RI KI Knowledge and Ethics Notes 2023

RI KI Year 6 Term 1 Knowledge & Ethics 1 Knowledge & Ethics Notes and Class Exercises Introduction: There is probably no better way to introduce ethics than to actually be doing or practicing it. Read the following scenario and complete the task below: Exercise: Shipwrecked Love - Pre-theory Discussion A ship sank in a storm. Five survivors scrambled aboard two lifeboats: a sailor, a girl, and an old man in one boat; the girl's fiance and his best friend in the second. That evening the storm continued, and the two boats separated. The one with the sailor, the girl, and the old man washed ashore on an island and was wrecked. The girl searched all night in vain for the other boat or any sign of her fiance. The next day the weather cleared, and still the girl could not locate her fiance. In the distance she saw another island. Hoping to find her fiance, she begged the sailor to repair the boat and row her to the other island. The sailor agreed, on the condition that she sleeps with him that night. Distraught, she went to the old man for advice. "I can't tell you what's right or wrong for you," he said. "Look into your heart and follow it." Confused but desperate, she agreed to the sailor's condition. The next morning the sailor fixed the boat and rowed her to the other island. Jumping out of the boat, she ran up the beach into the arms of her fiance. Then she decided to tell him about the previous night. In a rage he pushed her aside and said, "Get away from me! I don't want to see you again!" Weeping, she started to walk slowly down the beach. Her fiance's best friend saw her and went to her, put his arm around her, and said, "I can tell that you two have had a fight. I'll try to patch it up, but in the meantime I'll take care of you." Source: Developing Human Resources, J. William Pfeiffer, Editor. University Associates, 1989. Task: rank the following characters in order of how much you liked/valued them. Fill in the values of 1-5 in the spaces below, putting ‘1’ next to the person you like the best, and ‘5’ next to the person you like least. After you’ve ranked the characters yourself, discuss your rankings with your group and try to come up with a common group ranking. Character Your Ranking Your Group’s Ranking Sailor Girl Old Man Girl’s Fiance Fiance’s best friend Discussion 1. Was it easy or difficult to rank the characters? What did you have to do? 2. Was it easy or difficult to come to a group decision? Why? 3. What struck you most in the discussion you had with your team members? 4. What would make this exercise easier? • Girl • Sailor • Old Man • Fiance • Fiance’s best friend

RI KI Year 6 Term 1 Knowledge & Ethics 2 One of the things that probably came up during the discussion is someone appealing to a commonly agreed moral principle before proceeding to show that a particular action falls under it. Consider, for example, the following argument: P1: Cheating on a test is wrong P2: Tom cheated on the test C: What Tom did was wrong (P1-2) Here, in order to show that what Tom did was wrong, the proponent had appealed to a commonly agreed moral principle in P1. And perhaps that was how you or your friend justified a particular ranking order for the exercise above. The difficulty however is which moral principle to appeal to and that is what will be covered in the next section. A) Ethical Theories – The Major Positions (Normative Ethics) There are many different kinds of ethical theories out there but they generally fall into the following 2 categories: o Teleological: from Greek word telos which means a goal ▪ Hence, a teleological moral theory will justify its moral theory in terms of the outcome, the aim, purpose that is supposed to be good and desirable. o Deontological: from Greek deon which means a duty or obligation ▪ A deontological moral theory will justify its moral theory in terms of duties or obligations. Teleological Theories - Currently the most influential: Utilitarianism o Came into existence in the 19th Century through the English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham o However, the term “utilitarianism” was actually coined by his protégé, John Stuart Mill - The Moral Principle: you should act so as to bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number - Justification: Why is it a principle and why should I follow it and accept it? o A utilitarian will ask you, “What is it that you want out of life? You seem to do many things, like study, buy cars, work etc.” o The answer? Because you want to be HAPPY! o So you do whatever you do because you think, rightly or wrongly, that these things will ultimately make you happy; even intermediate reasons like respect, etc. all lead back to happiness o The one answer that people give that you can ask no further is that “I want to be happy!” o It makes no sense then to ask any more why you choose to do what you do o Hence, utilitarians conclude that happiness is the ultimate telos! o Thus, they argue that the greatest happiness for the greatest number is the greatest outcome of all - How does it work in practice? o E.g. choosing between 2 moral options o Simple! Just work out which option will bring about the greatest happiness for the greatest number, i.e. don’t just think of YOUR happiness, but everyone else’s! (Some like Peter Singer argue that even animals’ happiness should be considered!) o It is a cold, mathematical formula - But how to measure happiness?

RI KI Year 6 Term 1 Knowledge & Ethics 3 o Bentham invented a unit of happiness: the util! - Still, no one really expects, in this age and time, to be able to calculate your happiness precisely o All that is expected is that YOU work it out for yourself as honestly and precisely as possible, working out the consequences of your action. o Then, you ask the question, “Do I prefer a world with the consequences of decision A or with the consequences of decision B?” ▪ NB: you have to do this in a disinterested manner, i.e. without concern for your own particular welfare. Think for the greatest number o This will then tell you what you ought to do o Sure, you might be wrong, but scientists, with all their gadgets and what-nots still get their calculations wrong o This version of utilitarianism that does not expect you to work out the utils of each action but only take into account the various consequences is called CONSEQUENTIALISM - Criticisms: o Difficulties of calculation: in practice, it is extremely difficult to measure happiness and to compare the happiness of different people. ➢ For instance, how do we compare the pleasure a football fan experiences when his team wins with the delight experienced by a parent watching his child’s first steps? And how about the physical sensations of pleasure, like eating and sex? ➢ Mill proposed that there are higher pleasures (mainly intellectual) which are better than lower ones (like physical pleasures). It is better to be ‘Socrates dissatisfied,’ than a ‘pig satisfied.’ Some people have criticized this for being elitist. ➢ Then there is also the problem of how much to count: should we count only the immediate effects of hitting a child or must we take into account the long-term effects? o Can justify many cases usually thought to be immoral: ➢ If hanging an innocent man could act as a deterrent and so benefit the public more, then hanging him would be the right thing to do. ➢ If a state of bliss is considered happiness (Jeremy Bentham), then why not give everyone a drug-induced state of bliss? o Experience Machine: many people say that they do not want to be ‘brains-in-a-vat’ even if can provide them with a range of blissful mental states. ➢ This sugges