Agenda

• Today

    - Basics of Ethics
    - Overview of application of ethics to government

• Next class

    - Congressional Ethics

Overview for today

• Purpose and expectations

• Trolley Problem

• Reciprocity

• Other concerns

• Government officials as Trustees

    - comparison to private trustees or "fiduciaries"
    - Does legality fall short of good ethics for government officials?

Purpose and Expectations

• This course is listed under state requirements as covering ethics

    - "Each semester we evaluate student performance in one of the Core Objectives. In Spring 2025, we will be evaluating personal responsibility, using the AAC&U VALUE Rubric for Ethical Reasoning (attached). We ask you to review this rubric as you plan your course for the spring."

• Ethical considerations in government are a growing concern among voters and for many of us (hopefully you!) more interesting than committee structures and obscure court cases

• Considering ethics in government gives us a valuable chance to think about personal behavior

Purpose and Expectations

• I am not an ethicist, philosophy, or political theorist (political philosopher)
• We will be exploring the topic together.
• I don’t have “right” answers, just questions and suggestions.
• If I express an opinion, you can disagree!
• There will be a few terms and concepts you should learn.

Purpose and Expectations

• If it were feasible to test this the way I would like, I would ask you to think through your opinions and submit it in writing. Since it isn’t feasible…
• I will ask you to remember some key concepts that we discuss and a few technical details of ethical standards in government on each exam.
• I expect those will be easier than most exam questions.

Trolley Problem

Trolley Problem

Trolley Problem: Issues

• utility: greatest good for greatest number

Trolley Problem: Issues

• utility: greatest good for greatest number

• commission versus omission - level of responsibility

Trolley Problem: Issues

• utility: greatest good for greatest number

• commission versus omission - level of responsibility

    - ends and means

Trolley Problem and Government

• Government adds more issues

    - delegation - lack of accountability/responsibility
    - use of coercive force 

Trolley Problem: Solutions

• level of responsibility

    - 5 to 1, versus 500 to 1, 5 billion to 1. Does it make a difference?
    - Is there a line or is the answer always the same?
    - Related: Baby Hitler problem

• Widely accepted answer when faced with this sort of decision:

    - You should consider the options seriously
    - Whichever you choose, you question if the decision was right after you make it

Reciprocity aka The Golden Rule

• The Golden Rule in a variety of forms from many world religions and non-religious philosophies:

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.

    - Attributed to the Buddha

Other Statements of the negative Golden Rule

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole of the Torah. All else is commentary. Go and contemplate it.”

    - Hillel the Elder
    

The positive Golden Rule

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

    - Jesus of Nazareth
    

The Golden Rule plus some extra

“None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”

    - Hadith attributed to the Prophet Muhammed, PBUH
    

Philosophical (non-religious) Golden Rule

己所不欲，勿施於人

Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you.¹

    - Confucius 孔子
    

Golden Rule beyond humans

One who is going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.

    - Yoruba proverb
    

Golden Rule and the Dharma

“One should never do that to another which one regards as injurious to one’s own self. This, in brief, is the rule of Righteousness [Dharma].”¹

    - Mahabharata Anusasana Parva - Translation by KM Ganguly
    
    

Other Concerns

Other Concerns: Utilitarianism

Other Concerns: Utilitarianism

Other Concerns: Ethical nihilism

Other concerns: Ethical nihilism

Other concerns: Ethical Relativism

Other concerns: Ethical Relativism

• If our concern is building an ethical society, how is this any more useful than ethical nihilism?

• There seem to be universal or nearly universal values, even if they vary in details:

    - The Golden Rule in some form
    - Prohibitions on unjustified killing
    - Prohibitions on taking the rightly owned property of others

Other concerns: Ethical Relativism

• How can we condemn past wrongs of our own society and improve ourselves if we hold that the only ethical standards that matter are those of the culture?

    - If Abolitionists had accepted ethical relativism, we would still have slavery.
    - If the voting standards of 1910 were accepted as correct under ethical relativism, women would still not be able to vote.
    - If the standards on punishment of 1500 were judged under ethical relativism, we would still draw and quarter people convicted of a wide range of capital crimes.

Government as Trustee

Private Trustees or Fiduciaries

In the private sector, Lawyers, Physicians, Corporate Directors, Financial Advisors, Real Estate Agents, and many others have a responsibility called fiduciary that requires them to set aside their own self-interest and act in the best interest of their clients.

Private Trustees or Fiduciaries

Fiduciary responsibilities include:

• Duty of Loyalty
• Duty of Care
• Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing
• Duty of Confidentiality
• Full Disclosure
• Record Keeping
• Informing Clients

Duty of Loyalty

Duty of Care

Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Duty of Confidentiality

Duty of Full Disclosure

Record Keeping

Informing Clients

Government Officials vs Private Fiduciaries

• There are occasions where some may reasonably not apply

    - National security and "immediately inform" standard
    - Confidentiality in some cases of public interest such as "fair and speedy public trials"

Government Officials vs Private Fiduciaries

• There are occasions where some may reasonably not apply
• In most cases should government officials least live up to the standards of the capitalist private sector?

Government Officials vs Private Fiduciaries

• There are occasions where some may reasonably not apply
• In most cases should government officials least live up to the standards of the capitalist private sector?
• If government officials are not expected to live up to the standards of the capitalist free market which only has economic power, how can we trust them with the coercive use of violent force?

Good and bad in government

• Today, we tend to categorize government as “good” the more it involves the participation, especially through voting, of larger parts of the population
• We consider it “bad” as power becomes concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, with the powerful dictator as the worst type.

Aristotle’s conception of government

• Aristotle divided government into three levels on this basis, too

• But each level had two forms

• True forms

    - based on common good
    - pure

• Despotic forms

    - based on selfish interest
    - corrupt

Aristotle’s forms of government

Aristotle’s Typology

Aristotle’s forms and government ethics

Questions for each ethical category

• How does a behavior contribute to maintaing the True form of the government?
• How does a behavior contributed to degrading the government, making it more Despotic?
• Is the action for the Common Good or the Selfish Interest?

Aristotle’s forms: Important note

Related point about Constitutional Government:

• Constitutional government has as one of its purposes, using the self-interest of groups to limit (“check” and “balance”) each other to maintain the True form and prevent the slide to Despotism.

Authorship and License

Do not submit to Quizlet, Chegg, Coursehero, or other similar commercial websites.

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

Graphics Credit: Unless otherwise noted graphics are from Norton Publishers

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.