Ethics For Dummies

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You're Not to Read 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 4

Part 1: Ethics 101: Just the Basics, Please 4

Part 2: Surveying Key Ethical Theories 4

Part 3: Applying Ethics to Real Life 4

Part 5: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Beyond the Book 5

Where to Go from Here 6

Part 1: Ethics 101: Just the Basics, Please 7

Chapter 1: Approaching Ethics: What Is It and Why Should You Care? 9

Knowing the Right Words: The Vocabulary of Ethics 10

Focusing on should and ought 10

Avoiding the pitfall of separating ethics and morality 11

Putting law in its proper place 12

Identifying Two Arguments for Being Ethical 14

Why be ethical 101? It pays off! 14

Why be ethical 201? You'll live a life of integrity 15

Committing Yourself to the Ethical Life 16

Taking stock: Know thyself 16

Building your moral framework 17

Seeing where you need to go 18

Chapter 2: Butting Heads: Is Ethics Just a Matter of Opinion? 21

Subjectivism: Basing Ethics on Each Person's Opinion 22

Right for me and wrong for you: The subjectivist position 22

Recognizing that subjectivism can't handle disagreement 23

They're always right: Subjectivists make bad houseguests 25

Determining what subjectivism gets right 26

Cultural Relativism: Grounding Ethics in the Group's Opinion 27

Discovering what it means to be a cultural relativist 27

Understanding why cultural relativism is always so popular 28

Living in many worlds: Some problems with cultural relativism 29

Looking at cultural relativism's lack of respect for tolerance 30

Noting cultural relativism's successes 32

Emotivism: Seeing Ethics as a Tool of Expression 33

Expressing yourself: Booing and cheering in ethics 33

Arguing emotionally: A problem for emotivists 34

Getting motivation right: A victory for emotivism 36

Chapter 3: Exploring Connections between Ethics, Religion, and Science 37

Clarifying the Relationship between God, Religion, and Ethical Codes 38

Knowing the difference between God and religion 38

Contemplating the diversity of religious ethical codes 39

Because God Said So: Understanding Divine Command Theory 41

God's authority: Considering why God gets to be in charge 42

Figuring out what happens when divine commands conflict 43

Plato's big challenge: Questioning what makes something ethical 45

When Ethics Gets in the Way of God: Introducing Kierkegaard 47

The Abraham dilemma: When God tells you to kill your child 47

Embracing a God who's beyond ethics 49

Overcoming your despair: Can faith take you beyond ethics? 49

When God Gets in the Way of Ethics: Introducing Nietzsche 51

Portraying religion as an ethics of weakness 51

Leaping over faith: Ethics as inner strength rooted in self-creation 52

Examining Nietzsche's new idea: The ethics of inner strength 54

The Age of Science: Figuring Out If Ethics Can Exist in a Secular World 55

Staying silent on the spiritual 55

Defining ethics in a materialistic world 56

Establishing good behavior without heaven or hell 57

Evolution and Ethics: Rising Above the Law of the Jungle 58

Seeing how selfish genes can promote unselfish behavior 59

Noting the irrelevance of (most) evolutionary theory to ethics 61

Part 2: Surveying Key Ethical Theories 63

Chapter 4: Being an Excellent Person: Virtue Ethics 65

The Lowdown: Virtuous Character Matters 66

Discovering why character matters 66

Connecting character with action 67

Seeing character as a way of life 67

Virtue: Settled habits towards the good 68

Linking Virtue to Cultivating Your Human Nature 69

How virtue is linked to human nature 69

Cultivating your nature is good and good for you 71

Examining what cultivated human nature looks like 72

Virtuous immersion in your social world 73

Responding virtuously to the universe itself 75

Asking Whether Virtue Guarantees Happiness 76

Aristotle: Virtue is not enough for human flourishing 77

Aurelius: Virtue is all you need to flourish 78

Figuring Out How to Acquire the Virtues 79

Can virtues really be taught? 79

Apprenticing yourself to a virtuous master or two or three 80

Aristotle: Shaping how we experience the world 81

Aurelius: Correcting how we see the world 85

Assessing Criticisms of Virtue Ethics 88

It's difficult to know which virtues are right 89

Virtues can't give exact guidance 90

Virtue ethics is really self-centered 91

Being virtuous is a lucky crapshoot 92

Chapter 5: Maximizing the Good: Consequentialist Ethics 95

Paying Close Attention to Results: Consequences Matter 96

Consequences matter to everyone 96

Consequences ethically trump principles and character 98

Surveying What Makes Consequences Good 99

Utilitarianism says: More pleasure, less pain (please!) 100

Beethoven or beer: Recognizing why some pleasures are better than others 102

Putting Utilitarianism into Action 104

Whose happiness counts? 104

How much happiness is enough? 105

Focusing On Two Different Ways to Be a Successful Utilitarian 106

Directly increasing the good through your actions 106

Indirectly increasing the good by following the rules 109

Exploring Traditional Problems with Utilitarianism 112

Challenge 1: Justice and rights play second fiddle in utilitarianism 112

Challenge 2: Utilitarianism is too demanding 114

Challenge 3: Utilitarianism may threaten your integrity 115

Challenge 4: Knowing what produces the most good is impossible 116

Chapter 6: Doing Your Duty: The Ethics of Principle 119

Kant's Ethics: Acting on Reasonable Principles 120

Defining principles 120

Noting the difference between principles and rules 121

Making sense of Kantian ethics: The struggle between nature and reason 122

Autonomy: Being a law unto yourself 125

Living by the Categorical Imperative: Reasonable Principles 126

Looking behind actions: Maxims are principles 127

Examining imperatives 130

Surveying the Forms of the Categorical Imperative 132

Form 1: Living by universal principles 132

Form 2: Respecting everyone's humanity 135

Applying the Categorical Imperative to Real-Life Dilemmas 136

Using the Formula of Universal Law to distinguish imperfect from perfect duties 137

Applying the Formula of Humanity to ethical topics 141

Scrutinizing Kant's Ethics 142

Unconditional duty: Can you lie to a murderer? 143

Guiding actions in real moral dilemmas 143

Making enough room for feelings 144

Accounting for beings with no reason 145

Chapter 7: Signing on the Dotted Line: Ethics as Contract 147

Creating Ethics with Contracts 148

Reviewing Hobbes's state of nature: The war of all against all 149

Escaping the state of nature: Enter the sovereign! 151

Moving to the modern form of social contracts 152

Restructuring Social Institutions According to Rawls's Theory of Justice 153

Taking stock of the original position and its veil of ignorance 154

Arriving at the liberty and difference principles 155

Beyond the Dotted Line: Criticizing Contract Theory 158

But I never signed on the dotted line! 159

Libertarianism: Contracts make people lose too much liberty 160

Communitarianism: Challenging the veil of ignorance 161

Chapter 8: Turning Down the Testosterone: Feminist Care Ethics 163

The Feminist Challenge: Traditional Ethics Is Biased toward Men 164

De Beauvoir: How socialization shapes our thinking 164

Getting a grasp on the feminist approach 166

Seeing how bias seeps into your life 168

Exploring how bias infects ethics 169

A case study of male bias: Kohlberg's theory of moral development 170

Considering Gilligan's criticism of Kohlberg's model 173

Surveying a New Feminist Ethics of Care 178

Putting relationships first 179

Letting feelings count: Cultivating care 180

Embracing partiality 182

Care avoids abstraction 183

Further Developing the Notion of Caring 183

Caring requires a deep and reciprocal bond 184

Jumping into another's skin: Engrossment 185

Moving from me to you: Motivational displacement 185

Closing the loop: The need for reciprocity 186

Considering the Politics of Caring 187

Assembling the basic components of caring 188

Embracing the political dimension of care 189

Reviewing Criticisms of Care Ethics 190

Care ethics and public life: An uneasy fit 190

Do some relationships really deserve care? 192

Could care ethics harm women? 193

Chapter 9: Global Morality: Examining Non-Western Ethics 195

Thinking Differently: Why Cross-Cultural Ethics Matters 196

Avoiding Ethnocentrism: Seeing Ethics as Embedded in Cultural Contexts 196

Cultivating Relationships: Confucian Ethics 197

Why relationships? Understanding the big picture 197

Embodying ren: Building excellent relationships 199

The ethical importance of learning 199

Mirroring good role models 200

Developing the virtues to support ren 202

Confucian dedication to developing others 204

Reducing Suffering: Buddhist Ethics 206

The significance of life before becoming Buddha 207

Emergence of the Buddha and Buddhist doctrine 208

The ethical cure to suffering: The eightfold path 211

Cultivating virtue: Joy, kindness, and compassion 212

Harmony with Nature: Daoist Ethics 213

Tackling the inexpressible Dao: Life as a mystery 214

Cultivating an ethics that rejects ethics 218

Reawakening the Spiritual: Hindu Ethics 221

Atman and brahman: Finding your eternal self 221

Dharma: The ethical path to enlightenment 223

Achieving liberation: The final aim of the system 227

Part 3: Applying Ethics to Real Life 229

Chapter 10: Dealing with Mad Scientists: Biomedical Ethics 231

Examining Some Principles of Biomedical Ethics 232

Paternalism: Does a doctor always know best? 232

Autonomy: Being in the driver's seat for your own healthcare decisions 233

Beneficence and nonmaleficence: Doing no harm 235

Taking a Closer Look at the Intractable Issue of Abortion 236

Deciding who is and isn't a person 237

A right to life from the beginning: Being pro-life 238

The freedom to control one's body: Being pro-choice 238

A 21st Century Problem: Attack of the Clones 239

Understanding the growing use of cloning in medicine 240

Determining whether cloning endangers individuality 241

Anticipating Ethical Problems with Genetic Technologies 243

Testing to avoid abnormalities 243

Finding cures for diseases with stem cell research 244

Considering genetic privacy concerns 246

Manipulating the genome to create designer people 246

Dying and Dignity: Debating Euthanasia 248

Dealing with controversy at the end of life 248

Making autonomous choices about death 249

Killing the most vulnerable 250

Thinking beyond the West: Palliative care 251

Chapter 11: Protecting the Habitat: Environmental Ethics 253

Canvassing Environmental Ethics 254

Recognizing environmental problems 254

Expanding care past human beings 255

Determining Whose Interests Count 258

Getting interested in interests 258

Anthropocentrism: Only humans matter! 260

Sentientism: Don't forget animals 262

Biocentrism: Please don't pick on life 263

Ecocentrism: The land itself is alive 265

Turning to Environmental Approaches 269

Conservationism: Keeping an eye on costs 269

Deep ecology: Viewing interconnection as the key 270

Social ecology: Blaming domination 272

Examining Criticisms of Environmental Ethics 274

Ecofascism : Pushing humans out of the picture 274

Valuing things in a nonhuman-centered way: Is it possible? 275

Chapter 12: Looking Out for the Little Guy: Ethics and Animals 277

Focusing on the Premise of Animal Rights 278

Questioning whether humans really are superior to animals 279

Seeing why Peter Singer says animals feel pain, too 280

Being wary of speciesism 282

Experimenting on Animals for the Greater Good 284

The main rationale for experimenting: Harming animals saves humans 284

Debating animal testing of consumer products 286

To Eat or Not to Eat Animals: That's the Question 287

Understanding why ethical vegetarians don't eat meat 287

Responding to ethical vegetarians: Omnivores strike back! 288

Looking at factory farming's effects on animals 290

Vegans: Eliminating animal servitude 291

Targeting the ethics of hunting animals 292

Chapter 13: Vibing with the Bots: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence 295

Focusing on AI: The High Stakes of Computing 296

Distinguishing three types of AI: The good, the bad, and the ugly 297

Regulating the robots: Goals and ethical principles for AI 300

It's getting hot in here: The environmental impact of AI 301

Respecting the User: Manipulation and Deception 302

Training or draining? Data accumulation, bias, and privacy rights 303

Robot writers: Who owns AI-generated work? 305

Gaming the system: Using AI to ace your essay 307

Reality bytes: Deepfakes and propaganda 308

Transparency: Making AI open-source and explainable 309

Seeking the Singularity: The Day AI Outsmarts Us All 310

Seeing the Singularity as a unique ethical challenge 310

Existential risks: Autonomous weaponry 312

Sticking up for the robots: Ethical obligations to AI 314

Challenging Human Dignity: How AI Will Rewrite the Human World 314

Loving the LLM: AI that cares about you 315

Turning it off and on again: Sex robots? 316

Losing our minds: When humans no longer understand the world 318

What would you say you do here? AI and the disappearance of work 319

Chapter 14: Making Accommodations: Disability Ethics 321

Challenging Normality: Disability Trend Setter 322

Casting disability as abnormality: The common view 322

Looking under the hood and poking at normality 323

Recasting disability as difference: The contrary view 324

Deaf culture 325

Uncovering Ableism: Hidden Discrimination 326

Explaining ableism and how to spot it 327

Seeing ableism as more than an intention 328

Considering institutional ableism 329

Exposing internalized ableism 331

Interpersonal ableism 332

Combatting ableism: Nothing about us, without us 334

Locating Disability: Is It Physical or Social? 335

Dissecting the medical model: The body as problem 336

Restraining common view and medical model 338

Recognizing the dangers of eugenics 338

Considering genetic engineering and abortion 339

Turning to the social model: Society as the problem 340

Thinking biopsychosocial: The hybrid model 343

Complicating Disability: Intersectional Ethics 344

Understanding the experience of disability 345

Complicating disability with race, gender, and class 346

An ethical suggestion: Pause and ponder 349

How Disability Challenges Ethics 350

Chapter 15: Liking and Subscribing: Social Media Ethics 353

Socializing Online: Social Media as the New Ethical Frontier 354

Examining issues of privacy on the internet 355

Social media and long-term online identities 362

Hailing the Almighty Algorithm: Programming the Social Revolution 366

The hidden hand of the platform algorithm 367

Doomscrolling, addiction, and mental health in social media 370

Calling the Mods: The Responsibilities of Social Media Platforms 371

Part 4: the Part of Tens 373

Chapter 16: Ten Famous Ethicists and Their Theories 375

Confucius: Nurturing Virtue in Good Relationships 375

Plato: Living Justly through Balance 376

Aristotle: Making Virtue Ethics a Habit 376

Hobbes: Beginning Contract Theory 377

Hume: Eyeing the Importance of Moral Feelings 377

Kant: Being Ethical Makes You Free 378

Mill: Maximizing Utility Matters Most 379

Nietzsche: Connecting Morals and Power 379

Rawls: Looking Out for the Least Well-Off 380

Singer: Speaking Out for Modern Utilitarianism 380

Chapter 17: Ten Ethical Dilemmas Likely to Arise in the Future 381

Making Designer Genes to Create Designer Babies 381

Privacy Absolutism and Erasing Your Digital Self 382

Managing the Growing Population of Planet Earth 383

Dealing with Dramatic Increases in the Human Lifespan 383

Digital Immortality and Uploading Your Mind 384

Geohacking the Planet to Alter the Climate 384

Exploring and Terraforming New Worlds 385

Universal Basic Income - Everyone Gets a Piece of the Action 385

New Governments in Virtual Reality 386

Free, Unlimited Energy and the End of Scarcity 387

Whoa, Dinosaur! Resurrecting Extinct Species 388

Index 389