PHIL-Ethics

Categorical Imperative, Formula of the End in Itself

"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always as an end and never as a means only."

Categorical Imperative, Formula of Universal Law

"Act only according to a maxim [underlying principle] that you could will to be universal law." How can you tell if a maxim is universalizable? It must pass both of two tests: (i) The "contradiction in conception" test. Is it theoretically possible for everyone to follow this maxim? (ii) The "contradiction in the will" test. Would you be willing for everyone to follow this maxim? (Q: How can you tell what the correct maxim is? Different maxims provide different answers as to permissibility. It's possible to rig the universalizability test to get the results you want. Q: Does universalizability help with moral dilemmas?)

Virtue Theory

Highlights questions about the nature of those character traits that are virtues. For example, courage. Such questions are seen as in some way fundamental to theory.

Utilitarianism

Is a consequentialist ethical theory. A system of ethics according to which the rightness or wrongness of an action should be judged by its consequences. The goal of utilitarian ethics is to promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number. Q: Is pleasure/happiness really the only thing that matters? (Would you care if your spouse was unfaithful if you never found out?) Is Mill's distinction between higher and lower pleasures defensible? Are interpersonal comparisons of utility possible? Doesn't the distribution of happiness matter, not just the amount? Shouldn't people sometimes be partial? Can classical (act) utilitarianism adequately handle justice and rights? Is rule utilitarianism really still utilitarianism, as opposed to deontology?

Kant

Kant's ethical system is deontological. He says that the only thing that is good in and of itself is a good will. A good will is one that acts from duty, not simply in conformity with duty (i.e., you do the right thing because it's the right thing, not because it helps your reputation or makes you happy). (Q: Is a good will the only true good? Nagel says no, because of moral luck.) Duty means to follow the Categorical Imperative, which comes in two forms, both of which can be derived from reason alone (Q: Really?):

Rawls

Rawls derives principles of justice by asking what principles rational, self-interested agents would choose in the original position behind the veil of ignorance. Answer: maximal civil liberties, consistent with similar liberties for others; egalitarian distribution of wealth and power, except if unequal distributions increase everyone's welfare.

Reflective Equilibrium

Some general principles will need to be amended in the light of conflicting considered judgments, and sometimes judgments will need to be revised in the light of otherwise successful general principles.

The dilemma

The dominant strategy for each player (i.e., the strategy with the best payoff for a player, no matter what the other player does) is to confess. But then they end up with an outcome (c, c) which is Pareto-inferior to (i.e., worse for both players than) the outcome (b, b). Real-life parallels with morality; see Gauthier.

Difference priniciple

a central idea of John Rawls's theory of justice, referred to as the difference principle, is that inequalities are needed to improve the plight of everyone, in particular of those who are the worst off.

Prisoner's Dilemma

a two-person game with a payoff matrix as follows (a is the best outcome, d the worst):

rule utilitarianism

a two-tiered modification of act utilitarianism. A rule-utilitarian society first chooses those general rules of conduct (e.g., "Do not kill") that maximize overall utility; individual actions must then follow these rules, regardless of their effects on utility.

Consequentialism

a view about what makes it right or wrong to do something.

Justice

issues about justice are traditionally divided into issues about justice in the distribution of benefits and burdens to difference individuals and groups in society and issues about the justice of various forms of punishment.

Veil of ignorance

sometimes used to characterize the skeptical consequences of the theory of representative ideas. According to this theory, we only directly know the contents of our own mind; these then form a sort of veil between us and the external world.