Zeer volledige samenvatting van alles wat behandeld werd in de les. Sommige delen in het Nederlands en andere in het Engels (hangt af van in welke taal de les werd gegeven). Behaald resultaat 18/20.
PART 1: GENERAL ETHICS
Part 2 and 8 are PDF documents (not summarized)
What are ethics?
“Abortion is the killing of a human being” Vs “abortion is murder”
! Killing is not always a crime " it depends
– Soldiers on a battle field do not murder, they kill
– You cannot do abortion without killing the fetus
– This statement cannot be true nor false
– Saying it is killing is wrong " it is an injunction
! You need to be very careful to distinguish them from one another
Normative and descriptive statements
– Normative statements = about what should be the case, what should be done
o They can be valid or invalid
o You should not kill
– Descriptive statements = a fact, can be true or false
! Vb: Peter is ill = you can control it = descriptive
! Vb: Peter deserves to be ill = you cannot control it = normative
Science does 2 things:
1. Describe things accurately
2. Explain them
! Morality and ethics are about statements that can
be valid or invalid!
" they are about normative statements
" there is always a value and a rule involved
vb: abortion
– the rule involved = do not kill human beings
– the value involved = the value of human life
! ethics is about rules and values
1
,Morality and ethics
– Morality = practice = the values and norms that individuals, groups and societies accept as a
matter of fact
o life is impossible without having values and rules
o ex: be quiet in classrooms, park your bike at the right place, be kind to one another,
do not steal…
– Ethics = philosophical discipline = justification of values and norms
o which values should we accept and which rules should we follow
o ex: should we eat meat?
Example of clarification of an argument
– The killing of human being is forbidden
– A fetus is a human being
! SO: The killing of a fetus is forbidden
! BUT: The killing in self-defence is allowed
! SO: Why would the killing of all human life forms be forbidden (getting haircut…)
(1) The killing of potential persons is forbidden
(2) A fetus is a potential person
" the killing of a fetus is forbidden
! BUT: what is a person? What is a potential person?
" Can go on and on and on…
Two basic approaches
“ You have to allot 10 hearts over 20 patients, how to proceed?”
– You need rules that fix priorities and tell you how to act = ethics
– Seems a bit hopeless to do this
What could we do?
– Check the medical background " probability of survival " the highest probability of survival
gets the heart
– Select them by age " youngest patients get a heart (they have a whole life ahead of them) "
survival duration is longer
2
, – Check the urgency " also probability of survival " the one who is going to die first, gets the
heart
– The fastest ones get the heart
1. Consequentialism
! Act so that you maximize the amount of values, as a result of your action
" the maximum survivors
" an ethicist will start a debate about which idea is the most useful
" ex. In the hospital, the ones which have the most serious problem are helped first
2. Other way of proceeding – deontological way of reasoning
! Some people think this is not the good way of thinking
" there is a problem with counting and contributing to maximum value
! Philippa Foot: abortion and the doctrine of the double effect " trolley problem:
Situation 1
Imagine that you are a train conductor and the train is going on a hollow track
(the train is running somewhere in a deeper place than the surroundings) – 5
people are working at the tracks and they cannot escape – at the other side there
is also 1 man working – you can choose which side you are going to, what do we
do?
" Most people go left and kill only one person
Situation 2
The surgeon has 5 patients that will die if he does not give them
transplantation – there is one manager who just comes for a check-up
and is healthy – would it be a good way of proceeding to cut open the
manager and save these 5 people?
! In the first situation, it was ok to kill one person to keep 5 alive, but in the
second situation it was not
Situation 3
In this case you are outside the train and you can change the direction of the
train to go to the left (and kill 1 person) or go to the right (and kill 5 people) – if
you do not do anything you are not involved – letting people die is something
other than killing people
3
, Situation 4
On a bridge there is a very fat man, and on the other side there are 5 people
working – if you push the fat man of the bridge, the train will be stopped and
the 5 people would stay alive – this is not right, the action is more direct –
you are more directly involved
Deontological way of reasoning
– They do not start from what is valuable
" There are some basic rules that let you deduce other minor rules that are useful
! Verschillende resultaten: bijvoorbeeld doen en laten:
– Consequentialisme: alle voorspelbare gevolgen doen én laten “tellen”
– Deontologie: van laten “tellen” alleen de geïntendeerde gevolgen
Example of deontology = Kantianism
– Kant says that it is always wrong to use people as a means " it is wrong to use people as a
sexual object
– When a cat strokes against your leg, your cat uses you as a means
– So in the fat man’s case you do not push the man because then you use people as means
4
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