Midterm Flashcards
(25 cards)
Definition of Ethics
Ethics, or moral philosophy, asks basic questions about the good life, about what is better and worse, about whether there is any objective right and wrong, and how we know it if there is.
Importance of Ethics to Theology
It matters to God, scripture, our witness (how we treat others), and to our influence.
Importance of Ethics to Philosophy
It relates to many other fields, it’s a great source of conflict, and it is not enough to know what to do.
Importance of Ethics Practically
There is injustice and conflict in the world.
Metaethics
A branch concerned with what is “right” and “wrong.” It deals with the definition of terms and theories of ethics.
Normative Ethics
A branch concerned with what types of judgments should be made in a particular situation. It attempts to think of what one should or should not do.
Descriptive Ethics
A branch concerned with describing how different people understand or practice ethics.
Aretaic Ethics
A branch of ethics concerned with the development of the type of character necessary for living ethically. Whereas normative ethics focuses on an ethical judgment, aretaic ethics focuses on the character necessary to make the right type of judgment or to live the right type of life.
Hume’s Law
We should not move from ‘is’ to ‘ought’.
Kant’s Modification to Hume’s Law
Ought implies can.
Hare’s Modification to Hume’s Law
Ought implies can…with help.
Naturalistic Fallacy
Moore maintained that moral terms such as good are names for non-empirical (not natural) properties that cannot be reduced to some natural thing. Goodness cannot be identified with something like pleasure since it makes sense to ask whether pleasure is good.
Intuitionism
ethical knowledge is, at least partially, immediate and thus received through intuition.
Emotivism
ethical statements are actually claims of how we react to something (i.e. a subjective statement), rather than an objective statement. Basically, we are saying that we don’t like murder. Preference.
Objectivism
morality is based on something that is fixed and this is not correlated to any individual subject.
Strong relativism
Values and ethical ideas are strictly tied to an individual’s circumstances, whether it be societal pressure, religious upbringing, etc.
Weak Relativism
Holds that certain norms are transcultural, but find expression in different cultural practices.
Support for Relativism
The diversity of moral views, importance of tolerance, the uncertainty of moral decisions (allows situations to be messy), circumstantial differences, significance of diversity.
Moral Realism
Realism is the view that there are realities independent of our observation, with moral realism claiming that ethical values and/or norms would be included among real entities.
Moral Pluralism
View that it is likely that moral values are real, but concludes that they are both manifold and difficult to organize as to importance or precedence.
Rorty’s View on Relativism
Was skeptical about epistemological behaviors finding universal ethical norms. Felt that theories of knowledge could be reduced to psychology and practice.
Egoism
the view one should primarily seek one’s own good.
Altruism
the concern for the good of others.
Social Contract Theory
the view that holds that morality is a matter of socially derived/stipulated rules that various members of a community agree to uphold.
