Quiz 4 Study Guide. Ch, 9, 11, 13. Flashcards
(26 cards)
What are Virtues?
Specific character traits, like honesty and courage, that are morally good values. A virtuous person has many virtues.
What are Vices?
Specific character traits, like dishonesty and selfishness, that are the opposite of virtues and thus morally bad. A vicious person has many vices.
What’s Eudaimonia?
Aristotle’s concept of human flourishing (happiness) that is achieved only as we fulfill our human function of lviing by reason.
What is Mean? (The Golden Mean)
A virtuous act or feeling that achieves the proper balance (“Golden Mean”) between both excess and deficiency.
What is a Moral Saint?
Drawn from Wolf’s essay, a moral saint is one who perfectly fulfills the requirements of a given moral theory.
What is Impartiality?
The objective moral perspective prized by most principle-based theories; it requires us to detach ourselves from our personal feelings and bypass our personal interests.
What is Obligation Virtues?
Help us fulfill moral obligations to act in certain ways (e.g. promise keeping, justice, truthfulness).
What are Good-Promoting Virtues?
They help promote specific values or goods (e.g. sociability, generosity).
What are limiting virtues?
Help us control or manage our inclinations and feelings. (e.g. courage, temperance [self-control], loyalty, or faithfulness.
What is Natural Value?
Some desirable end or goal toward which nature aims
What is an innocent?
A person, or nation, that has a moral right not to be threatened by others because he (or it) has not attacked or threatened another.
What is the Autonomy Thesis?
It states that the moral standard is something that exists autonomously-on it’s own, independent of any deity.
What is the Dependency Thesis?
Is states that morality originates in God and so depends upon God for it’s existence.
What is the Divine Command Theory?
A traditional dependency theory that maintains that morally right acts are those that God commands or wills.
Divine Command Theory asserts that God is the basis of morality and that God is not subject to reason or anything else.
What is the Principle of Autonomy? (Autonomy Thesis)
The third version of Kant’s categorical imperative, this principle states that every person is equally a creator of the universal moral law- that is, that each person makes the moral law for himself.
What is Natural Law Theory?
Natural Law Theory identifies natural values as things that human beings innately desire and need; more generally, they reflect whatever conforms to the cosmic order.
The laws of nature
What do we mean when we say something is “universalizable”?
It refers to a principle or theory that can be applied to everyone
In the context of ethics, what is meant by the word “autonomous”?
Able to make free choices as a self-determining individual.
According to Plato and Socrates, does immorality stems from God’s commands, ignorance, or is it all relative?
It stems from his commands
Which conditions must be satisfied for one to be considered autonomous?
Independence Condition. Competency Condition. Authenticity Condition.
What is moral deference? Provide an example
Respecting another person’s choices without interfering. An example would be respecting your child’s decision to drop out of college to pursue something else they’re interested in. You’re recognizing them to be moral agents, and capable of making decisions on their own. You’re showing them moral deference
What is Paternalism? Provide an example.
Overruling people’s choices and actions for their own good. A court ruling that a child must be treated with a life saving treatment even though him and his parents deny the treatment.
What is a Moral Agent?
A person who satisfies the conditions of autonomy and is able to appropriately apple these capacities to a specific choice. An autonomous person making a specific moral choice.
What is a moral principle?
A moral generalization that holds for everyone in the same way. Principles are not limited to particular people or situations.
