and nonmoral
- Habitual morality and reflective morality
- Descriptive ethics
- Normative ethics and non-normative ethics
- Persona; ethics and social ethics
F. Seven Separations
- From politics
- From law
- From theology
- From ideology
- From social sciences (Psychology, sociology, anthropology, and biology)
- From manners
- From ordinary morality
G. Seven Theoretical Perspectives
1. Ontological perspective
- Objective property
- Physical objects
- Factual condition
- Social existence
- Valued entity
- Immaterial reality
- Subjective being
2. Epistemological Perspective
- Knowing what goodness and badness, rightness and wrongness are
- Knowing why certain human actions and behaviors happen
- Knowledge how a society direct people to adopt proper and rational actions.
3. methodological Perspective
- The logical and the psychological
- The analytical and the synthetic
- The deductive and the inductive
- The metaphysical and the dialectical
- The static and the dynamic
- The macro and the micro
- The general and the specific
- The form and the content
- The abstractive and the concrete
- The descriptive and the explanatory
- The structural-functional and the processed
- The systematic and the rational
- The historical and the scientific
4. Formalistic Perspective
- Anti-metaphysical study
- Logical and linguistic reduction
- Philosophical analysis
5. Scientific Perspective
- Scientific explanation
- Scientific influence
- Scientific ethics and ethical sciences
6. Theological Perspective
- Morality by faith and by reason
- Morality by theological and by humanist approaches
- Morality by mysticism and empiricism
7. Socio-cultural Perspective
- Ethics and social equilibrium
- Ethics and political control
- Ethics and legal order
- Ethics and educational mechanism
- Ethics and ideological change
- Ethics and economic development
- Ethics and racial harmony
- Ethics and religious tradition
- Ethics and international relationship
H. Four Periods of Ethical History
1. Classical period
a. Pre-Socrates ethics: Comparison between medicine and ethics; emphasis on man; belief of power
b. Greek ethics: Socrates; Plato; Aristotle
c. Roman ethics: Epicureanism; Stoicism; Neo-Platonism
2. Medieval period
a. Early medieval ethics: Augustine's doctrine; free will and divine foreknowledge; distinctions among concepts
b. Middle medieval ethics: Erigena; Bernard of Clairvanx; St. Anselm; Abklard
c. Later medieval ethics: natural law; free will
3. Modern period
a. Early modern ethics
(1) British enlightenment
- Hobbes
- Early intuitionism
- Locke
- Hume
- Common-sense intuitionism
(2) Holanian enlightenment: Spinaza
(3) French enlightenment: Rousseau; Montesquieu; The Encyclopedists -- Diderot, Helvetius and Holback
(4) German enlightenment: Kant; Leibliz
b. Nineteenth century ethics
(1) Utilitarianism: Bentham; Mill
(2) Idealism: Fichte; Hegel; Schopenhauer; Kiergaard; Nietzsche; Emerson; Royce
(3) British idealism and intuitionism: Green; Bosanquet; Bradly; Sidgwick
4. Contemporary period
a. Non-naturalism: Moore; Deontological non-naturalists -- Ross and Ewing
b. Phenomenlogy: Brantano; Scheler; Hartman; Heidegger
c. Noncognitivism
(1) Emotive theory: Hagerstrom; Ayel
(2) Existentialism: Camus; Sartre
5. Recent arguments
a. Linguistic philosophy: Hare
b. The good-reason approach: Toulmin
II. How to Moralize?
A. Theory and Practice
1. Intellectual activities
2. Abstraction of practical action and concretion of theoretical thought
3. Ethical knowledge and moral action
4. Theorized ethics and applied ethics
B. Requisites (or the study)
1. Objective attitude
2. Critical approach
3. Plural methodology
4. Creative ability
5. Practical application
C. Patterns of Moral Reasoning
1. Particular moral judgements
2. General moral principles
3. The relationship between the above two factors
D. Incorrect Reasoning
1. Ambiguity
2. Invincible ignorance
3. Questionable claim
4. Begging the question
5. Argument from ignorance
6. False appeal to authority
7. Provincialism
8. Hasty conclusion
9. Slippery slope
E. Three "Don't" of Moral Reasoning
1. Don't rely on emotionalism
2. Don't rely on popular feeling to determine morality
3. Don't do wrong
F. Structure and Process of Ethics
1. Structure
HR -- Highest-level reason (fundamental moral principle)
MR -- Middle-level reason
LR -- lowest-level reason
A -- Action
2. Process
Action or Fact -- Moral valuing -- Moral explaining -- Moral theorizing -- Moral applying.