Optional Theme: Ethics
What this domain tests
If you choose Ethics, Paper 1 Section B tests normative theories, metaethical positions and applied moral problems. You must explain a theory accurately, apply it to the case given, and evaluate it against objections and rival theories.
Core content
- Normative ethics: Bentham's hedonic calculus and Mill's higher and lower pleasures; act and rule utilitarianism; Kant's categorical imperative (universal law and humanity as an end); Aristotle's virtue ethics (eudaimonia, phronesis, the mean relative to us).
- Metaethics: moral realism and anti-realism; cognitivism and non-cognitivism; Ayer's emotivism; Mackie's error theory; moral relativism.
- Applied issues: lying, euthanasia, animal ethics, poverty and technology.
Worked example
Question: 'May a journalist break a promise to protect a source?' A Kantian asks whether the maxim can be universalised and whether the source is treated as an end; the duty not to lie or break promises is stringent, though Kant's own 'murderer at the door' shows tension. An act utilitarian calculates expected good; a rule utilitarian asks whether a practice of keeping promises produces greater trust and welfare. Evaluate which theory captures the relevant reasons, then judge.
Traps
- Confusing act with rule utilitarianism.
- Calling Kant a consequentialist or a rule utilitarian.
- Reducing virtue ethics to 'finding the middle'.
- Mixing metaethics with normative ethics.
- Ignoring the specific details of the scenario.