Applied: Stealing Flashcards
(30 cards)
What is stealing?
To take someone else’s property with no intention of returning it and without their permission (or without the legal right to do so)
What branch of ethics is concerned with the application of ethical theories to issues like stealing?
Applied ethics
Stealing is a matter of justice, what we are ______ by right.
owed
According to Kantian deontology, why is stealing rejected?
A maxim of stealing could not be universalised without contradiction
Kant’s theory states that stealing fails to treat people as ______.
ends in themselves
In Kantian ethics, the duties of ______ take priority over duties of ______.
justice; charity
What kind of utilitarianism suggests we should steal when it maximizes happiness?
Act utilitarianism
According to rule utilitarianism, an act is right if _____.
it follows a rule that generally maximizes happiness
Mill proposes that we draw on ______ in our moral lives to maximize happiness.
social practices
The most significant aspects of morality are those concerned with ______.
justice
What is a strength of Kant’s theory?
It’s very clear and universal
What is a weakness of Kant’s theory?
Counterintuitive to say there are no exceptions
What is a strength of utilitarianism?
Allows exceptions we feel are necessary (like stealing to save a life)
What is a weakness of act utilitarianism?
It permits stealing even when unfair if it brings about sufficient pleasure
What complicates rule utilitarianism regarding exceptions?
Making exceptions risks collapsing back into act utilitarianism
Virtue ethics is an agent-centred normative ethical theory that starts with the idea of the ______.
good person
According to Aristotle, the final end for humans is ______.
eudaimonia
What does Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean describe?
Virtues that fall between vices of excess and deficiency
Justice is defined as what the law demands, but also as ______.
fairness
Aristotle’s view of justice gives him a generally ______ view of the acceptability of stealing.
sceptical
Stealing is never in the mean because it deprives someone of their ______.
due
What might justify stealing according to virtue ethics?
An act of rectification in response to an unjust state of affairs
What is practical wisdom in the context of virtue ethics?
Intellectual virtue involving effective deliberation and judgment
What is a strength of Aristotle’s virtue ethics?
Values our rights, which is intuitively important
