The purpose of this book is to help you make ethical decisions about what should be done in a given instance, whether individual or related to a broad policy. It does not do this by telling you but rather by giving you tools to decide for yourself. The book offers not so much an ethical map as a a gyroscope: offering awareness, perspective, and ability to work out your judgments on two levels, 1) appropriate ethical frameworks, and 2) real life applications which may coincide with, differ from, or go beyond the standard rules, practices, and policies where you are. It even includes a chapter on "gray area ethics" situations: even if you are sure of what is "right," it is not actually possible to be purely ethical, because there are "negative costs" to every available choice. You find yourself having to make the best choice rather than the ideally right choice. The book is in two parts. The first half explores alternative established frameworks for guiding social ethics and their roots. Within each, pros, cons, and variations are discussed. All are good. Some may be better than others. That is for you to decide. You may well develop your own hybrid framework which is better than any classic one. Or you may develop your own hierarchy, in which you apply this framework to the extent that it doesn't conflict with or subvert that "higher" one. Built on this foundation the second half discusses several, applied issues or policies. Each offers different, often conflicting, ethical vantage points. The purpose is twofold. One is to address several important social and economic issues. The other is to develop skills for you to apply to dilemmas we face when we apply abstract social ethics to "real life". This book is good to read and think by yourself. It may be even better if you can find others - a friend, a group, a seminar - with whom to explore "What's Right?"

What's Right?

Social Ethics Choices and ApplicationsBy Hobart A. Burch

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2009 Hobart A. Burch
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4490-1354-7

Contents

INTRODUCTION.................................................................1ETHICS AND MORALITY..........................................................2OUGHT, UT, OR GUT?...........................................................6OTHER COMMON FRAMEWORKS......................................................10"ETHICAL EGOISM".............................................................13RELATIVISM...................................................................22ENLIGHTENED SELF INTEREST: GOOD WORKS WITHOUT "ETHICS"?......................31INTRODUCTION.................................................................37PROBLEMS WITH RULE ETHICS....................................................39MUST RULE ETHICS BE ALL OR NOTHING?..........................................44CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE.......................................................50FINAL QUOTE..................................................................52A DIALECTIC?.................................................................53CONSEQUENTIALISM.............................................................54CLASSIC "ACT" UTILITARIANISM - BENTHAM.......................................55RULE UTILITARIANISM..........................................................58ECONOMIC UTILITY.............................................................62SUMMARY......................................................................70PRIORITY: A HIERARCHY OF RULES...............................................75WHEN IN DOUBT: PROBABILISM...................................................79INTENT: DOUBLE EFFECT........................................................82NET BENEFIT: PROPORTIONALITY.................................................85LESSER EVIL..................................................................88THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS..................................................89UTOPIAN REALISM..............................................................92ARE GRAY AREA ETHICS ETHICAL?................................................95ANOTHER DIALECTIC............................................................97ANTINOMIANISM................................................................98INWARD GUIDANCE..............................................................102LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO 'ROUND...............................................106CONTEXTUALISM: SITUATION ETHICS..............................................113NATURAL LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS.................................................118NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE RIGHTS.................................................122OPPORTUNITY RIGHTS...........................................................129AN EXPANDABLE FRAMEWORK......................................................134WHAT IS JUSTICE..............................................................138JUSTICE AS FAIRNESS..........................................................138JUSTICE AS EQUALITY..........................................................140JUSTICE AS EQUITY............................................................142PROCEDURAL JUSTICE...........................................................147LEGAL JUSTICE................................................................147LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN........................................................151VIRTUE AS AN ETHICAL FRAMEWORK...............................................153CLASSICAL VIRTUES............................................................156SEVEN VIRTUES................................................................160AN AMERICAN LIST OF VIRTUES; GETTING DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.....................164OBSERVATIONS.................................................................165A JUST WAR OR JUST A WAR?....................................................167AN OXYMORON?.................................................................167THE EVOLUTION OF JUST WAR....................................................168JUST WAR THEORY: JUS AD BELLUM...............................................174JUS IN BELLO.................................................................179JUS POST BELLUM..............................................................183PREEMPTIVE JUST WAR?.........................................................184IS HOLY WAR A JUST WAR?......................................................187"REALISM"....................................................................188CHRISTIAN PACIFISM...........................................................196HUMANIST PACIFISM............................................................198AN ATHEIST PACIFIST MAKES HIS CASE...........................................198CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION......................................................202PRACTICAL PACIFISM...........................................................204HUMANITARIAN MILITARY INTERVENTION...........................................206IS PACIFISM ESSENTIAL?.......................................................211ARGUMENTS FOR CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.............................................215ARGUMENTS AGAINST CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.........................................222CONCLUSION...................................................................239WHAT EUTHANASIA IS...........................................................241WHAT EUTHANASIA IS NOT.......................................................243THESIS: GOOD DEATH...........................................................245ANTITHESIS : EUTHANASIA IS WRONG.............................................250PASSIVE EUTHANASIA: A HALFWAY COVENANT?......................................254ACTIVE EUTHANASIA............................................................257A SLIPPERY SLOPE?............................................................261PALLIATIVE CARE: CONSENSUS?..................................................263A SYNTHESIS?.................................................................265IS ECONOMICS ETHICALLY NEUTRAL?..............................................270ETHICS BELONG IN ECONOMICS...................................................274FOCUSED AREAS................................................................278BUSINESS ETHICS: SHAREHOLDERS AND STAKEHOLDERS...............................284ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE..........................................................289THE COMMON GOOD..............................................................291LIBERATION THEOLOGY..........................................................299PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR: A MIDDLE GROUND?...........................305THE BOTTOM LINE?.............................................................307A SUPER ETHIC?...............................................................311

Chapter One

What Is Ethics: Ought, Ut, And Gut

Ethics ... a science which, though, like [literary] criticism, it does not admit the most accurate precision, is, however, but highly useful and agreeable.... It is of all others the most susceptible of embellishments of eloquence. (Adam Smith, Moral Sentiment VII.iv.6)

There is a Moral Sense, and there is an Immoral Sense. History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it. (Mark Twain, 1897, Ch 16)

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