Ethics

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CHAPTER 2:

MORAL PERSONHOOD
AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Presented by: Group 1
- ​Moral personhood
- ​Moral persons and right
- ​Moral agents and patient
- ​Criteria for moral personhood
- ​Moral Accountability
- ​Accountability and Responsibility
- ​Moral and Legal Accountability
- ​Condition for Moral Accountability
When deciding whether a particular
action is morally good or bad,
morally correct or wrong, we
consider whether it comply by or
contravenes our moral norms or
principles.
The idea of moral personhood is complicated,
therefore let's consider the following questions to
assist us better understand it:
(1)What does the moral person entails? Or what
are the consequences when an entity is regarded a
moral person?
(2)What are the ways to be a moral person? Or
are there different ways of being moral persons?
(3)How does one qualify as a moral person?
A moral person is one who upholds moral
principles. Moral people are therefore
objects of moral concern since they have MORAL
moral rights.
PERSONS
01 Rights are entitlements. They speak of the
pursuit of interests or the performance of
activities that one (i.e., the right holder) is
AND
permitted to engage in.
RIGHT
02 Rights and obligations are related, and
because of this, it is easier to compare and
contrast them. Responsibilities are things
that we have to accomplish or carry out.
Two general ways by which rights are classified
1. On the basis of the kind of duties imposed by rights,
whether these rights are only duties of non-interference
or duties of provision as well.
Negative rights: if one’s possession of a right imposes
only the duty of non-interference on other people.
Positive rights: imposes the duty of provision (or
positive performance), in addition to the duty of non-
interference.
2. In terms of how rights are acquired (or their mode of
acquisition)
Contractual Rights. The rights that we acquire when
we enter into an agreement or a contract with some
other persons or institutions.
Legal Rights. The rights that we acquire when we
become citizens of a certain country or state.
Moral Rights. Rights acquired when one becomes a
moral person or a member of the moral community.
MORAL
Moral Agent Throughout time, individuals
have sought meaning from life. They have
pondered their place in the universe,

AGENTS wondering what exactly makes up a person.


Moral patients are subjects of moral
AND concern or consideration. We could simply
say that moral patients are those to whom

PATIENTS moral agents have moral duties. Humans


and other animals, then, are all moral
patients, regardless of their capacities and
traits, and some of them are also moral
agents.
Where do moral beings receive their duties
and rights? What traits or qualities do they
have that give them the moral rights and

CRITERIA
obligations that are given to them? In other
words, what are the standards by which things
are judged to be morally morally personal?
Theories of personhood often discuss such
standards. These theories either seek to define FOR MORAL
the nature of such requirements or seek to
identify such criteria (in terms of their mode of
existence and attribution). Views that address
PERSONHOOD
the former will be referred to as criterial
theories of personhood, whilst views that
address the latter will be referred to as meta-
criterial theories of persons.
. According to the genetic theory, a
person's possession of human DNA or
membership in the species Homo
sapiens defines them. This view
effectively eliminates all non-human
3 criteria
entities (including all kinds of animals,
spiritual beings, and perhaps even theory
extraterrestrials) from the moral
community because it only recognizes Uni-criterial theory
humans as moral persons. This theory

supports the idea that human zygotes


have already developed into humans.
The life theory
3 criteria
The rational theory theory
The sentient theory Uni-criterial theory
The relational theory

A combination of two or more qualities


that sufficiently determines moral
personhood is identified by multi-criteria
theories of personhood. The cognitive 3 criteria
theory of personhood by Mary Anne Warren
(1946–2010), which defines a person as
having the capacities for: (1) consciousness,
theory
and in particular the capacity to feel pain; (2) Multi-criteria theory
reasoning; (3) self-motivated activity; (4)
communication; and (5) self-concept and
self-awareness, is an example of how they
typically combine some of the specific
criteria advanced by the uni–criterial
theories.
First, to account for the existence of moral agents, we need to include
rationality in the combination. For without reason and will, there will
be no such things as moral agents who have moral duties and are
thereby morally accountable for their actions.
Second, ethical theories assume that there are beings to which their
moral principles appropriately apply. Such beings are the moral
persons from the viewpoint of these theories. For instance, the moral
principle that states that we tought not to lie only applies to beings
who are capable of lying and beings who are capable of being lied to.
The nature of these criteria is
qualified by important characteristics
for personhood in terms of their
existence and distribution. The social 3 criteria
theory and the gradient of
personhood are two well-known
theories of this type. The social
theory
theory holds that personhood is a
social construct that is more a Mets-Criterial Theories
product of society. This is due to the
fact that what ultimately becomes
accepted as the standard for moral
being is social and a matter of social
consensus.
MORAL Being willing to defend your actions
and take ownership of your
ACCOUNT- responsibilities for anything you did
or ought to have done.
ABILITY
Accountability
it is the deservingness of blame or praise for the actions the
we perform
Responsibility
"Causation" responsible for something simply means being the
cause of that something.
It is a duty or obligation, or having certain duties or obligations
towards other people
how would you define MORAL and
LEGAL accountability???
Moral accountability refers to the
obligation to act based on ethical
principles. a moral duty that is purely
based on our individuality or ethics.
While for the characteristics of legal
duty is it is enforceable by law. And if
it happens that an individual failed to
comply with those legal duties,
rightful punishments will incur.
2 GENERAL SETS
1. The Attribution Conditions (or
assignment conditions) - they CONDITION
determine whether moral
accountability can be attributed or FOR MORAL
assigned to a person for an action
that he/she has done.
ACCOUNT-
ABILITY
2 GENERAL SETS
2. The Degree Conditions -
determine the degree of one's CONDITION
moral accountability
FOR MORAL
Four such conditions
- degree of knowledge
ACCOUNT-
- degree of pressure ABILITY
- degree of intensity
- degree of involvement
CHAPTER 3:

CONSEQUENTIALISM
PRESENTED BY: GROUP 1
TOPICS TO BE DISCUSS:
- Understanding consequentialism
- A Theory of Ethics
- Intrinsic and instrumental good
- Varieties of Consequentialism
- Hendonism and non-hendonism
- Agent relativity and neutrality
- Complex form and representative
Consequentialism is one of the influential ethical
theories. Its central thesis is that, in determining
whether an action is ethically right or wrong, its
effects are what really count. According to this
ethical theory, the type of effects that an
action produces determines simply whether or
not it is moral.
Three aspects of an action
1. its consequences
A THEORY (Consequentialism)
OF ETHICS
2. the rules that if follows or
violates
(Deontology)
3. the character of its agent
(Virtue Ethics)
1. its consequences
(Consequetialism)
- In consideration of its
A THEORY consequences, an action is judged
OF ETHICS to be morally good when it results
to something good or desirable, and
morally bad if otherwise.
2. the rules that if follows or
violates (Deontology)
- In consideration of the rule that
A THEORY it follows of violates, an action is
OF ETHICS judged to be morally good if it
follows a good rule or does not
conform to a bad rule, and morally
bad if it follows a bad rule or
violates a good rule.
3. the character of its agent
(Virtue Ethics)
- In consideration of the character
(or character traits) of the
A THEORY person who performs an action, an
action is judged to be morally good
OF ETHICS if the said action is something that
a of good character, usually called
a virtuous person, would do, and
morally bad if otherwise (that is, if
it is something that a vicious
person would do).
In moral philosophy,
instrumental and intrinsic value
are the distinction between
what is a means to an end and
what is as an end in itself.
consequentialists agree
that it is our moral duty
to maximize an intrinsic
good through the effects
of our actions, they do
not all have the same
views on the intrinsic good.
the word hedonism comes from the
Greek word ‘hedone’ which means
pleasure.
which refers to the belief that the HEDONISM
AND NON-
pleasure or the absence of pain are the
most important principle in determining
the morality of a potential course of
action.
the belief that pleasure, or the absence
HEDONISM
of pain, is the most important principle
in determining the morality of a
potential course of action
Agent-Relative consequentialism gives moral
priority to the agent of an action, Agent-
Neutral consequentialism on the other hand is
impartial to whoever is or are affected by an
action.
Agent-Neutral Agent-Relative
Consequestialism Consequentialism

Hedonism Non-Hedonism

Agent-Relative Agent-Neutral Agent-Relative Agent-Neutral


Hedonism Hedonism Non-Hedonism Non-Hedonism

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