Ethical Questions.

This week's blog assignment is "Explain one ethical question you hope to be able to answer by the end of the class."  This assumes that you know what an ethical question is.  In my blog entry, I'll try to offer some help figuring that out.

A question may or may not have an answer -- but to be an ethical question, at the very least the answer should not be too obvious.  For example, "Should I beat up innocent small children in order to steal their candy?" really isn't an ethical question, or at least it's not the kind of question that leads to very interesting ethical reflection.  This is because there are not any strong moral arguments in favor of beating up small children.

 

Thus an ethical question should be one in which there are at least two possible answers, both of have some potentially legitimate moral arguments made in their favor.  They may not both be equally strong, in your opinion, but it cannot be a no-brainer.  Another way to put this is to say that an ethical question is one that has more than one possible right answer.

What is a moral (or ethical) argument?  It's one that appeals to concepts like good and bad.  "I like to do it" is not a moral argument (unless you are a solipsist, but that is not a position that is taken seriously by many ethical thinkers.)  Ethics, as done in both religion and philosophy, requires rational arguments and supporting evidence in favor of moral claims.  (Not everyone accepts the same evidence, of course, which becomes an issue particularly in the context of religious ethics, as we will discuss later in this class.)  Nor is "Someone made me" an ethical argument. Ethics also presumes some degree freedom on the part of the moral actor. 

Thus an ethical question is one that has more than one possible answer, and each answer must have some legitimacy or seriousness.  An ethical question, in other words, is a question that provokes some reflection, not an immediate or instinctive reaction.

 

 

A good ethical question not only makes you stop and think before answering, but it also generates good discussion, precisely because there is more than one "right" answer, and different people will have well-supported arguments in favor of different possible answers.

 

With these definitions in mind, what constitutes an ethical question?  How about, "Is it morally justified to tell a lie in order to avoid hurting someone's feelings?"  Or "If eating pigs is accepted, why is it not generally considered okay to eat cats?"  And so on.  You can probably think of many possibilities.  When you write your blog post, you can stick to just one if you'd like, but you can also talk about others, including ones you might have rejected, or ones that you don't think will really be answered by this class (or any class, even).  

The point of the exercise is above all to think about what you hope to gain from spending a semester reflecting on ethical questions, arguments and evidence.  Have fun!