Setting up a moral

system
Basic assumptions and basic
principles

Basic assumptions
1. It should be rationally based and yet not devoid of emotion.
2. It should be as logically consistent as possible but not rigid and
3.
4.
5.

inflexible.
It must have universality or general application to all humanity and yet
be applicable in a practical way to particular individuals and situations.
It should be able to be taught and promulgated.
It must have the ability to resolve conflicts among human beings,
duties, and obligations.

Basic Principles:

1.The value of life

2.The principle of goodness or rightness
3.The principle of justice or fairness
4.The principle of truth-telling or honesty
5.The principle of individual freedom

The Value of Life Principle

Human beings should serve life and accept death.

There can be no morality without living human
beings.
Examples:

Judaeo-Christian
Kant
Buddhism
Hinduism

The Principle of Goodness or

Rightness
Principle of
Beneficence
One should
always do good.

Principle of NonMaleficence
One should always try
to prevent and avoid
doing badness or
harm.

The Principle of Goodness or

Rightness

This principle demands that one should

Promote goodness over badness and do good (beneficence)

Cause no harm or badness (non-maleficence)
Prevent badness or harm (non-maleficence)

If human beings are to be good (moral), then they should do

so-and-so.

Ex. Obey the laws of God

Act in their own self-interest

The Principle of Justice or

Fairness

Human beings should treat other human beings fairly and

justly when distributing goodness and badness among them.

The Principle of Truth-Telling or

Honesty
Meaningful communication is necessary for any moral system
and in any moral relationship between two or more human
beings

How can any moral system function if its participants can never know
whether anyone is telling the truth?

How can agreements be made or maintained without some assurance

that people are entering into them honestly and truthfully?

The Principle of Individual

Freedom
People, being individuals with individual differences, must
have the freedom to choose their own ways and means of
being moral within the framework of the first four basic
principles.

Suppose a man wants to

rape a woman? Would
this ever be a moral act?

The Value of Life

This principle would certainly be violated whether or not the

woman were killed because her life and its quality would be
threatened by the act of rape. She would be sexually violated
and also violated in other ways, both physically and
psychologically.

The Principle of Goodness or

Rightness
There is nothing good for the woman in the act of rape.

The
only possible good in the act would be the pleasure the rapist
might get, but that pleasure is certainly to be classed as
malicious because it totally disregard the pain and
unhappiness of his victim.

The Principle of Justice or Fairness

There is no way the rapists act could be considered to be just

or fair to the woman because he would be forcing himself on
her against her wishes and without her permission,
committing the greatest invasion of her privacy and her life.

The Principle of Truth-Telling or

Honesty

This principle may or may not come into picture, depending

upon whether or not the rapist lies to the woman in order to

get her into a situation where the rape can take place.

The Principle of Individual Freedom

Because rape violates all of the first four principles, it can

never be considered as moral, and, therefore, no man or
woman should ever have the freedom to rape another.