PAEY 3101

ETHICAL THEORY
• ALTRUISM
• DUTY THEORY
• Ethical Egoism
• EXISTENSIALISM
• Personality Virtue Theory
• SOCIAL MORALITY THEORY
• UTILITARIANISM
 ALTRUISM
The original use of the concept of "altruism" is traced to Auguste
Comte, a French mathematician and philosopher during the first
half of the 1800s.
The French word that was later translated to "altruism," was an
adjective that meant, "of or to others, what is another's,
somebody else."
When the word was translated into English, it was defined as,
"devotion to the welfare of others, regard for others, as a
principle of action: opposed to egoism or selfishness."
 DEFINITION

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others;

selflessness. – Dictionary

It is an ethical doctrine that holds that individuals have

a moral obligation to help, serve, or benefit others.

Behaviour that promotes the survival chances of

others at a cost to ones own.
• [Italian: altrui others]
Characteristics that are signs of altruistic
behavior:
o Perceiving the need of another person
o Being motivated by empathy to address the need
o Addressing the need without an expected award
o Concerned with the needs of their students
o Willing to address these needs
o Being focused on intrinsic rewards,
not material extrinsic rewards.
 DUTY THEORY
• Deontological ethics or deontology -Greek:
δέον (deon) meaning 'obligation' or 'duty'
• It is an approach to ethics that focuses on the
rightness or wrongness of actions
themselves, NOT opposed to the rightness or
wrongness of the consequences of those
actions
• (ethical rules "bind you to your duty“)
• Ethical theories that maintain that the moral
rightness or wrongness of an action depends on
its intrinsic qualities, and not (as in
consequentialism) on the nature of its
consequences. Deontological ethics holds that at
least some acts are morally wrong in themselves
(e.g., lying, breaking a promise, punishing the
innocent, murder). It often finds expression in
slogans such as "Duty for duty's sake."
Deontological theories are often formulated in
such a way that the rightness of an action
consists in its conformity to a moral rule or
command, such as "Do not bear false witness."
 EGOISM
• “It is the normative ethical position that moral
agents ought to do what is in their own self
interest.”
• It sets its goal to benefit, pleasure, or greatest
good of the oneself alone.
• “I ought to act in the interest of myself?”
• It is an act of selfishness
 Types of Ethical Egoism
• 3 types of ethical egoism such as,
-Individual
-Personal
-Universal
• Three types of egoism:
i) Psychological
ii) Ethical
iii) Rational
 EXISTENSIALISM
• Existentialism is a philosophical movement which portray that
individual human beings create the meaning and essence of their lives.
• Existentialism generally suggests that the absence of an inspiring force
(such as God) means that the individual is entirely free, and, therefore,
ultimately responsible.
• It is up to humans to create an ethos of personal responsibility outside
of any branded belief system.
• It emphasizes on:
- individual existence,
- freedom
- choice
“ freedom is necessarily accompanied by responsibility”
• Emphasizes the uniqueness and freedom of the individual person.
• Emphasizes individual - responsibility, personality, existence, freedom
and choice.
• Existentialists hold the belief that life’s most important questions are
not accessible to reason or science.
• The only certainty for existentialists is death.
• In the existentialist world, each person is born, lives, chooses his or
her course, and creates the meaning of his or her own existence.
• The basic idea of the existentialism is to portray the human struggle to
achieve self-definition through choice.
• All people are fully responsible for the meaning of their own existence
and creating their own essence of self-definition.
• Existentialist involvement calls for individual philosophizing about the
persistent human consensus of life, love, death, and meaning.
• Knowledge of existentialist originates in and is composed of what exists
in an individual’s consciousness and feelings as a result of one’s
experiences; the validity of knowledge is determined.
 Personality Virtue Theory
• Personality Virtue Theory is a branch
of moral philosophy that emphasizes
character, rather than rules or consequences,
as the key element of ethical thinking.
 What is Personality Virtue Theory

• It stresses on the importance of developing good

habits of character and less emphasis on learning rules
• To advocating good habits of character, virtue
theorists hold that we should avoid acquiring bad
character traits, or vices
• Emphasizes moral education since virtuous character
traits are developed in one's youth.
• Adults, therefore, are responsible for instilling virtues
in the young.
• It focuses on character rather than action, it can
include concern with feelings
• It focuses on character rather than action, it
can include concern with feelings
• You cannot help how you feel, but you can
help what you do, and that's what being
ethical is all about: putting duty above
personal feelings
• Tend to think that the feelings you have
reflect on your character
• If you have a good character you will
naturally tend to do good deeds, and enjoy
doing them
 SOCIAL MORALITY THEORY
• Social morality (is synonymous to “social
ethics”) is also known as social and political
philosophy. It is the foundation of a good
society.
• Social morality depends on a society perception
on what should be believed (normative ethics),
what one does believe (descriptive ethics) and
what is the fundamental nature of ethics or
morality itself (meta-ethics).
• When social morality is applied, it is referred as
moral.
 Social Morality Theory
Teaching Ethics
- Social morality theory can be defined as a
system of behavior in regards to
standards of right and wrong behavior in a
human society or organization.
- Is a study of how teachers should conduct
themselves based on the requirement of
particular society
- ‘Morality’ defined as:-
The quality of being in accord with
standards of right or good conduct
 Issue
• Birth control:

a) Normative ethics
You should not control one’s reproduction functions,
you have no right to do so.

b) Descriptive ethics
A country may have own set of belief that uncontrolled
number of reproductions will lead to overpopulation, so one
should practise birth control.

c) Meta-ethics
The fundamental nature of human reproductive rights or
religious belief and the country’s belief as mandated in
population policy.
 UTILITARIANISM
• Utilitarianism is the ethical doctrine that
the moral worth of an action is solely
determined by its contribution to overall
utility.
• moral worth of an action is determined by
its outcome—the ends justify the means
• We should do whatever will bring the most
benefit to all of humanity.
• For example : Intrinsic Value
• Many things have instrumental value, that
is, they have value as means to an end.
• However, there must be some things which
are not merely instrumental, but have value
in themselves.
• That is what we call intrinsic value.
 Standards of Utility

“ Actions are right to the

degree that they tend to
promote the greatest good
for the greatest number.”