Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mrs.Cooper.

If you remember when you watched my first lesson, I asked if it was right or not, to steal my husband's biscuits.

I hate them by the way, I was starving.

But I did have to conclude that it was wrong.

Today we're going to delve into the study of right and wrong which is what us philosophers call ethics.

When you're ready, go and find a nice comfy spot, make sure your mobile phone's turned off, unless you're using it to watch the video.

Make sure you've got some pens and pencils, and some paper and sit down where you are ready to learn.

In this lesson, we'll reflect on our own morality, using some thought experiments.

We will identify some key words used in ethics, and we're going to apply the key terms of ethics, to some more thought experiments, on our own personal morality.

Now there's a bit of a disclaimer with this lesson.

There will be some sensitive content.

We'll be discussing the death penalty, and some types of medical ethics.

You may want to complete the lesson, with a trusted adult nearby.

When you are ready we will start.

To begin this lesson, you will need two different coloured pens or pencils.

One to do your work with, and a different colour for alterations.

You will also need some paper.

The first big question that I'm going to ask you today is, is it ever right to take someone's life? Now there's a picture, to give you a bit of stimulation, to get you thinking about it.

But you can think about it in any possible way.

Do you think it's right to ever take someone's life? What I'd like you to do is just pause, note down your ideas on a piece of paper.

But we will come back to this later on.

Let's now try and understand the key words, that are going to help us understand this topic better.

First one is morals.

You may have heard this word before, morals are personal rules about what is right and wrong.

Philosophy is a love of wisdom, or it can be described as a search for truth.

And ethics is a type of moral philosophy, that investigates what is right or wrong.

So it's a way of thinking about things, and trying to work out why things are right and wrong, or if they are right and wrong.

True or false, philosophy is a love of foolishness? Philosophy is a love of wisdom.

True or false morals are personal beliefs about what is right or wrong? Yay well done, It is true.

And true or false, ethics is the study of people called Ethel.

That would be false.

Ethics is a study of morality or moral philosophy.

Definitely not people called Ethel.

Now it's time to get to the fun stuff.

I'm going to introduce you, to something called thought experiments.

Thought experiments are used in areas of study, where physical experiment is not currently possible.

Thought experiments are often used in philosophy and physics to work through a theory to its conclusion.

It's particularly useful in ethics, as it consists of taking different ethical scenarios, applying a theory to work out, whether the decision is morally right or wrong.

Remember ethics could be described as having grey areas.

Mostly there is never a clear cut right or wrong answer.

Let's see how much you've learned, about the keywords to do with ethics.

As I show you the different statements, please write down whether you think they are true, or they are false.

Thought experiments are usually made up Scenarios.

That is true.

Thought experiments, are always about testing ethical theories.

That is false.

Thought experiments in ethics, are primarily about working out, whether something is right or wrong.

That is also true.

Thought experiments are experiments, which seek to work out the conclusion to an idea or theory.

And that is also true.

You've got all of those questions right, give yourself a big pat on the back.

Pause the video to complete this task.

Copy down the following definition.

And as a challenge, write a definition in your own words, not mine.

Right then let's have a go, at some thought experiments ourselves.

Let's try and work them out.

The first one I want to introduce you to, is the idea of Robin hood.

Most of you probably know the story of Robin Hood.

He stole from the rich to feed the poor.

Now what I'd like to know is, do you think that he was right or not? If you do write yes, if you don't write no, and explain why.

Take a minute to pause and write down your answer.

The second scenario I'm going to present look, the second scenario I'm going to present to you, is about temptation.

If you've watched one of my previous videos, you would have seen the video of my daughter Lily.

Who'd been given a piece of cake and told to not eat it.

Now if you did watch the previous video, you will remember that Lily did in fact eat the cake.

What I'd like to know is would you do that? Do you think that was morally right for her to eat the cake? If you think yes, then write it down or no and write it down, and explain your answer.

If you answered no to both of these scenarios, then you are an intentionalist.

An intentionalist believes, that it is your intention, that makes something right or wrong.

And therefore, if your intention was to be good, and do what you were told and not eat the cake, then that's a good thing.

If your intention is to steal, then it is a bad thing.

If you answered yes to both of these, then you're a consequentialist.

This means that you think it is the consequences, that make something think moral.

For example, a consequentialist would say that, it is okay to steal from the rich, as they have enough money, and lot of poor people would benefit from the money.

Okay let's do some quick fire questions then.

Consequentialist think that stealing from the rich, to feed the poor is moral.

Is that true or is it false? It is true.

Intentionalists think that, helping an old woman over the road is immoral.

That's false.

Intentionalists believe that the right thing, is always in your intention, and it's good to help somebody that needs help.

When you're ready, pause the video to complete your task.

Copy the following key words, and as a challenge, give an example for each definition.

I'm going to take us back to our original question.

Is it ever right to take someone's life? How do you think an intentionalist would answer? And how do you think the consequentialist would answer? Pause the video and write down your thoughts.

When you're ready, take a different coloured pen, read through my answer and use it as a model, to make any alterations to your own answers.

On this occasion, I'm going to read through the slide with you.

An intentionalist answer would be simple.

No it's never right to end someone's life.

How would a consequentialist answer? A consequentialist would say that, it depends on the situation.

If a person were to kill a terrorist, a consequence of that action, could be the prevention of other people, from being killed by that terrorist.

Therefore it might sometimes be right to take a life.

Now we're going to try some more thought experiments.

This one's called the infection.

Imagine you're a doctor.

You have just told your patient, that they have a deadly infection.

At the moment they feel fine, They don't seem to have any symptoms. They may just be a carrier of the infection, but they could make others seriously ill.

They tell you that they plan to leave this hospital, and spread it to other people.

You're not allowed to tell anyone, because of doctor-patient confidentiality.

Because you're a doctor, you can get your hands on the medical cabinet.

You could give the patient a deadly dose of some medicine, which would kill them and nobody would know.

Do you think that you would do it? What would you do? Pause the video and write down your answer.

The next thought experiment we're going to try, is one called "The Transplant".

Once again you're a doctor, and you have a perfectly healthy patient in one room.

They've come in for a test, for something to find that, there is absolutely nothing wrong with them.

In five other rooms, however, you've got some very poorly patients, who are all going to die, if they don't get the transplants that they need.

One needs a heart, another one needs new lungs, another one needs kidneys, another one needs a liver, and the fifth one is blind.

You could kill the one healthy patient, and use their organs to make five people healthy, Or you let the healthy patient go, but the other five patients are likely to die, because they have not long been on the transplant list, and there's a long wait, what would you do? Would you kill the one healthy person or not? I hope you enjoyed thinking your way through these different scenarios.

I can understand possibly you wouldn't quite say enjoy, but it's made your brain work a little bit.

I'm going to to introduce you, to some really important concepts in ethics.

And that is about relativity and absoluteness, or relative and absolute.

Absolute ethics are about morals that are rule-based.

So it's always wrong to kill.

So in both of those situations, you would not kill anybody.

You wouldn't kill the man, that's going to go around and spread this deadly virus to lots of people.

And you wouldn't kill the one healthy patient, to save the five.

Because in both situations, you're an absolutist, and the rule is you don't kill people.

So no matter what the consequences, you will always not kill.

In relative ethics it's a little bit different, morals depend on the individual situation.

So example, a relativist may say that, it is wrong to kill one healthy person to keep five other people alive possibly.

However, they may say that if you've got one person, that's going to go around and kill millions and millions of people unless you stop them.

Well in that particular situation, it might be acceptable, to kill that one person with the virus.

When you are ready, please pause the video, copy out the words and the definitions, and fill in the blanks.

If you're feeling really brave, you could create an example to go with each definition.

True or false ethics is the study of morals? That'd be true.

Absolute ethics are based on individual situations.

That would also be true.

Absolute ethics are based on rules.

We were all true on these ones.

Finally we're going to have a go, at applying some of these ethical theories, we've been learning about to some practise.

I would like you to pause the video, to complete your task.

You may need a ruler to help you with this.

So first thing I'd like you to do is copy out this table.

You need a whole piece of A4 paper for the table.

So you need to make your boxes nice and big.

What I'd like you to do next, is copy out the following two scenarios.

I would then like you to complete the rest of the table.

I have put in my own to help you with the first one.

What I'd like you to do next, is copy out the following two scenarios.

I would then like you to complete the rest of the table.

I have put in my own to help you with the first one.

Once again, pause the video and write in the following two scenarios.

Remember to comment whether you think they are absolute or relative and what would you do and why.

Let's see how you did then.

I'm going to go through my answers.

So Sarah has had a time machine.

She uses it to go back and kill Hitler.

This would be a relative morality, because she is killing.

Because the overall consequence, will be that a lot less people die.

I would do the same.

Chip didn't revise for his maths test.

He's very worried about failing.

His friend Biff offers to let him copy his answers.

But chip says no.

That's because he follows absolute morality.

He believes that it's always wrong to copy, because that's a form of stealing.

Aladdin has two children.

They are starving and have no money.

He decides to steal a loaf of bread, from the shop feed his family.

This is because he follows relative morality.

I would also steal in this situation, because there were two starving children.

And the money that the shop owner would lose, would be minimal.

Bob has the cure for COVID-19 or has a friend that does, and he chooses to steal it.

Once again this is an example of relative morality.

This is because, by stealing the cure, and giving it to possibly other leaders of other countries, he could be potentially saving millions, and millions of lives.

So it would be worth stealing on this occasion.

Finally I would like you to pause the video, to complete the last task.

You need to copy the words or the sentences, sorry.

And give your reasons.

As a challenge, can you explain why, someone might have another point of view on the other hand? Before I go please don't forget to complete the quiz.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson.

Ethics is my all time favourite topic in RA, because it just plays with your mind.

I love the fact that, things that might seemingly be right or wrong can change.

Hope you've really enjoyed it.

If you have, you can tune into some more of my lessons.

Next lesson, we're looking at utilitarianism, which is a consequentialist form of ethics.