Philosophy 2
utilitarian hedonism
An action is right if it produces max happiness.
Behaviorism
we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured -Some form of the view that the mind is nothing above and beyond behavior -Mind is actually a part of the physical world -Opposes Dualism -Two Types: Logical and Criteriological
MBP-Eliminative Materialism
-A form of materialism that claims that folk psychology will be eliminated as neuroscience matures. Our idea of the mind is wrong. (Extreme View) -There are no minds or mental properties; the terms that seem to refer to them are just parts of a discredited theory of how people work -Doubts that the correct neuroscientific account of human capabilities will produce a neat reduction of our commonsense framework ( 1-1 match up)
eliminative materialism
-A form of materialism that claims that folk psychology will be eliminated as neuroscience matures. Our idea of the mind is wrong. (Extreme View) -There are no minds or mental properties; the terms that seem to refer to them are just parts of a discredited theory of how people work -Doubts that the correct neuroscientific account of human capabilities will produce a neat reduction of our commonsense framework ( 1-1 match up)
PI Concept and Main Features of Identity
-A thing is identical with itself and no other. If A is identical with B then there is just one thing that is both a and b; a and b are two names for that one thing. It follows from this that the relation of identity is transitive, symmetrical, and confers indiscernibility. -The "sameness" of an object despite physical changes
hedonistic act utilitarianism
-An act is morally right if and only if it does more to improve overall happiness than any other action you could have done in the circumstances; -Seeing pleasure and pain as the only things with nonderivative value, viewing happiness with pleasure and the absence of pain
functionalism
-An early approach to psychology that concentrated on what the mind does--the functions of mental activity--and the role of behavior in allowing people to adapt to their environments -The function of a thing is its operation within a system. It is the role the thing has, when the system is operating properly.
Problem of Personal Identity
-An individual's conscious sense of who he or she is -What makes us a persons? -What are the essential properties of persons, or those properties without which a person would not be a person? -What makes one person the same person from one moment to the next? -What sorts of changes can a person undergo while still being the same person?
PI Physiological Approaches
-Bodily Criterion-Person A is the same person as Person B if and only of A and B are strongly biologically connected-- A and B share the same body or the bodies of A and B are connected by a chain of overlapping stages -Somatic Criterion-A view about the ontology of persons: Physical Thesis: People are their bodies. There appears to be a thinking animal located where you are. It also appears that you are the thinking thing -"the only one"- located there. If things are as they appear, then you are that animal
MBP-Reductionism
-Explaining a complex event by reducing it to its simplest parts (Mind can be explained solely in terms of physical/biological theory) -Occurs in the context of a controversy about the status of some kind of object -Maintains that talk and knowledge about such objects really amount to T and K about some class of objects that is usually thought to be quite different. T and K about the 1st object are reduced to talk and knowledge about the 2nd kind
Category-mistake
-Is committed (roughly) when one thinks of or represents things of a certain kind as being or belonging to a category or logical type to which they do not belong. -Employing a concept in a system in which it is inappropriate -EX: What is the sound of red? Red is a visual property, sounds are aural properties.
deterministic
-Is the doctrine that every event, including every intentional action of a human being, is determined by prior causes -If some cause occurs, then the effect will occur with certainty
PI Psychological Approaches
-Memory Criterion -Says that you're the same person if you have the same memories -Show's that no one has the same memories -Arguments Against: -People forget their memories over time, so does forgetting memories would make you a different person, which isn't true -Causal-psychological connections criterion-Psychological continuity relations, that is, overlapping chains of direct psychological connections, as those causal and cognitive connections between beliefs, desires, intentions, experiential memories, character traits and so forth, constitute personal identity
logical behaviorism
-Mental states (pain, consciousness, etc.) and mental language (talk of beliefs, desires, etc.) are to be analyzed in terms of dispositions to behavior -Maintains that talk about the mind can be reduced without remainder to talk about behavior -Ex: "That my belief that it is raining is no more than my behavior of carrying an umbrella and canceling my tennis game." "To be in pain is to behave a certain way"
MBP-Cartesian Dualism
-Mind and body are separate but interact -Theory that there is a two-way causal interaction between immaterial minds and the material world -Physical world affects one's mind: The state of the brain directly affects the mind. Ex: Perception (Sight) -States of mind affect the body and through it the wider world Ex: Actions (Getting a drink) -Hypothesis about pineal gland not correct
The Mind-Body Problem
-The difficulty in understanding how the mind and body influence each other, so that physical events can cause mental events, and so that mental events can cause physical ones. -Is the problem of accounting for the way in which our minds interact with or are related to our bodies. -Comprises of a central area of the subfield of philosophy called philosophy of mind.
MBP-The Qualia Objection
-The properties of our subjective experience (varies for everyone). What we see, hear, think and feel can be discussed with others, but our actual experience/awareness can never be shared -Qualia (Subjective characters/Phenomenal Characters) of mental events/states cannot be reduced to physical aspects of those events/states -Nagel and Jackson (Accept their arguments=accept some form of dualism) **-Objection to Functionalism-**
qualia
-The properties of our subjective experience (varies for everyone). What we see, hear, think and feel can be discussed with others, but our actual experience/awareness can never be shared -Qualia (Subjective characters/Phenomenal Characters) of mental events/states cannot be reduced to physical aspects of those events/states -Nagel and Jackson (Accept their arguments=accept some form of dualism) **-Objection to Functionalism-**
PI Soul Criterion
-There is a non material self that is distinct from one's memories or other particular mental contents. It is this non material self that has the memories and mental contents. It is the bearer of experiences -X is the same person as Y if and only if X and Y have the same soul -This makes it possible for us to survive the death of our bodies
MBP-Behaviorism
-we can study scientifically only what can be directly observed and measured -Some form of the view that the mind is nothing above and beyond behavior -Mind is actually a part of the physical world -Opposes Dualism -Two Types: Logical and Criteriological
E Utilitarianism
...
Reconstruct and evaluate Jackson's knowledge argument against physicalism.
1. Mary knows all the physical facts. 2. Mary is a perfect reasoner. 3. Yet Mary cannot deduce all the facts. 4. So, physicalism is false. John Locke said something similar: "yet, I think, it will be granted easily that if a child were kept in a place where he never saw any other but black and white until he were a man, he would have no more ideas of scarlet or green than he who from his childhood never tasted an oyster or a pineapple has of those particular relishes"
Momento
A backwards sequence is shown. It starts with the Polaroid photograph of a dead man. As the sequence plays backwards the photo reverts to its undeveloped state, entering the camera before the man is shot in the head. This is followed by interspersed black-and-white and color sequences, with the black-and-white sequences taking place chronologically before the color sequences. The black-and-white sequences begin with Leonard Shelby in a motel room speaking to an unnamed telephone caller who is not shown on-screen. Leonard has anterograde amnesia and is unable to store recent memories, the result of an attack by two men. Leonard explains that he killed the attacker who raped and strangled his wife, but a second clubbed him and escaped. The police did not accept there was a second attacker, but Leonard believes the attacker's name is John, with a last name starting with G. Leonard conducts his own investigation using a system of notes, Polaroid photos, and tattoos. As an insurance investigator, Leonard recalls one Sammy Jankis, also diagnosed with the same condition. Sammy's diabetic wife, who was not sure if his condition was genuine, repeatedly requested insulin injections to try to get him to break his act. He did not and as a result she fell into a coma and died. The color sequences are shown in reverse chronological order. Leonard gets a tattoo, based on instructions to himself, of the license plate of John G. Finding a note in his clothes, he meets Natalie, a bartender who resents Leonard as he wears the clothes and drives the car of her boyfriend, Jimmy. After understanding his condition, she uses it to get Leonard to drive a man named Dodd out of town and offers to run the license plate to help his investigation. Meanwhile, Leonard meets with a contact, Teddy. Teddy helps with Dodd, but warns him about Natalie; however, Leonard has written on a photo of Teddy to not trust him. Natalie provides Leonard the driver's license, which shows a John Edward Gammell, Teddy's full name. Confirming Leonard's information on "John G" and his warnings, Leonard meets Teddy and drives him to an abandoned building, killing him as shown in the opening. In the final black-and-white sequence, prompted by the caller, Leonard meets Teddy in the motel lobby. Teddy is an undercover officer and has found Leonard's "John G", Natalie's boyfriend Jimmy Grantz, and directs Leonard to the same abandoned building outside of town. When Jimmy arrives, Leonard strangles him and takes a photo of the body. As it develops the black-and-white transitions to color, thus beginning the color sequences. Leonard swaps clothes with Jimmy, hearing Jimmy whisper "Sammy". As Leonard has only told the story of Sammy to those he has met, he doubts Jimmy is the attacker. Teddy arrives and asserts that Jimmy was John G but when Leonard is not convinced, Teddy reveals that Leonard had killed the real attacker over a year ago after Teddy helped Leonard find him. Teddy claims that Leonard confused elements of his life with that of Sammy, who was a con man with no wife. Leonard's wife was diabetic, had survived the attack and was the one who died in the insulin overdose. Teddy accuses Leonard of creating an unsolvable puzzle to give himself purpose and since "John G" is a common name, he will continually forget, beginning his search again and that even Teddy himself has a "John G" name. After hearing Teddy's exposition, Leonard consciously burns the photograph of Jimmy's body, drives off in Jimmy's car and has Teddy's license plate number tattooed on himself as the one of the second attacker, which will lead to the events of Teddy's death.
methodological behaviorism
A philosophical position that views behavioral events that cannot be publicly observed as outside the realm of science Emphasizes the importance of studying behavior as a supplement to (possibly a replacement for) introspective study of the mind
identity theory
A theory that emphasizes the process of communicating one's own desired identities while reinforcing or resisting others' identities as the core of intercultural communication
Act Utilitarianism
A type of utilitarianism that holds that the moral worth of each action depends upon whether it individually on that occasion produced the greatest happiness. Each action is independent and must be morally evaluated separately.
personal identity
An individual's conscious sense of who he or she is -What makes us a persons? -What are the essential properties of persons, or those properties without which a person would not be a person? -What makes one person the same person from one moment to the next? -What sorts of changes can a person undergo while still being the same person?
E Virtue Ethics
Any theory that sees the primary focus of ethics to be the character of the person rather than that person's actions or duties
Explain Weirob's box of Kleenex case found in Perry's "A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality."
But how can I say that that future being will actually be me (or that I should anticipate having their experiences)? Think of a Kleenex box; if we reduce it to ashes, we would never be inclined to say that we'll encounter that very same box. No matter howsimilar any other future box is, we'd never identify it as the original one
dualism
Dualism is usually associated with Descartes. According to dualism, the mind (or mental properties) cannot be reduced to physical properties. For Descartes, this is because the mind is a distinct, non-physical substance. -Cartesian dualism is a Theory that there is a two-way causal interaction between immaterial minds and the material world -Physical world affects one's mind: The state of the brain directly affects the mind. Ex: Perception (Sight) -States of mind affect the body and through it the wider world Ex: Actions (Getting a drink) -Hypothesis about pineal gland not correct
Reconstruct and evaluate one of Churchland's arguments, in "Eliminative Materialism," in favor of eliminative materialism.
Everything changes. Even if we think we know something now, it's probably not true and it can change later
Reconstruct and evaluate Nagel's knowledge argument against physicalism
He claims that the experiences of conscious beings are subjective, and presents a nested argument to convince us of this. Nagel's second premise. His first, outlined as a minimalistic definition for physicalism, is that physical knowledge is necessarily objective knowledge. If these two premises prove valid, it is a simple matter to conclude that consciousness cannot be consistent with physicalism. Since consciousness exists,physicalism must be false.
The Dark Knight
In Gotham City, the Joker and his accomplices rob a mob-owned bank. The accomplices kill each other off one by one in a sequence masterminded by the Joker, who escapes alone with all the money. Batman and Lt. Jim Gordon decide to include the new district attorney, Harvey Dent, in their plan to eradicate the mob. Although Dent is dating Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne is impressed with his idealism and offers to throw him a fundraiser. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol, and The Chechen hold a videoconference with Lau, a Chinese accountant who has hidden their funds and fled to Hong Kong. The Joker interrupts the meeting, warning that Batman is unhindered by jurisdiction. He offers to kill Batman for half their money, but the mob bosses refuse, and Gambol puts a bounty on him. The Joker kills Gambol and takes control of his men. Batman captures Lau and delivers him back to Gotham to testify against the Joker and the mob. The Joker announces that people will die each day unless Batman reveals his identity. He then kills Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb and the judge presiding over the mob trials. He also targets Dent at the fundraiser, but Bruce hides Dent. Gordon foils the Joker's assassination attempt on Mayor Garcia, apparently sacrificing himself in the process. Bruce plans to reveal his identity, but Dent instead names himself as Batman to protect the truth. Dent is taken into protective custody and pursued by the Joker across the city; Batman rushes to Dent's aid. Gordon, who faked his death, helps apprehend the Joker and is promoted to Commissioner. That night, Dent and Rachel disappear. Batman interrogates the Joker and discovers that Dent and Rachel are held in two separate buildings filled with explosives. The Joker reveals their locations, and Batman goes to Rachel's, only to realize that the Joker has tricked him into finding Dent moments before both buildings explode, killing Rachel and scarring half of Dent's face. The Joker detonates a bomb in the police station and escapes with Lau. Coleman Reese, an accountant at Wayne Enterprises, deduces Batman's true identity and plans to reveal it. The Joker kills Lau and The Chechen, then threatens to bomb a hospital unless Reese is killed. Gordon and Bruce protect Reese, who changes his mind. The Joker visits Dent in the hospital and convinces him to seek revenge. The Joker then blows up the hospital and escapes with hostages. Dent starts to go after people responsible for Rachel's death, deciding their fates by flipping a coin. He kills Maroni and a cop who had helped kidnap Rachel. It is revealed that the Joker rigged two ferries with explosives to escalate chaos; one ferry is full of citizens, the other full of prison inmates and guards. He then gives the passengers of each ferry the choice to blow the other up before midnight — otherwise, both ferries will explode. The passengers ultimately refuse. Batman asks a reluctant Lucius Fox to use a city-wide tracking prototype device to find the Joker; Fox agrees, but says he will resign immediately afterward. The Joker dresses up hostages as his men, luring Gordon's SWAT team to strike them. Batman fights off the SWAT team and the Joker's men, then rescues the hostages. Batman apprehends the Joker, but the Joker gloats that he has won, as Gotham will lose hope once Dent's rampage becomes public. Before the SWAT team arrives to take the Joker into custody, he reminds Batman that their conflict will be eternal. Dent lures Gordon to the building where Rachel died and holds Gordon's family hostage. Batman confronts Dent, who judges the fates of himself, Batman, and Gordon's son with three coin flips. He shoots Batman, spares himself, then flips again to determine the boy's fate. Batman, who is wearing body armor, tackles Dent off the building, killing him and saving the boy.[13] Batman then convinces Gordon to frame him for Dent's murders so that Dent will remain a symbol of hope for the city. Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal and launches a manhunt for the Batman. Alfred Pennyworth burns a letter written by Rachel to Bruce announcing her engagement to Dent, and Fox watches the signal tracker self-destruct.
Parfit, in "Personal Identity," suggests that in a case of fission there are three possibilities. What is unsatisfactory about them?
In one of the cases the original man dies, this could be a problem because one can survive with half a brain. In another case the original man is one of the two brain halves, which is arbitrary, how do we know which one he is? In the final case the person survives as each, which doesn't make any sense. You can't be two people
Consequentialism
Is a view about what makes it right or wrong to do something. It maintains that the rightness of an action is determined by the goodness or badness of relevant consequences -A view common to any first-order ethical theory that holds that the consequences of an action are the primary factor in calculating its moral worth.
materialism
Materialism is the doctrine that reality consists only in material objects and their material, spatial, and temporal properties and relations. The metaphysical view that only physical matter and its properties exist. -Reality consists of material objects and their material, spatial, and temporal properties and relations. (Identity Theories: "The mind is the brain; mental properties ARE physical properties) -Material properties are confined to the primary qualities then recognized, including figure (shape), extension (size), number, motion, and solidity
physicalism
Mental states can be completely explained in terms of physical states. Physical states are more fundamental then mental states Ex: huckleberry finn ontological dependence (one entity cannot exist without the second)
supererogatory
Moral actions that are above and beyond what is normally expected of an individual
imperative
Of vital importance; crucial
ontology
Ontology is the study of the underlying structure of reality at its most general level. For example, it addresses questions such as whether there are universals, events, substances, individuals, necessary beings, possible worlds, numbers, ideal objects, abstract objects, etc. The branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being.
Explain the differences between Bentham's and Mill's utilitarianisms.
Qualitative distinction in tendencies, Qualitative distinction in pleasures, Differences in the assumptions about human nature, Difference in ethical principles -Bentham's Utilitarianism A. Human Nature [1] Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure. It is for them alone to point out what we ought to do, as well as to determine what we shall do. On the one hand the standard of right and wrong, on the other the chain of causes and effects, are fastened to their throne. They govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it. (Bentham, 2012, p. 457) B. Principle of Utility [2] By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to the tendency it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question: or, what is the same thing in other words to promote or to oppose that happiness. (Bentham, 2012, p. 458) [3] By utility is meant that property in any object, whereby it tends to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness, (all this in the present case comes to the same thing) or (what comes again to the same thing) to prevent the happening of mischief, pain, evil, or unhappiness to the party whose interest is considered: if that party be the community in general, then the happiness of the community: if a particular individual, then the happiness of that individual. (Bentham, 2012, p. 458) C. How to Measure Utility -Mill's utilitarianism [4] The foundation of morals, Utility, or the Greatest Happiness Principle, holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness is intended pleasure, and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure. ... The theory of life on which this theory of morality is grounded—namely, that pleasure, and freedom from pain, are the only things desirable as ends; and that all desirable things (which are as numerous in the utilitarian as in any other scheme) are desirable either for the pleasure inherent in themselves, or as means to the promotion of pleasure and the prevention of pain. (Mill, 2012, p. 461) A. The Swine Criticism [5] Now, such a theory of life excites in many minds, and among them in some of the most estimable in feeling and purpose, inveterate dislike. To suppose that life has (as they express it) no higher end than pleasure—no better and nobler object of desire and pursuit—they designate as utterly mean and grovelling; as a doctrine worthy only of swine. (Mill, 2012, p. 461-462) B. The Doctrine of Higher Pleasures [6] It is quite compatible with the principle of utility to recognise the fact, that some kinds of pleasure are more desirable and more valuable than others. It would be absurd that while, in estimating all other things, quality is considered as well as quantity, the estimation of pleasures should be supposed to depend on quantity alone. (Mill, 2012, p. 462) [7] If I am asked what I mean by difference of quality in pleasures, or what makes one pleasure more valuable than another, merely as a pleasure, except its being greater in amount, there is but one possible answer. If one of the two is, by those who are competently acquainted with both, placed so far above the other that they prefer it, even though knowing it to be attended with a greater amount of discontent, and would not resign it for any quantity of the other pleasure which their nature is capable of, we are justified in ascribing to the preferred enjoyment a superiority in quality so far outweighing quantity as to render it, in comparison, of small account. (Mill, 2012, p. 462) [8] Now it is an unquestionable fact that those who are equally acquainted with, and equally capable of appreciating and enjoying, both, do give a most marked preference to the manner of existence which employs their higher faculties. Few human creatures would consent to be changed into any of the lower animals, for a promise of the fullest allowance of a beast's pleasures; no intelligent human being would consent to be a fool, no instructed person would be an ignoramus, no person of feeling and conscience would be selfish and base, even though they should be persuaded that the fool, the dunce, or the rascal is better satisfied with his lot than they are with theirs. They would not resign what they possess more than he for the most complete satisfaction of all the desires which they have in common with him. If they ever fancy they would, it is only in cases of 3 unhappiness so extreme, that to escape from it they would exchange their lot for almost any other, however undesirable in their own eyes. A being of higher faculties requires more to make him happy, is capable probably of more acute suffering, and certainly accessible to it at more points, than one of an inferior type; but in spite of these liabilities, he can never really wish to sink into what he feels to be a lower grade of existence. (Mill, 2012, pp. 462-463) ... [9] It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.
Ethics
Standards for proper and responsible behavior -Values in Action
E Supererogatory and obligatory acts
Supererogatory-Moral actions that are above and beyond what is normally expected of an individual Obligatory acts-Are morally right acts one ought to do, one is morally prohibited from not doing them, they are moral duties, they are acts that are required. Such acts might be keeping one's promises and providing guidance and support for one's children
MBP-Materialism
The metaphysical view that only physical matter and its properties exist. -Reality consists of material objects and their material, spatial, and temporal properties and relations. (Identity Theories: "The mind is the brain; mental properties ARE physical properties) -Material properties are confined to the primary qualities then recognized, including figure (shape), extension (size), number, motion, and solidity
mind-body problem
The mind-body problem arises when we attempt to account for the way in which our minds interact with or are related to our bodies. -The difficulty in understanding how the mind and body influence each other, so that physical events can cause mental events, and so that mental events can cause physical ones. -Is the problem of accounting for the way in which our minds interact with or are related to our bodies. -Comprises of a central area of the subfield of philosophy called philosophy of mind.
What is the view that Ryle, in "Descartes's Myth," calls "the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine"?
The official doctrine is absurd because it is a category mistake. Thinking that a university is something at the same level as a university's classroom buildings, libraries, laboratories, etc., rather than being something of a different kind that consists of all these. "Official Doctrine" is not realizing that "mind" and "body" are terms of different logical types. Ryle describes what he calls "the official doctrine": 1. With the doubtful exceptions of idiots and infants in arms every human being has both a body and a mind. 2. After the death of the body his mind may continue to exist and function. 3. Bodies are: a. in space and are subject to the mechanical laws. b. can be inspected by external observers. 4. Minds are a. not in space. b. not subject to mechanical laws. Ryle argues that the "official doctrine" is an "absurd" "category mistake": The Dogma of The Ghost in the Machine ·There exist both bodies and minds; ·There occur physical processes and mental processes; ·There are mechanical causes of corporeal movements ·There are mental causes of corporeal movements.
hedonism
The philosophy proposed by Hobbes according to which the actions of organisms are determined entirely by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain
What are the two notable differences that Williams, in "The Self and the Future," points out between the two cases as he describes them?
The torture is happening to A. this is begging the question in favor of bodily continuity! B is only mentioned in d. and is not part of the general makeup.BUT why should what happens to B matter to A? It should actually make no difference to A whether body B gets A's memories or keeps the memories that B always had . That is: whomever the person who has A's body and B's memories is, they should be the same person if B's body has B's memories as they are if B's body has A's memories.
What is the view that Armstrong, in "The Nature of Mind," calls "materialism"?
The view that we can give a complete account of humans in physico-chemical terms.
Briefly explain the difference between a hypothetical imperative and a categorical imperative.
This is an example of a HYPOTHETICAL imperative because speeding is the most prudent form of action to achieve that end,the categorical imperative is we all have a DUTY towards each other.If speeding is the example, then ask yourself before your speed. Would I like it if everyone ignored speed limits? If the answer is no then we shouldn't do it
utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is a form of consequentialism. It claims that the right action is that action which maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. Historically, it has been defended by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill Rule-utilitarianism-The rule which increases utility for the most people is the morally right rule. A "rule" is a general type of action.
virtue ethics
Virtue ethics is an approach to ethical theory that is frequently traced to the ancient Greek philosophers. A virtue theory highlights questions concerning the nature of those character traits that are virtues, e.g., courage Any theory that sees the primary focus of ethics to be the character of the person rather than that person's actions or duties
identity
Who you are "Sameness"
PI Fission, fusion and body transplant cases
X's brain is removed from X's body and X's body is destroyed. X's brain's corpus callosum, the bundle of fibers responsible for retaining the capacity of information-transfer between the two brain hemispheres, is severed, leaving two (potentially) equipollent brain hemispheres. The single lower brain is divided and each hemisphere is transplanted into one of two qualitatively identical bodies of the fission outcomes Y1 and Y2
E Deontology
You do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. Being ethical involves identifying your duty ... and following it. -The ethical duty also is one that values humans for themselves, never as a means to an end. (So Kant is a humanist, not a pragmatist.)
The Miracle Worker
Young Helen Keller (Patty Duke), blind and deaf since infancy due to a severe case of scarlet fever, is frustrated by her inability to communicate and subject to frequent violent and uncontrollable outbursts as a result. Unable to deal with her, her terrified and helpless parents contact the Perkins School for the Blind for assistance. In response they send Anne Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a former student, to the Keller home to tutor her. What ensues is a battle of wills as Anne breaks down Helen's walls of silence and darkness through persistence, love, and sheer stubbornness.
3.What is a maxim? a. A general rule of conduct b. The highest good c. That toward which all rational action aims d. A rule that must be followed, no matter what
a. A general rule of conduct.
2.Upon coming out of the room, Mary learns something new. About what does she learn something new? a. Her own experience b. The color of objects c. The experience of others d. The existence of the external world
a. Her own experience.
1.Which of the following is the principle that Singer's argument crucially relies on? a. If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to do it. b. If it is in our power to cause something good to happen without thereby causing anything bad, we ought to do it. c. If it is in our power to prevent something from happening without sacrificing anything important, we ought to do it. d. If it is in our power to cause something bad to happen that will lead to a good of comparable moral importance, we ought to do it.
a. If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to do it..
3.According to Weirob, what's wrong with the suggestion that personal identity consists in sameness of soul? a. If that were true, then we couldn't know who we are. b. If that were true, then we wouldn't be able to see ourselves. c. If that were true, then physicalism would be false. d. If that were true, then God could connect our soul up with two bodies.
a. If that were true, then we couldn't know who we are..
2.What does Armstrong think is wrong with behaviorism? a. It doesn't do justice to what's going on inside our heads. b. It hasn't produced any scientifically respectable results. c. It flies in the face of common sense thinking about the mind. d. It relies on a refuted conception of the scientific method.
a. It doesn't do justice to what's going on inside our heads..
1.What is the most neutral way to describe what happens in Parfit's case of fission?
a. Someone's brain is split and put into two bodies
3.Parfit gives up talk about identity in favor of talk about what?
a. Survival.
1.What is the general objection to virtue theoretic conception of moral rules? a. They fail to provide action guidance. b. They are counterintuitive. c. They are not sufficiently attuned to outcomes. d. They are not sufficiently agent-centerd.
a. They fail to provide action guidance..
• Which controversial principle is at the heart of Singer's argument in "Famine, Affluence, and Morality"?
abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia Main Argument [4] I shall not argue for this view. People can hold all sorts of eccentric positions, and perhaps from some of them it would not follow that death by starvation is in itself bad. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to refute such positions, and so for brevity I will henceforth take this assumption as accepted. Those who disagree need read no further. (p. 496) [5] If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing. (Singer, 2012, p. 496) B. (Problem) Unfortunately, human beings have not made the necessary decisions. At the individual level, people have, with very few exceptions, not responded to the situation in any significant way. Generally speaking, people have not given large sums to relief funds; they have not written to their parliamentary representatives demanding increased government assistance; they have not demonstrated in the streets, held symbolic fasts, or done anything else directed toward providing the refugees with the means to satisfy their essential needs. At the government level, no government has given the sort of massive aid that would enable the refugees to survive for more than a few days ... [And,] It seems obvious that assistance on this scale will not be forthcoming. (Singer, 2012, p. 495, 2012) [2] What are the moral implications of a situation like this? In what follows, I shall argue that the way people in relatively affluent countries react to a situation like that in Bengal cannot be justified; indeed, the whole way we look at moral issues—our moral conceptual scheme— needs to be altered, and with it, the way of life that has come to be taken for granted in our society. (Singer, 2012, 495) [3] The crisis in Bangladesh that spurred me to write the above article is now of historical interest only, but the world food crisis is, if anything, still more serious. The huge grain reserves that were then held by the United States have vanished. Increased oil prices have made both fertilizer and energy more expensive in developing countries, and have made it difficult for them to produce more food. At the same time, their population has continued to grow. Fortunately, as I write now, there is no major famine anywhere in the world; but poor people are still starving in several countries, and malnutrition remains very widespread. The need for assistance is, therefore, just as great as when I first wrote, and we can be sure that 2 without it there will, again, be major famines.
3.According to Armstrong's theory, what is a mental state? a. A state that describes the connection between body and soul b. A state that is apt for producing certain ranges of behavior c. A state that can be detected by using magnetic resonance imaging d. A state of which the subject is introspectively aware
b. A state that is apt for producing certain ranges of behavior.
3.What is Churchland's first objection to Jackson's argument? a. It begs the question against the physicalist. b. It confuses two distinct types of knowledge. c. It assumes that Mary learns something new about her own experience. d. It confuses perceiving with imagining.
b. It confuses two distinct types of knowledge..
2.On the Second Night, Miller suggests that personal identity consists in an appropriate connection between different temporal parts of a person. What does he think the appropriate connection is? a. Same brain b. Memory c. Same body d. Personality
b. Memory.
1.What does Bentham mean by 'the principle of utility'? a. The principle that tells us an action is right or wrong according to how easy the action is to perform. b. The principle that tells us an action is right or wrong according to whether it promotes happiness. c. The principle that tells us an action is right or wrong according to the intention with which the action was performed. d. The principle that tells us an action is right or wrong according to whether one's society approves of it.
b. The principle that tells us an action is right or wrong according to whether it promotes happiness..
3.If Singer's argument is sound, what happens to actions that used to be classified as charitable? a. They become supererogatory. b. They become obligatory. c. They become generous. d. They become virtuous.
b. They become obligatory..
1.What is the challenge that Weirob issues to Miller? a. To persuade her that an afterlife is likely b. To persuade her that an afterlife is possible c. To persuade her that belief in an afterlife is rational d. To persuade her that God exists
b. To persuade her that an afterlife is possible.
4.How does Hursthouse describe virtue ethics relation to individuals and their actions? a. Act-neutral b. Agent-neutral c. Act-centered d. Agent-centered
c. Act-centered.
3.For Hursthouse, what constitutes a right action? a. Acting according to the Categorical Imperative b. Acting in ways that maximize my own happiness c. Acting in ways that the perfectly virtuous agent would act d. Acting in ways that maximize total pleasure
c. Acting in ways that the perfectly virtuous agent would act.
1.Which of the following statements takes the form of a categorical imperative? a. If you want to succeed, get a degree. b. Don't murder if you want to get into heaven. c. Always respect other persons' humanity. d. Honor your parents in order to live happily.
c. Always respect other persons' humanity..
3.How does Churchland respond to the objection that introspection reveals the existence of beliefs and desires? a. By pointing out that introspection has been shown to be highly unreliable b. By pointing out that introspection has no philosophical justification c. By pointing out that observation always occurs within a conceptual framework d. By pointing out that beliefs and desires are social constructions
c. By pointing out that observation always occurs within a conceptual framework.
2.According to Singer, which of the following considerations should NOT make a moral difference? a. Amount of suffering b. Preventability c. Geographical location d. Amount of money needed
c. Geographical location.
Which of the following phrases exhibits a category mistake? a. The sky is green. b. Unicorns have one horn. c. My table is in pain. d. Sherlock Holmes is a detective.
c. My table is in pain..
Which of the following is Ryle's disparaging name for what he calls "the official doctrine"? a. The dogma of the Unmoved Mover b. The dogma of Immanent Causation c. The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine d. The dogma of the Evil Demon Deceiver
c. The dogma of the Ghost in the Machine.
1.What is eliminative materialism? a. The view that everything is ultimately composed of immaterial parts b. The view that materialism is false c. The view that our common sense psychological framework is false and should be rejected d. The view that science will never be able to tell us whether our intuitions about the mind are correct
c. The view that our common sense psychological framework is false and should be rejected.
1.According to Armstrong, what is the doctrine of materialism? a. The view that everything in the universe is made of matter b. The view that capitalistic society exploits the working class c. The view that we can give a complete account of humans in physico-chemical terms d. The view that we can't account for the existence of souls using science alone
c. The view that we can give a complete account of humans in physico-chemical terms.
According to Ryle, the misunderstanding of which of the following phrases leads us to accept the official doctrine? a. There occur mental processes. b. There occur physical processes. c. There is a distinction between mind and body. d. There are other minds.
c. There is a distinction between mind and body..
1.Which of the following best describes what happens in Williams' first scenario?
c. Two bodies swap psychological properties..
2.Hursthouse conceives of virtue ethics as a plausible alternative to which of the following moral theories? a. Deontology b. Consequentialism c. Utilitarianism d. All of the above
d. All of the above.
2.Which of the following is NOT a possibility for what happens to the person who undergoes fission?
d. He survives as neither of the two people..
2.Which of the following is NOT one of Bentham's criteria for determining the value of a particular episode of pleasure or pain? a. Intensity b. Purity c. Extent d. Necessity
d. Necessity.
2.Which of the following is NOT a formulation of the categorical imperative? a. The Formula of the Kingdom of Ends b. The Formula of the End in Itself c. The Formula of Universal Law d. The Formula of the Good Will
d. The Formula of the Good Will.
1.What is the name of the argument the Jackson employs against physicalism? a. The Qualia Argument b. The Mind Argument c. The Color Argument d. The Knowledge Argument
d. The Knowledge Argument.
2.Which of the following is NOT part of an argument for eliminative materialism? a. Folk psychology has been an explanatory failure. b. Most other folk theories have been rejected. c. Eliminative materialism is more likely to be true than rival theories of mind. d. The concepts needed to explain the mind are beyond human linguistic capabilities.
d. The concepts needed to explain the mind are beyond human linguistic capabilities..
According to O'Neill, in "Kantian Approaches to Some Famine Problems", what does it mean to treat someone as a mere means?
involves an intention to involve the person in an action "to which they could not in principle consent. So, while one often uses people as means (when one uses a cashier to pay for groceries), this is usually done with the other person's consent. However, if one deceives the other person (by a false promise, for example), then the other person in principle cannot consent, for deception requires that the other person not know of the deceit, and consent requires an absence of deception. [8] To use someone as a mere means is to involve them in a scheme of action to which they could not in principle consent [9]To treat someone as an end in him or herself requires in the first place that one not use him or her as mere means, that one respect each as a rational person with his or her own maxims. But beyond that, one may also seek to foster others' plans and maxims by sharing some of their ends. To act beneficently is to seek others' happiness, therefore to intend to achieve some of the things that those others aim at with their maxims. If I want to make others happy, I will adopt maxims that not merely do not manipulate them but that foster some of their plans and activities. Beneficent acts try to achieve what others want. However, we cannot seek everything that others want; their wants are too numerous and diverse, and, of course, sometimes incompatible. It follows that beneficence has to be selective.
Reconstruct Slote's argument against Singer's view that distance is morally irrelevant.
singer says distance is irrelevant and slote says distance is relevant. there is a level of empathy that we all have, i feel your pain. stronger connections to the people close to us has more empathy. singer says that we have to give empathy to everyone. slote says its ok to not give empathy to everyone but give empathy to the ones closest to us