ib tok ethics presentation
DESCRIPTION
TOK sample presentation!TRANSCRIPT
Ethical Decisions – A Multi-valence Function
Movie
Quick Recap of Events
Housekeeper Lie of omission to save 6 lives Religious obligation versus social responsibility
CIA Officer Disobeyed direct orders in an attempt to save
lives Duty codes versus personal sense of
responsibility
Central KI
How do the WOKs influence our ethical decisions when we are faced with multiple sets of ethical obligations?
Reason – Judgment
General Rule of Ethics + Reasoning = Judgment
Where is Reason?
Two highly controversial knowledge issues:
If the CIA officer actually failed the mission, would his actions be less justified?
For the housekeeper, is she justified to solely use cost-benefit analysis to make the choice?
Did she have a choice?
Reason (Continued)
How do ethics, in turn, affect Reason? Is an unethical act always unreasonable?
Are we more obliged to people of our own community?
Let’s take a look at William and James Bulger
Logical Fallacy?!
Argumentum ad misericordiam
When reason meets emotion
Is the housekeeper’s decision more rational or emotional? Herself? Treason? Death? 6 Lives? 6 AMERICAN
lives?
Is the CIA Officer’s decision more rational or emotional? Did he feel sorry for the 6 people? Or did he
want to experience the thrill of escape?
Reason-Emotion-Judgments
REASON + EMOTION + ETHICAL RULES = JUDGMENTS
Emotional Judgement: Robert
E.Lee Civil War Officer
Loyalty as an emotion
To whom should one be loyal to? Should loyalty even be considered when making ethical decisions?
Reason-Emotion-Judgments
REASON + EMOTION + ETHICAL RULES = JUDGMENTS
Choose
Role of Sense Perception
REASON + EMOTION + SENSE PERCEPTION + ETHICAL RULES = JUDGMENTS
A Matter of Context?
Two Experiments
Variations of the Trolley Problem Kill and “let die” Situation is different, yet how much does
language account for that difference?
Framing Effect ( Tversky & Kahneman, 1981) 30% versus 70%
Ethical Language
Language creates the foundation of our ethical system
Expressivism
Cognitivism
Role of Language
REASON + EMOTION + SENSE PERCEPTION + ETHICAL RULES +LANGUAGE= JUDGMENTS
Relativity?
Language – Sapir – Whorf Hypothesis
Moral relativity
Oskar Schindler
German Businessman
Saved over 1000 Jews after Nazis took control over Germany
What if Hitler won the war?
WOKs as causes of moral relativity
Implications of relativity
REASON + EMOTION + SENSE PERCEPTION + ETHICAL RULES +LANGUAGE= JUDGMENTS ?
Case against relativity
The biological approach
An ideological approach
Alternative ways to look at ethical relativity
Judgment
Language
EmotionReason
Sense Perception
General Ethical Rules
Thank You For Your Attention!
Thank You For Your Attention!