How to Teach Ethics to Ordinary People, Kreps Symposium 2025

Key Concepts

• Intermediate Ethical Generalizations: Rough, approximate ethical principles used in everyday life, avoiding fundamental philosophical controversies.
• Trolleyology: The use of trolley problems and similar moral dilemmas as a primary focus in ethical discussions, often seen as overly simplistic.
• Virtue Ethics: An ethical approach emphasizing the development of good character traits (virtues) to guide moral choices.
• Deontology (Kantian Ethics): An ethical theory focused on duties and rights, emphasizing the inherent dignity and moral worth of individuals.
• Utilitarianism: An ethical theory that judges actions based on their consequences, aiming to maximize overall welfare or "utility."
• Casuistry: The determination of right and wrong by analyzing cases that illustrate general ethical rules, often through analogical reasoning.
• Normative Pluralism: Appreciating multiple ethical frameworks and using them as tools to address different aspects of a moral dilemma.
• Ren (仁): Confucian concept of benevolence or humaneness, emphasizing the importance of relationships and duties to others.
• Doctrine of Double Effect: A principle stating that it is sometimes permissible to cause harm as a side effect of pursuing a good end, but not as a direct means to that end.

1. The Problem with "Moral Brain Teasers"

• The speaker, Kwame Anthony Appiah, argues that academic ethics is often perceived as solving abstract "moral brain teasers" like trolley problems.
• He critiques the overemphasis on "trolleyology," a term he coined, as misleading because real-world ethical problems are messy, complex, and context-dependent.
• Real ethical dilemmas are compared to "cooking dinner when half your guests have dietary restrictions they failed to mention," highlighting the uncertainty and lack of simple algorithms.

2. Intermediate Ethical Generalizations and the Role of Philosophy

• Drawing on Henry Sidgwick, Appiah discusses "intermediate ethical generalizations" – the practical, everyday ethical principles people use.
• Professional philosophy grapples with fundamental controversies, but helping people in their daily lives requires operating within these more accessible generalizations.
• He argues that moral traditions often agree on what should be done, even if they disagree on the underlying reasons why.
• Sidgwick identifies two obstacles to ethical conduct: imperfect knowledge of our duty ("mind problem") and insufficient motivation to act on what we know ("heart problem").
• Philosophers can help by clarifying duties and influencing motives.

3. Influencing Motives Through Imagination and Understanding

• Appiah suggests that arguments alone are often insufficient to change people's motives.
• Fictions, literature, and the arts can play a crucial role by "enlarging our sympathies" and fostering imaginative engagement with the lives of others.
• He quotes Iris Murdoch, who said that "love is the extremely difficult realization that someone other than oneself is real," and suggests that novels and movies can help us understand this.
• He cites Peter Singer's work on animal suffering as an example of philosophical work that has impacted motivations.
• Concepts like "hostile environment," popularized by legal scholars like Catharine MacKinnon and illuminated by Miranda Fricker, can reframe situations and help us recognize previously unseen moral wrongs. The movie North Country is given as an example of how these concepts can be communicated to the public.

4. A Framework for Ethical Decision-Making: The Four Axes

• Appiah presents a framework for ethical decision-making based on four key questions, each tied to a major figure in the history of ethics:

  • Confucius: "What am I to you? What are you to me?" This emphasizes the importance of relationships and the duties that arise from them. He uses the concept of ren (benevolence) and widening circles of priority.
  • Aristotle: "Who do I want to be?" This focuses on self-development, virtue ethics, and cultivating good habits of thought and feeling. He mentions Elizabeth Anscombe's critique of modern moral philosophy's departure from Aristotelian virtue ethics.
  • Kant: "Who owes what to whom?" This centers on rights, duties, and the inherent dignity of individuals. He mentions contemporary Kantians like Christine Korsgaard and Onora O'Neill, who emphasizes the need to associate rights with corresponding duties.
  • John Stuart Mill: "What consequences will their choices have for everyone's welfare?" This highlights the importance of considering the impact of our actions on the well-being of all those affected (utilitarianism).

• This framework promotes "normative pluralism," appreciating multiple ethical perspectives rather than adhering to a single "true" approach.

5. Casuistry and Learning from Cases

• Appiah advocates for casuistry, the analysis of specific cases to determine right and wrong, as a valuable method for ethical reasoning.
• He emphasizes that learning from cases often involves analogical reasoning, comparing new situations to past ones.
• He uses the Analects of Confucius as an example of casuistry in action, where general ideas are explored through specific examples.
• He notes that exploring many cases deepens one's understanding of the ethical concepts involved.

6. The Ethicist Column as an Example of Applied Ethics

• Appiah discusses his work as "The Ethicist" for The New York Times, where he answers readers' ethical dilemmas.
• He explains that the column's purpose is not just to solve individual quandaries but to encourage readers to think about ethical issues.
• He emphasizes the importance of embedding answers in narratives, as stories are more memorable and can help people apply ethical concepts to their own lives.
• He provides an example of a recent question he answered, involving a person who knows that their cousin was born from a sibling union.
• He demonstrates how he uses the four axes (Confucian relationships, Aristotelian character, Kantian rights, and Millian consequences) to analyze the situation.

7. The Importance of Realism and Practical Wisdom

• Appiah emphasizes the importance of being in touch with reality and understanding the context in which we are making our lives.
• He draws on Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia (human flourishing) as an activity of the soul in accordance with reason.
• He argues that developing practical wisdom, the ability to deliver the right responses through long and careful practice, is essential for ethical living.
• He suggests that this practice can come not only from real-world challenges but also from entertaining them in the imagination.

8. Trolley Problems Revisited and the Doctrine of Double Effect

• Appiah returns to the topic of trolley problems, arguing that their artificiality makes them misleading as a model for real-world ethical decision-making.
• He discusses Philippa Foot's original trolley problem and her exploration of the doctrine of double effect, which attempts to distinguish between intended and unintended consequences.
• He argues that the issue is not simply about intention but about whether one is entitled to aim at the death of another person, even in self-defense.
• He uses Foot's analysis to illustrate the value of casuistry, where reflection on cases educates our understanding and reveals the limitations of simplistic principles.
• He highlights Foot's distinctions between doing something and allowing it, and between positive duties and supererogatory acts of charity.

9. Conclusion

• The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of casuistry and narratives in moral education.
• He suggests that we develop ethical wisdom through exposure to countless examples, learning to recognize patterns and apply them to our own lives.
• He advocates for a nuanced and context-sensitive approach to ethics, drawing on a variety of philosophical traditions and recognizing the complexities of real-world moral dilemmas.