Ethics Exam 2 notes

Karama

- "the quality and direction of one's value, intentions and actions" - The conditions of our lives are a function of our past actions and experiences. - Our current values, intentions and actions condition future values, intentions, and action for good or for ill. - All circumstances can be the basis of beneficial values, intentions, and actions.

Xunzi

- 312-230 BCE - Human nature is bad - Morality comes from "conscious effort" - By nature we eat when hungry - Morality lets us defer to our elders - Moral Education is like straightening boards or sharpening blades.

Mencius (Mengzi)

- 372-289 BCE - Xin-Heart-Mind - Human Nature is good

Kongzi (Confucius)

- 551-471 BCE - Dabbled in politics- strove for influence he never really got during his life - Gathered a following and travelled teaching - Considered the greatest of Chinese thinkers.

The function of Humans:

- Aristole argues that the unique function of humans is rational activity (thinking and reason) - A good human life involves fulfilling this function well, which means living according to reason and making virtuous choices. - Soul (psyche)

Contemplation as the Highest Activity:

- Aristole considers contemplation (philosophical thinking) the highest form of activity because it is the purest form of using reason. - The life of contemplation is closest to achieving complete happiness because it fully realizes the human function of rationality.

Aristole purpose of ethics

- Aristole's Nichomachean Ethics is focused on how t olive a good and happy life (eudaemonia). - He believes the ultimate goal of life is happiness, which comes from a living a virtuous and fulfilled life.

What is real are the five khandhas, or processes:

- Bodily Porcesses - Sensation - Perception - Impulses to Action - Consciousness

Four Sprouts

- Commiseration-ren (benevolence) - Shamw-yi (righteousness) - Modesty/Deference-li (propriety) - Approval/Disapporval-zhi (wisdom)

Xiao

- Filial Piety: A pattern of deference to and respect for our elders - Family relations are most fundamental - Said to be the root of ren (Analects, 1.2)

Buddhist Ethics part 1

- Focus is on psychological transformations that will produce good karma by overcoming habits of thought, intentions, and actions perpetuate dukkha.

Happiness/Eudaimonia (Aristotle)

- For Aristole, happiness is not just pleasure or wealth, byt living in accordance with reason and virtue. - Happiness is the highest good because it is something we seek for it's own sake, not as a means to something else.

Moral Education (Aristole)

- He believes that we become virtuous by practicing good habits from a young age.

Feelings (Reason, spirit, appetites) - ?

- Justice

Four Sublime States (brahmavihara)

- Loving Kindness (metta) - Compassion (karuna) - Sympathetic Joy (mudita) - Equanimity (upekkha)

Ways We Fail to Be Virtuous

- Moral weakness: Knowing what is right but lacking the self-control to do it. - Wickedness: Actively choosing to do wrong, with a corrupt moral character. - Brutishness: Behaving in a way that is almost animal-like, with little to no moral awareness.

The Junzi

- Morally Exemplary Person - Originally a marker of social status--- " Son of a lord" - Reinterpreted by Confucius as a marker of moral accomplishment - Goal of moral self-cultivation

Five Precepts

- No killing - No Stealing - No sexual misconduct - No lying - No drunkenness

Annnata: No Self

- Principles of Interdependent Arising apply to us--- we have no essential self that remains unchanged and permanent - This is what we cling to as permanent and independent self, casuing duhkha

Siddhartha Gautama

- Renounces privileged life as well as orthodox route to liberation - Four Signs - Becomes a seeker - Rejects asceticism - Develops "Middle Way"

Mental Discipline

- Right Effort - Right Mindfulness - Right Concentration

Conduct

- Right Speech - Right Action - Right Livelihood

Wisdom

- Right View - Right Intention

Heterodoxy

- Search for Alternative Routes to Liberation - Rejection of varnas - Rejection of Authority of Vedas - Shramanas: the "Renouncers", wandering teachers who developed various competing schools of enlightenment.

10 Vices

- Taking life - Stealing - Sexual Misconduct - Lying - Divisive Speech - Harsh Speech - Idle chitchat - Greed - Hatred - Ignorance

Confucian Government

- The fundamental responsibility of the state is to take care of the people. - This requires improving their moral character. - Moral Education is best achieved through culturural means-li, or ritual propriety-rather than strict laws and punishment. - The best ruler is a moral exemplar who person charism inspires the people.

Buddhist Ethics part 2

- The ulimate goal is 'nirvana', or the extinction of the cravings and patterns of attachments that lead to dukkha. - Since behavior shapes our psychology, certain types of acts are forbidden.

Puticca Sampuppada: Interdependent Arising

- Things exist only in relation to other things. E.g. wheel/axle - Nothing has an essence, or exists independently of everything else - Impermanence

Ren

- Translated as "benevolence", "humaneness", humanity", "consummate person/conduct" - A relational virtue - Includes an affective dimension as well as a cognitive dimension- a person who is ren is wise as well as compassionate. - We are ren we have a lot of other virtues.

Li

- Translated as "rituals", "rites", "ritual propriety" - Provides shared "social grammar", structuring behavior in various social situations. - Defines proper behavior according to roles in relationships. - Reinforces social hierarchies

Four Noble Truths

- Truth of dukka, or Suffering - Truth of the Cause of dukkha. - Truth of the Cessation of dukkha - Truth of the Path which ends dukkha

Virtue (Arete)

- Virtue is about moral excellence and living well; it is a key part of achieving happiness.

Fear

- feeling: what fear feels like. - capacity is the ability to feel fear ] - state of character: An individual tends to use the capacity in different ways. - Vice-Excess-Cowardice - Deficiency - rashness

Aristole identifies three types of friendships

1. Friendships of utility: Based on mutual benefit. 2. Friendships of pleasure: based on enjoyment of each other's company. 3. Friendships of virtue: based on mutual respect and shared values; this the highest form of friendship.

Aristole distinguishes between two types of virtues:

1. Moral virtue (e.g., courage, temperance): learned through habit and practice. 2. Intellectual Virtue (e.g. Wisdom, understanding): developed through instruction and education.

In order to act well, I need to:

1. We are motivated by pain and pleasure 2. We often find vice pleasing and virtue painful.

Spirit

Fortitude/ Courage

Friendship

Friendship is an essential part of a good life according to Aristole.

Buddhism Background (Vedic Traditions)

Reincarnation, Search for Liberation, Special Wisdom, Varna Caste, Dharma

habitualism

Tendency of the brain to stop noticing constant unchanging info, we become virtuous by doing virtuous things.

Reason

Wisdom

Eight Fold Path

Wisdom, Conduct, Mental Discipline

How we acquire the virtues?

moral education

The role of pleasure in Aristotle

pleasure does play a role in living well -pleasure attached to activities that we should perform

Appetites

temperance/ self-control

The Doctrine of the mean

Aristotle's claim that virtue requires us to feel, choose and act in an 'intermediate' way, neither 'too much' nor 'too little', but 'to feel [passions] at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way'.

A virtue

It is a quality of a thing that helps it do its function well.

A vice

It is a quality of a thing that keep its from performing it's function well.