Lecture

Ethics: Dimensions of the Good

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In course

HUM-329: Ethical issues in scientific research

L'objectif est de permettre à l'étudiant-e de:

appréhender les biens en jeu dans la recherche et la production d'énoncés scientifiques
d'apprendre à les identifier dans des cas pratiques, à discerner les tensions entre ces biens en jeu, à les réfléch ...

Description

This lecture delves into the theory of the good, exploring utilitarianism, the formation of groups, and the concept of the good as a complex unity. It discusses the importance of balancing individual desires with moral principles, emphasizing the significance of treating others as ends in themselves. The instructor examines the interplay between personal well-being, moral duty, and the pursuit of excellence, highlighting the ethical implications of actions and decision-making. The lecture also touches on the dangers of prioritizing pleasure over other dimensions of life, stressing the need for a holistic approach to ethical living.

Official source

Related concepts (21)

Ethics

Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior". The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns matters of value; these fields comprise the branch of philosophy called axiology. Ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime. As a field of intellectual inquiry, moral philosophy is related to the fields of moral psychology, descriptive ethics, and value theory.

Utilitarianism

In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different characterizations, the basic idea behind all of them is, in some sense, to maximize utility, which is often defined in terms of well-being or related concepts. For instance, Jeremy Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, described utility as: That property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness .

Moral psychology

Moral psychology is a field of study in both philosophy and psychology. Historically, the term "moral psychology" was used relatively narrowly to refer to the study of moral development. Moral psychology eventually came to refer more broadly to various topics at the intersection of ethics, psychology, and philosophy of mind.

Act utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism is a utilitarian theory of ethics that states that a person's act is morally right if and only if it produces the best possible results in that specific situation. Classical utilitarians, including Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Sidgwick, define happiness as pleasure and the absence of pain. To understand how act utilitarianism works, compare the consequences of watching television all day tomorrow to the consequences of doing charity work tomorrow.

Rule utilitarianism

Rule utilitarianism is a form of utilitarianism that says an action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that "the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance". Philosophers Richard Brandt and Brad Hooker are major proponents of such an approach. For rule utilitarians, the correctness of a rule is determined by the amount of good it brings about when followed.

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