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154 UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA LAW JOURNAL DECEMBER 2010 understood by human beings through philosophical inquiry. Proponents of this broad branch of ethics represent a very wide variety of schools of thoughts that often include diametrically opposed world views and political philosophies. Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx all believed in ethical absolutism, despite the fact that the overall philosophy and world view of each man was quite different. Religious Fundamentalism Religious fundamentalism is an offshoot of ethical fundamentalism. As a theory of ethics, it is based on the existence of certain immutable truths. Unlike ethical absolutism, however, which requires that these values be discovered through philosophical inquiry and introspection, ethical norms under religious fundamentalism can only be found by studying the lives and writings of prophets or by consulting Holy Scriptures. Under this philosophy, living a moral life depends upon strict adherence to the religious principles and moral code dictated by one’s religion. Utilitarianism Utilitarianism has as its ethical base the assignment of value to actions based upon their outcome. Under utilitarianism, the ultimate good is defined as actions intended to bring about the greatest happiness (or greatest good) for the greatest number of individuals in any society. Thus, moral action for a utilitarian requires the constant evaluation of actions based upon their intended result. Actions that bring about the greatest good to the greatest number are ethical, or good, while actions that fall short of that goal are unethical, or wrong. To put it another way, utilitarianism does not recognize an intrinsic value to actions, but rather assigns a positive or negative moral judgment to actions only in view of their result. The most notable proponents of this philosophy are the British philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and John Stuart Mill (1806-1873). Ethical Relativism Like utilitarianism, ethical relativism denies the existence of absolute moral values, and holds that moral judgments cannot be made in a vacuum. Unlike utilitarianism, however, the yardstick by which to measure the morality of an act is not the common good, but rather the circumstances surrounding the person committing an act at the time that an act is committed. It is a precept of this philosophy that a person's actions cannot be judged other than by placing oneself in the same situation that the actor faced in committing the act in
PRINCIPLED LEADERSHIP 155 question. So that stealing to feed one's hungry child, for example, is not necessarily wrong. On a societal level, ethical relativism acknowledges that there are differences between cultures and that what is considered wrong or even hateful in one culture may be acceptable in another, depending on its particular circumstances. Human sacrifice, cannibalism, infanticide and ethnic cleansing are all arguably justifiable for some cultures. Notable proponents of relativistic theories include W.G. Sumner (1849-1910) in the U.S. and E.A. Westermarck (1862-1939) in the U.K. Deontology Deontology is a duty-based ethical theory whose principal proponent is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). For Kant, an act's morality is dependent upon the actor's motive, and the only unconditionally good motive is doing one’s duty. For Kant, the concept of duty finds its expression in categorical imperatives, a set of rules of behavior derived from practical reason and tested through a filter of universal application. A basic categorical imperative arrived at practical reasoning, such as you should not steal, is valid if you can justify the whole world living up to the rule. In other words, moral behavior can be defined as acting in accordance with rules that you would be willing to impose on the whole world as a valid code of conduct. A person acts morally whenever she follows a categorical imperative out of a sense of duty. Merely engaging in right action of itself is not moral; refraining from stealing because one feels the obligation not to steal is moral conduct, but refraining from stealing out of fear of getting caught would not rise to the level of moral conduct. 3. ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY The political implications that flow from even a very superficial overview of differing ethical systems should not be ignored. Whether by design or by default, the ethical values held by political leaders and lawmakers invariably become a part of the political system. We need not look far to see examples of the influence of ethical systems on public policy and on the politics of nations. The influence of religious fundamentalism can readily be seen today in a number of countries, particularly in the Middle East, where militant religious fundamentalists are engaged in armed struggles to overthrow what they believe to be immoral secular governments that are instilling in their people false moral values. If one believes that the only true source of morality is religion, it is logical to believe that theocracy is not only the best, but perhaps the only moral form of government. Ethical absolutism is also readily observable in its secular form in past and present non-religious totalitarian Marxist, communist and
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