College aantekeningen
Class notes Ethics
- Vak
- Ethics
- Instelling
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
A short summary of what was said on the slides and knowledge clips
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Lecture 1Chapter 1: Doing The Right Thing
Justice is framed in three dimensions: maximising welfare, respecting freedom, and promoting virtue.
● Maximising welfare: Explore the notion that justice involves maximising overall welfare or
well-being in society. The concept of welfare extends beyond economic factors to include broader
aspects of social well-being. Supporters of this view argue that just policies and institutions
contribute to the greatest overall happiness.
○ Utilitarianism ⇒ Influential account of how and why we should maximise welfare.
● Respecting freedom: The argument that markets, by allowing individuals to make their own
choices and determine the value of goods and services through voluntary exchanges, is a
mechanism to promote justice. Emphasises the importance of personal autonomy and the idea
that people should have the freedom to choose their values and priorities.
○ Free-market Libertarians ⇒ Believe that justice consists in respecting and upholding
voluntary choices.
■ Free market: An economic system where prices are determined by the forces of
supply and demand without government intervention.
○ Egalitarian ⇒ Argue that free markets are neither free nor just.
● Promoting virtue: Argues that moral deliberation involves more than just rational decision-making;
it also requires reflection on the larger life stories and narratives in which individuals find
themselves. Moral excellence or righteousness, is often debated in the context of societal attitudes
toward greed, fairness, and justice.
○ Virtue ethics ⇒ Aristotle, emphasises the development of good character and the pursuit of
a meaningful and coherent life story.
Price Gouging: the controversial practice of charging excessively high prices for goods and services,
particularly during times of crisis or emergency when demand outstrips supply.
● For Unfettered Markets: Economists like Thomas Sowell and commentators like Jeff Jacoby argue
that price gouging reflects market conditions and incentivises increased supply of necessary goods
and services.
● Against Price Gouging: Opponents argue that high prices burden those least able to afford them,
and during emergencies, buyers under duress lack freedom in their purchases, resembling
extortion.
Ancient vs Modern Political Thoughts
● Ancient: Justice was often grounded in virtue, emphasising the cultivation of virtuous
characteristics as foundational to a just society.
● Modern: Contrastingly, modern theories shifted the focus towards individual freedom and choice in
determining justice, distancing themselves from virtue-centric frameworks.
● Arguments about justice are about how to distribute the fruits of prosperity or the burdens of hard
times, and how to define the basic rights of citizens.
,Moral Dilemmas
The moral reflection, particularly in the context of democratic societies with pervasive disagreements on
moral issues. Moral dilemmas arise from conflicting moral principles or arise because we are uncertain
about how events will unfold. By setting aside contingencies hypothetical examples help us to isolate the
moral principles at stake and examine their force.
● Moral reasoning: is a way of persuading others and a way of sorting out our moral convictions. It
advocates for public engagement, rejecting the notion that moral reflection should be solitary, and
encourages readers to critically examine their views on justice.
Knowledge Clip
Ethical dilemmas, which are ethical decisions that involve a clash of legitimate ethical values, will drive
the discussions in this course and will provide us with questions and motives for the development of the
ethical theories that we will study.
Ethical decision-making involves navigating conflicting moral obligations. Jaime Lannister's conversation in
Game of Thrones exemplifies this, highlighting the clash between vows and complex realities. To make
ethical decisions:
1. Identify Alternatives: Recognize available options, which may be obscured by biases or unexplored
ethical considerations.
2. Assess Stakeholders and Consequences: Evaluate how actions affect different groups, considering
ethical implications and moral outcomes.
3. Clash of Ethical Values: Ethical dilemmas arise from conflicting yet legitimate ethical values, leading
to tough choices where prioritizing one value often means compromising another.
4. Ethical Behaviour Distinctions: Ethical behaviour isn't solely based on personal beliefs, laws,
cultural norms, or factual knowledge. It encompasses more, requiring a nuanced understanding of
multiple factors.
5. Basis for Ethical Principles: Various philosophical perspectives like virtue ethics, deontology,
utilitarianism, and communitarianism offer different frameworks for ethical decision-making,
emphasizing diverse foundational principles.
a. It is difficult to analyze an ethical dilemma and find the ‘correct’ answer. The question is:
“What is the unquestionable basis on which we can ground our ethical principles?”.
Philosophical thinkers all thought differently about this:
i. Aristotle ⇒ do what is close to virtue.
ii. Immanuel Kant ⇒ do what respects human fundamental dignity and
self-determination.
iii. Utilitarians ⇒ do what provides the most good and the least harm.
iv. John Rawl ⇒ do what is necessary to share one another’s fate.
v. Communitarians ⇒ act considering obligations to your community.
,Lecture
Understanding where the line between law and morals, recognizing that ethics goes beyond law,
considering ethics in economic choices, and struggling to always know what is right or wrong are all part of
the complexity of ethical decision-making.
Ethics ⇒ is not factual, there are no religious beliefs. The word is derived from the Greek word Ethos
meaning character, custom or habit
● A set of moral principles: a theory or system of moral values
● The discipline dealing with what is good and bad, with moral duty and obligation (understanding
our actions and judging ourselves)
● Make choices that affect our society and how our society is set up
● Find an answer from a different foundation besides the laws and religious beliefs why?, what?, is it?
Trace the history of ideas around moral values and the ethical theories that have given rise to ⇒ the
dialogue of ideas
Business ethics: Where companies are agents and the organizations as the environment. Markets as
environments in which organisations operate; as coordination systems alternative to organizations. Markets
impact society and vice versa. Think of the decision from an ethical perspective.
● Is this a good policy? what is “better”?
, Lecture 2
Chapter 8: Who Deserves What?/Aristotle
Justice, Telos, and Honour: Aristotle’s theory of justice. Central to Aristotle’s political philosophy are two
ideas.
1. Justice is teleological. Defining rights requires us to figure out the telos (the purpose, end, or
essential nature) of the social practice in question.
2. Justice is honorific. To reason about the telos of a practice—or to argue about it—is, at least in part,
to reason or argue about what virtues it should honour and reward.
Aristotle's ethics and politics intertwine justice with honour, virtue, and the pursuit of the good life,
contrary to modern theories that attempt to separate fairness and rights from considerations of virtue and
moral excellence.
● Aristotle does not think justice can be neutral in this way.
● Aristotle thinks justice and the good life must be connected will help us see what’s at stake in the
effort to separate them.
Aristotle’s reason goes beyond this utilitarian consideration ⇒ it's teleological, meaning it's rooted in the
purpose or end of the goods being distributed. Claims that to determine the just distribution of goods,
we have to inquire into the telos, or purpose, of the good being distributed
Justice involves two factors:
1. “things, and the persons to whom things are assigned.”
2. “persons who are equal should have assigned to them equal things.”
A difficult question: Equals in what respect? ⇒ Depends on what we’re distributing and on the virtues
relevant to those things.
Aristotle criticizes the two major claimants to political authority: oligarchs and democrats. Both groups
exaggerate their claims as they both misconstrue the purpose of political community. He believes politics
should transcend economic or majority concerns and shape the character and virtues of its members.
Aristotle argues that political power should be given to individuals who show civic virtue and the ability to
deliberate for the common good, regardless of wealth or popular opinion.
● Oligarchs only protect property and promote economic prosperity (wealth), which is not the only
thing a political community is about.
● Democrats, Aristotle disagrees with the idea that the main goal of politics is to simply fulfil the
desires of the majority.
Modern ideas, Aristotle believes politics isn't just about meeting preferences or economic interests but is
about fostering virtuous citizens and guiding the community toward a good life. Therefore, distributing
political influence should reflect civic virtue, connecting justice with both purpose and honour. asserting
that it exists for the sake of the good life (eudaemonia).
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