• Believes that Christian ethics should be held separate from business
• Business is like Poker, you must bluff, but everyone expects you to (coventionalism)
• As long as it's legal and supports profit, it's ethical
• Good things are done in self interest - e.g. throwing out old tomatoes to avoid law suit, not for health of customer

Daniel Willard's Contrast Response to Albert Carr

and one problem Willard identifies in Carr's belief

• Business is a calling to serve the community by providing products and services, not as a means for personal gain.
• Living and conducting business with two separate moral frameworks would cause cognitive dissonance, which would be too painful to deal with.

Ethical Egoism

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Focuses on maximizing good for yourself
• Strength: It's the best option for society
• Ayn Rand argued that a non-self-interested man was a parasite because in order to serve others, he needs others to take care of him.
• Weakness:
• Not practical - It contradicts itself because it would not be in one's best interest to only act selfishly.
• Selfish acts often come from bad places and do not produce desired results in the big picture
• Theological argument is to love thy neighbor as thyself. It is interdependent.

Utilitarianism

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Seeks to maximize the greatest good for the greatest number
• Strength: everything can be calculated so it makes decision making more "precise"
• Weakness:
• You can't objectively assign weights to the consequences
• Why maximize pleasure or happiness? Who decided these were the end all be all?
• Some ends may be morally good, but their means are not automatically justified as a result. (e.g. killing someone to save five people still means murder is bad)
• Denies that there is some kind of intrinsic right and wrong (e.g. human rights)

Christian Ethics

What is it's foundation?

What does it address?

Why is it complex?

• Foundation - God's character, will, and action
• Addresses who we are and what we do
• Complexity - choosing the wisest/most Judicious decision vs. the morally perfect one.

Deontology (Principal Ethics)

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Act according to principals, duties, etc.
• Strengths: Ethical issues are settled by reason, not emotional appeal. If we know the right, we will do the right"
• Weaknesses:
• Not Practical - conflicting (truth telling vs. saving a life, which is "higher good?")
• Separates ethics from God and grace (makes ethics a demand rather than a gift)
• Can lapse into legalism (e.g. Pharisees)
• Law keeping overlooks internal motivation to do the right thing
• Context and larger framework/story needed for guidance

Some Deontologists argue that creating a ranking/ hierarchy helps us resolve conflicts of two or more principles (i.e., breaking a contract vs helping a friend).  Is this a sufficient method (whether in the form of a “higher goods” or “lesser evils” /Prima facie ethics or “graded absolutism”) to handle cases of conflict?  (Resources: Class lecture, Hollinger, Ch. 1 and B. Adenay’s article on Bribery discuss this issue)  

It depends because:

• It is useful in limited cases

BUT

• It can be difficult to discern which goods are "higher." Yes, of course we would choose lying over losing a human life, but what about the more complex issues in fields like business where it is not so easy?

• Context is needed - e.g. we don't tell truth for truth's sake, but for God's sake and for the neighbor's sake.

Character / Virtue Ethics

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

How does the Bible support this?

• What is it?
• Focuses more on who we are than what we should do
• Not in the moment, but rather "trained" morality so that when a moment of moral choice comes, you'll know what do to
• Addresses the heart and goes beyond cognitive reason along
• Relies on stories to captivate hearts and imaginations and encourage similar ethical behavior e.g. Harry Potter
• Strengths:
• Affirms inner dimension and larger story/vision
• Weaknesses:
• Overemphaisis on narrative vs. other forms of biblical guidances
• Relativistic - relative to particular communities
• Bible:
• Relies on use scripture
• Changed identity leads to changed behavior
• spiritual disciplines are also practices that are said to nurture virtues

No, this is prescriptivism.

It does:

- Take the scripture seriously

- Make decision making easily accessible

BUT

- It oversimplifies things and does not take into account context or moral hierarchy much like legalism.

- It can be very difficult to interpret the true intension of the text.

- There are also many areas where the biblical text contradicts itself: e.g. "by grace are ye saved through faith, not of works" vs. "by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

Challenges

• Contextual differences e.g. usury law
• Relationship between new and old testament (which is more correct??)
• Intent: it'd different within existing social structures and cultural practices

Strategies for clarification: Modified Prescriptivism

• Use multiple forms of guidance from scripture (stories, law, etc.)
• Use your own reason (e.g. relate ethics to culture)
• Interpret in community to bring guidance and discernment beyond your own

Role of Culture in Ethics:

Narrow Absolutism (none)

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Shallow moralism - fixed application of universal rules
• Strengths:
• Affirms that there are some universal morals
• Wouldn't allow us to justify special circumstances
• Weaknesses:
• Requires selection (what is universally right)
• May confuse folkways with absolutes

Role of Culture in Ethics:

Cultural Relativism

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• We should adapt our morality to the cultural situation
• Strengths:
• Helps us distinguish cultural differences from moral absolutes
• encourages cultural sensitivity
• Weaknesses:
• Conflicts with Christian beliefs about absolutes
• Poor logic: just because there is disagreement about a moral (e.g. eating babies is wrong), doesn't mean there is just no objective truth in the matter.

Role of Culture in Ethics

Mediating Approach

What is it?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Absolutes with contexualized applications
• Strengths:
• acknowledges the role of culture
• allign with faithfulness
• Weakness:
• difficult to not "see" through our own traditions

Christ Against Culture

What is this view's thoughts on culture?

Name one religious group associated with this belief.

What stance does this belief take on cultural engagement?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Culture is Corrupt
• Little hope for change
• Anabaptists, Monastics
• Stance: Reject/ “Radical Break”
• Strengths
• Faithfulness; No compromise
• Weaknesses
• Doesn't encourage going out and making believers in all nations, as Jesus called us to do
• All or nothing (vs. struggling with discernment)

Christ Above Culture

What is this view's thoughts on culture?

Name one religion that practices this belief?

What stance does this belief take on cultural engagement?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Culture is a part of the created order, but there is a higher power
• e.g. Natural Law, Virtues
• Roman Catholic
• Stance: Optimistic engagement, with some need for change
• Strength:
• Emphasizes divine presence - God's rule is in all things
• Weakness:
• Tends to equate "what is" with "what's right" or social activites are related with "God's activities"

Christ and Culture in Paradox

What is this view's thoughts on culture?

Name one religion that practices this belief? 

What stance does this belief take on cultural engagement?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Culture is both fallen and preserved - separate ethics for cultural activities than God activities
• Lutheran
• Involvement
• Engagement can only produce little positive change. It just keeps evil in check
• Strengths:
• Recognizes the brokenness of culture
• Weaknesses
• Privatization / Compartmentalization
• Might lead to inaction (too much "realism")

Christ the Transformer of Culture

What is this view's thoughts on culture?

Name one religion that practices this belief?

What stance does this belief take on cultural engagement?

Strengths?

Weaknesses?

• Culture is fallen, but can be changed
• Calvinist
• Strengths
• Emphasis on a social conversion through institutions
• Weaknesses
• Overlooks covenantal nature of Christian ethics - divine revelation is primarily for those who believe in God. To expect multitudes of nonbelievers to live up Christian moral standard is unrealistic
• Believers of this have to often employ social strategies in their attempts to change society e.g. raising money in a political position through questionable channels

Christian Ethics in a Pluralistic Society

Privatization

Describe how this looks secularly.

What does it look like in terms of religion?

What are the risks with each of these?

• Secular: Keep personal beliefs out of the public sphere
• Risks:
• Forces you to leave your beliefs at the door, so it doesn't hold up with our constitution
• This allows for us to selectively reject religious beliefs
• It is assumed to be objective, but it isn't
• Religious: Keep Christianity separate because the world is too evil
• Risks:
• Goes against Jesus' mandate to be "the salt and the light in the world" Jesus wanted his followers to make a difference in the world
• Religion is just further propogated as oppressive because secular people view those who choose to separate as oppressed.