Introduction

When you think about ethics, there may be many theoretical assumptions, arguments, and strongly held beliefs that you have about the correct thing to do. For example:

• Is it ever right to lie to benefit someone else or ourselves?
• Are we altruistic or does our human nature make us inherently selfish, and how does this impact our ability to be moral agents?
• Should we show more ethical concern for those we love and care for, or do our moral obligations extend to people beyond those we know?
• Should we consider the context of relationships, the kind of person we want to be, and someone’s social environment before making an ethical decision, or should we follow rules and formulas that provide guidelines about what the right thing to do is?

In the pursuit of identifying this locus of value, differing theoretical focal points and frameworks emerge. Some may focus on the consequences of action or, perhaps alternatively, on the conformity of an action with a given duty, while others concern the agents themselves, such as one’s moral virtues and ability to reason. For our purposes, these distinctions occur within two broader discussions of normative morality and metaethics.

Moral philosophy, a branch of philosophical study regarding value theory, seeks to explore these kinds of questions along with the assumptions and philosophical commitments that underpin them.

Ethics, a further branch of moral philosophy, seeks to understand:

• Our normative obligations towards others and ourselves
• The rules that regulate and define our actions and decisions in our social lives
• The fundamental principles that underlie these rules

It tasks us with exploring various ethical dilemmas we may come across and how we can navigate them behaving ethically in the process. The study of normative morality describes an action-centered line of enquiry, aiming to discover how we ought to live and act in the world. Meta-ethics, on the other hand, describes an agent-centered examination of morality itself, including its foundational properties, assumed values, and applied scope.

While we are all familiar with our gut feelings on what the right thing to do in any given situation is, the purpose of this book is to help you clarify your thinking on what it means to think and act ethically. As you move through the texts, you may begin to reflect on how these branches of study reveal uncomfortable ethical questions, often possessing no easy answers. We encourage you to sit with this discomfort, as these moral ambiguities can equally produce vibrant discussions around issues of social conscience, justice, fairness, and responsibility that perennially shape the human experience.

Studying ethics therefore may raise questions about the fundamental principles guiding our behaviour and decisions, when we should follow these principles, and what to do when they conflict with our own interests. While our intuitions about how to act or behave in certain situations can prove useful in our own survival, there are times when you will need to make decisions that require a more carefully and well-thought out approach as to what the right thing to do is.

For example:

• Should you shop at a store known for its unethical treatment of workers or animals?
• If we have moral obligations towards animals, is consuming large quantities of meat unethical?
• Does composting become a moral obligation in the face of climate change and our moral obligations to the environment?

Everyday concerns such as these can quickly become questions for ethical consideration and point us in the direction of trying to live the good life.

The thinkers you will read in this book raise questions concerning the good life, and have a deep philosophical history. Many of their ideas and arguments still hold popular sway in our cultural, social, and intellectual discourse about right and wrong, good and bad. The power of these ideas can hardly be overstated, even if they are sometimes challenging to understand.

Therefore, this book has tried to provide you with the primary sources of materials with introductions that give an overview of the key points and takeaways from each chapter. In addition, there are secondary source materials, written by other professional philosophers, which elaborate on the views of each section. You will also see some discussion questions and thought experiments to help you make sense of these arguments. These are best done with your peers, as you are able to bounce ideas off of one another and engage in rich and meaningful philosophical dialogue about some of the most important ideas that have shaped our world. There are also case sets from Ethics Bowl Canada, which annually hosts an ethics debate with various high schools throughout the country, to further enhance your learning and application of the various moral and ethical theories you will learn. Finally, there is an important section on how to read, write, and do philosophy that we encourage you to read. It will give you a great head start in grappling with the ideas and arguments to come.