(WS6) Chapter 11 : What is a good life? Ethics

Herodotus

"Custom is king over all." claiming that what you believe is right or wrong is mostly a matter of where you are form and what the customs of you location are.

Golden Rule (Another one of Immanuel Kant's ways of describing categorical imperative)

"Do to others what you would have them do to you."

Jeremy Bentham

"The single goal that a legislator should have in view is the happiness of the individuals of which a community is composed, their pleasure and their security." (pain and pleasure) - "the pleasure of a happy pig wallowing in the mud might count the same as the pleasure of helping someone in need or thinking an insightful thought"

Communism

"from each according to his ability; to each according to his need," a system in which everything contributes as much as he or she can to society and takes only what he or she needs.

3 kinds of act-based approaches

1.) Duty-based : actions that are universally right or wrong. (like lying or stealing) 2.) Utilitarianism : consequences of actions. ("the greatest good for the greatest number") 3.) Egoist : What's in it for me?

2 basic perspectives to ethics

Act-based ethics (more widely used) & Virtue-based ethics

Capitalism

An economic system by which individuals compete for resources; those with resources sell them for as much as they can, while those acquiring them pay as little as they must

Christianity

Christianity has placed a greater emphasis on "who you are" than on "what you do." "love God and neighbor" command is the bedrock of a Christian ethic.

Moral doubters

Diogenes the cynic: (advocated a simple life, questions everyone's true motives) Pyrrho the Skeptic : (cannot know anything for certain) Nicolo Machiavelli : (the prince) David Hume : (reason had nothing to do with out morality. facts and values were two different things) Friedrich Nietzsche : (moral nihilist. no evil existed.) J.L. Mackie : (moral nihilist. "there are no objective values") Michel Foucault : (power and knowledge were intimately connected)

Ayn Rand

Egoism best known proponent. based on capitalism.

Epicurus

Good and bad correlated directly to pleasure and pain, with pleasure being the highest good. Pleasure was about peace that comes from the absence of pain and suffering. Also known for his "ethic of reciprocity," a form of the golden rule.

Absolutes

In ethics, a principle of action that applies in every situation, time, and place. Core rights and wrongs, that is one that is always right or wrong without exception

Stoicism

Love of fate. The ideal is to live in accordance with the reason that is inside of you. Need to achieve an emotionless state.

to be fully happy

Plato & Aristotle believe people could not be fully happy unless they lived In a just society Plato: (a government should mirror a properly ordered body.) Aristotle: (humanity is a political animal, built to live together in cities.) Stoics: (believed a person could be happy under any circumstances)

Aristotle

Virtue is a result of habit Golden mean: "moderation in all things" such as emotions and passions

The four cardinal virtues

Wisdom Courage Self-control Justice

Moral nihilism vs. Moral relativism

a position that holds that "right and wrong" does not truly exist. A relativist does believe in right and wrong, they simply believe that it is relative to either the person or culture.

"relative"

a position that you affirm as definitely right or wrong for you but not necessarily for someone else. 2 levels

Categorical imperative

an imperative is a command, something that you must do, that is you duty to do or not to do. Categorical means means that these imperatives are absolute, without exception. it applies to everything in that category. "Only put into practice that ethical principle that you at the same time would consider to be a universal law."

Utilitarianism (Jeremy Bentham)

asks what course of action is most likely to bring about the greatest pleasure or good for the greatest number.

The ends justify the means

believes that if the goal is good, it does not matter what path one takes to get to that goal.

David Hume

came up with the Fact-value problem. no clear connection between facts and values.

Virtue-based ethics

focus on being - what sort of people we should be or become. character, motives, and true happiness

Act-based ethics

focus on doing - what we should or should not do

Eudaimonia

happiness, "the good life"

An end in itself (1 of Immanuel Kant's ways of describing categorical imperative)

if we say something is an end in itself, we do it or value it regardless of whether it causes something else good or bad to happen. It is good for its own sake.

Axiology

is the study of what is valuable in life, another way of viewing ethics. whether we realize it or not, we all operate with a certain "hierarchy of values" so that when two or our values come into conflict with each other, we trump one with the other

Cultural relativism (1 level of relative)

is the view that right or wrong is determined by the culture in which you are located

Personal relativism (1 level of relative)

is the view that right or wrong is determined by you as an individual

Sophists (socrates)

oppose the idea that all right and wrong is a function of culture or the individual.

John Stuart Mill

rejected the notion that all types of pleasures should count the same when on his trying to determine what course of action will have the greatest benefit. Some forms of happiness should count more than others.

Intrinsic good

something that is an end in itself, good for its own sake

Instrumental good

something that is good only because it leads to something else that is good

Ethics

the area of philosophy that has to do with how to live in the world. Deals with the kinds of decisions we have to make both in the long and short term. asks how we best live in the world.

is lying actually an absolute?

the book of Joshua seems to look favorably on the prostate Rahab because she lied to protect the Israelite spies at Jericho (Josh. 6:25). Joshua seems to consider it not only allowed but commendable to lie. suggesting that this ethic is a good candidate for a maxim that is universally valid but not exceptionalness. Lying is universally wrong, but not an absolute in situations where a higher value conflicts with it, such as when a life is at stake. Most lies are self-serving, and the Bible gives no justification for that kind of lie.

Fact-value problem

the difficulty of finding an intrinsic connection between the "facts" of the world and the "values" we assign to them

Plato (absolutist)

the story: Gyges's ring. Gyges was a shepherd who found a ring that could make him invisible. so he placed himself among certain delegates to the king and then proceeded to have an affair with the king's wife, who then plotted with him and killed the king. The question posed in Plato's story is whether we should do the right thing even when we will not get caught. Plato's answer is that we should. The person is happy only when the whole person is healthy and each part- soul and body- is doing what it is supposed to do.

Immanuel Kant (absolutist)

we have certain built-in categories of thinking that help us process the content of our senses. This "software" could help us determine right and wrong. came up with the Categorical imperative

Sins of omission

when we do not do something good that we should do

Sins of commission

when we do something wrong