WJEC/Eduqas RS for A2/Yr2: Religion and Ethics (DRAFT)

WJEC / Eduqas Religious Studies for A Level Year 2 and A2 Religion and Ethics

Firstly, Divine Command Theory is a normative ethic that states that the status of an action as morally good or bad is based upon what God commands or forbids. For example, in Christianity God’s moral commands can be found in the Bible. One set of moral commands is the Decalogue, which can be found in Exodus 20. One of these Ten Commandments is ‘You shall not murder’. Therefore, human beings know that murder is morally wrong because God has commanded this. This is not a determinist doctrine because, like all normative ethics, this acts only as a moral guide for the agent. However, it must be conceded that the use of human free-willed reason is reduced in this particular normative ethic. This is because human beings do not need to use their own reason to rationalise morality; it is provided for them; such as ‘murder is morally wrong’. However, a human being still needs to freely reason whether Divine Command Theory is or is not the rational understanding of God’s eternal moral law. Therefore, whether it is the right normative ethic for them to follow to achieve their freely chosen goal of following God’s moral law. Secondly, Act Utilitarianism is an atheist normative ethic created by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). He wanted to create a normative ethic that reflected the moral needs of people in society, which he believed was pleasure. As Bentham stated: ‘Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure.’ From this idea Bentham created Act Utilitarianism, which basically revolves around, what he called, ‘the principle of utility’: an action should only be carried out if the consequences of that action bring about the maximum happiness for the maximum amount of people affected by the action. As Bentham stated: ‘By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of an action on whether an action augments or diminishes happiness.’ Bentham is pre-supposing with the principle of utility that human beings have the free will to select the course of action which will bring about the greatest happiness. For example, if an act of kindness would bring about the greatest happiness then a human being is morally guided by Act Utilitarianism to do this action. However, this is based on the principle that a human being has a free will choice to make, when weighing up whether to help the elderly person across the road. Therefore, if libertarianism advocates are correct when stating that all human decisions are free willed then normative ethics, such as Divine Command Theory and Act Utilitarianism, are of value. Key quote By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of an action on whether an action augments or diminishes happiness. (Bentham) AO1 Activity Work in groups of three. Firstly, divide the three parts of the implications of libertarianism on moral responsibility: 1. The worth of human ideas of rightness, wrongness and moral value. 2. The value in blaming human beings for immoral acts. 3. The usefulness of normative ethics. Each person then summarises their theory in no more than 75 words. Each person then presents their summary to the other two people in their group.

DRAFT

Normative ethics means following rules.

4.27 Why does a human being need free will to fully utilise a normative ethic like Act Utilitarianism?

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