CHAPTER 7 – INTRODUCTION TO ETHICS
I. THE PLACE OF ETHICS IN AXIOLOGY
Values are the things we preferred or desired
Axiology – the study of values and valuing nature
and the kind of things that we value
Four Major Areas of Axiology
1. Truth – discriminate among ideas
2. Holy – seeking more of the experience of God
and what holy element of the religion is
embraced
3. Sense of Beauty
Aesthetics – axiology that deals with
beauty
4. Human Behavior – deals with actions and
attitudes
• Consider the nature of ethical value, criteria
for sorting major systems, values of reality
in which they are based
II. KEY TERMS IN ETHICS
1. Good and Evil – refers to situation or state
2. Right and Wrong – refers to actions that
people do
3. Ought and Obligation – sense of inner
constraint that bonds our consciences
Obligation – feeling of constraint
Ought – power to enhance a value
4. Egoism – own good that matters
Altruism – concerned with the good of others
5. Act theory – at different situations, actions
must be calculated separately
Rule Theory – treats acts as classes or sets
6. Intrinsic Value – often intangible that cannot
be taken away without consent
Extrinsic Value – possessed or gained from
outside
7. Metaethics – analysis of ethical terms and
their usage in language and the methods used to
justify ethical statements
8. Objectivism – source of value is outside of
mankind
Subjectivism – values arise from human
consciousness
CHAPTER 8 – DESCRIPTIVISM
Descriptivism – holds that ethical statements are
obtained in the same way as factual statements
and accordingly that we understand the meaning
of ethical judgments by determining their truth
conditions
Descriptivist – claims that we can describe what
people do, but can never judge the moral worth
of their behavior
TWO DESCRIPTIVIST THEORY
A. The Emotivism of A. J. Ayer
Two kinds of cognitively meaningful statements:
1. Analytic
2. Empirically verifiable
Cognitively meaningful propositions –
statements that are either true or false
Examples:
1. The book has 500 pages
2. Up is pink
Analytic Propositions – the predicate term
simply analyses the content of the subject term
Example: “Fathers are male”
Empirically Verifiable Proposition – a
proposition known to be true or false by some
sensory observation that would verify it
Example: “My father is blond”
In summary, for both propositions, we know
what procedure to follow to determine whether
they are true or false.
Proposition: “Stealing is wrong”
Cognitively meaningless terms: good, bad, right,
wrong and ought
“Ayer is propounding a non-cognitivist view of
ethics. To argue whether ethical propositions are
true is to commit nonsense”
Criticisms of Emotivism
a. Self-contradiction
Example: “All cognitively meaningful
propositions are either analytic or empirically
verifiable”
b. Impracticability
If we take emotivism as a way of getting away
from ethical issues, we must assess the price to
be paid.
If there is no right or wrong, how can we hope to
solve problems of human behavior?
B. Thomas Hobbes & Psychological Egoistic
Hedonism
1. The State of Nature – in this “state of nature”,
each person would express his innate drive for
self-preservation & self-assertion
Nothing is right or wrong – all have equal right to
seek pleasure in any way
“My psychology is such that I must do what I
think will bring more pleasure than pain. I can be
mistaken due to lack of knowledge, but I can
never be wrong in the exercise of my will.”
2. The State of Law
Human beings are merely selfish: they are smart
A form of society is formed in which gives up his
absolute right to do whatever he wants to a
sovereign power
“I respect your life and poverty as you do mine,
not because there is anything immoral about
killing or stealing, but because we are too smart
to risk the pain we will incur if we are caught.”
In summary, Hobbes’ views man as a selfish,
pleasure-seeking animal, whose actions are
curbed only by the force of law.
CHAPTER 9 – INTRODUCTION TO
NORMATIVISM
Normativism – includes all theories that put
forth norms by which we can measure actions
and pass moral judgement upon them
Norms – criteria for evaluating acts in terms of
right and wrong and for deciding the nature of
good and evil
Normativists – said that we must acknowledge
some kind of norms if we are to avoid total moral
chaos
– Tasks: propose ethical norms, defend
them rationally and show to whom they apply
Absolutists or Objectivists – philosophers who
argue that some norms are universal
Relativists – no norms are universal
Relativism – of two types: cultural and subjective
I. SUBJECTIVE RELATIVISM: JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Jean Paul Sartre – 20th century existentialist
believes that the fundamental fact about human
beings is their capacity for free choice
– insists that no norms ____ outside the
individual person
– a person cannot choose the wrong act
because the act itself defines right. One can only
say that one would not choose the same act
again – in this sense, the act is “wrong”
– Intersubjectivity → communicating
with one another and interacting with one
another
Subjective Relativism – all value arises from
within the individual
II. CULTURAL RELATIVISM: ANTHROPOLOGISTS
• is well-known that an act that is considered
right in one society is judged wrong in
another
• it states that the norms accepted by the
culture define right and wrong, good and
evil. Here, the culture, not the individual,
decides what is right and wrong
• Ethics in any culture is derived from that
culture’s perception of reality, of the kind of
the world we live in and what it means to be
a human being in that world
Three Major Weaknesses:
1. It is based on the questionable fact of ethical
diversity
2. If cultural relativism is the last word in ethics,
we have no hope of saving modern problems,
there being no rational basis for change in
cultural values
3. Cultural relativism is unable to justify moral
progress
III. OBJECTIVISM
• the theory that there are moral
principles that do not depend on how
humans think about them
ABSOLUTISM: one type of objectivism, holding
one or more moral principles cannot be
overridden
ABSOLUTISTS: one could never justify acts that
op against these principles
: proclaims the dignity of every human
being – that means that acts against human
dignity are morally wrong, no matter what the
culture
CHAPTER 10 – CONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES
PART 1: HEDONISM
The norms by which we decide whether an act
is right or wrong lie in the consequences of that
act.
• If act produces good – morally right
• If act results to evil – morally wrong
Consequentialism
• expresses the meaning of the theory it
labels
Teleological ethics – tells us that the purpose or
goal toward which an act aims is the criterion of
right
Teleology – purposes and goals
Consequentialist ethics – also called end
theories, since the end result of the act tells us
whether it is right
Hedonism
• Greek word for pleasure
• one of the oldest ethical theories,
having its classical expression in the
philosophy of Epicurus (300 B.C.)
• Epicurus
▪ “Happiness is the goal of life”
▪ For him, happiness meant enjoying
refined pleasures that bring peace
of mind and tranquillity
TYPES OF HEDONISM:
I. PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISTIC HEDONISM:
HOBBES
• Since Hobbes defines good as pleasure,
this is considered a form of Hedonism
• Pleasure always means my pleasure,
hence it is a form of egoism
• Pleasure is sought automatically by
every human being and is thus a
psychological, not an ethical theory
• Ethical theory – requires that one has a
duty to seek the good
II. PSYCHOLOGICAL ALTRUISTIC HEDONISM:
SOCIOBIOLOGY
• Sociobiology – claims that human
behavior, including ethical behavior,
can be explained as the result of genetic
evolution
III. ETHICAL HEDONISM
• seeking pleasure is not automatic
• seeking the most pleasure possible is an
ideal we must strive for, not a mere fact
describing how we always act anyway
• either egoistic or altruistic
A. ETHICAL EGOISM: Rand
Ayn Rand
• ethical egoist
• believes that pleasure is the good, and
that one’s own pleasure is all one need
be concerned with
• (unlike Hobbes) believes that human
beings often make the mistake of trying
to make other people happy [which
results to a reduction of the total
amount of pleasure in the world]
• In her view, people are not selfish
enough
B. ETHICAL ALTRUISM: UTILITARIANISM
• Ethical altruistic hedonism
▪ a.k.a Utilitarianism
▪ defines a right act as an act that
is useful (has utility) in
producing more happiness for
more people than any other act
possible
• Slogan: “The greatest happiness for the
greatest number”
THREE UTILITARIAN PHILOSOPHERS
1. Jeremy Bentham
• (like Hobbes) thought that human
beings act under the mastery of two
desires: to seek pleasure and to avoid
pain
• he devised the famous hedonic calculus
to be able to figure out what will bring
the greatest preponderance of pleasure
over pain for all who are affected by the
act
• “pleasure is body pleasure”
Hedonic Calculus – seven-point checklist used
to measure the amount of pleasure or pain an
act will produce
Hedonic calculus’ seven-fold criteria:
a. Intensity
b. Duration
c. Certainty
e. Fecundity
• Fecund – capacity for abundant
production
f. Purity
g. Extent
• We compare the sum of the pleasures
with the sum of the pains. Our duty is to
initiate the act that affords the
maximum pleasure, or at least, the
minimum pain
2. John Stuart Mill
• disagreed with Bentham
• said that calculus is inappropriate for
ethical decisions, and that the rule
theory should replace the act theory
• agreed with Thomas Carlyle’s
assessment of earlier hedonism as a pig
philosophy
• Two kinds of pleasure:
▪ Lower or body pleasure
▪ Higher or spiritual mental
pleasure
• chose rule theory for utilitarianism
3. Henry Sidgwick
• used the principle of equality as a major
modification to fix utilitarian theory
• The principle of equality – states that
every person affected by an act has a
right to share in the benefits resulting
from the act.
• It is morally wrong to sacrifice one
group for the sake of another
CHAPTER 11 – CONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES
PART 2: NIETZCHE
CHAPTER 12 – CONSEQUENTIALIST THEORIES
PART 3: G. E. MOORE
CHAPTER 13 – NONCONSEQUENTIALIST
THEORIES (DEONTOLOGY: DUTY FOR DUTY’S
SAKE)
CHAPTER 14 – JUDEO–CHRISTIAN ETHICS
CHAPTER 15 – THEORIES OF THE HIGHEST GOOD
I. THE SUMMUM BONUM
• Summum: higher
• Bonum: good
A. Hedonism
highest good pleasure
Epicurus – highest pleasure is mental tranquillity
Cyrenaics – argued for maximum pleasure
– we cannot experience the past or
future
Hedonism of Mill (Modern Philosophy) – highest
good is the greatest mental satisfaction
B. The Platonic Hierarchy
• values exists objectively
▪ Supreme value: Good
▪ 2nd Level: Truth and Beauty
▪ 3rd Level: Wisdom, Justice,
Courage, Temperance, Piety
• through knowledge, men could attain
virtue
C. Aristotle’s Golden Mean
Highest good reason (highest faculty of the soul)
➔ such a life will be a moderation –
“Golden Mean”
Higher realization of the good carries through
rational contemplation
Happiness: by product of other activities
D. Nietzche
• Will-to-power
• the “Super-man” Law – rising above
other by energy
• the highest good: Achieve whatever
greatest possible – autonomously
E. Kant
• Summum Bonum – union of virtue *
happiness
• highest good we can think of is the
happiness of virtuous people in their
virtue
• exist only in the future life presided by
God
F. Judaism & Christianity
Highest value: Love
Highest good: to know god and to enjoy
fellowship with Him forever
: creation and creator are united in a
universe of righteous beauty
III. Concluding Summary of Ethics
in Ethics: to know what is right, one must
consider what is good
• Kant and Plato – rationality of man
• Nietzche & Hobbes – motivated by non-
rational drives
• Christian – morality is ___ to the nature
of man
• Sartre - one’s life is grounded in absolute
& autonomous freedom
• Rousseau & Hume – base morality in
universal feelings of mutual sympathy
CHAPTER 16 – EPISTEMOLOGY
EPISTEMOLOGY
• study of truth and knowledge
• the philosophic inquiry into the
meaning, validity, scope and methods of
knowledge
4 APPROACHES TO KNOWLEDGE
1. Empiricism – to know by experience
2. Rationalism (logical deduction) – deduce the
answer by pure reasoning
3. Intuitionism – the kind of knowledge that
comes by direct awareness
4. Authoritarianism – presumed knowledge that
is derived from experience or deduction or
intuition or a combination of the same
BASIC TERMINOLOGIES:
A. Sensing, Perceiving, Conceiving
Sense – to be aware of the basic element
presented to one sense
Perceive – associate various sense data together
in contrast to other sense data to recognize
Conceive – form an abstract idea of something
B. Subject and Object
Subject – being that carries a mental process
Object – what the subject thinks about
C. Monism and Dualism
Monism – theory that the subjective content of
the mind and the object supposedly outside the
mind are identical
Dualism – theory that what is in the mind of the
knower and the object outside the mind are two
distinct entities
D. Idealism and Realism
Epistemological Idealism – theory that the
object known is actually a part of the knowing
subject
Epistemological Realism – holds that the object
exists separately from the subject altogether
Solipsism – an extreme form of idealism; the
theory that only the mental activity of the
individual doing the thinking exists
E. A Priori and A Posteriori
A Priori – knowledge known prior to sensory
experience
A Posteriori – knowledge gained after sensory
experience
F. Analytic and Synthetic
Analytic prepositions – predicate analyses
concepts included in the subject
Synthetic prepositions – synthesize the subject
with new information contained in the predicate
G. Mediate and Immediate
Mediate knowledge – arrived at through a
process of thinking (Scientific knowledge)
Immediate knowledge – known without any
process of mediations (Intuitive knowledge)
H. Truth as Correspondence, Coherence and
Pragmatic
Correspondence theory – a preposition is true if
the proposition corresponds with some facts
Coherence theory – asserts that a proposition is
true if ____izes logically with other known truths
Pragmatic theory – a proposition is true if it
works
I. The Tests of Truth
Correspondence theory – more relevant sensory
observation
Coherence theory – to analyse the logical
consistency of the proposition with the rest of
the systematic truth
Pragmatic theory – the test of truth and the
nature of truth are identical
CHAPTER 17 – RATIONALISM
I. PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
PLATO (420-398 BC) – study under Socrates
– founded a school of mathematics
– teacher of Aristotle
“Sophist” – relativist
“Each person is the measure of what is
true or false”
A. Plato’s Argument Against the Sophists
1. Annihilation of Knowledge
“If whatever anyone claims to be true, then
everything is true.”
Then; If everything is true, then nothing is true.
Therefore, there is no knowledge
2. Self-Contradiction
“There is no absolute truth. Any opinion is as
good as the other.”
Answer to Olemma, “All truth is relative”
3. Particulars never yield knowledge
Fault: Theory is based on sensationalism
“Senses only deals with particulars merely being
aware is not knowledge”
Knowledge – understanding the relationship of
one subject to another
Gorgias: “Nothing exists. If anything did exist we
could never know it. And even if we know it, we
could never communicate it.”
B. Knowledge as Understanding
Absolute Universal Truth
“Universal ideas known by pure reasoning were
more real than particular objects”
Thought Process Objects
Knowing Forms
Knowledge
Thinking Mathematical Concepts
Believing Physical Objects
Opinion
Imagining Images
II. DESCARTE’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
A. Method of Doubt
“Cogito ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am.
B. Proving the existence of God
God = infinite and perfect being and the source
of my mind ideas of infinity and perfection
C. Proving the Existence of the Physical World
If God is an infinite & perfect being → He would
create creatures subject to utter deception →
we are created with senses because there is a
real world to be sense
CHAPTER 18 – EMPIRICISM
I. LOCKE’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
A. The mind is a TABULA RASA
“The mind, a a tabula rasa, is like a blank slate
waiting to be written on”
B. Simple and Complex Ideas
Idea – anything that makes up the furniture of
the mind
• Simple Ideas – basic experiences
• Complex Ideas – association of simple ideas
As experience grow, child is able to sort
experiences into all sorts of complex
arrangements
C. Primary and Secondary Qualities
5 PRIMARY QUALITIES:
1. Extension
2. Figure
3. Solidity
4. Motion
5. Number
• Primary qualities interact with senses →
SECONDARY QUALITY
-vary from observer to observer
D. The Existence of Matter
• certain things cannot be found in sense
experience
E. The Relation of Ideas and Objects
Representative Realism Theory – ideas
represent objects to the mind
Realism – objects known exist on their own,
independent of our consciousness of them
III. HUME’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
A. Cause as a Customary Conjunction
Knowledge is what you observe with senses –
you must wait to see what happens
Causal Connections – descriptions of the habit
our mind gets into
B. The Self as a Bundle of Impressions
Hume discards the self in favour of the view that
what we call the self is no more than the sum
total of the impressions experienced
IV. POSITIVISM (August Conte)
1. Theological Stage – everything that happens is
attributed to the spiritual beings
2. Metaphysical – belief in a spirit who wills the
events of the universe is abandoned in favour of
various natural forces that cause everything
3. Using scientific facts alone
• Nature is no longer viewed as ruled by some
spirit or guided by a metaphysical
abstraction, but as the effect of impersonal
laws

II. BERKELEY’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

A. The impossibility of Matter
– there is no sensory impression of matter →
“Was there a necessity for believing in matter?
Ockham’s razor – among several competing
explanations, the simplest is the true one

B. The Subjectivity of All Quantities

“As far as experience informs us, nothing exists
but qualities perceived by a subject, a mind that
perceives”

C. Solipsism or God?
Solipsism – only the mind and its thoughts exist
or an infinite mind that constantly perceives the
entire universe