What_is_an_Ethical_System_15806

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Apr 3, 2024

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What is an Ethical System? An Ethical System is a problem solving device or heuristic used as a means by which to answer ethical questions. Generally grounded in a metaphysic of some kind (God, karma, the afterlife), ethical systems use a basic set of axioms as a grounding for the development of a problem-solving system. Ethical systems should act similarly to a mathematical “function.” As a function, an ethical system take inputs (ethical questions) and produces answers (ethical answers to the questions). This input-output function is fundamental to any ethical system and is what demarcates an ethical system from a set of rules. For example, the Ten Commandments are NOT an ethical system. The Ten Commandments are a list of rules from which a person may infer further answers to other ethical questions, but, strictly speaking, the Ten Commandments can only answer ten ethical questions. Questions like, “Should I clone myself?” may be ethical questions that the Ten Commandments cannot answer without some sort of inference or reference to the Bible or other sacred texts. However, the “Golden Rule” IS an ethical system. Because one may ask almost any ethical question of the “Golden Rule” “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you”) and it will produce an answer. Not all ethical systems, though, require a divinely revealed epistemology. Numerous other ethical systems have been developed over centuries including, Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Ethical Egoism. Each of these systems provides answers to almost any ethical question that can be ask of them. Sometimes, two ethical systems like Utilitarianism and Kantianism seem to be “equivalent” because the produce many of the same answers to many of the same questions. However, the means by which these two systems achieve their answers are very different. For example, consider the fact that an Ethical Egoist and someone following the Golden Rule would likely both determine that they should not kill other people, the Egoist, because the risk of getting caught and going to prison is too great. But the way those answers are achieved are fundamentally different, and there may be important cases in which these two systems would answer the same question, differently . Most people do not report having an ethical system, but everyone must . Because we all answer ethical questions, at least through our actions. It is essential, then, to identify how one goes about answering those questions in order to make sure that the system is a sound ethical system. A sound ethical system has the following qualities: 1) Internal and External Consistency: None of the axioms of the system conflict with each other and none of the actions the system demands of us conflict with each other. 2) Internal and External Coherence: The axioms of the system buttress and support each other and the actions required by the system support each other and make further ethical action easier.

3) Parsimony: The system does not require unnecessary complexity and it does not multiply unnecessary variables. 4) Robust: The system answers all or most ethical questions that can be asked of it. 5) Intuitive: The system is at least somewhat consistent with our ethical intuitions. It is unlikely that any ethical system follows each of the above rules perfectly ; however, they are a good rule of thumb for judging the merits of a system.

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