Filosofia Flashcards
Explain the difference between objectivism and cultural relativism.
Objectivism argues that there is a set of objective moral truths, that apply to every person everywhere in the world. Cultural relativism argues that each region/culture has its own set of morals and that you can’t rank them based on correctness.
Can cultural relativist criticize another culture?
Yes he can, but he must do it in the basis of subjective morality, not call for another culture on being objectively more correct.
Explain two-level cultural relativism.
It is a compromise that assumes a moral core that is universal to every culture and it can include goals of morality like cooperation or general well being. Then there is another layer that different cultures differ in and that is the implementation details of mechanisms that cultures use to reach these moral core goals.
What arguments are there for the view that morality is invented?
Different cultures during different times have adopted different morals
The thought that if human beings were different, we would have different set of morals. For example if no-one cared about dying, killing would be fine.
Why is expressivism sometimes called the “boo-hurrah” theory of morality?
Instead of stating a moral preference, expressivism argues that we instead just express our preferences, kinda like being “hurrah honesty!” or “boo taxes”.
What is meant by the error theory of morality?
It states that it is erroneous to think morals could be real and objective, based on the “queerness” of that thought. They are facts with a peculiar necessity built into them: their essence is that they make demands or exist as laws that “must” be obeyed.
What is the difference between sociological and physical determinism?
Other states that our actions are caused by our environment, other states that humans are fully physical machines whose all actions future actions, in theory, could be calculated if we knew all properties of the universe.
if you could not have acted otherwise, does it follow that you lack moral responsibility?
It doesn’t follow, what matters more is if persons actions match their wills and desires. Frankfurt cases show that not having ability to act otherwise doesn’t relieve the person from moral responsibility.
How should moral compatibilism be defined?
The idea of determinism is incompatible with the idea of moral responsibility. Compatibilism tries to unify these concepts, as it is necessary as a society to hold people responsible for their actions. Motivations for actions predict future behavior of the people, and wrong actions should still be punished. Compatibilism considers that all actions are per-determined, but considers person to have a moral responsibility for their actions if the causes for the actions were internal to the person.
Explain the Euthyphro dilemma.
It asks whether gods commands are good because god made them, or because god knows whats good for us. Formers problem is that in theory god could order “truly horrible” actions and it would still be considered good. Latters problem is that the good then exists outside of god, which means humans in theory could discover it without god.
What distinguishes natural law theory from other types of moral theory?
It makes an assumption that there is universal moral laws that can be discovered by reason.
(It makes the assumption that humans have a specific purpose. Humans then must use their reason to discover the purpose and fulfill it.)
What is the relevance of the is/ought distinction for natural law theory?
Natural law theory assumes that we have built-in functions ought to be utilized because they were instilled to us by god. Hume argued that this logic is jumping the is-ought gap. Just because we are some way, doesn’t mean we ought to act that way.
What is the point of the myth of the ring of Gyges?
Ring of Gyges makes the wearer invisible. The point is that the wearer can avoid all negative consequences of their actions. Question then is, can the wearer act morally.
Glaucon thinks that anyone who didn’t abuse their powers would be an idiot and everyone else would think so too. Socrates thought that anyone who didn’t abuse their powers wouldn’t be a slave of their desires and would be free rational agent.
What does it mean to say that the theory of psychological egoism is unfalsifiable?
Psychological egoism assumes that the reasons for everything we ever do, come from our instinct to act self-interested, that there can be no actions that be born out of unselfish reasons. The theory becomes unfalsifiable and circular.
What are the distinctions between kin altruism, group altruism, and reciprocal altruism?
Kin altruism argues, that we act altruistic toward people who share our genes, as we are trying to preserve them. Group altruism argues that we don’t act altruistic just towards people sharing our genes, but to our group as we have better change of surviving if we form strong groups. Reciprocal altruism argues that we return favors to people who do us favors.
