Emotive language
We often respond to moral issues with strong moral language. "that's right...", "that's wrong....", "Everyone should...", "You must..." These are examples of moral language. Ethics is the study of morals, and morals are concerned with deciding what is right and what is wrong. As human beings we are able to think and so we are able to decide, or choose, what we think is the right way and what we think is the wrong way to behave.
| a moral act | an act that is considered to be right |
| an immoral act | an act considered to be wrong |
| an amoral act | an act that shows no understanding between right and wrong |
| a non-moral act | an act not concerned with right and wrong |
| a non-moral judgment | a view or opinion that has nothing to do with right and wrong |
We also use a collection of words that can be used in a judgmental way.
| right | "It's right to do what your teacher tells you !" |
| wrong | "It's wrong to steal" |
| ought | "We ought to help other people" |
| should | "We should do what the law says" |
| good | "It's good to care for our elderly" |
| bad | "It's bad to murder" |
| must | "We must care for the planet" |
Whenever we make a decision on a moral or ethical issue we are passing a judgment. We are deciding what is 'right' and what is 'wrong', what is 'good' and what is 'bad'. The system that we use to make these judgments are called Ethics.
Some ethical theories
In some situations it is easy to decide whet we think is right and what wrong, in others it is not so simple. Every situation is different and as a result how we approach a situation and decide what to do may be different every time. Many of the problems that we face as individuals or as society are very complicated and is not always easy to know the "right" thing to do. There are two ways to approach this:
- Morality as a system of rules. A set of rules is applied to each situation. The rules do not change, an example of such rules might be the 10 commandments. These people are called deontologists.
- Morality as a set of goals. This is when people do not apply rules to a situation but decide what they want the end result to be and try to make this happen by their actions. These people are called consequentialists.
Hedonism: We should do what maximises our own pleasure and gain. Suggested by Epicurus this means emotional and mental as well as physical pleasure. A hedonist believes that whatever is pleasant is 'good'
Ethical Egotism: We should strive to gain the most good for ourselves. The problem with this comes when our gain results in another's loss.
Utilitarianism: (Jeremy Betham and John Mill) "The greatest good for the greatest number" All our rules and actions are to be decided by finding out which of them produces the most good for the most people.
Situation Ethics: (Joseph Fletcher) When faced with a decision we should apply any rules but act on the basis of love. There is no such thing as the right or the wrong thing to do. We must work out each situation and respond in a loving way.
We must always be careful in the language that we use as we will express our beliefs in the way set up by our own moral and ethical rules and theories.
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