Ethical Intuitionism (Ross)

Prima Facie Duty = A conditional (non-absolute) duty: one should always act upon a prima facie duty unless it comes in conflict with an equal or stronger duty. D is my prima facie duty in situation S if and only if I ought to do D in situations like S, unless some other obligation overrides the obligation to do S.

Actual Duty = D is my actual duty in situation S if and only if D is what I ought to do in S. This is the higher duty determined by examining weights of competing prima facie duties.

In a conflict of rules, one will be prima facie and one will be actual.

• One, and only one, of two prima facie duties is my actual duty
• I know each of them to be a prima facie duty—this is self-evident
• I can have only an opinion about which is "more of a duty" and therefore my actual duty
• No rule can determine an actual duty; the best we can do is to make reflective "considered decisions" as to which of the competing prima facie duties takes priority.
  
  
  

W. D. Ross' Two Principles

1. When two prima facie duties conflict, act on the more compelling prima facie duty.
   
   
2. When three or more prima facie duties conflict, act so as to produce the greatest on balance of prima facie rightness over prima facie wrongness.
   
   
   
   

W. D. Ross' Prima Facie Duties

1. Duties to Others not based on previous acts of yours
   
   
   1. Duty of beneficence (be kind, charitable, help others in need).
   2. Duty of non-maleficence (never harm others without a compelling reason).
   3. Duty of justice (treat others justly: promote a fair distribution of pleasure and happiness).
      
      
2. Duties to Others you have because of previous acts of yours
   
   
   1. Duty of fidelity (keep promises, commitments).
   2. Duty of reparation (compensate people for harm you cause).
   3. Duty of gratitude (thank people for benefits they confer upon you).
      
      
3. Duties to Self
   
   
   1. Improve oneself physically, intellectually, and morally to reach one's fullest potential.

    

In The Right and The Good (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930) W. D. Ross argues that there are objective ethical truths and that skeptical attacks on morality fail. Ross believes we know both our prima facie duties and our actual duty through intuition. Ross rejects Utilitarians' focus on consequences alone, but also rejects Kant's absolute rules. Following common sense, we should recognize intuitively an objective moral order. The basic principles of ethics, like those of math and logic, are self-evident truths. These principles become clear to us when we reach sufficient intellectual maturity.

Moral skeptics doubt these common-sense principles but we all rely on them in daily life. Our considered commonsense intuitions are the data to which ethical theory must conform. He further argued that our ethical intuitions are best captured, not by utilitarianism, but by a set of "prima facie" duties that hold other things equal. We ought to do good to others, keep our promises, avoid harming others, and so forth. When these duties conflict, we have to weigh one duty against another and see which is stronger in the situation.

Strengths

• Attempts to unite rules and consequences
• Attempts to resolve conflicts of duties
  
  

Weaknesses

• Non-systematic character of pluralistic deontology makes justification of a moral action problematic
• Duties discovered by intuition; intuitions may differ about whether something is a duty or not
• Deciding which duty is the higher (actual) duty is difficult
• Covertly appeals to consequences (utility) of an action for justification (i.e., it is just a way to improve utilitarianism)