Ethics: TOK Area of Knowledge 2022 Guide

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In your Tok essay or Tok presentation, you may be required to discuss one or two areas of knowledge depending on the prompt question or the titles.

Ethics focuses on one fundamental question, ‘What should one do?’ It determines which actions should be praiseworthy or blameworthy.

Some of the important questions in this AOK include

What does morally right mean?
Can moral actions be tested or judged the same way as scientific claims?

Table of Contents

Ethics Knowledge framework

This framework will help us discuss the important issues for different AOKs and, in this case, ethics. There are five aspects of the knowledge framework used to approach each AoK.

Scope and Applications

This aspect covers the range of knowledge and how it can be used in real-life situations.

Ethics can be linked to many other AoKs, such as the Natural sciences. For instance, scientists consider whether it is ethical or human to carry out some tests on human beings.

Also, religious systems may influence our beliefs on moral values and what is wrong or right.

Are moral values built into the very quest for knowledge?

Ethical knowledge includes

sets of rules
statements of duties
rights, or obligations
Theory or laws

There has been a long-standing argument among scholars in defining ethics due to the litany of disparities surrounding this AoK.

The difficulty in defining ethics is because of the influence of different cultures and what is considered ethical within those cultures.

There may be no firm overarching criteria for judging what ethics is, and that is why many people argue about defining it.

Ethics: TOK Area of Knowledge 2022 Guide

Concepts and language

These are the key ideas in each AoK and how knowledge is described using area-specific language.

There are different ethical systems, and each has its own set of key concepts and terminologies.

Ethical decisions are when people decide between what is right and wrong. Whereas ethical theories are theories that a philosopher comes up with to support why they think action is morally right or wrong.

Consequentialists

Consequentialists put more focus on the consequences of the things we do.

They believe that ethical behavior is judged on the basis of whether the consequences are positive or negative. They do not focus on whether the intentions are good or bad.

For example, would you choose to save your sister or a neurosurgeon out of a burning building? A consequentialist would ask to think about the consequences of saving a neurosurgeon who may save a lot of lives in their career.

Deontologists

These people focus on people’s moral obligations. People from this school of thought tend to follow a set of rules. For instance, if somebody wants to steal but they don’t do it, deontologists consider this person to be morally wrong as the intention is immoral.

Some real-life examples of deontologists include Human Rights.

Virtue Ethics

This is where different qualities such as patience or courage are valued. According to virtue ethics, the ethical thing to do is what a virtuous person would do in a similar situation.

Is the prescriptive “ought” of moral discourse (communication of thought by words; talk; conversation) fundamentally different from the descriptive “is” of actual dialogue?

Language in Ethics

Normally it contains a built-in requirement for different actions. Knowledge of ethics tends to be imperative as it tells us how we are supposed to behave.

Language in ethics is also universal.

Subjectivity refers to ideas and feelings on perceptions of artwork. People depend on personal knowledge to interpret art, meaning no two pieces of art will be interpreted in the same way due to the differences in personalities and preferences.

Methodology

Ethical Framework

Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue Ethics

Ethicists use these frameworks and use reason to apply to a given ethical dilemma. They can refine their moral judgments by checking their intuitions on what feels morally right.

At times they do this by considering ethical principles. For instance, consequentialists may consider the consequences of actions that act as a basis for their evaluation.

An important question in this framework is what role does intuition, empirical evidence, rational argument, emotion, and imagination play in the search for moral knowledge?

Historical Development

This focuses on changes over time and the development of the AOKs throughout the years.

Traditions and values in ethics have changed over time, influencing our appreciation of certain ethical values.

Its historical developments show that over time there have been changes in ethics in different countries and cultures.

For instance, Plato thought that people could gain virtue by studying mathematics. Philosophy or the sciences. On the other hand, Aristotle argued that we should learn virtues through personal experiences.

Links to personal knowledge

At times individuals can contribute to different AOKs the same way shared knowledge can impact personal ability.

Ethics can have a big impact on our personal knowledge. Our personal systems have a big influence on our actions, and our ethics normally influences these.

When describing ethics, always use real-life situations and aim at explaining the ethical values, their significance, and how it applies to your Tok Essay or presentation.

Ethical Theories

Self-Interest Theory

The self-interest theory contends that people are always and everywhere selfish. This argument contends that even if there are objective moral principles, we are unable to uphold them since selfish behavior is typically viewed as the antithesis of moral behavior.

According to the definitional theory, everybody is selfish; therefore, that must be right. When you act on your desires, which is always what you most want to do since, else, you wouldn’t, you are being selfish. Altruism’s opposite is this kind of unselfish behavior, in which we prioritize the needs of others before our own.