theme 2 deontological ethics

Question 1

who created natural law ?

and intro it

Answer 1

Aquinas who wrote about natural laws set in nature telling humans how to act in order to reach eudemia and happiness

• believed all humans lean towards good
• eudamonia for Aquinas means reward in heaven for acting good
• Aquinas was influenced by Aristotle
• Aristotle said all humans have a purpose
• Aquinas said our purpose is God given

why were we given this
- all humans have ability to reason and God given laws to help us act morally

Question 2

what are the 4 levels of law ?

Answer 2

eternal law
- God creates everything and his wisdom is revealed through
divine law
- sacred texts and Bible guides to goal of perfection, these teachings are known through
natural law
- innate human ability to know what is naturally right from which
human law
- develops, law within society

Question 3

what are the primary precepts for ?

Answer 3

• help us identify purpose and what is good
• fulfilling purpose = closer to God
• we use reason to apply precepts through casuistry
• general idea is do good and avoid evil

Question 4

what are the 5 primary precepts ?

Answer 4

• preserve life (this takes precedence in moral dilemmas)
• reproduction
• education
• live in ordered society
• worship God

Question 5

what are secondary precepts ?

Answer 5

• rules that are deduced from primary precepts through casuistry e.g preservation of life- do not murder
• not absolutist e.g polygamy and monogamy both lead to reproduction
• can break secondary to uphold primary e.g steal from a man to feed a starving child (preserve life)

Question 6

what are virtues ?

Answer 6

• similar to Aristotle, following these shows a link between following and happiness
• reason guides us in developing the right virtues
• virtues are human qualities that reason suggests reaches the beatific vision

Question 7

what are the three theological/ revealed virtues ?

Answer 7

• love (‘the greatest of these is love’)
• hope (constant trust in reaching beatific vision)
• faith

Question 8

what are the 4 cardinal virtues ?

Answer 8

they are a way of developing reason

1- prudence (basis of casuistic behaviour)
2- temperance
3- courage/fortitude (perseverance in difficult circumstances)
4- justice

Question 9

what are internal and external acts ?

Answer 9

intention and act is important

internal act= the motive
external act = carrying out the action

• to be good intention and external must be good
• helping old lady across the street to impress = good but if its to impress someone its bad but out of kindness is good

Question 10

what is the doctrine of double effect ?

Answer 10

• even if a good act has bad secondary consequences it still right
• only if didn’t intent bad consequences

Question 11

real and apparent goods ?

Answer 11

humans fall short of Gods intentions as we confuse real and apparent goods

a real good is a charactersitic that helps reach the ultimate purpose e.g giving to charity

apparent good is incorrectly applied reason e.g taking drugs to be sociable = wrong

Question 12

abortion in natural law?

Answer 12

• goes against primary precept of reproduction and beatific vision
• against preservation of life, for RCC life begins at conception
• can use reason in some cases to break secondary, do not abort, to preserve mothers life
• ## doctrine of double effect, if intention is to save mothers life and an abortion is unavoidable its ok

Question 13

voluntary euthanasia in natural law ?

Answer 13

• goes against preservation of life
• revealed virtues- love- therefore acceptable out of agape
• revealed virtues not of the same importance as precepts
• interior act good (alleviating suffering) exterior act bad
• doctrine of double effect, immediate effect is bad- taking life

Question 14

who was John Finnis ?

Answer 14

• Australian Catholic philosopher who developedon the natural law
• unlike Aquinas he said the goal was to live a worthwhile life and establish what is good for mankind
• developed natural law in a book so it does not presuppose Gods existence
• rejects the primary precepts and idea that God tells us whats right and wrong and said huamns desire to persue a number of Goods leading to a good life, 7 basic goods

Question 15

what are Finnis’ 7 basic goods ?

Answer 15

number of equally valuable basic goods given to human nature

• human life (preserve)
• knowledge (understand world around us and help us develop as human)
• play (enjoy things)
• aesthetic appreciation (in what we see and create)
  -sociability (peace and harmony)
  practical reasonableness (use intellegence to decide on moral decisions)
• religion (recognition basic goods are made possible by higher power)

these are all intrinsically good

Question 16

what does Finnis mean by his basic goods are intrinsically good

Answer 16

e.g knowledge is instrumentally good but also good in and of itself, basic goods are universal and not relative like situation ethics

• said motivations for actions such as materialistic gain human inclination rather than practical reason (Aquinas’s apparent goods)
• there is no hierarchy of these goods

Question 17

according to Finnis what is a moral acts ?

Answer 17

any acts that involves one or a combination of the goods and immoral is one that directly harms any of the basic goods

Question 18

what is Finnis’s theoretical and practical reason ?

Answer 18

theoretical reason describes what is true and the way things are

practical reason describes how to act and how the world should be

Question 19

how does theoretical reason apply to the 7 basic goods ?

Answer 19

• it has many principles which cannot be proved such as the assumption that experience corresponds with reality, principles like thins cannot be derived from logic and can be meaningfully denied. The basic goods are the same as they cannot be derived from Gods ;aw or logic but if you deny them you cannot go anywhere in the realm of practical reason and cant make decisions about the best way to live your life so they are therefore self-evident
• some people don’t know the basic good because they aren’t educated enough

Question 20

what are the 9 principles of practical reason ? (as in outline not list them)

Answer 20

• in order to correctly participate in practical reason, you need to fulfil the 9 sub-requirements
• these create the optimum conditions to achieve 7 basic goods
• they are self-evident
• they are ‘methods of operation’

Question 21

what are the 9 principles of practical reason?

Answer 21

VESPAHFO

• view of life (as a whole)
• efficient (do good e.g where harm is inevatble in a fight, stun rather than punch)
• sit around (do not sit arounf, make effort)
• prioritise certain goods (naturall priorites but take into account other goods)
• act according to practical reason
• harm (never act to harm basic goods)
• foster common good of the community
• obsess (do not obsess)

Question 22

according to Finnis how should we make decisions in life ?

Answer 22

• think reasonably in accordance with the 9 requirements and describe how you will persue the basic goods

Question 23

what is the common good in Finnis’s natural law ?

Answer 23

• humans naturally need to live in groups
• implied by basic goods and we are the most prodictive this way
• one of the 9 practical reasoning’s
• the common good is when each member of the community can effectively pursue the basic goods for themselves

Question 24

what Does Finnis say about authority and the need for laws ?

Answer 24

like Aquinas Finnis natural law is a theory of ethics and theory of law

• Finnis argues some laws directly serve the basic goods so concludes the law a morally necessary component of society e.g ;aw against murder
• bust most laws aren’t direct to the basic goods but create a stable environment for people to follow the basic goods
• believed authors of law need to create a system that supports basic goods and is in accordance to practical reason
• said the law does how ever allow morally just illeagle things and visa versa

Question 25

what does Finnis natural law say about immigration ? support

Answer 25

- his theory sends mixed messaged about this - the 9 and 7 goods/ reasons don't give direct guidance basic goods - basic good of sociability can be seen to support immigration - aesthetic appreciation (cultural diversity e.g poetry and art) - immigration may open up different avenues to ansers of religion requirement of practical reason - foster common good of community - our conscience would support this as the right thing to do

Question 26

what does Finnis natural law say about immigration ? | negatives

Answer 26

basic goods - friendship and sociability needs to be in a close knit group of friends, doesn't include immigrants we don't know - allowing immigration could erode cultural identity e.g aesthetic appearance requirements of practical reason - foster common good of community and mass immigration disrupts society - so to foster the common good we must reject immigration other - and if law is to reject immigration (like trump did) then to achieve common good we must follow this law - Finnis himself said controlled immigration is good but mass is bad

Question 27

what would Finnis' natural law say about capital punishment ? support

Answer 27

again this theory sends mixed messages basic goods - sociability (acting in interests of others), may be in interests of our friends to punish their perpetrator requirements of practical reason - for good of the community we should eliminate the threat - foster common good by removing dangerous members from society

Question 28

Finnis' natural law against capita; punishment ?

Answer 28

basic goods against - we should preserve human life - practical reason would say its morally wrong requirements of practical reason - never act to harm a basic good (remove life) even if intended to protect community - conscience and practical reason tells us killing is wrong other - if law says reject or accept capital punishment we should accept that because following the law is the best way to achieve the comon basic goods

Question 29

what is proportional-ism ? and background

Answer 29

- originated from Catholic scholars in Europe and America in a period of change - rose from the concern that ethics was too deontologically rigid

Question 30

who was Bernard Hoose ?

Answer 30

1945 - proportionalism - said there certain rules that can never be right to disobey unless there is proportionate reason to justify it - always follow deontological theological moral rules unless breaking rule potentially creates less evil

Question 31

explain how B Hoose's proportionalism is a hybrid of deontological and theological ethics

Answer 31

- as there are certain acts that are intrinsically evil but might be right thing to do with proportionate reason

Question 32

how is HOOSe P teleological ?

Answer 32

- the proportionate considerations are the consequences | - but takes into account more than just consequences

Question 33

how is Hoose P deontological ?

Answer 33

more teleological than deontological but states rules are set unless proportionate reason - proportionate reason should be based on individual situation of moral agent including intention, situation and consequences, its only proportionate reason if consequences, intention and situation are particularly unusual and of magnitude, other wise must follow rules

Question 34

what rules does proportionalism follow ?

Answer 34

works within framework of natural law, but is more flexible if greater good can be achieved by working outside it

Question 35

what is ontic evil ?

Answer 35

an act that may be seen as bad but in itself is not immoral e.g natural disasters , accidental harm, these reflect the moral ambiguity of the world which deontological theological rules cannot deal with

Question 36

why are deontological rules shit ?

Answer 36

- don't govern moral ambiguity of the world and they don't take into account intention e. g cutting someone is eveil but proportionate reason such as the knifer being a surgeon proves this act not evil

Question 37

how does a proportionalist define evil acts ?

Answer 37

- they would therefore not define as those that break theological, deontological moral rule as they consider intention, situation and consequences - some proportionalists say an act cannot be intrinsically evil - Hoose says an act is evil if there isn't proportionate reason to justify it

Question 38

according to proportionalism what is a good act ?

Answer 38

- an act that follows deontological, theological moral rule - e.g lying to save friend isnt a good act but giving to charity is a good act as fulfils primary precpt of preserving life, but if the intention of giving to charity is bad (wanting to drop a tax bracket) then the act is bad

Question 39

according to proportionalism what is a right act ?

Answer 39

- act thats not necessarily a good one but creates the lesser of two evil

Question 40

how is proportionalism based on agape ?

Answer 40

- places lots of emphasis on agape - when considering if a bad act is morally justified one of the main considerations is to whether the intention is based on love - absence of love makes act morally bad - agape is only 1 criteria of many - euthanasia intent to reduce suffering is loving but this doesnt outweigh killing