Reference no: EM132513962

PHIL 241 Ethics in Modern Society - Middle East University

o People employ a wide variety of methods of moral reasoning when they wrestle with ethical decisions in contemporary culture.

o Imagine a panel discussion on the morality of physician-assisted suicide. The participants are:

1. an eighty-year-old with terminal cancer and approximately six months to live, ethical egoist
2. the head of the local chapter of the Hemlock Society,
an organization that advocates assisted suicide, deontologist
3. a physician who specializes as an oncologist, that is,
a cancer specialist, utilitarian
4. a Catholic priest who is an outspoken opponent of euthanasia,
5. an atheistic philosophy professor from the local college
6. an attorney
7. a Protestant minister

o Moral reasoning can be divided into two primary categories:
1. Cognitive view of morality
2. Noncognitive view of morality

o Noncognitive views, such as emotivism, maintain that moral statements do not convey a truth-value-they are only expressions of approval or disapproval.

o Cognitive views of morality maintain that moral statements do indeed have truth-value.

o The cognitive views we will examine understand them as follows:

1. Utilitarianism-truth telling maximizes the greatest good for the greatest number

2. Deontological ethics-truth telling is a moral duty, based on reason, natural law, or God's commands

3. Ethical egoism-truth telling maximizes one's self-interest

4. Virtue ethics-truth telling is essential for human and societal flourishing

o Subjective morality, the truth of the statement and obligation is determined by how one feels about them.

o In subjective views of morality, moral statements and obligations have been reduced to matters of subjective preference or opinion.

Attachment:- How to think about moralitydoc.rar