4.7: The Cheat Sheet- Rules of Thumb in Applied Ethics
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The following tables summarize the theories considered in this textbook. The first includes the traditional theories and the second encapsulates the contemporary theories built to respond to cultural relativism.
| Name | Guidance for ethical action | Focus of our efforts | Typical questions asked in the effort to fulfill obligations | Conception of the person implied by the theory | Strengths and weaknesses | Type of theory |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duty | Learn the basic duties to ourselves and others, and obey them. | The duties. |
|
We are rational actors. | Gives clear guidance in many situations but is inflexible in the face of special cases. | Nonconsequentialist |
| Fairness | Treat people identically unless they differ in ways relevant to the situation. (Treat equals equally and unequals unequally.) | Resist prejudice and personal feelings. | Does everyone get an equal chance? (If they don’t, how are the differences justified?) | We are rational actors. | Promises egalitarianism, but can be difficult to implement in complex reality. | Nonconsequentialist |
| Kant | Learn the basic duties to ourselves and others, and obey them. | The categorical imperative in two articulations: actions must be universalizable and treat others as ends and never as means. |
|
We are rational actors. | Gives clear guidance in many situations but is inflexible, especially in the face of special cases. | Nonconsequentialist |
| Rights theory | Maximize freedom. | Learn the individual’s basic rights, live them, and respect others’ right to live them. | Does doing what I want impinge on the basic freedoms of others? | We are distinguished by the possession of dignity. | Allows individuality, but does little to resolve conflicts between individuals. | Nonconsequentialist |
| Egoism | Increase my well-being and happiness. | Learn about my desires and welfare, and serve them | What makes me happy over the long term? How can I get that? | We are driven toward pleasure and away from pain. | Good for me in the short term, but might not help us live together as a society. | Consequentialist |
| Altruism | Increase the well-being and happiness of others. | Learn about others’ desires and welfare, and serve them. | What makes others happy over the long term? How can I help them get that? | We are driven toward pleasure and away from pain. | Others benefit, but it may be difficult to justify devaluing yourself. | Consequentialist |
| Utilitarianism | Increase the well-being and happiness of everyone collectively. | Learn about the desires and welfare of everyone, understood as an aggregate, and serve them. | What brings the greatest happiness and good to the greatest number over the long term? How can I help us get that? | We are driven toward pleasure and away from pain. | The general welfare is served, but injustices at the individual level may persist. | Consequentialist |
| Guidance for ethical action | Focus of our efforts | Typical questions asked in the effort to fulfill obligations | Strengths and weaknesses | Reaction to cultural relativism | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eternal return of the same | Be myself. | Think through the eternal return. | Would I do this if it had to be repeated in the same life, which recurred forever? | Maximizes individual authenticity but provides no specific recommendations for action. | Abandons morality altogether. |
| Cultural ethics | Follow local customs and practices. | Learn local customs and practices. | What do the locals do? | Helps you fit in but allows little hope for ethical improvement. | Accepts the proposal that moral rules are just a particular community’s beliefs. |
| Virtue ethics | Develop good moral character. | Learn and practice the virtues. | Am I acting with integrity and in accordance with values learned? | Allows flexibility but provides little specific guidance. | Tries to protect against cultural relativism by developing an adoptable but consistently moral character. |
| Discourse ethics | Produce solutions to moral dilemmas. | Talk it out: use rational conversation to reach a peaceful, consensual agreement. | What do you think? How about this possibility? | Provides a broad range of possible solutions but every conflict must be addressed from scratch. | Replaces a culture’s moral rules with the attempt to fabricate new rules to function in specific situations. |
| Ethics of care | Nurture and protect immediate relationships. | Respond to the needs of those nearest us. | Which solution preserves healthy and harmonious relationships among those involved? | Humanizes morality but risks tribalism. | Replaces a culture’s moral rules with loyalty to those whose lives touch our own. |