Moral Theories

Through the ages, there have emerged multiple common moral theories and traditions. We will cover each one briefly
with explanations and how they differ from other moral theories.

Consequentialism

Consequentialist theories, unlike virtue and deontological theories hold that only consequences or outcomes of actions
matter morally. According to this view, acts are deemed to be morally right solely on the basis of their consequences.
For instance, most people would agree that lying is wrong. But telling a lie would help save a person’s life,
consequentialism say it’s the right thing to do.

Consequentialism is sometimes criticized because it can be difficult, or even impossible, to know what the result of an
action will be a head of time. Indeed, no one can know the future with certainty. Also, in certain situations,
consequentialism can lead to decisions that are objectionable, even though the consequences are arguably good.

Consequentialism is based on two principles:

1. Whether an act is right or wrong depends only on the results of that act;
2. The better consequences an act produces, the better or more right that act.

Moral Subjectivism

Right or wrong is determined by what you, the subject, just happens to think or feel is right or wrong. In its common
form, Moral Subjectivism amounts to the denial of moral principles of any significant kind, and the possibility of moral
criticism and argumentation. In essence, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ lose their meaning because as long as someone thinks or
feels that some action is ‘right’, there are no grounds for criticism. If you are a moral subjectivist, you cannot object to
anyone’s behavior assuming people are in fact acting in accordance with what they think of feel is right.

Moral subjectivism holds that there are no objective moral properties and that ethical statements are in fact arbitrary
because they do not express immutable truths. Instead, moral statements are made true or false by the attitudes and/
or conventions of the observers, and any ethical sentence just implies an attitude, opinion, personal preference or
feeling held by someone. Thus, for a statement to be considered morally right merely means that it is met with approval
by the person of interest. Another way of looking at this is that judgments about human conduct are shaped by, and in
many ways limited to, perception.

Types of Moral Subjectivism:

1. Simple Subjectivism: view the ethical statements reflect sentiments, personal preference and feelings rather than
objective facts.
2. Individualist subjectivism: view the originally put forward by Protagoras, that there are as many distinct scales of
good and evil as there are individuals in the world. It is effectively a form of Egoism, which maintains that every
human being ought to pursue what is in his or her self-interest exclusively.
3. Moral Relativism (Ethical Relativism): view that for a thing to be morally right is for to be approved by the society,
leading to the conclusion that different things are right for people in different societies and different periods in
history.
4. Ideal Observer Theory: view that what is right is determined by the attitudes that a hypothetical ideal observer (a
being who is perfectly rational imaginative and informed) would have.
5. Ethical Egoism: Right or wrong is determined by what is in your self-interest. Or, is it immoral to act contrary to your
self-interest.
6. Utilitarianism: a theory that holds that the best way to make a moral decision is to look at the potential
consequences of each available action, and then pick the option that either does most to increase happiness or does
at least to increase suffering.
7. Deontology: Deontology or Deontological Ethics is an approach to Ethics that focuses on the rightness or wrongness
of actions themselves, as opposed of the righteousness or wrongness of the consequences of those actions
(Consequentialism) or to the character and habits of the actor (Virtue Ethics). When makes a choice “right” is its
conformity with a moral norm: Right takes priority over Good.
8. Virtue Ethics: A virtue is an excellent trait of character. It is an disposition, well entrenched in its possessor –
something that, as we say, goes all the way down, to notice, expect, value, feel, desire, choose, act, and react in
certain characteristics ways. Virtue ethics emphasizes an Individual’s character as the key element or ethical
thinking, rather than rules about the acts themselves (Deontology) or their consequences (Consequentialism).

Mental Frames

Mental frame is a frame through which we view the world. We attend to what is inside our frame, oblivious sometimes
to what occurs inside our frames, which can lead to dangerous blind spots. Frames can be useful insofar as the direct our
attention toward the information we seek. But they can also constrict our peripheral vision, keeping us from noticing
important and perhaps, opportunities. Once liberating, mental models can become shackles.

The Framing Bias

Blanking all parts of the universe that are outside the frame. Framing becomes easily a damaging mental bias, which
distorts the perception and analysis of an issue and whole decision-making process. The framing bias gives a selective
(framed) and simplistic picture of reality. This leads to flawed decisions with unwanted effects. This has some relation
with heuristic:

1. Representativeness heuristic in which we take simplified stereotypes as models, and;

2. Availability heuristics such as our first perception/ interpretation of things, or the memory of a recent event or data
seen as similar, but often unrelated or irrelevant, that jumps into the mind.

Biased mental frames can result from a kind of cognitive myopia a narrow mental selectively (selection bias), o a
representation that is deliberately reductive, manipulative, once – sided, partial, truncated, non-neutral.

The Consequences of Deciding with Blinders

To use narrow, selective (or wrong) data, explanations, ideas and approaches about either an issue (i.e. stressing gains
or losses) or the facts themselves:

1. Thwart the ensuring reasoning, conclusions and decisions. As a common example, gives usually a too favorable or
too unfavorable impression (positive or negative framing);
2. Those flawed decisions bring dubious, damaging or at least “anomalous” practical effects.