Ethics in the news…“Too good to play?”

• “Nine-year-old Jericho Scott has been banned from pitching in a New Haven, Conn. youth baseball league because he throws so hard that he frightens the other players, according to league officials.”

Ethics in the news…“Too good to play?”

• What are the ethical questions here?

• What rights are the two sides defending?

• Is there some middle ground?

Art or Child Abuse?

Olympia Nelson taken by her mother

2003

Beatrice Hatch taken by Lewis

Carroll 1873

Evelyn Hatch taken

by Lewis Carroll

Other 19th C. artistic photography

• Taken by

Julia Margaret Cameron, British photographer

• Does it make a difference that a woman took the picture? Does it matter who the child is?

Cheaters do prosper, but...

• ....in Canada, of 20,000 first-year students at 11 post-secondary schools, 53 per cent admitted to plagiarism...

• 73 per cent said they had cheated in high school...

PHIL 2525 Contemporary Moral Issues

Lec 2

• Arguments are among us…

Doing philosophy…• Articulating: expressing yourself clearly

• Arguing: supporting your ideas with reasons

• Analyzing: taking apart in order to understand

• Synthesizing: gathering together in a meaningful way

Aristotle’s Organon

• Earliest texts on the tools and structure of logical argument

Deduction and Induction…

Two different ways of thinking and arguing…

• Deduction begins with general truths and draws conclusions about particulars

• Induction begins with particulars and draws general truths

An argument is...

An argument is a series of statements:

• One is a conclusion

• The others are evidence

The most basic form of deduction:

the syllogism

Premise

Premise

------------

Conclusion

All men are mortal

Socrates is a man

-------------------------

Therefore, Socrates is mortal

Categorical syllogism

• All men are mortal

• Socrates is a man

• Therefore, Socrates is mortal

• All A are B

• C is an A

• Therefore, C is a B

Not all arguments are so sweet and simple…

All A are BC is an A--------------------Therefore, C is a B

Validity?Truth?Soundness?

All Catholics are famousThe Pope is Catholic-------------------------Therefore, the Pope isfamous

Not all arguments are so sweet and simple…

All A are BC is an A--------------------Therefore, C is a B

• A syllogism can be valid, even when not true• The form can be valid, even when the content

is false

All Catholics are famousThe Pope is Catholic-------------------------Therefore, the Pope isfamous

What about this?

The Earth goes around the sun

The moon goes around the Earth

----------------------------------------

The Earth is part of the solar system

Validity? Truth? Soundness?

What about this?

The Earth goes around the sunThe moon goes around the Earth----------------------------------------The Earth is part of the solar system

• A syllogism can have all true statements and a true conclusion but still not be sound.

• Soundness requires both truth and validity

Sometimes one of the premises is assumed…

• Men can’t give birth• Therefore, Terry can’t give birth

(the assumed premise is…….)

• Truth?• Validity?• Soundness?

What is the assumed premise here?

Abortion is killing people

Therefore, abortion is wrong

• Truth?

• Validity?

• Soundness?

Validity and Truth = Soundness

• Validity has to do with the form of the argument -- the shape -- the evidentiary relationship -- the way the parts fit together

• Truth (or falsity) has to do with the content

• Soundness requires both validity and truth

You might wonder…

• What is the point of a deductive argument if the form can be valid, but the conclusion false?

You might wonder…

• What is the point of a deductive argument if the form can be valid, but the conclusion false?

• The deductive argument is important

because if the premises can be shown to

be true, and the form is valid, then the conclusion must be accepted…

Induction is less certain than deduction, but…

Knowledge grows from induction in away that it can’t from deduction.

• Science is organized, methodical induction

• Advances in medicine or physics proceed induction by induction

Induction

• The conclusion of an inductive argument always goes beyond the premises…

Inductive uncertainty…

• The 3,000 people who were tested reacted adversely to the new drug

• Therefore, the new drug should not be approved for general use

• What is the unstated premise here?

Inductive uncertainty

Moral Skepticism

the idea that there is no right or wrong about moral issues

not merely that we don’t or can’t know, but that there is no right or wrong …

no objective truth…

Protagoras

• “Man is the measure of all things.”

• ...one opinion can be better than another, but it cannot be truer...

Moral Skepticism

• The Cultural Differences Argument:

People in different cultures disagree about moral right and wrong

So, therefore there is no knowing

Moral Skepticism• The Cultural Differences Argument:

Example:• In some societies, such as among the Eskimos,

infanticide is thought to be morally acceptable.

• In other societies, such as our own, infanticide is thought to be morally odious.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------• Therefore, objectively speaking, infanticide is neither

right nor wrong. It is merely a matter of opinion that varies from culture to culture.

Moral Skepticism• The Cultural Differences Argument:

Rachels offers an analogous argument….

• In some societies, the world is thought to be flat• In some societies, the world is thought to be round

-------------------------------------------------------------------• Therefore, objectively speaking, the world is neither flat

nor round. It is merely a matter of opinion that varies from culture to culture.

Moral Skepticism• The Provability argument:

If there were any such thing as objective truth in ethics, then we should be able to prove that some moral opinions are true and others false.

But in fact, we cannot prove which moral opinions are true and which are false.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Therefore, there is no such thing as objective truth in ethics.

Acting for reasons...

• Practical reasons

• Moral reasons

Individual morality...

• Making your own choice

• Making the right choice

Social morality...

• Health, education, same-sex marriage ...

The Ring of Gyges

Good Sport, Bad Sport

• Ben Johnson • 1988 Olympic Games

• Plato’s moral of the story, the Ring of Gyges:

that we would all be corrupted...

Cyberbullying

• Megan Meier killed herself in October 2006. She was thirteen years old.

Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Think in bumper-stickers...

• It's Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.

• People kill people. Guns don’t kill people.

Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Rationalize...rationalize

Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Dogmatic commitment

• Antidote:

Don’t believe everything you think!

Avoiding the hard work of moral decision-making

• Relativism

• Any moral opinion is as good as the rest....