Notes based on Lumpkin, A., Stoll, S.K., & Beller, J.M. (2003). Sport Ethics: Application for Fair Play (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

Ethics: Science of morals or character.

Moral: Individual’s actions as being right or wrong, virtuous or vicious, or good or bad in relation to actions, intentions, or character of responsible people carrying out the deed.

Value: Something that has worth to you. Very relative. Two types of values are nonmoral (things, places, events) and moral values (fair play). Moral values are necessary for a society to thrive, for a people to live, and for a person to flourish.

• Primary moral values: Honesty (truthfulness), justice (fairness), or responsibility (respect), Beneficence.
• Social values: loyalty, commitment, dedication, hard work, determination, cooperation. These are based on American work ethic and are not valued in all societies.

Good character: Character is a statement of value. Moral values are the relative worth we place on motives, intentions, and actions of people dealing , working or playing with other people.

• Likona: Moral knowing, moral feeling, and moral action.
• Virtuecrats: We learn basis of good character through reading good works and following correct and acceptable behavior.
• Aristotelian: Character is the composite of good moral qualities whereby one shows firmness of belief, resolution, and practice about such moral values as honesty, justice, and respect. What makes us human is our ability to reason. Virtue results when we use reasoning to control and moderate ourselves.

Critical reflection:

• Be accurate, exact and precise about an issue
• Take into account all sides of an issue
• Determine its present and future implications.

Kantian ethics: Universality means applied to all persons he same. Categorical imperative stated that duties are prescriptive and independent of consequences. Principles:

1. Moral judgments must be founded on universal rules
2. Persons must always be treated with respect.

Moral Value

1. Justice: Includes distributive, procedural, retributive, and compensatory
2. Honesty: Being truthful or trustworthy. If you disagree with something you have three choices: accept it and participate anyway, accept it but try to change it, refuse to participate.
3. Responsibility: Accounting for actions
4. Beneficence: Condition of not doing harm, preventing harm, removing harm, or doing good.

Moral Principles: Universal guides that tell which kind of actions, intentions, and motives are prohibited, obligatory, or permitted in human interactions.

Application of principles

• Stacking: Weighing the importance of values or principles and attempt a rational solution in a difficult situation.
• Exceptions: If values conflict for a given action, it is permissible to develop an exception to one of the rules. Is it permissible to use exceptions in everyday trivial interaction?

Moral problem solving

1. Are any moral principles violated?
2. Are any moral rules violated? Day to day rules like NCAA rules or OSAA.
3. Is this case an exception? Must show there is a good, overriding reason for allowing the exception. Can you generalize this exception to all cases? Keep in mind that if rules are arbitrarily followed, then rules have no worth and chaos is the result. If you break one rule there is a slippery slope that exists.
4. Are the rules justified?
5. How can the rules be changed?