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Ethics — How should one live?

Five frameworks. One trolley. A persistent question. The brief atlas of moral philosophy.

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Five frameworks. One trolley. A persistent question. The brief atlas of moral philosophy. Key sections include: ETHICS / How should one live?; Three roads to the good.; Aristotle — excellence as habit.; Kant — duty before consequence.; Bentham & Mill — the felicific calculus.; Rawls & Scanlon — what could we all agree to?; Gilligan & Noddings — the ethics of relation.; One death to save five ?; New problems for old frameworks.; Beneath the frameworks, a deeper question..

Key sections

  • 01ETHICS / How should one live?
  • 02Three roads to the good.
  • 03Aristotle — excellence as habit.
  • 04Kant — duty before consequence.
  • 05Bentham & Mill — the felicific calculus.
  • 06Rawls & Scanlon — what could we all agree to?
  • 07Gilligan & Noddings — the ethics of relation.
  • 08One death to save five ?
  • 09New problems for old frameworks.
  • 10Beneath the frameworks, a deeper question.
  • 11Real moral life is messier than any rule.
  • 12Morality without God?
  • 13Where to continue.

Topics covered

catalogphilosophyethics

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Slide outline
  1. 01ETHICS / How should one live?
  2. 02Three roads to the good.
  3. 03Aristotle — excellence as habit.
  4. 04Kant — duty before consequence.
  5. 05Bentham & Mill — the felicific calculus.
  6. 06Rawls & Scanlon — what could we all agree to?
  7. 07Gilligan & Noddings — the ethics of relation.
  8. 08One death to save five ?
  9. 09New problems for old frameworks.
  10. 10Beneath the frameworks, a deeper question.
  11. 11Real moral life is messier than any rule.
  12. 12Morality without God?
  13. 13Where to continue.
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Presentation Transcript

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Slide 01

ETHICS / How should one live?

  • Treatise No. 4◆How should one live?
  • A Field Guide in 13 Cards
  • Five frameworks. One trolley. A persistent question. The brief atlas of moral philosophy.
Slide 02

Three roads to the good.

  • 02 / The Map◆Three Major Traditions
  • Western moral philosophy clusters around three ancient questions. They are less rivals than different lenses on the same fog.
  • Agent-centered
  • Virtue Ethics
  • What kind of person should I be? Focus on character, habits, and human flourishing.
  • II.
  • Act-centered
  • Deontology
  • What rules must I follow? Some acts are right or wrong regardless of outcome.
  • III.
  • Outcome-centered
  • Consequentialism
  • What results should I produce? An act is right if its consequences are best.
Slide 03

Aristotle — excellence as habit.

  • 03 / Tradition I◆Virtue Ethics
  • No. 001 · Lyceum
  • Aristotle
  • 384–322 BC · Athens
  • “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
  • Eudaimonia — flourishing — is the human end. Each virtue is a Golden Mean between extremes: courage between cowardice and recklessness, generosity between miserliness and waste. Character is forged through practice, not principle.
  • Verdict · Live Well
Slide 04

Kant — duty before consequence.

  • 04 / Tradition II◆Deontology
  • No. 002 · Königsberg
  • Immanuel Kant
  • 1724–1804 · Prussia
  • “Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
  • The Categorical Imperative: morality is reason’s law. Lying, breaking promises, treating persons as mere means — forbidden, full stop. People possess dignity, not price. The right is prior to the good.
  • Verdict · Do Your Duty
Slide 05

Bentham & Mill — the felicific calculus.

  • 05 / Tradition III◆Utilitarianism
  • No. 003
  • Jeremy Bentham
  • 1748–1832
  • “The greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.”
  • Pleasure good, pain bad — sum it up across all sentient beings. Quantitative hedonism.
  • Verdict · Maximize Utility
  • No. 004
  • John Stuart Mill
  • 1806–1873
  • “Better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
  • Refines Bentham — not all pleasures equal. Higher (intellectual) pleasures rank above lower. Liberty matters as a precondition for utility.
  • Verdict · Quality Counts
Slide 06

Rawls & Scanlon — what could we all agree to?

  • 06 / Tradition IV◆Contractualism
  • No. 005
  • John Rawls
  • 1921–2002
  • “Justice is fairness — the principles you would choose behind a veil of ignorance.”
  • Imagine designing society without knowing your race, talent, or wealth. You’d demand equal liberties and accept inequality only if it benefits the least advantaged.
  • Verdict · Fair Terms
  • No. 006
  • T. M. Scanlon
  • b. 1940
  • “An act is wrong if it could be reasonably rejected by anyone affected.”
  • Morality as justifiability to others. We owe each other reasons — principles no one could refuse on grounds of fairness.
  • Verdict · Justifiable
Slide 07

Gilligan & Noddings — the ethics of relation.

  • 07 / Tradition V◆Care Ethics
  • No. 007
  • Carol Gilligan
  • b. 1936
  • “A different voice — one that hears responsibility before rules.”
  • Critiqued Kohlberg’s “justice” ladder for missing women’s reasoning: contextual, narrative, attentive to relationships.
  • Verdict · Listen
  • No. 008
  • Nel Noddings
  • 1929–2022
  • “Caring is the foundation: a face met, not a maxim applied.”
  • Moral life begins in concrete encounter — mother and child, friend and friend. Abstract universals come second, if at all.
  • Verdict · Stay Close
Slide 08

One death to save five?

  • 08 / The Test◆The Trolley Problem
  • Framework
  • Pull the lever?
  • Why
  • Utilitarian
  • YES
  • Five lives outweigh one. Math is math.
  • Kantian
  • Using the one as a means to others’ ends violates dignity.
  • Virtue
  • IT DEPENDS
  • What would the person of practical wisdom do?
  • Care
  • SUSPEND
  • Refuses the abstraction; demands the actual relations.
Slide 09

New problems for old frameworks.

  • 09 / The Frontier◆Contemporary Dilemmas
  • The toughest cases are those the founding theorists never imagined.
  • AI Ethics
  • Should an autonomous vehicle be a Kantian or a utilitarian? Who is responsible when no human acts? Can a system without consciousness bear moral weight?
  • Animal Rights
  • Singer extends utilitarianism: if suffering counts, species is irrelevant. Regan extends Kant: animals as ends in themselves.
  • Intergenerational Justice
  • What do we owe people not yet born? Discount their welfare? Rawls’ veil suggests treat them as equals.
  • Climate
  • Diffuse harm, distributed cause, distant victim. Every framework strains. Collective action where individual choice barely registers.
Slide 10

Beneath the frameworks, a deeper question.

  • 10 / Metaethics◆Are Moral Facts Real?
  • Position I
  • Realism
  • Moral facts exist independently — like mathematical truths. Cruelty is wrong, full stop.
  • Position II
  • Anti-realism
  • No moral facts — only attitudes, emotions, projections. “Wrong” expresses disapproval.
  • Position III
  • Constructivism
  • Moral truths are made, not found — products of rational agreement among agents.
Slide 11

Real moral life is messier than any rule.

  • 11 / Practice◆Phronesis
  • Rules underdetermine action. Two principles always conflict. Three values cannot all be honored. Wisdom is the faculty of knowing what this case demands.— The lesson of every applied ethicist
  • Particulars matter
  • The same act in different contexts is a different act. Lying to a friend, lying to a tyrant.
  • Frameworks as tools
  • Pluralists carry several frameworks the way a carpenter carries chisels. Each reveals what others hide.
  • Moral residue
  • Even right choices leave regret. Tragic dilemmas have no clean exit. The mature agent accepts this.
Slide 12

Morality without God?

  • 12 / The Persistent Question◆Foundations
  • Dostoevsky’s worry: “If God is dead, all is permitted.” Most modern frameworks reply: no. Reason, consequence, contract, character — each grounds ethics elsewhere.
  • The Worry
  • If no commander, no command?
  • Divine command theory: right is what God wills. Without God, what binds? Why care about Kant’s reason or Mill’s utility?
  • Skeptic
  • The Reply
  • The Euthyphro returns.
  • Plato asked: is it good because the gods love it, or do they love it because it is good? If the latter — goodness stands on its own, regardless of any commander.
  • Verdict · Stands
Slide 13

Where to continue.

  • 13 / Coda◆Further Reading
  • Books
  • Aristotle — Nicomachean EthicsThe original treatise on virtue and flourishing.
  • Kant — Groundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsThe categorical imperative, in 80 dense pages.
  • Mill — UtilitarianismBrief, lucid, the case for consequences.
  • Rawls — A Theory of JusticeThe veil of ignorance, fully developed.
  • Williams — Ethics and the Limits of PhilosophyWhy theory may not save us.
  • Anscombe — Modern Moral PhilosophyThe essay that revived virtue ethics.
  • Lectures & Videos
  • YouTube · Search
  • The Trolley Problem — explainers
  • YouTube · Search
  • Michael Sandel — Justice (Harvard)
  • “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates, in Plato’s Apology. The ethical life starts here: not with the right answer, but with the willingness to keep asking.
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