Ethics & Society

Define Extrinsic Goods

Is the type of thing that is good because of what it brings you: ex: money, cars, cell phones, praise

Define Intrinsic Goods

Is the type of thing that is good for its own sake; ex: knowledge/education, happiness, truth

Define Deontology

Is the view that action is right or wrong depends on the principle (or intention) that motivated the action

Define Consequentialism

Is the view that an act is right or wrong depending on the consequences of that action

Define Psychological Egoism (PE)

Is the view that humans are driven purely by self-interest

Define Hedonism

Is the view that pleasure/enjoyment/happiness is the ONLY intrinsic

Discuss 2 objections against Cultural Relativism.

# 1- The Entailment Argument on cultural relativism is that different cultures have different moral codes than there is no one universal moral code. Just because there is a disagreement on an issue doesn't mean there isn't an objective of the matter. #2 - Another objection is the Argument of Tolerance is a relativist claim that we must be accepting of all moral codes. But what if a society endorses intolerance? Must a tolerant society be tolerant of intolerance? CR contradicts itself. Call this the argument from tolerance.

List 3 virtues from the Ethic of Care.

- Compassion - Self-Understanding - Proper Self Loving

List 3 Aristotelian virtues.

- Courage - Temperance - Charity

List 3 buddhist virtues.

- Wisdom - Patience - Truthfulness

Critical thinking: describe two thought-experiments intended to undermine Utilitarianism. Explain why they allegedly

1. The near and dear argument intended to undermine utilitarianism because we seem to have those duties towards those who are near and dear to us, but utilitarianism just seems to make us into cold-hearted utility maximizers. 2. The Experience Machine intended to undermine utilitarianism because we have responsibilities to the collective, not just to ourselves/ the Utilitarian would not endure entering the experience machine.

What is the Humanity Formulation of the Categorical Imperative?

Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means

What is the Universal Law Formulation of the Categorical Imperative?

Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law

What is Ethical Theory?

Aka Normative ethics is the subfield of Philology concerned with the development of a philological system that prescribes how one ought to act; it attempts to prescribe how one should live

How would an egoist explain seemingly altruistic behaviors such as caring for needy?

Altruistic behaviors that egoists can explain is that people behave this way to avoid the feeling of guiltiness and that it is only out of self-interest benefits of working cooperatively and for moral praise

Give an objection to the Categorical Imperative which was given in class.

An objection for Categorical Imperative is that it is too strict and that too vague when duties conflicted due to lying. Kant claims that you can never lie but aren't some lies seemingly innocent? (like a white lie.)

Define Descriptive Claim

Are claims which merely purport to describe how something or someone actually is

According to Kant, what are imperfect duties?

Are supererogatory, i.e., you do not receive moral blame if you don't complete them, but you will get moral praise if you do, e.g., developing your talents

Define Normative Claim

Are those claims which prescribe how something or someone should be

Define The Principal of Utility

Asserts that an act is only morally right if it maximizes happiness/pleasure and/or minimizes pain for all persons involved

What is the Divine Command Theory?

Entails that God is the source of moral laws, what God forbids is morally wrong, what God allows is morally permissible, and the meaning of "moral" is given by God command's

Define Sentience

Is the capacity to feel pleasure and pain

Critical thinking: According to Kant, what is freedom? Explain

He points out that freedom is not just doing whatever you desire. This is because some desire is not genuinely coming from us. Kant argues that true freedom comes when you rid yourself of these non-rational desires.

Define Naturalism

In Ethics, identifies some (or all) moral properties with some natural phenomenon

Define the Kantian term Pure Reason

In other words, pure reason is the idea that we do not need to look at the consequences of an action (in the empirical realm) to gage whether it is right or wrong

Define the Kantian term Rational Beings

Is a being that can live according to principles

What is cognitive bias?

Is a psychological impulse that can unconsciously cause a person to form. a judgment or belief (or perform a behavior) from poo, irrelevant, or insufficient data

In Virtue Ethics, what is a wrong action?

Is the action that a vicious character would do

In Virtue Ethics, what is the right action?

Is the action that the virtuous character

How does Aristotle believe you developed virtues?

Primarily through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction

Critical Thinking: Psychological egoism is assumed by both Ethical Egoism and Hobbs' Social Contract Theory. How Does each theory use Psychological Egoism in order to defend its views of morality? Explain in details.

Psychological egoism is the view that humans are purely driven by self-interest. Ethical egoism is the theory that actions are morally right just because they promote one's self-interest. Hobbs' Social Contract Theory is that we submit to living under a government because if we didn't, we would all be at war with each other-everything would be chaotic. The only reason why we submit is purely because of self-interest. Therefore, morality is a convenient fiction. Psychological Egoism is assumed by Hobbes' Social Contract Theory.

Explain what it means to say the Divine Command Theory might be descriptive accurate but not normatively accurate?

Richard Joyce argues that Divine Command Theory is normatively false because there is no God and so God does not actually command anything, but Divine Command Theory is descriptively accurate in that the force of moral concepts does seem to come from supernatural beings (as if they actually existed).

What do we mean by "The Ethics of Care"?

The "Ethics of Care" is a 20th-century movement that sought to shift virtues ethics away from Aristotelian virtues towards more interpersonal virtues with a focus on how we can care for each other. In other words, it is a 20th-century movement to shift "masculine" virtues to more "feminine" virtues

What is a Social Contract?

The name was given to a family of view that state the norms of justice arise from agreements between individuals

What is Ethical Egoism?

The theory that actions are morally right just because they promote one's self-interest

What is Cultural Relativism?

There is no objective way to establish that a particular morality is a correct morality; There is no reason to believe in a single true morality; even though there may be certain moral universals

What is a strawman argument?

This argument is an argument in which a speaker exaggerates the position of an opponent (making it sound unreasonable), and then refuted the exaggerated position (rather than the actual position)

According to Kant, what perfect duties?

To not act according to maxims which are self-contradictory; Ex: stealing

Critical Thinking: Do the advocates of Virtue Ethics give a theory of right action? Why or Why not? Explain in detail.

Virtue ethics has no formal theory other than improving oneself and striving to be better than we are now. It seems the basic premise of virtue ethics is to aspire to reach for improvement in oneself that does not already exist

According to Hobbs...Why do we submit to living under a government? Explain.

We submit to living under a government because human will have been left to their own devices with out a central authority to keep them awe, would quickly have descended into a squatting, infighting, and intolerable bickering, that would have been like the English Civil War but against each other.

How do you assess whether an action is permissible using this formulation?

You consider an action, consider what principle that motivated this action, then asks yourself- would willing that everyone act upon this principle make it so that I would no longer be able to engage in the action? If yes, the action is morally right; if no, the action is wrong

What is Moral Personhood?

status of having moral rights is only held by Rational Beings