LECTURE 1: INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY AND ETHICS

Question 1

Mother Discipline

Answer 1

Philosophy

Question 2

Meta-discipline, a second order inquiry

Answer 2

Philosophy

Question 3

Philo

Answer 3

Love

Question 4

Sophia

Answer 4

Wisdom

Question 5

Nature of things, what they are, how they come into being, no distinction between philosophy and religion

Answer 5

Phusis

Question 6

To abstract some unifying explanation about nature of reality and man’s prospect in it

Answer 6

Speculative Philosophy

Question 7

Man should have assumed the existence of coherent universe

Answer 7

Importance of Pre-Socratics

Question 8

Where did Philosophy start?

Answer 8

Miletus, Greek Ionia

Question 9

The universe was animate and alive

Answer 9

Hylozoists

Question 10

Timeline of Thales

Answer 10

640 - 550 BC

Question 11

Mathematician that brought geometry from Egypt

Answer 11

Thales

Question 12

Monopoly of the olive oil trade

Answer 12

Thales

Question 13

Magnetism is evidence of life

Answer 13

Thales

Question 14

Flat Earth Theory (when you reach the edge, you will fall)

Answer 14

Thales

Question 15

The fundamental substance is water, as it can change from solid, liquid, to gas.

Answer 15

Thales

Question 16

Beginnings of Western Philosophy (from Miletus)

Answer 16

Milesian School

Question 17

The fundamental substance is the infinite or apeiron

Answer 17

Anaximander

Question 18

The fundamental substance is air

Answer 18

Anaximenes

Question 19

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PHILOSOPHIC PROBLEM: Isaiah Berlin

Answer 19

1. Very broad or general
2. No single methodology for answering these questions
3. Seems to have no practical utility

Question 20

According to which philosopher is this quote: “Philosophy is vision.”

Answer 20

Friedrich Waismann

Question 21

Systematic questioning and critical examination of the underlying principles of morality

Answer 21

Ethics

Question 22

Study of values and their justification
e.g. morality of behaviors, social policies and institutions.

Answer 22

Ethics

Question 23

Core of attitudes, beliefs, and feelings that give coherent vitality to a people. It resides in the heart and minds of the people, in what they expect of each other and themselves, or dislike, value, and disdain

Answer 23

Ethos/Ethnos

Question 24

Study of moral good or badness, the rightness and wrongness of an act

Answer 24

Morality

Question 25

Seem to make absolute and universal claims while many ethical rules seem to be more optional and relative to a particular society.

Answer 25

Moral Principles

Question 26

___________ will constitute our morals.

Answer 26

Mores

Question 27

Giving reasons and making arguments to justify one’s moral conclusions

Answer 27

Moral Reasoning

Question 28

Two points of view of analysis morality

Answer 28

Society and Individual as a Free Agent

Question 29

Systematic exposition of a particular view about what is the basis of good and right.

Answer 29

Ethical Theory

Question 30

Provides reasons and norms for judging

Answer 30

Ethical Theory

Question 31

Provides ethical principles or guidelines to embody certain values

Answer 31

Ethical Theory

Question 32

___________ are evaluative because they place a value in some action or practice.

Answer 32

Moral Judgments

Question 33

Two kinds of Moral Judgments

Answer 33

Normative Judgment and Descriptive Judgment

Question 34

Ethics, Law, Aesthetics, Religion, Custom

Answer 34

Normative Judgement

Question 35

Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology

Answer 35

Descriptive Judgement

Question 36

Two types of Ethical Theory

Answer 36

Normative Ethics and Metaethics

Question 37

Deals with specific questions of right and wrong, good and evil

Answer 37

Normative Ethics

Question 38

Base their moral judgments on expected results; 'telos' or goal or end (e.g. human happiness)

Answer 38

Teleological (Consequentialist) Moral Theories

Question 39

Nature of the act alone, regardless of the consequences; 'deon' or duty (e.g. requirements of human dignity)

Answer 39

Deontological (Non-consequentialist) Moral Theories

Question 40

Emphasis on the virtue or character or flourishing of an individual as part of his human nature (e.g. justice, courage, temperance, wisdom, etc.)

Answer 40

Virtue Ethics

Question 41

Deals with more abstract questions concerning the meaning and justification of ethical concepts and principles (e.g. Principia Ethica of G.E. Moore)

Answer 41

Metaethics

Question 42

Three kinds of Normative Ethics

Answer 42

Teleological, Deontological, Virtue Ethics

Question 43

WHY DO WE NEED TO STUDY ETHICS?

Answer 43

1. Ethics are continually changing. 2. We have an ethically pluralist society - no single code of ethics but different values and rules. 3. Enables us to choose between alternative courses of action or opposing values 4. Enables us to reconsider our ethical priorities