Branches of Ethics & Perspectives in

Ethics

Madhavi Mehta
Recap – • VEM as a perspective building course
VEM1 • Ethics & Moral value judgment
• Moral dilemma and
• Principle of moral reasoning
• Sources of unintentional unethical decisions
 In this session

• Branches of Ethics and Perspective on

Ethics
• Descriptive Ethics
• Normative Ethics
• Applied Ethics
• Meta Ethics
Descriptive Ethics
Normative
Descriptive • Descriptive > Description > Describe
Ethics

• The study of moral codes of a group, society, or

a culture from a scientific point of view.
• Also called Behavioral Ethics.
• Helps in developing awareness of ethical issues.
Normative • Also called Prescriptive Ethics.
Ethics
Tries to answer:
• What is Good?
• (ideal)
• What is Right?
• (opposite of wrong as defined by set of rules
or law)
• What Ought to be?
• (personal obligation, duty, responsibility)
Descriptive vs. Normative

Descriptive Normative
Describes Prescribes
Factual Ideal
Verifiable Justifiable
True or False Better or Worse
Meta-Ethics
Meta- • Applied ethics & Normative ethics: Questions ‘what is moral’
Ethics • Meta-Ethics: Questions ‘morality’ itself.

• Morality
• Descriptively: refers to certain codes of conduct put forward
by a society or a group (such as a religion), or accepted by an
individual for her own behavior, or
• Normatively: refers to a code of conduct that, given specified
conditions, would be put forward by all rational people.

• What is the source of moral values?

• What do we mean when we say an act is good/bad,
right/wrong?

• Not concerned with developing ethical theories

Applied
Ethics
 • Consequentialism (Teleology)

• Deontology
Perspectives in
Ethics
• Virtue Ethics
 • Results-based.
• To determine what is right and wrong,
focus on the consequences.
• If the results are good, act is right.
Teleological/
• More the good consequences, more right
Consequentialism the act.
• Therefore, maximize good consequences.
Consequentialism
• Consequentialism: Focus on producing the
maximum good
consequences.

• Negative Consequentialism: If no good possible,

minimize harm

• Utilitarianism: Maximize Human

Welfare or Well-being
• Hedonism: Maximize Human Pleasure
(pleasure that has good
consequences)
 • Grounded in actual effect.
• Attentive to particulars of the
situation.
• Follows cause and effect reasoning
(scientific in nature).
Consequentialism
– Benefits
• Not rooted in any theoretical ideal
that is culturally rooted.
• Can be empirically
proved/disapproved by establishing
a linkage between act and
consequences.
 • "अश्वत्थामा हता: इ�त | नरोवा कुञ्जरोवा ||”
“Aswathama Hata, Iti. Narova KunjaRova”
"Ashwatthama is dead. Know not
whether man or elephant”
Utilitarianism –
consequentialist
• An act’s rightness or wrongness is
ethical theory determined solely by the act’s
consequences and not by any feature of
the act itself.
• Benefit and harm
Act utilitarianism
• Utilitarian would –
• Set out all the relevant alternative acts that
are open to him or her
• List all the individuals who will be affected by
the alternative courses of action including
oneself.
• Assess how the individuals will be affected by
the alternative acts; comparing benefit to
harm
• Choose the act which maximise utility; which
results in the greatest total balance of benefit

• “benefit to the person performing the act”-

not the sole consideration while assessing
benefit and harm
 • Principle is not that we should maximize
total benefits, rather, one should maximize
utility
• The act is not solely concerned with short-
term benefit; long term benefits are also
to be considered
Act • An act is not morally right if overall benefit
utilitarianism outweigh its harm; how many persons got
benefitted or harmed should be taken into
account

• For an act to be right, it must maximize

utility and at the same time, maximize the
number of individuals who realize a
positive benefit to harm ratio
 • Prediction problems: Linkage between
act and consequence not always clear.
• End justifies means?
• Can increase decision making time –
Consequentialism impractical.
– Challenges • Good consequences for whom – self,
family, society?
• May decrease trust among human
beings.
 • Also called Non-Consequentialism.
• Do right; Don’t do Wrong.
• Actions are right and wrong in
themselves irrespective of the
Deontological consequences.
• Do right, even if it produces bad
results.
• Your motives are supreme: means
matter.
 • Agent-centered theory – “obligation” and “permission” are
the reason to act or refrain from it.
• Obligation – obligation of an agent to do some act or not to
take an action. It does not necessarily give anyone else a
reason to support that action. For parents, it is commonly
thought to have such obligation to his or her child, an
obligation not shared by others.

Deontology • Permission – permission for some agent to some act even

though others may not be permitted to aid that agent in the
doing of his permitted action. For parents, it commonly
thought to be permitted to save his own child even at the
cost of not saving two other children to whom he has no
special relation.

• It is our intended ends or intended means that crucially

define the agency
 • Removes the uncertainty of
Consequentialism.
• Right and wrong actions easily
identified.
Deontological • Duties don’t change, hence
– Benefits predictability increases, further
increasing trust.
• Motives are valued, even if actions
failed to arrive at the intended act.
• Deals with intentions and motives.
Deontological – Challenges
• Little flexibility, rather absolutist.
• Could lead to forceful imposition of a moral system on a diverse population.
• Ignoring consequence could lead to pain and suffering.
• What happens in case of conflicting duties?
Virtue Ethics
• Consequentialism/Teleological: Goal based
• Deontological: Duties based
• Virtue: Character based (Person based as opposed to Act
based)

• In virtue-ethics framework, agent's moral character takes the center stage.

• A virtuous person develops a habit of doing good things.
• Virtues need to be developed through practice over one’s lifetime.
• A good person is someone who lives virtuously.
Virtue ethics
Principle Description
Beneficence The positive requirement to promote the interests and welfare of others;
this covers actions that will protect a person from harm, as well as those
that will directly confer benefit.

Nonmaleficence The negative requirement not to bring about harm to others, either directly
or indirectly.
Respect for The requirement to protect, and indeed to promote, the self-determination
autonomy or self-governance of others.
Respect for persons The requirement to respect the dignity and individuality of others and to
avoid using them solely as a means to an end.

Justice The requirement to treat others fairly; if we treat individuals differently, this
must be on the basis of morally relevant differences between these
individuals.
The Virtue Approach

• It advocates that ethical

actions should be consistent
with certain morally
acceptable virtues that would
pave the way for full
development of humanity.
 Virtue
 A virtue is an excellent trait of character. It is a disposition, well entrenched in its
possessor—something that, as we say, goes all the way down, to notice, expect, value,
feel, desire, choose, act, and react in certain characteristic ways.
 An honest person cannot be identified simply as one who, for example, practices honest
dealing and does not cheat. If such actions are done merely because the agent thinks that
honesty is the best policy, or because they fear being caught out, rather than through
recognizing “To do otherwise would be dishonest” as the relevant reason, they are not the
actions of an honest person.
 There is something particularly admirable about people who manage to act well when it is
especially hard for them to do so, but the plausibility of this depends on exactly what
“makes it hard”
 If it is the circumstances in which the agent acts—say that she is very poor when she sees
someone drop a full purse or that she is in deep grief when someone visits seeking help—
then indeed it is particularly admirable of her to restore the purse or give the help when it
is hard for her to do so. But if what makes it hard is an imperfection in her character—the
temptation to keep what is not hers, or a callous indifference to the suffering of others—
then it is not.
Virtue Ethics - Practical
wisdom
• We may say of someone that he is generous or honest “to a
fault”
• So it would appear that generosity, honesty, compassion and
courage despite being virtues, are sometimes faults.
• Yudhishthira lost his kingdom, his brothers, his own self and
Draupadi in a game of dice. For the second time! This is all for
protecting the dharma of Kshatriya.
• Given that good intentions are intentions to act well or “do the
right thing”, we may say that practical wisdom is the knowledge
or understanding that enables its possessor, to do just that, in
any given situation
Virtue Ethics – Benefits
• Allows one to use her/his judgments.
• Mistakes are taken as learning
opportunities.
• Practical, as human beings often take
more interest in evaluating persons that
acts.
• Positive way to build a society – not on
rewards and punishments, but by focusing
on goodness.
 • Interpretation of virtues is a
challenging task.
Virtue Ethics • No general agreement on the list of
virtues.
– Challenges • Too much left to individual judgment –
prone to prejudice.
• Poor role-models can lead to a false
sense of virtue.
 Descriptive Ethics Deontological Kantian Ethics
Branches of Ethics
Normative Ethics Consequential Utilitarian Ethics

Virtue

Business Ethics

Applied Ethics Medical Ethics

Environmental
Meta ethics
Ethics