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

T4 Determinism and free will

Issues for analysis and evaluation The extent to which free human beings should follow a normative ethic This issue is asking candidates to consider whether a human being, with free will, should follow a normative ethic. Candidates could approach the above issue from several lines of argument. One line of argument is that a free human being should follow a normative ethic because they help an agent use their free will to manoeuvre down the path of morality and away from immorality. This is particularly true because a human being’s free will to choose the moral path may be compromised by ignorance of morality. Without a normative ethic to guide the agent’s free-willed sense of morality, the agent may become amoral, i.e. lacking any moral sense because they are unaware of right or wrong. This point is supported with a consideration of a particular normative ethic, such as Act Utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism is an atheist normative ethic created by Jeremy Bentham. 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 helping an elderly person across the road would bring about the greatest happiness then the human being is morally guided by Act Utilitarianism to do this action. Therefore, a normative ethic is very useful for a ‘free’ human being because it acts as a guide to morality. However, the above point could be countered because some normative ethics could be seen to compromise an agent’s free will, e.g. Divine Command Theory. Divine Command Theory is a normative ethic that states that an action’s status as

This section covers AO2 content and skills

Specification content The extent to which free human beings should follow a normative ethic

DRAFT

AO2 Activity As you read through this section try to do the following: 1. Pick out the different lines of argument that are presented in the text and identify any evidence given in support. 2. For each line of argument try to evaluate whether or not you think this is strong or weak. 3. Think of any questions you may wish to raise in response to the arguments. This Activity will help you to start thinking critically about what you read and help you to evaluate the effectiveness of different arguments and from this develop your own observations, opinions and points of view that will help with any conclusions that you make in your answers to the AO2 questions that arise.

The Ten Commandments are an example of normative ethics.

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