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!