Ethics

(What)asks what morality is (Ex - what is Bad, Good)

(How)determines the principals and method of evaluating their goodness or badness (criteria of determining what is good or bad)

Greatest good for the greatest number of people (Ex - killing is bad.But killing terrorists is good since tehy protect many people)

Development of virtues in an individual

acting in self interest - taking care of own well being and desires

no universal ethics - they vary from region to region

groundwork on the metaphysics of morals

duty based ethics - deals with action itself and not with consequences Always treat people as an end in itself, never means to an end

means should be ethical no matter what the results

looks at outcome & not at the means used - actions are right or good insofar as they promote or accomplish a certain end or outcome. (ex - even if u use stolen money to do charity)

the belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life;

Confirmation bias, a phrase coined by English psychologist Peter Wason, is the tendency of people to favor information that confirms or strengthens their beliefs or values and is difficult to dislodge once affirmed

Asvada - Control of Palate (taste) Gandhiji gave it a special place as a separate vow because he believed that control of the palate was inevitable for Brahmacharya that observance of Brahmacharya became easier if taste was conquered

diversity of morals

momemt of decision

bentham - actions are morally right if they tend to promote happiness or pleasure (and morally wrong if they tend to promote unhappiness or pain) among all those affected by them.

mill - they tend to promote overall human happiness.

epicures/hobbes - Epicurus' ethics is a form of egoistic hedonism; i.e., he says that the only thing that is intrinsically valuable is one's own pleasure;

According to Ockham, moral theory is divided into (i) positive moral science, which "contains human and divine laws that obligate one to pursue or to avoid what is neither good nor evil except because it is prohibited or commanded by a superior whose role it is to establish the laws," and (ii) nonpositive moral science, which "directs human acts apart from any precept of a superior, in the way that principles known either per se or through experience direct them

humans have no moral compass unless there are predetermined rules to say what actions are good or bad. There is no morality in the state of nature. There is no contract without an absolute power to enforce it we all have a right to all things