Ethics 3320

Aquinas and Natural Law

"Law is an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by one who ha care of the community, and promulgated" Natural law is contained within human nature - positive, permissive, and negative sense Knowledge of natural law - innate principles + judgement Intellectualist, voluntarist, and hybrid accounts of natural law

Property and History

A distribution is just so long as it is not the result of coercion or deception Locke and property rights Historical vs. end-state principles of justice

Utilitarianism*

A form of consequentialism that holds that an act is right if the consequences are good for the most amount of people Acts are right if they produce the best overall state of affairs

Positive Law*

A law enacted by civil authorities

Toward Coordination Epistemology

A presentist focus risks reproducing and exacerbating inequalities (ie. crisis language, housing, and displacement) Instead of a crisis epistemology, we need a coordination epistemology that focuses on addressing problems through healing moral bonds and co-operation and collaboration Corrective justice and coordination epistemology overlap in the importance of recognizing past injustices and moral faults for thinking about distributive justice

Corrective Justice Principle *

A principle of corrective Justice seeks to remedy a past injustice in the present context of society

The Concept of Law *

A rule set to guide the actions of intelligent and free agents* Natural law theory holds that positive law should be guided by natural law If positive law violates natural law, it is not a legitimate law

Virtue Ethics: Old and New

A short history of moral philosophy Philosophers such as Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Alasdair MacIntyre helped inaugurate an "acetic" turn in moral philosophy in recent decades Core concepts in modern virtue ethics; importance of contextual judgement, renewed focus on human flourishing, application of virtue to understanding various social practices

Principle of Utility*

According to Bentham; the tendency of an object or action to produce pleasure* Happiness consists in the realization of pleasure (utility) and the avoidance of pain (disultility) Classical utilitarians are hedonists while modern utilitarians focus on this like welfare or preferences-satisfaction

First Formulation (Universality)*

Act only in ways that could be universalized in principle

More about Virtue

Actions are linked together: path dependence vs. determinism Harmony with nature (dao, karma, ataraxia) Virtue inside and outside the state- community vs. empire

Consequences*

Actual vs foreseeable

Perfect Duty*

Admits of no exceptions and the conditions for its exercise are fully specified Ex. no coercion, no deception

Normative Relativism*

Agrees with (Descriptive Relativism and Meta-Ethical Relativism) and further asserts that moral judgements across different cultures and communities are illegitimate and should not be made

Second Formulation (Humanity)*

Always treat others as ends and never as mere means (intrinsic vs. instrumental value)

The Euthyphro Problem

Are just actions just because the gods approve of them or do the gods approve of them because they are just

Happiness

Aristotle's ultimate position is that happiness consists in the following things: -contemplation of excellent things -life of virtuous activity -possession of external goods (money, health, well-being of family, etc.)

Interdependence 2

Armstrong - interdependence between human beings and between human beings and nature The value of narrative and responsibility Narrative has the capacity to expand our circle of concern through reflective empathy (ie. tragedy) Importance of stories for our identity and collective life together

Natural Rights and the State

Basics of social contract theory Purpose of government is to secure the rights and common welfare of its citizens Locke and property rights Natural law and natural rights within property

Evolution of Utilitarianism

Bentham holds that happiness consists in maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain Objection: This seems to reduce us to animals

Hermeneutic Injustice *

Broader form of epistemic injustice where certain types of experiences are unable to be properly expressed, assessed, and explained due to limits in our collective understanding Hermeneutic injustices and the design of social institutions (ie. public hearing structure) Epistemic injustice and distributive justice can be linked together

Moral Excellence

Consists not of following rules, but in having good character and being able to exercise independent judgement The virtuous person deliberates well by choosing the appropriate action in any given situation

Human Rights

Convergences and divergences between modern human rights movement and natural law and natural rights tradition Challenge of securing practical agreement in the midst of theoretical disagreement about the foundations of human rights Pluralism and shared language of resisting oppression within wicked legal systems and political orders

Capabilities Approach to Human Development*

Deals with comparative quality-of-life assessments with a concern for social justice and human rights Looks not just at the end state of development by also at the process of that development

Appiah and Human Rights

Declarative vs substantive commitments to human rights Pluralism and discursive approach to human rights Thin, thick, and flexible concepts of human rights (capabilities) Rights and resistance to coercion and oppression

Origins of Virtue Ethics

Different forms of virtue ethics have been the most prominent type of ethics, historically Communitarianism vs. Individualism Divergence between rule-based and character-based approaches to ethics

Types of Justice

Distributive Justice: To distribute resources equitably and fairly Commutative Justice: To have justice in economic exchanges Retributive and Restorative Justice: To punish fairly Procedural Justice: To have fair procedures within the legal system

First Principle of Justice - Equality

Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others Basic liberties: political liberty, freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience, freedom of thought, right to property, legal rights Liberties exist in a network and the aim is to maximize the greatest number of them within the bounds of equality

Moral Anti-Realism Type 1

Ethical claims are not propositions (non-cognitivism, emotivism, and logical empiricism)

Rule of Law*

Everyone, including civil authorities, are subject to law

Feminist Ethics and Human Nature

Feminist ethics argues that two biased conceptions of human nature are the autonomous agent and the homo economicus

Virtue and Moral Excellence

For Aristotle virtue is a kind of excellence Philosophy as a way of life- habit, education, moral exemplarism Confucianism: habitual practice yields moral transformation (li and the importance of ritualistic observance) Virtue ethics is an ethics of becoming- formation of ren

Testimonial Injustice *

Form of epistemic injustice where one is not given one's due in presenting one's perspective Problem of credibility excess and credibility deficits based on perceiving identity characteristics

Challenges to Rationalism - Intuitionism

Haidt: "Moral reasoning is rarely the direct cause of moral judgement" Intuitions (with an emotional dimension) cause our judgements while reason searches for a post hoc justification Intuitions appear quickly and directly while rational justification takes longer to develop Haidt's intuitionism involves a meta-level rationalism in contrasting reason and emotion ***not tested on

Hedonism*

Happiness - understood as the realization of pleasure and avoidance of pain - is the motive for human actions Psychological vs. Ethical Hedonism Contrast with Aristotle

Justice *

Historically the term justice means to give each their due

Indigenous Autonomy in Canada

History of setter colonialism in Canada and loss of Indigenous autonomy Individual vs. collective autonomy Colonization/decolonization and delocalization/relocalization TRC Calls to Action and UNDRIP

Deontology (duty ethics)*

Holds that an action is morally right if done for the right reason - ie. in an accord with duty Duty ethics looks primarily at the motivation or reasons given for our action

Dual Process Theory

Holds that cognitive processes can occur in one of two tracks: -implicit, automatic, intuitive, fast approach -Explicit, controlled, rational, slow approach Social psychology, behavioural economics, and critique of rationalist models Problem of interaction between approaches and empirical adequacy

Rational Moral Psychology *

Holds that ethical decision-making in human beings is primarily a matter of rational judgement * Kant's moral philosophy emphasizes the place of abstract reason within moral decision-making Aristotle and practical syllogisms

Non-Consequentialism*

Holds that it is not the consequences of an action that determine whether it is morally right or wrong

Meta-Ethical Relativism*

Holds that moral principles can only be true relative to specific individuals, groups, and cultures

Situationism *

Holds that our moral judgement is the product of various external situational factors rather than internal character* ^dime in phone booth ex. Do individuals have global character traits (ie. traits that apply across a variety of situations)? Situationism vs. interactionism and empirical adequacy

Substantive Natural Law*

Holds that the natural law directly shapes the content of the positive law

Procedural Natural Law*

Holds that the natural law shapes the formation of the positive law

The Ethics of Care

Human beings are not independent, but interdependent Ethical reasoning should be based on relational context, not abstract principles We have a special obligation to care for those closest to us (who are dependent on us)

Virtue and Community Membership

Human beings are political animals Virtues are character traits that are oriented towards the common good Individual good and common good overlap

Autonomous Self *

Human beings are understood as essentially independent, self governing selves

Homo Economicus *

Human beings are understood as rational decision-makers and self-interest maximizers

Natural Law*

Human nature itself shows that certain actions are morally right or wrong

Naturalism Objection*

If our mental faculties have evolved, it is unclear how our moral judgement would be truth-tracking

Disagreement Objection*

If there were objective moral facts, there would be less disagreement in ethics

Imperatives

Imperatives are principles that ought to determine our actions (duties) Hypothetical and Categorical imperatives Hypothetical imperatives are particular and contingent Categorical imperatives are universal and necessary

The Need for Practical Wisdom and Virtue

In response to crisis and problems, our response is often to devise evermore elaborate systems of rules and incentives Two problems with an exclusively rule based approach to ethics: -Non-contextual application of rules demoralizing -Love and Work

Veil of Ignorance

In the original position, parties know only the two following things: -Conception of the good, but not its content -Desire to cooperate with others, but no active interest in others

Best overall state of Affairs (utilitarianism)*

In which overall human happiness is maximized

Epistemic Injustice *

Injustice experienced with respect to knowledge

Strangeness Objection*

It seems weird for there to be facts in ethics in the same way that there are facts in science

A Good Will

Kant holds that a will is good when it acts for the sake of duty (and not for another end or from mere natural inclination) The will must act in accord with reason: principle of volition An action has moral worth when it is done for the sake of duty Rationalist moral psychology

Practical Wisdom

Knowing what is the appropriate mean to pursue in any given situation in order to achieve a goal The virtuous person deliberates well by choosing the appropriate action in any given situation

Utilitarianism vs. Technocracy

Libertarianism vs. Paternalism Technocracy vs. Democracy Utilitarianism and effective altruism Nudges and choice architecture

Ideal Theory of Justice *

Looks at society from a place of neutrality and abstraction

Non-Ideal Theory of Justice *

Looks at society in a way that recognizes its particular injustices both past and present

Maximin Reasoning *

Maximizing the minimum position * Rawls thinks that behind the veil of ignorance, we will choose the two principles of justice to benefit the least well-off

Imperfect Duty*

May be fulfilled in different ways and to different degrees depending on circumstances Ex. giving aid

Refinement of Utilitarianism

Mill thinks that utilitarianism can't consist in the maximization of simple pleasures Pleasures are heterogeneous and some are more valuable than others

Mathematization of Ethics

Modern moral philosophy: from eudaimonistic (character-based) to jural (rule-based) ethics Mathematization and searching for a Newton of the moral world Analysis, synthesis, an mathematical models Transformation of moral philosophy and the rise of the social sciences

Nihilism (Objection to Moral Anti-Realism)*

Moral anti-realism could lead to moral nihilism where ethical discourse devolves into a power struggle between competing preferences

Constructivism and Moral Realism

Moral constructivism is the idea that ethics is essentially created by human reason (and not discovered) Tension between certainty and instructiveness Minimal moral realism - existence in the narrow and wide sense

Natural and Legal Rights

Natural rights serve as a constraint on government and guide the codification of legal rights Objective vs subjective rights (inalienable vs alienable)

Utility and Measurement

One of Bentham's goals is to turn ethics into a science Pleasure can be measured according to the seven following criteria: intensity, duration, certainty or uncertainty, propinquity or remoteness, fecundity, purity, and extent Utilitarianism and the development of econimics

Capabilities *

Opportunities to choose and act in various areas of importance to human life

Quality Test

Pleasures do not simply vary in quantity but also in quality To determine which is the highest pleasure, we have to experience both and then choose what is best Common agreement amongst those who appreciate both pleasures will determine which is the highest

Interdependence 1

Porous vs. Buffered views of the self Independent vs. interdependent conceptions of equality Sing and the problem of excessive individualism: haumai and seva in Sikh Ethics

Descriptive Relativism*

Represents the anthropological/sociological analysis of how values have differed across time and cultures

Third Formulation (Autonomy)*

Respect the freedom of others to act from their own volition

Legal Rights *

Rights that are determined by the state and codified in law (may not be universal)

Natural Rights *

Rights that we have in virtue of being human and are universal (cf. universal declaration of human rights)

Objections to Moral Relativism

Self-referential inconsistency Reductio ad absurdum problems Pluralism vs. relativism and the possibility of moral dialogue Question of moral progress

Early Virtue Ethicists

Siddartha Guatama (563-483; BCE) Confucius (551-479; BCE) Aristotle (384-322; BCE)

Second Principle of Justice - Difference

Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: -reasonably expected to be to everyone's advantage -attached to positions and offices open to all

Moral Anti-Realism*

The denial of moral realism

Moral Realism*

The idea that there are mind-independent features of reality that can serve as the basis for objective moral knowledge Most views in the history of ethics represent some form of moral realism Moral realism seems to fit with our experience of making moral judgements

Nozick on Justice

The justice of a particular distribution can only be weighed according to: -principle of just acquisition -principle of just transfer -principle of rectification

Rethinking Naturalism (Objection to Moral Anti-Realism)*

The materialism underlying the strangeness objection to moral realism might fail to yield historical and constitutive explanations of our moral sensibilities and capacities

What is Virtue According to Aristotle?

The virtuous action consists in a mean between two extremes in any given situation

Moral Anti-Realism Type 2

There are no mind-independent moral facts to ground an objective morality (nihilism, error theory, constructivism, conventionalism)

Positive and Natural Law

There are two views of how the natural law constrains the positive law: -Substantive Natural Law -Procedural Natural Law

Social Contract Theory and Justice

Underlying social contract theory is the idea that government is legitimated by the consent of the governed Rawls, Nozick, and Mills each look at justice in light of social contract theory, though Mills takes a non-ideal view of justice Egalitarian Justice (Rawls), Libertarian Justice (Nozick, Corrective Justice (Mills)

Consequences of Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism aims at consequences that maximize overall utility Act utilitarianism vs rule utilitarianism

Intentionality (Objection to Moral Anti-Realism)*

We intend our ethical judgments not as a statement of our personal preferences but of the way that the world should be

Mills and Corrective Justice

While Mills preserves the broad elements of the social contract, he argues that governments and social institutions were not formed in ideal conditions Historical understanding of the formation of societies is critical to thinking about the nature of distributive justice in the present

Against Crisis Epistemology

Whyte argues that we tend to interpret various important social challenges through he use of "crisis" language One of the problems of crisis language is that it can focus on present challenges without looking at history of those challenges The history of our collective institutions is often on of moral bonds being broken in the midst of injustice

Gilligan's Critigue

Women tend to favour contextualist approaches to morality that preserve relationships Kohlberg's approach is biased Some of us turn to abstract rules, but some of us turn to contextual reasoning