Simpson Ethics Exam 1 Flashcards
(21 cards)
A moral life is…
The moral life is behavior in which he have a sense of “oughtness” or obligation.
Ethics is the study of?
Ethics is the study of standards of right and wrong, justice and injustice, virtue and vice, with a view toward applying those standards in the realities of our lives.
What are ethical choices?
Ethics is less interested in what people in fact do than in what they OUGHT to do, less in what their values are and more in what their values OUGHT to be.
Kohlbergs Moral Theory
Level 3/ Postconventional/Shared standards, rights and duties/includes stage 5: sense of democracy and relativity of rulers and stage 6: self-selection of Universal principles.
Level 2/Conventional/Performing right roles/includes stage 3: meeting expectations of others and stage 4: fulfilling duties and upholding laws.
Level 1/preconventional/Values in external events/includes stage 2: getting what you want by trade off and stage 1: punishment avoidance
Define Critical thinking
Critical thinking is, purposeful, reflective judgement which manifests itself in reasoned consideration of evidence, context, methods, standards, and conceptualization in deciding what to believe or what to do.
What are 6 critical thinking skills ?
Interpretation/comprehend and express meaning or significance of an event.
Analysis/identify the intended and actual inferential relationships being expressed.
Evaluation/ assess credibility of what is being expressed.
Inference/ identify and secure elements needed to draw reasonable conclusions.
Explanation/present reasoning in a clear, concise way.
Self-Regulation/monitoring your own cognitive abilities.
Define Ethic
Scholarly reflection on morality as a whole, using systematic and critical evaluation; a discipline that studies the moral life. A normative discipline wresting with what people OUGHT to do in given situations.
Ethics of consequences
Consequentialists are concerned with, and believe that what makes actions right or wrong are, the results.
Things are, by in large, inherently neutral but the end result determines if they are right or wrong.
Several ethical theories are underpinned by this ethical standpoint.
Ethics of principle
Those who believe in principal ethics are concerned with and believe that some things are inherently right or wrong.
Humans know which is which through moral principals or rules.
Several ethical theories are undergirded by this ethical standpoint as well.
Emotivists Ethics
Concludes that ethics are the result of subjective, affective, feelings about the outcomes of behaviors.
Ethical is how one feels emotionally about a topic or action.
No universal ethics.
Believes that there are two major emotions in play when decisions are made.
Utilitarianism
Good is calculated not on the basis of a moral virtue but on the nonmoral good of happiness or pleasure.
The principle of utility (usefulness)is the only principle for ethics.
The greatest good for the greatest number.
What are the emotions involved with the emotivist theory
Disgust/pleasure, pleasure/pain: we do not have to learn these responses when they are triggered morally
Consequentialist ethic
Consequentialists are concerned with, and believe that what makes actions right or wrong are the results.
Things are by in large inherently neutral but the end result determines if they are right or wrong.
Several ethical theories are underpinned by this ethical standpoint.
Define GOOD thinking
Focuses on immediate action and responsibilities
What is normative discipline and descriptive discipline?
Normative disciplines are wrestling with what people ought to do in given situations addressing the truthfulness of our moral beliefs.
Descriptive disciplines focus on assessment of observed behaviors and their supportive rationale.
Cultural Relativism
Asserts that there are no universal morals, rights, or correct behaviors for mankind as a whole.
Moral behaviors are a function of human needs in their social condition.
These will change as the need of the society change.
Moral behaviors are considered right if most people do them.
Four ethical models that make something good or right.
Cultural relativism/diversity thesis: practices vary between cultures which is a descriptively correct statement. dependency thesis: morality is casual fragmented by environment and traditions/teachings.
Emotivists: the view that moral language simply expresses and perhaps arouses emotion, so that nothing we say in moral terms is either true or false about anything.
Ethical egoism: the pursuit of sensual pleasure with a view to avoiding all sense of pain. Ie. and act is good if it creates pleasure and lessened pain, and bad if it causes or increases pain.
Utilitarianism: the attempt to the highest defeee of pleasure and the lowest degree of pain for the largest possible number of people.
Autonomous ethic
Moral laws are derived from humanity. Motivation for morality lies in rationally recognizable reality, not in the metaphysical or transcendental. God is not needed-humanity is a law unto itself.
Theonomous Ethic
God is the changeless source of all moral laws. All that is good is ultimately founded upon God’s will, and it is up to humans to obey God’s precepts.
Deontological Ethics
Also known as principle ethics.
Definition: a moral act is good if it conforms to a certain principle (precept or norm), irrespective of the consequences.
What is good and right can only be understood in light of particular laws and our unconditional s obedience to them.
Deontological ethicists do not always agree on moral judgements-depends on the sources they choose for moral guidelines.
Teleological Ethics (consequential Ethics)
Ultimate criteria for determining good and evil are the consequences of a deed rather than the deed itself.
The effects of consequences of particular acts dictate the basis for moral judgement.
