...States, Oregon was the first state to pass an assisted-suicide law. Washington is a state that has as recently as 2008 adopted an act that allows residents that have less than six months to live to request a legal dose of medication. Eleven states, including Alabama, Idaho and North Carolina ‘have no enactments which criminalize aiding, abetting, assisting, or counseling suicide” (“Assisted Suicide,” 2010, para. 1-7). Several other states such as Alaska, California and Florida “criminalize aiding, abetting, and/or assisting suicide” (“Assisted Suicide,” 2010, para. 8). I am a Georgian and our law states that any involvement in an assisted suicide is a felony. The main conflict of assisted suicide is grounded in religion. Our text describes a view that states ending life prematurely is rejecting a gift from God and also shows a “rejection of God’s plan for that person” (Mosser, 2010, Chp. 2.3, para. 32). What if neither the patient nor the doctor is a believer of God? Should they be held to another set of rules? On the other hand, some believe legalizing assisted suicide would...
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...Without God? | Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Religion Can Morality Exist Without Religion? | | Rajoo Kamal-Wilnoff (10781867)Sociology 321.3, Section X01Professor Bryan PukMay 28, 2014 | “Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.” – Isaac Asimov | Can We Be Good Without God? Can we be good without God? The question has been a controversial one throughout history and a variety of positions are apparent regarding the relationship between religion and morality. Theists undoubtedly find in God a source of moral strength and resolve which enables them to live lives that are better than those that they would live without Him, but it would seem arrogant and ignorant to claim that those who do not share a belief in God do not often live good moral lives. Should the question really be about the objectivity of moral values, and whether said moral values are simply social conventions, or mere expressions of personal preference? Are they valid independently of our apprehension of them, and if so, what is their foundation? Moreover, if morality is just a human convention, then why should we act morally, especially when it conflicts with self-interest? Are we in some way held accountable for our moral decisions and actions? This paper explores the ontological claim that the morality does not require religion, religious motivation or guidance to exist, based on the opposing views presented in two essays “Religion, Morality and Conscience”...
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...Urdaneta City, Pangasinan Term Paper In ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN PUBLIC SERVICE In Partial Fullfillment Of the requirements for the Master in Development Management Major in Public Administration Submitted by: ALEXANDER A. ILUIS 1ST SEM 2013 Submitted to: MELITTON G. DASSUN, D.P.A CODE OF ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: A PANELCO III PERSPECTIVE Introduction Generally, the word “ethics” is originated from the ancient Greek word “ethos” that means a custom, success, nature, character, the manner of thought. ORIGIN OF ETHICS “Ethics are as important for the public servant as blood for the body” (Unknown in Van der Waldt & Helmbold, 1995:170). * PANELCO III, like individuals, is constantly changing through new leadership, environmental influences and socio-political development. PANELCO III cannot promote and enforce ethical behaviour solely through the utilisation of ethical codes of conduct or through the promulgation of a plethora of board of directors and the top management. Social mind sets are often still entangled in a micro-ethic paradigm. People tend to equate moral values and moral norms with values and norms, which apply only to personal relations structures within which they interact. PANELCO III needs an organisational culture that not only supports ethical behaviour, but sees that it also defines and underpins right and wrong conduct at an individual and institutional sphere. The origins of ethics have a meta-ethical basis. Several philosophers...
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...turned upside down. Everything under the sun had become questionable, the origin of life, how we came to be, where are we headed and what to do in the here all became questions in life. But one of the greatest impacts of this new age thinking is its effect on our Old World values. Western societies values, morals and ethics became debatable, with some people striving for change and others clinging for stability. Battle lines had been drawn and the Liberals and Conservatives were ready to duke it out on a number of issues. One of these debates centers on a woman's right to have and abortion. According to the Webster's dictionary and abortion is defined as a miscarry, something misshapen or unnatural. An abortion is a procedure in which an embryo or fetus is prohibited from developing by artificial means. One could argue that this is next to murder. How can we as a society sanction the murdering of developing babies? Also it can equally be stated that abortion is unnatural and a health hazard to women who have undergone the procedure. Whatever the case, abortion should be outlawed because it is immoral and mothers should face the responsibilities of their actions. Many arguments can be used in order to put an end to abortion or at least in order to establish dialogue. One of the oldest arguments against abortion is the religious standpoint. Western society (Canada & U.S.A.) is historically a Judeo-Christian culture with Judeo-Christian values. Although in recent times we have...
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...CHAPTER SUMMARY – CHAPTER 1 – ETHICS IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS Frequently, the ethically correct course of action is clear, and people in business act accordingly. Exceptions occur when there is uncertainty about ethical obligations in particular situations or when considerations of ethics come into conflict with the practical demands of business. In deciding on an ethical course of action, we can rely to some extent on the rules of right conduct that we employ in everyday life. However, business activity also has some features that might limit the applicability of our ordinary ethical views. One distinguishing feature of business is its economic character which can be summarized as the conduct of buyers and seller and employers and employees. A second distinguishing feature of business is that it typically takes place in organizations which is a hierarchical system of functionally defined positions designed to achieve some goal or set of goals. Because business involves economic relations and transactions that take place in markets and also in organizations, it raises ethical issues for which the ethics of everyday life has not prepared us. Decisions making occurs on several distinct levels: the level of the individual, the organization, and the business system. The level of the individual represents situations that confront them in the workplace and require them to make a decision about their own well-being. The level of the organization can be identified...
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...Why Should We Care? KATIE MCSHANE Dept. of Philosophy and Religion North Carolina State University Campus Box 8103 Raleigh, NC 27695–8103, USA Email: katie_mcshane@ncsu.edu ABSTRACT Many recent critical discussions of anthropocentrism have focused on Bryan Nortonʼs ʻconvergence hypothesisʼ: the claim that both anthropocentric and nonanthropocentric ethics will recommend the same environmentally responsible behaviours and policies. I argue that even if we grant the truth of Nortonʼs convergence hypothesis, there are still good reasons to worry about anthropocentric ethics. Ethics legitimately raises questions about how to feel, not just about which actions to take or which policies to adopt. From the point of view of norms for feeling, anthropocentrism has very different practical implications from nonanthropocentrism; it undermines some of the common attitudes – love, respect, awe – that people think it appropriate to take toward the natural world. KEYWORDS Anthropocentrism, environment, ethics, Norton, value Environmental Values 16 (2007): 169–185 © 2007 The White Horse Press 170 KATIE MCSHANE For at least the last 30 years now, there has been a running debate among environmental ethicists about whether anthropocentrism can serve as an adequate foundation for environmental ethics. The most recent discussions of this issue have concerned Bryan Nortonʼs ʻconvergence hypothesisʼ – the view that if we have a suitably sophisticated anthropocentrism...
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...Metaethics Metaethics is a branch of analytic philosophy that explores the status, foundations, and scope of moral values, properties, and words. Whereas the fields of applied ethics and normative theoryfocus on what is moral, metaethics focuses on what morality itself is. Just as two people may disagree about the ethics of, for example, physician-assisted suicide, while nonetheless agreeing at the more abstract level of a general normative theory such as Utilitarianism, so too may people who disagree at the level of a general normative theory nonetheless agree about the fundamental existence and status of morality itself, or vice versa. In this way, metaethics may be thought of as a highly abstract way of thinking philosophically about morality. For this reason, metaethics is also occasionally referred to as “second-order” moral theorizing, to distinguish it from the “first-order” level of normative theory. Metaethical positions may be divided according to how they respond to questions such as the following: * Ÿ What exactly are people doing when they use moral words such as “good” and “right”? * Ÿ What precisely is a moral value in the first place, and are such values similar to other familiar sorts of entities, such as objects and properties? * Ÿ Where do moral values come from—what is their source and foundation? * Ÿ Are some things morally right or wrong for all people at all times, or does morality instead vary from person to person, context to context...
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...| Business Leadership and Human Values Seminar2 CreditsBU 131.601.F5Summer Session 2016Wednesdays 1:30-4:30pm -- June 8 – July 27 Harbor East Room 230 | Instructor Rick Milter, Ph.D. Contact Information Phone Number: 410.234.9422 milter@jhu.edu Office Hours Typically before class session or by appointment. Required Learning Materials This course is a series of thematic conversations about human values and your responsibilities as an emerging/aspiring business leader. There is no traditional textbook, but there is much reading. You are required to read The Moral Compass: Leadership for a Free World, a workbook by Lindsay Thompson available online as a PDF in Course Documents. You will find details about required learning materials in the Bibliography and Theme Briefs sections of the Syllabus. Course Description and Overview This course explores ethical leadership as a framework for enterprise value creation in a complex environment of competing economic and moral claims. Students examine the intrinsic ethical challenges of leadership and the concept of a moral compass as a foundation for responding effectively to the ethical challenges of corporate citizenship and value creation in a competitive global economy. (2 credits) Syllabus Table of Contents Page Topic 2 Bibliography & Learning Resources 6 Calendar, Seminar Structure, Theme Briefs, Content 42 Seminar Preparation Toolkit 48 Learning Objectives, Graded Assignments...
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...In Conjunction with History of Ethics Instructor: Robert Cavalier Teaching Professor Robert Cavalier received his BA from New York University and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Duquesne University. In 1987 he joined the staff at Carnegie Mellon's Center for Design of Educational Computing (CDEC), where he became Executive Director in 1991. While at CDEC, he was also co-principal in the 1989 EDUCOM award winner for Best Humanities Software (published in 1996 by Routledge as A Right to Die? The Dax Cowart Case). He also coauthored the CD-ROM The Issue of Abortion in America (Rountledge, 1998) Dr. Cavalier was Director of CMU's Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy from 2005-2007. He currently directs the Center's Digital Media Lab which houses Project PICOLA (Public Informed Citizen Online Assembly), and is also co-Director of Southwestern Pennsylvania Program for Deliberative Democracy. Co-Editor of Ethics in the History of Western Philosophy (St. Martin's/Macmillan, England, 1990), Editor of The Impact of the Internet on Our Moral Lives (SUNY, 2003) and other works in ethics as well as articles in educational computing, Dr. Cavalier is internationally recognized for his work in education and interactive multimedia. He was President of the "International Association for Computing and Philosophy" (2001 - 2004) and Chair of the APA Committee on Philosophy and Computers (2000-2003). Dr. Cavalier has given numerous addresses and...
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...logically inconsistent with theism. Rather, the problem is evidential. A statement reporting the observations and testimony upon which our knowledge about pain and pleasure is based bears a certain significant negative evidential relation to theism.' And because of this, we have a prima facie good epistemic reason to reject theism-that is, a reason that is sufficient for rejecting theism unless overridden by other reasons for not rejecting theism. By "theism" I mean the following statement: There exists an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person who created the Universe. I will use the word "God" as a title rather than as a proper name, and I will stipulate that necessary and sufficient conditions for bearing this title are that one be an omnipotent, omniscient, and morally perfect person who created the Universe. Given this (probably technical) use of the term "God," theism is the statement that God exists. Some philosophers believe that the evils we find in the world create an evidential problem for theists because theism fails to explain these evils (or most of what we know about them). (See, for example, (Hare 1968).) This position is attractive. It seems to reflect NOUS 23 (1989) 331-350 ? 1989 by Nouis Publications 331 332 NOUS the intuitions of a great many people who have regarded evil as an epistemic problem for theists. After all, the most common way of stating the problem of evil is to ask a why-question like "if God exists, then why is there so much evil...
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...Chapter 1: Ethical Theory Meta-ethical positions include: * Ethical non-cognitivism (concept that ethics is a matter of feelings) * Ethical relativism (concept that ethics is relative to a particular point of view) * Ethical objectivism (notion that ethics is objective in nature). Meta-Ethical Positions Ethical Non-cognitivism The basis of ethical non-cognitivism is that ethical disagreement can be a highly emotional affair where no amount of reasoning is likely to convince the other party. * Example: “Let’s just agree to disagree” Ethical Relativism * Ethical relativism says that while ethical statements are cognitively meaningful, they do not hold in any objective sense because they depend on our point of view. * If we accept ethical relativism, then ethical disagreement among people who do not share the same perspective becomes impossible. * It assumes that if people agree on something, then it must be true. * Ethical relativism is suspect for a pragmatic reason: it is fundamentally at variance with our social practice. * Example: “To each his own”, or the belief that what’s right for one group isn’t necessarily right for another Ethical Objectivism * Ethical objectivism holds that right and wrong are objective phenomena. * Example: “I’m right and you’re wrong” What is Ethics? * As a discipline, ethics is a branch of philosophy. * It deals with questions of right and wrong conduct, and with what we ought to do and what...
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...[pic] |A History of Business Ethics | |By Richard T. De George | |The term 'business ethics' is used in a lot of different ways, and the history of business ethics will vary depending on | |how one conceives of the object under discussion. The history will also vary somewhat on the historian—how he or she sees | |the subject, what facts he or she seeks to discover or has at hand, and the relative importance the historian gives to | |those facts. Hence the story I'm going to tell will be somewhat different from the story someone else might tell in various| |particulars, and I hope that instead of being a dull recitation of facts it might in fact prompt some discussion at the end| |by those who would tell a somewhat different story. | |The story I will tell has three strands, because I believe the term business ethics is used in at least three different, | |although related, senses. Which sense one chooses therefore gives priority to nature of the history of the topic. The | |primary sense of the term refers to recent developments and to the period, since roughly the early 1970s, when the term | |'business ethics' came into common use in the United States. Its origin in this sense is found...
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...are Ethics? Generally, why do people act unethically? 2 3.0 Justify why is there a special need for ethical conduct in professions including those in the accounting and auditing related field? 6 4.0 Discuss how the Barings collapse serves as an example of failed internal controls and governance within organization. 13 5.0 Conclusion 20 1.0 Case Summary Nick Leeson, an employee of Barings Bank who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in Indonesia is sent to Singapore as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the SIMEX exchange. Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears — through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Baring's money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London. Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. Nick doesn't realise the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in Frankfurt. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail and is diagnosed with colon cancer. 2.0 What are Ethics? Generally, why do people act unethically? At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned...
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...considered one of the Seven Wise Men of ancient Greece. Thales was the first of the Greek natural philosophers and founder of the Ionian school of ancient Greek thinkers. Works/Writings/Philosophy: His is said to have measured the Egyptian pyramids and to have calculated the distance from shore of ships at sea using his knowledge of geometry. He also predicted an eclipse of the sun. In geometry Thales has been credited with the discovery of five theorems like the one that a triangle inscribed in a semicircle has a right angle. He tried to discover the substance from which everything in nature is made off and suggested water. Thales is important in bridging the worlds of myth and reason. He initiated the revolutionary notion that to understand the world one needed to know its nature and that there was an explanation for all phenomena in natural terms. That was a giant step from the assumptions of the old world that supernatural forces determined almost everything. While considering the effects of magnetism and static electricity, he concluded that the power to move other things without the mover itself changing was a characteristic of "life", so that a magnet and amber must therefore be alive in some way (in that they have animation or the power to act). If so, he argued, there is no difference between the living and the dead. If all things were alive, they must also have souls or divinities (a natural belief of his time), and the end result of this argument was an almost...
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...A2 Religious Studies Revision Booklet To be used alongside the textbook and your classnotes. Contents G581: Philosophy of Religion Religious Language......................................................………p.1 Religious Experience........................................................…...p.7 Miracles..................................................................…………...p.12 Nature of God............................................................………...p.16 Life and Death.........................................................…………..p.20 G582: Religious Ethics Meta-ethics...........................…………………………………….p.25 Free Will and Determinism………………………………….……p.28 Conscience.......................…………………………………….…p.32 Virtue Ethics………………………………………………………..p.36 Sexual Ethics…………………………………………………...….p.40 Environment and Business Ethics……………………………….p.44 Religious Language Introduction The problems of religious language: • If we use language univocally about God, then we are limiting him / making him like a human • If we use language equivocally about God, we cannot be sure what the word means when applied to God • Are statements about God supposed to be cognitive – if so, what evidence proves / disproves them? • Are statements about God supposed to be non-cognitive – if so, do they have any meaning? The Verification...
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