LESSON 4

GROUP 6
TOPIC 3:
KANT AND
RIGHTS
THEORIES
• Represent deontological ethics

• For him, a right action consists solely in an action that is ruled and
justified by a rule or principle.

• It was the rational and autonomous conformity of one’s will to see right
the universal moral law

• Foundations of Metaphysics of Morals, explains the philosophical

foundation of morality and moral actions.
MORALITY
• Only thing that is good without qualification.
• Other goods like intelligence and health can be qualified, Good Will is
good by
virtue because it is the will to follow the Moral law.
The Nature of Imperatives
• Imperatives are commands

Hypothetical Imperatives
• If you want, you ought. The ought or the duty is conditioned by your
desires, wants and goals.
• Our goals are grounded in SELF-INTEREST

Categorical Imperatives
• The general from of DO. (Unconditioned)
• For Kant, there is only one imperative command and it is the
Moral Law.
Different kinds of rights
Natural rights – are those which man acquired by birth. These rights are
also called human natural rights or human rights.

Acquired rights – are those which man gains through the fulfilment of
some conditions.

Private rights – are those rights which are possessed by an individual or

by an imperfect

Public rights – are those rights which are possessed by a perfect society.

Inalienable rights- refer to those rights which cannot be transferred or

renounced since they are indispensable for a person’s basic obligations.
Perfect rights – are those rights which are enforced by law. This is why
perfect rights are also called legal or juridical rights.

Imperfect rights – are those rights which are not enforced by law.

Moral rights - are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally

recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a p extent, in some common
law jurisdictions. Moral rights apply only to literary, dramatic, musical and
artistic works, and also to films (where the director enjoys moral rights).

Legal rights - refers to rights according to law. It exists under the rules of
some particular legal system. Following is a case law defining the term
legal right. A legal right is a claim recognizable and enforceable at law.
Positive rights- refer to those rights which confer upon a person the
power to do certain things.

Negative rights – refer to those rights which do not perform certain

things.

Alienable rights - are rights which can be renounced and transferred.

TOPIC 4:
UTILITARIANI
SM
Utilitarianism is a theory about:
• What is of highest importance in life.
• What makes actions right or wrong

One of the great philosopher of the 19th century. Utilitarianism is his

famous ethical theory. It is a theory about right and wrong. At the age of
3 being home school by very ambitious father. He started to learn Greek.
Passionate and talented man. He had 5 younger siblings and he was
home school and he had to teach everything he learned to those 5
younger siblings.

According to Mill, HAPPINESS or PLEASURE is of highest value.

UTILITARIANISM
Ethical theory that determines right from wrong by focusing on
outcomes. Holds that the most ethical choice isthe one that will produce
the greatest good for the greatest number.

Also the most common approach to moral reasoning used in business

because of the way in which it accounts for costs and benefits.
However, because we cannot predict the future, it’s difficult to know with
certainty whether the consequences of our actions will be good or bad.
Utilitarianism also has trouble accounting for values such as justice and
individual rights.
Example: Assume a hospital has 4 people whose lives depend upon
receiving organ transplant. First patient needs a heart, second
patient needs a lungs, third patient needs a liver and the last patient
needs a kidney.
If a healthy person wanders to the hospital, his organs could be
harvested to save four lives at the expense of one life.
This would arguably produce the greatest good for the greatest
number. But few would consider it an acceptable course of action, let
alone the most ethical one.
So, although utilitarianism is arguably the most reason-based
approach to determining right and wrong, it has obvious limitation
3 Elements of Mill’s Utilitarianism
• The Utility Principle “pleasure and freedom from pain are the only
things desirable as ends” – they are the only intrinsic goods.

• The Greatest Happiness Principle (consequentialist principle) “actions

are right in proportion as they tend to produce happiness, wrong as they
tend to produce the reverse of happiness.

• Happiness = pleasure + absence of pain

Unhappiness = pain + absence of pleasure

• The focus of these core elements is the second one, Mill thinks that it is
the
Fundamental moral principle.
TOPIC 5:
JUSTICE AND
FAIRNESS
"Contractarianism" names both a political theory of the legitimacy of
political authority and a moral theory about the origin or legitimate content
of moral norms.

The political theory of authority claims that legitimate authority of

government must derive from the consent of the governed, where the form
and content of this consent derives from the idea of contract or mutual
agreement.

The moral theory of contractarianism claims that moral norms derive

their normative force from the idea of contract or mutual agreement.

Contractarians are thus skeptical of the possibility of grounding morality

or political
authority in either divine will or some perfectionist ideal of the nature of
humanity. Social contract theorists from the history of political thought
include Hobbes, Locke, Kant, and Rousseau.
Global Distributive justice

is a concept that addresses the ownership of goods in a society. It

assumes that there is a large amount of fairness in the distribution of
goods. Equal work should provide individuals with an equal outcome in
terms of goods acquired or the ability to acquire goods.

in its broadest sense, is about how benefits and burdens ought to be

distributed among a set of individuals as a matter of right and
entitlement. Political philosophers have traditionally assumed that
principles of distributive justice apply of a given political community.
Egalitarianism
is a philosophical perspective that emphasizes equality and equal
treatment across gender, religion, economic status, and political beliefs.
Egalitarianism may focus on income inequality and distribution, which
are ideas that influenced the development of various economic and
political systems.

Karl Marx used egalitarianism as the starting point in the creation of his
Marxist philosophy, and John Locke considered egalitarianism when he
proposed that individuals had natural rights.

Types of Egalitarianism

Economic Egalitarianism (or Material Egalitarianism) is where the

participants of a society are of equal standing and have equal access to
all the economic resources in terms of economic power, wealth and
contribution. It is a founding principle of various forms of Socialism.
Moral Egalitarianism is the position that equality is central to justice,
that all individuals are entitled to equal respect, and that all human
persons are equal in fundamental worth or moral status.

Legal Egalitarianism the principle under which each individual is

subject to the same laws, with no individual or group or class having
special legal privileges, and where the testimony of all persons is
counted with the same weight.

Political Egalitarianism is where the members of a society are of equal

standing in terms of political power or influence. It is a founding principle
of most forms of democracy.

Luck Egalitarianism is a view about distributive justice (what is just or

right with respect to the allocation of goods in a society) espoused by a
variety of left-wing political philosophers, which seeks to distinguish
between outcomes that are the result of brute luck .
Gender Egalitarianism (or Zygarchy) is a form of society in which
power is equally shared between men and women, or a family structure
where power is shared equally by both parents.

Racial Egalitarianism (or Racial Equality) is the absence of racial

segregation (the separation of different racial groups in daily life,
whether mandated by law or through social norms).

Opportunity Egalitarianism (or Asset-based Egalitarianism) is the

idea that equality is possible by a redistribution of resources, usually in
the form of a capital grant provided at the age of majority, an idea
which has been around since Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809).12

Christian Egalitarianism holds that all people are equal before God
and in Christ, and specifically teaches gender equality in Christian
church leadership and in marriage.
Capitalism
is an economic system in which factors of production which include
capital goods, natural resources, labor, and entrepreneurship are owned
by private individuals or businesses.

Capitalism involves the free operation of capital markets where the laws
of demand and supply set the prices of bonds, stocks, currency, and
commodities.

Characteristics of Capitalism

Profit Motive: In capitalism, profit motive induces individual owners to

work and produce.

Private property right: The capital goods like land, factories,

machinery, etc. are under private ownership, and the owners have the
right to employ them, in the manner they like. However, for the mutual
benefit of the society government, can put some restrictions.
Consumer sovereignty: In this system, consumers are free to make a
choice as 1to how they want to spend their income. Only those goods are
produced by the producers, which are demanded by the consumers.

Freedom of enterprise: Every individual is free to choose and involved

in the economic activity he/she thinks 1fit.

Competition: Competition exists among various sellers to sell products

and services to customers and among buyers to get the goods, so as to
satisfy their want.

Income inequality: In capitalism, a wide disparity of income between

haves and have-nots is observed, which is caused by the unequal
property distribution
Socialism
Socialism is a populist economic and political system based on public
ownership (also known as collective or common ownership) of the means
of production. Those means include the machinery, tools, and factories
used to produce goods that aim to directly satisfy human needs.
Socialism, social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than
private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According
to the socialist view, individuals do not live or work in isolation but live in
cooperation with one another.

Types of Socialism

1. Democratic socialism
In democratic socialism, factors of production are under the management
of an elected administration. Vital goods and services such as energy,
housing, and transit are distributed through centralized planning, while a
free market system is used to distribute consumer products.
2. Revolutionary socialism
The running philosophy of revolutionary socialism is that a socialistic
system can’t emerge while capitalism is still in play. Revolutionaries
believe that the road to a purely socialistic system requires a lot of
struggle. In such a system, the factors of production are owned and run by
workers through a well-developed and centralized structure.

3. Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism works on the assumption that people are always
rational, self-determining, and autonomous. If capitalism is taken away,
people naturally turn to a socialistic system because it is able to meet
their needs.

4. Market socialism
Under market socialism, the production process is under the
control of ordinary workers. The workers decide how resources
should be distributed. The workers sell off what is in excess or
give it out to members of the society, who then distribute
5. Green socialism
Green socialism is protective of natural resources. Large corporations in
a green socialistic society are owned and run by the public. In addition,
green socialism promotes the development and use of public transit, as
well as the processing and sale of locally grown food. The production
process is focused on ensuring that every member of the community has
enough access to basic goods. Moreover, the public is guaranteed a
sustainable wage.
THANKYOU
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