Relationships Between Ethical Traditions Part 2 Flashcards
(39 cards)
Trudy is an environmentalist and believes that her local steel factory releases excessive pollution in her community. If she turns to a Divine Command theorist for moral guidance on this matter, she will be disappointed because the Bible is __________ on this matter.
Silent. There is nothing in the Bible about environmental pollution. The problem with the Divine Command theory is that is does not explicitly guide us on many ethical problems that we face.
Scrooge is a rich, horrible, selfish man who is hated by everyone in his community, so his daughter wants to kill him and give away his riches to charity. In theory, her actions would be morally justifiable if she were an _____ _____________.
Act utilitarian. An act utilitarian would determine in this case that the overall well-being of the community has increased as a consequence of his death. Having said that, it can be argued that the principle against murder would override the increase in total well-being and so make it morally wrong.
Brian has drunk 2 bottles of wine at a party and intends to drive home but Jill stops him by hiding his car keys. Jill’s actions could be construed as interfering with Brian’s right to autonomy, but many would approve of her actions on the grounds of ______________ and utilitarian morality.
Commonsense. Commonsense dictates that Brain may harm himself or others if he drives home in a drunken state. Jill is preventing Brian from acting irresponsibly and recklessly in trying to prevent a probable harm. A utilitarian would argue that the greater good would be to keep Brian off the roads till he is sober.
Most people would find the murder of a 10 year old child abhorrent, but what if by murdering a particular child, we would discover the cure to cancer? A believer of a __________________ moral system may agree that the murder is justifiable as the good consequences could be said to outweigh the bad.
Consequentialist. Consequentialist moral systems state that the means justify the ends. So, where a reasonable premise (arguably, the murder of a child could never be right) is made and the good consequences truly outweigh the bad, then the action is objectively right.
Gina volunteers for an hour a week in a charity shop out of the goodness of her heart, but Hermione volunteers because she thinks it will advance her political career. According to Kant, we cannot tell if is someone is doing good from the consequences of their actions but instead by examining their ____________.
Intentions. Kant reasons that this is the key to good will and moral behavior.
James wants to lose weight but he cannot exert enough self-discipline to manage his eating habits. The Greek philosophers held __________ to be the ideal ruler of our emotions and desires, and if James can grasp this concept, then he may well achieve his goal.
Reason. The rational mind takes care of our longer term interests. In this case, James lack of self-control leads to instant gratification when he eats. If he can manage this desire and develop self-control through reason, he will probably be successful in losing weight.
Violet’s behavior displays several vices such as irresponsibility and selfishness. According to Aristotle, the person who can change Violet’s character flaws is __________.
Violet. Aristotle felt that even though our character is shaped as we are growing up, that in itself does not prevent us from altering our own character in the future–if we choose to do so.
Country A has decided to invade Country B because the former is threatened by the growing power and success of the latter country. ___________ would state that in matters of foreign policy, there is a lack of moral rules and so the stronger country can dominate the weaker one.
Thucydides. This is what Thucydides propounded in his observations of the Peloponnesian War.
Martha is a single woman desperate to have a child so she has sexual relations with an acquaintance and then has the baby without informing the father. Her actions could be considered questionable from a ______ ________ perspective because she is arguably not seeking a compromise solution in the best interests of all concerned.
Care ethic. The care ethic focuses on building and strengthening relationships to meet the needs of all concerned. Martha’s actions show a disregard for the baby’s need for a father and the father’s potential need to know that he has a child.
Jane wishes to buy a new car and has her sights set on a big SUV even though she is aware that it is big gas guzzler and hence environmentally unfriendly, but her husband David prefers to purchase a more environmentally friendly car. It is arguable that Jane’s behavior is _______________ from a virtue-ethics perspective as she should consider the impact her purchasing decisions is having on the environment.
Irresponsible. Irresponsibility is a vice and it is arguable that by meeting her own needs, she is ignoring the environmental impact her actions are having on the planet.
Some people have argued that the recycling of paper, plastics and cans is an essential activity that every person should participate in, but not everyone does. In the spirit of Rawls, persons in the Original Position behind the veil of ignorance would __________ (recycle or not recycle?).
Recycle. This is because the consequences of not doing so would probably cause environmental degradation to their community and this is not what impartial persons would want.
Over the years, there have been several notable cases of severe police brutality meted out to suspects. This kind of behavior is not only illegal but is heinous because police officers are in a position of power and trust, hence any ________ of that position can be considered morally wrong.
Abuse. Police officers are in a position of trust and power. They wield guns and have the right to arrest and interrogate us. The abuse of such power is immoral.
Derek has been arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a teenage girl. He has admitted to the crime but refuses to tell the police officers where the girl is as he wants her to die. The officers debate whether they should beat the information out of him when Henry, a Kantian says that they should ________ (do it or not do it?).
Not do it. As a Kantian, Henry could possibly will a universal law permitting harm to someone in these circumstances but it will most certainly fail the respect for persons formulation.
Trevor, a US citizen, lives in Country A and has been convicted of theft and sentenced to 20 strokes of the cane. A follower of Rousseau would say that the punishment is ______.
Just. Rousseau believed that a social contract existed between the government and the people. Trevor had chosen to live in Country A and so must be subject to its laws in exchange for protection from the state.
Justin earns $500,000 a year but refuses to give any of it to charity on the grounds that he does not owe distant strangers anything and that he has worked hard for his money. Plato would argue that Justin has not achieved _____________.
Happiness. The Greek word for this is “arete.” Happiness is the goal of all humans and this is achieved through living a moral existence. The cardinal virtue of justice is essential for the psychic harmony of the soul and can only be achieved through acts of charity and kindness.
Arianne is having dinner at a restaurant. When a man at the next table starts choking, Arianne gets up and performs the Heimlich Maneuver on the stranger, thereby saving his life. The virtues shown by Arianne include compassion, _______________ and kindness.
Unselfishness. Arianne could have just left the man to choke to death, but appreciating the stranger’s right to life, she saved him as it cost her nothing or very little to do so.
Fran has been sexually harassed by a senior fellow employee at work who is the company’s best salesman. She makes a complaint to her superior Tom, but he fires her on the grounds that her work performance has been unsatisfactory. Many people would argue that this behavior is morally unacceptable and a breach of the right to __________.
Justice. Fran has been fired, apparently to cover up her sexual harassment complaint against the best earner for the company. She has a legal recourse in the courts for sexual harassment.
ABC Inc has discovered that one of their employees, John, has contracted AIDS and fires him because of this. This would be an unjust and immoral action under ______ labor practices under the rules of Business Ethics.
Fair. Workers have the right not to suffer discriminatory practices in the workplace.
Imagine that the US has made a new policy to clamp down on abuse of drugs by its citizens when they go abroad on vacation, so they randomly drug test their returning citizens at the ports of entry. It is arguable that such an act breaches the citizens’ right to ___________.
Privacy. Many people would contend that these acts are a breach of personal freedom and privacy. Any alleged drug use was carried out while in a foreign country and hence is not within the remit of local law enforcement.
Jemima is a computer programmer who wants to exact revenge on her colleague Tina, who embarrassed her by revealing private information about her love life to her workmates. So, Jemima intercepts Tina’s email messages and pretending to be Tina sends nasty replies back to the senders of those messages. This a breach of Tina’s privacy but a _________ ____________ theorist could be confused about the moral legitimacy of Jemima’s action.
Divine command. It has been argued by some philosophers that the Bible is conflicting when it comes to revenge. On the one hand, it says ‘an eye for an eye’, but it also says that one should turn one’s cheek when being smote.
Kelly earns $250,000 a year and after buying the necessities, spends the rest on luxury items. She is desperate for a raise and so pushes herself harder at work to secure a promotion. An ____________ would conclude that Kelly’s desires are so great that she is becoming a slave to her work and hence not achieving happiness.
Epicurean. Epicurus believed that work is a source of pain rather than pleasure and we should only do what is necessary to meet our essential needs.
According to Carl Marx, the bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a ________________ character to production and consumption in every country.
Cosmopolitan. Marx stated this in his Communist Manifesto of 1848.
“Cosmopolitan” means “of the world”–in other words, not provincial or limited to one country. To try to figure out what Marx meant by this statement, it is helpful to read the next sentence of this quote: “In place of old wants, satisfied by the productions of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands.”
Greta is a kind, compassionate, responsible, and humble person and she has a high level of self-awareness gained from reading Hobbes, so her behavior is motivated by her ______-__________.
Self-interest. Hobbes believed that virtuous behavior stems from our own self-interest and if we had these virtues, then it would be to our own benefit.
Drew is perched atop a building from which he intends to jump off to demonstrate the effectiveness of a pair of wings that he has constructed, but a policeman manages to wrestle him to the ground, thereby preventing him from taking flight. The state is justified in ______________ preventing him from conducting his test until they determine his mental competence.
Temporarily. Some philosophers, particularly Feinberg, believe that hard paternalism is generally to be avoided unless the person is incompetent. However, soft paternalism, such as the government intervention in this case, is legitimate to determine Drew’s competence. If he is competent, then the government should not stand in the way of his test unless there is serious risk that it would harm others.
