Phil Flashcards
(100 cards)
1
Q
What are the different types of dilemmas?
A
Moral dilemma: moral standard VS moral standard
Motivational dilemma: moral standard VS practical standard
Practical dilemma: practical standard VS practical standard
2
Q
Descriptive vs prescriptive statements
A
- Economics makes descriptive statements –> knowledge about ‘what is’
- Ethics makes prescriptive statement, knowledge of ‘what ought to be done’
3
Q
What are the three statements of economics decision making?
A
- Value statement (what ought to be done), from normative theory
- Positive statement (how to achieve the goal of the value statement
- Policy conclusion: combines statement 1 and 2. ‘To achieve x government should apply policy y.’
4
Q
What is the difference between microeconomic and macroeconomic ethics, as described by Kouwenhoven (1981)?
A
- Micro encompasses both individuals and individual households and businesses, evaluating the actions of these individual entities.
- Macro considers the morality of economic structures. Does economic order respect ethical standards?
5
Q
What are the institutions? What are the different types of institutions?
A
- “Systems of established and prevalent social rules that structure social interactions”
- Regulative: rules, sanctions and regulations which codify socially accepted behaviour
- Normative: values, social norms, beliefs and assumptions about human nature
- Cognitive: structures structures and social knowledge shared by people in a given group
6
Q
What are intrinsic and extrinsic values?
A
Something is intrinsically valuable when the thing itself is valuable, extrinsic values are values that are merely good as a means to something else (e.g. money)
7
Q
How did John Locke morally defend free markets?
A
Based on the theory of moral rights. Markets are supposed to respect the rights of freedom and the right to private property. Each has ownership of his own body, labor and its products. Governments should only act as insofar to protect these rights, thus they should not manipulate the market.
8
Q
What is the basic principle of utilitarianism? What are its three components?
A
-The greatest happiness for the greatest number (Jeremy Bentham).
- Consequentialism, welfarism, sum ranking.
9
Q
What is consequentialism?
A
It asserts that choices or policies must be judged exclusively in terms of the resulting or consequent effect, rather than by any intrinsic feature they may have. (OUTCOME matters NOT process). The option with better consequences is morally obligatory.
10
Q
What is welfarism? How does it link with utilitarianism and consequentialism?
A
A utilitarian is a consequentialist who says that what is good is welfare. Welfarism sustains that the goodness of a state of affairs is purely a function of utility or welfare. Essentially, welfarism says that utility is what determines how good something is, and thus utility should be the only goal. It provides a measure for consequentialism.
11
Q
What are the different types of welfarism?
A
- Hedonism, by Jeremy Bentham: everything is reduced to standard measures of pleasure and pain. This is a monistic concept, as it assumes all values can be measured on the same scale.
- Individual sovereignty, which is used by economists. Individuals are the only ones who can assess their own welfare. Utility is simply the satisfaction of one’s preferences.
12
Q
What is sum ranking?
A
The total sum of utilities should be maximised with equal weight to utility of different individuals. Marginal utility should be equalised.
13
Q
How is cost-benefit analysis used to implement utilitarianisim?
A
- Who is affected and how?
- How much are they willing to pay for each policy? If they are negatively affected: how much compensation would they require?
- Determine the sum of these individual valuations and select the alternative with highest net benefit.
14
Q
What are the problems of consequentialism?
A
- no intrinsic value of rights
- no consideration of intentions
- disregards retributive justice
- consequences are difficult to predict
15
Q
What are the problems with welfarism?
A
- happiness is not the only valuable thing
- utility does not adequately represent well-being (formal definition)
- problem of incommensurability
- immoral preferences
- non-rational preferences
- no community valuation
16
Q
What are the problems with sum ranking?
A
- value-free interpersonal comparison of utilities impossible
- no distributive justice
- how to count future gens?
- how to determine number of people? (some say average utility instead of total utility, but this also has nasty implications)
- how to count animals?
- over-demandingness
17
Q
What is rule utilitarianisim?
A
A modified version of utilitarianism designed to mitigate the problems of consequentialism. It states that utilitarianism should only be used to formulate rules. Rules should generally lead to more welfare. Think of lying example.
18
Q
What is extra welfarism and the capability approach?
A
It aims to tackle the problems of welfarism. They are modified version of welfarism. Sen proposed the capability approach, which sees consequences is much broader terms, including the value of freedom or disvalue of violated rights. In particular, capabilities are important, and should be included in the welfare calculation (think of bike example).
19
Q
What are the three economic perspectives on the ‘good market system’?
A
- Free market perspective of the neoliberal school
- The perfect market perspective of the neoclassical school
- The welfare-state perspective of the Keynesian school
20
Q
What are the main ideas of the free market perspective by neoliberals?
A
- Main scholars are Hayek, Schumpeter and Friedman.
- The idea is a market free from government regulations, gov should only protect property rights, minimal social safety net.
- Idea that innovation (new goos, tech etc…) drives economic growth, rather than just competition of who can produce things most cheaply.
- Monopoly is fine if due to skill, cannot be used to keep others from joining the market. This creates a threat for monopolists to keep innovating (Schumpeter)
- At first Friedman was supportive of competition policies by gov but then concluded it was too corrupt, and turned completely against it, like Hayek.
21
Q
What is the perfect market perspective of the neoclassical school?
A
- This is the mainstream economic science idea.
- The ideal market would be a market free from imperfections.
- Economic growth is dictated by the price mechanism, leading to equilibrium between supply and demand.
- They use Pareto optimality as a criterion for what is good. Also called minimal benevolence. This criterion also assumes consequentialism and welfarism. It is highly biased towards the status quo (there is no free lunch)
- Gov should be limited to providing public goods and combating market imperfections.
22
Q
What is the first welfare theorem?
A
The theorem upon which the ideal of the perfect market was formed. It states that any perfectly competitive market equilibrium is Pareto optimal.
23
Q
What is the second welfare theorem?
A
It answers the moral criticism to the first theorem (unjust distributions). It states that every Pareto optimum can be obtained as a competitive general equilibrium, given some distribution of initial endowments.
24
Q
What are the conditions required for perfect competition?
A
- No gov regulation (or others) of prices, quantities or quality
- Many market agents with not entry/exit barriers
- All firms in a market produce homogeneous goods, perfectly substitutable
- Full information
- No externalities
- Rationality
Thus, there are 6 possible market imperfections.
25
What are the three conditions for rationality?
- Always choose the alternative that yields the highest utility
- Rational beliefs about the likely consequences of their actions
- Able to rank utilities of alternatives in a consistent manner. This is true if 3 criteria are met: transitivity, completeness/commensurability and continuity
26
What is bounded rationality?
The behaviour of humans often diverts from fully rational behaviour. Because of emotions, changes in preferences, lack of cognitive abilities (using rules of thumb)
27
What is the welfare state perspective of the Keynesian school?
- Future is uncertain (animal spirits)
-The idea is that markets are not self correcting and there is therefore a need for coordination and cooperation.
- Government should be involved in stabilisation policies, market regulation and industrial policies (job creation)
- Beveridge argues for welfare state arrangements and progressive tax systems to reduce income inequality
28
What is life satisfaction?What is it used for?
It is a comprehensive appraisal of life as it is in comparison to how life should be. It is used as a measure of happiness in empirical research.
29
What three findings about happiness did Easterlin establish?
- Wealthier people report higher subjective well-being than poor people
- Happiness generally does not increase in periods of fast economic growth
- In a cross-country analysis he found that there is not relationship between happiness and income per capita in a given year.
30
What are the explanations of consistent scarcity?
- Habit formation: people get used to higher levels of consumption. If they get used to consuming something, they will ask for more and more of it...
- Supply-induced demand: new needs are created by producers to sell more of a product
- People rate their satisfaction based on the consumption of others rather than to their own consumption level. Veblen argues that consumption is mainly important for the social symbolism rather than for its own intrinsic value.
31
What did Rene Girard argue?
mimetic desire (mimesis), the value and individual attaches to a certain good is derived from the value he or she supposes other people attach to this good.
32
What are positional goods?
Proposed by Fred Hirsch, they are goods whose satisfaction in consumption is derived from other not being able to enjoy that good.
33
What is Thomas Hobbs theory of insatiable needs?
Richness and status are a means to obtain power over others, it is a way to maintain safety and freedom. (Power is a relative good, you need more than other, the amount itself does not matter)
34
What is the fundamental difference between consequentialism and deontological ethics?
- Consequentialism is worried about the consequences of our action, which should determine out choices. Deon means duty, and argues that we should stick to certain principles regardless of the consequences. Consequentialism disregards distributive justice.
35
What is Gesinnungesthik?
The idea that the moral value of actions depends on the intention of the person who acts.
36
What did Kant argue about the ethics of duty?
- Act is morally right if motivated by a good will, not if the outcome is good. Good will means that the action is done from a sense of duty. A duty is an act out of respect for the moral law. This is the same as Gesinnungesthik. Good will is a necessary condition in order to deserve to be happy. Good will is a sense of duty.
37
What is the first formulation of the categorical imperative?
Act in such a way that you can also will that your maxim should become a universal law = apply the tests of universalizability and reversibility:
1. Can we wish all people to act upon this principle we act on?
2. Would you like it if others would treat you in this way?
38
What is the second formulation of the categorical imperative?
Act in such a way that you treat others never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.
39
What are the characterstics of perfect duties?
- Allow no exception
- Mostly negative duties
-Can be enforced by law
- Correlate to rights
- Most easily derived from the first formulation of Categorical Imperative
(think of them as constraints in an economic model... it is impossible to want that everyone steals as the maxim)
40
What are the characteristics of imperfect duties?
- Some latitude in executing
- Mostly positive duties
-Cannot be enforced by law
- No correlating rights
- Most easily derived from the second formulation of CI
(consider others the ends of others as our own)
41
What is the difference between prima facie duties and all things considered duty?
Prima facie duties are duties that presume fulfilment unless they conflict with a stronger obligation , all things considered duties is the greatest balance of right and wrong which dictates your decision after having evaluated all prima facie duties... it basically is what you should do in the end.
42
What is the view of Robert Nozick? What does it imply?
Libertarianism: only basic right is the right to be free from coercion of others. It is defended by Kant's second formulation of CI. Nozick only defends a negative right: duty of others to not interfere with certain activities of the person who holds a given right.
It implies the right to prive property, right to conclude contracts, market without government regulation. It is a deontological view, right to individual freedom sets an absolute constraint on government intervention.
43
How does the thinking of John Locke defend the free market system?
-The market must protect the right to freedom and the right to private property, which is the two rights Locke believed to be 'natural' human rights.
44
What di the Brundtland Commission define sustainable development as?
Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
45
What is libertarian paternalism?
Paternalism can be defined as the limitation of the autonomy of a person, any government policy which is paternalistic should be reject according to libertarianism as it violates individual rights. However, libertarian paternalism claims that nudging is needed to channel people towards good choices.
46
What are the conditions for the compatibility of nudges with freedom and autonomy?
1. Should facilitate pursuit of the nudgee's goal
2. Acceptably low opt-out cost
3. Satisfy conditions of public transparency (nudge can be publicly defended)
47
What were Friedrich Hayek's views?
Neoliberal economics:
- Individual freedom as a moral principle
- No responsibility for the collective
- Opposes central planning by government
- Gov. should be limited to providing the rule of law
- Everyone is free, within the known rules of the game
48
What was Friedman's model?
- Shareholder model, firms' only social responsibility is to increase profits. He argues that the government is a threat to human freedom.
49
What is Shue's concept of a basic right?
A right that is essential to enjoyment of other rights. One of these rights is minimal subsistence, which is the right to water, air, food...
50
What are the three types of perfect duty derived by Shue?
1. Duty to avoid depriving
2. Duty to protect from deprivation
3. Duty to aid the deprived
51
What is the Lockean proviso?
Earth is common property of humanity, but property rights are needed to enable persons to appropriate the yields of the earth to sustain their lives. BUT there must be enough and as good left in common for others
52
What is the formal criterion of justice?
Equals should be treated equally, unequals should be treated unequally.
53
What is Nozick's procedural justice (entitlement theory)?
Any distribution is just if as a result of free choices by individuals.
Procedural justice consists in the unhindered operation of just procedures:
- Justice in acquisition: Lockean provision
- Justice in transfer: by voluntary transactions
- Justice in rectification: rectification of injustice in acquisition or transfer
54
What is Nozick's argument against redistribution?
- Taxes violate people's property rights. It favours people who a lot of leisure and therefore are ok with earning a relatively lower income.
- Redistribution needs are caused mostly by envy.
55
What is meritocracy?What are some problems with it?
The distribution of benefits according to moral desert, there is a broad approach which includes moral and civic virtue and the technocratic approach. The latter is Capitalist justice: merit is equal to the value if people's contribution to the economy (Effort, Productivity, Market Price).
BUT it implies that does who are not rich or successful deserve it. It does not take into account the luck of people who 'made it'. It provides justification for inequality.
56
What is Rawl's veil of ignorance?
It's Rawl's thought experiment to assure impartiality and reveal the principles of justice. If people do not have information about their own position in society, people will be risk averse and apply maximin.
57
What are Rawl's three principles of justice?
- Principle of equal liberty: an equal right to the the most extensive scheme of equal basic liberties compatible with the ones of others.
- Principle of fair equality of opportunity: inequalities are attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity.
- The difference principle: the least advantages receive the maximum primary social goods compared to other frameworks.
58
What are the strong and weak variants of the difference principle?
- Weak: rules out any inequality that worsens the prospects of the worst off
- Strong: rules out any inequality that does not improve the prospects of the worst off
59
What does Rawl's law of people apply to? What are the 8 principles of it?
To justice between people of different nations.
1. People are free and independent, and this is to be respected by others
2. People are to observe treaties or undertakings
3. People are equal and are parties to the agreements that bind them
4. People are to observe duty of non-intervention
5. people have the right of self-defense
6. People are to honor human rights
7. People are to observe certain specified restrictions in the conduct of war
8. People have the duty to assist other people living under unfavourable conditions.
60
What are the conclusions/implications of Rawls' theory of justice?
- We should hand to the next generation a situation no worse than we received from the generation before (intergenerational justice)
- Implies we should not save to make next generation better off
61
What is the serial order/hierarchy between the principles of justice?
1. Principle of equal liberty
2.Principle of fair equality of opportunity
3. Difference Principle
62
What is the difference between the Anglo-Saxon and the Rhineland model?
The Anglo-Saxon model is a free market economy with low levels of regulation, taxes and gov spending. Main role of the government is to ensure private property rights. The Rhineland model also has free markets, but private property is more limited by the government and other institutions. Also, stakeholder model instead of stockholder model.
63
What are the 8 distributive justice standards?
1. Absolute egalitarianism
2. Difference Principle of Rawls
3. Socialist principle of Marx
4. Capability principle of Sen
5. Utilitarianism of Bentham
6. Equal opportunities principle of Rawls
7. Capitalist principle/meritocracy
8. Freedom of Nozick
64
What is the socialist principle of Marx?
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
65
What is the capability approach?
Capability that increase freedom
Non-welfaristic concept of consequences
66
What is capitalist justice?
Distribution is fair if it is in accordance to contribution to society. Technocratic and broad versions.
67
What question does virtue ethics try to answer?
What kind of person should I be?
68
What is a virtue?
An acquired disposition that is socially valued as part of the character of a morally good person being exhibited in the person's habitual behaviour.
69
What are the main points of arisotle's virtue ethics?
- Virtues enable a person to obtain a good life: happiness is the goal of human life
- Virtues are acquired by habit formation (cannot change overnight)
- Choose the reasonable middle ground between the vices of going too far and not going far enough
70
What are the main virtues mentioned by Aristotle?
Feelings:
Cowardice-Courage-Resckless
Austerity-Temperance-Glottony
Inertness-SelfPosession-Anger
Malicious pleasures- Indignation-Envy
Prraxis:
Avarice-Generosity-Extravagance
Humility-High spiritedness- Haughtiness
Injustice-Justice-Injustice
71
Which of Aristotle's virtue stimulate sustainable behaviour? Which new virtue has been introduced?
-Temperance, self-command, benevolence, prudence and practical wisdom.
- Harmony with nature
72
What are the main points of Adam Smith's virtue ethics?
- Context of commercial society (every man lives by exchanging)
- Prudence and self command (what the homo economicus combines), benevolence, justice
73
What is the importance of Adam Smith's prudence and self-command principles?
- Central virtues of the homo economicous
- Prudence is careful attention of the consequences of every action insofar they affect own happiness (combines self-interest and rationality)
- Self command is abstinence from present pleasure to obtain greater pleasure in some future time (necessary to act prudently)
- Prudence and self command comprise several lower virtues
74
What is the importance of Adam Smith's benevolence principle?
- Care for the happiness of others, but to an appropriate degree.
75
What is the importance of Adam Smith's justice principle?
- Sacred regard to not hurt or disturb the happiness of others
- It is stricter and more important for society than benevolence
76
Maclntyre's virtue ethics
- Virtue is an acquired human quality, which allows to achieve internal goods in given practices (for examples being good at chess, where the internal good is excellence at the game). Institutions are concerned with external goods, which are not related to specific practices (money, fame, power).
The three professional virtues are integrity, due care, quality and accuracy.
77
What is care ethics?
- We should preserve concrete and valuable relationships with specific persons. We should exercise special care for them, particularly when they are vulnerable and dependent of our care.
- Therefore, it is not impartial towards every person.
78
What are Bruni and Sudgen's market ethics?
They argue that the telos of the market is mutual benefit or gains from trade through voluntary transactions. We cannot reject the idea that people are motivated by external goods. Virtues such as enterprise, alertness, self-help, respect for trading partner's taste.
79
What is Hirschman's debate on effects of market operations on virtues?
- Doux commerce thesis: commerce has favourable impact on the manners of men
- Self-destruction thesis: the market undermines the virtues that are essential for the good functioning of the market
-Feudal shackles thesis: capitalism is too weak to break down the elements fo the previous social order. Aristocratic and military classes retain significant power.
- Feudal blessings thesis: the absence of a feudal remnants, as they allow for ideological diversity and socialists reactions stemming from traditions. BUT stimulates tendency towards a tyranny.
80
How does Smith support the Doux commerce thesis?
- Wealth of Nations: free competition obliges bankers to be more liberal in their dealings with their customers. Men tend to overwork themselves when paid for their work.
-Lectures: commerce promotes probity and punctuality. frequent interactions also reduce incentives to cheat/lie
81
How does Smith support the self destruction thesis?
- Wealth of Nations: if a man spends time only doing one simple operation, he becomes stupid and ignorant
- Lectures: commerce sinks the courage of mankind, heroic spirit is estinguished
82
What is das Smith Problem?
The ambiguity in Smith's views between WN and TMS and how to interpret it. WN = people driven by self interest, TMS = people enjoy success of others.
83
What does Mandeville argue with the fable of the bees?
That vices are necessary for society to prosper. Vices have built more hospital than all virtues put together. Private vices = Public benefits.
84
What is Marx's theory of alienation?
Labour becomes detached from the person, just another part of the production process. The person no longer enjoys their labour. This results in alienation and the development of vices such as anger...
85
What is the estimated effect of price incentives in household generosity according to the literature? What about the effect of technological competition intensity on CSR intrinsic motivation of firms?
-Negative, crowding out
- Positive, crowding in
86
What does De Mandeville argue?
He argued in his 'Fable of the bees' that practices of private virtues lead to societal disaster and therefore human unhappiness, because without vices humanity will not prosper.
87
What is the tension in Adam Smith's WN and TMS?
He is somewhere in between agreeing with De Mandeville (WN) and arguing for the importance of virtues (TMS)
88
What is mutual sympathy? What does it induce?
Our desire for others to sympathise with us because of a natural desire to be regarded positively by others. It induces moral self-criticism, and this wish for social acceptance fosters harmony in society.
89
What is Adam Smith's impartial spectator?
It is our conscience, 'man within the breast', it develops by internalisation of the view of the impartial audience that is not directly involved.
90
How is Smith in line with De Mandeville?
- In the idea that vices increase flourishing:
--> WN (not from the benevolence of the butcher..., pursuing own interst)
--> TMS, invisible hand landlord example...
91
How is Smith in disagreement with De Mandeville?
- In the idea that virtues can increase flourishing (De Mandeville disagrees)
92
What are the four types of societies which emerge from the debates of Smith VS Mandeville and Doux Commerce VS Self-destruction?
- A flourishing virtuous society
- Stagnating vicious society
- Stagnating virtuous society
- Flourishing vicious society
93
What is Liberalism?
Liberalism rests on two pillars: individual freedom and rationalism. It is based on utilitarianism, duty ethics, rights ethics and justice ethics. Individual interest has priority over community.
-Enlightened self-interest (self-interest rightly understood): self interest NOT egoism, pursue your interests while safeguarding economic/political order.
- Institutions are more important than virtues,
94
What is communitarianism?
The community comes before the individual. It is based on virtue and care ethics.
95
What are Sen's criticisms of communitarianism?
- identities and relationships are not a matter of choice, they are given.
- Encourages conservative behaviour
- between-groups conflict (nationalism)
- one person can have multiple conflicting identities
96
What is the I & We paradigm?
The interdependent action of individuals in their social relations. (Kinda combines liberalism and communitarianism)
97
What are the 7 objections to the commodification of certain goods/services (noxious markets)?
1. Disutility because of harm to others
2. Disutility because of bounded rationality
3. Rights violations
4. Justice violation because of exploitation of the vulnerable
5. Justice violation because of misallocation
6. Crowding out of virtues
7. Semiotic objections, because of stimulating the wrong attitudes. (organ sale/surrogacy...)
98
What is Velasquez's lexicographic approach?
Perfect duties and correlated rights have greater weight than justice and justice has greater weight than utilitarianism.
99
What is the seven step method of moral evaluation?
1. Gather the background facts of the decision problem
2. Identify options
3. Identify affected parties
4. Identify consequences of each option for each party
5. Identify the moral standard that are met or violated
6. If needed, identify the hierarchy of the moral standards involved
7. Check the outcome
99
