Unit 3 Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is Ethical Relativism?
denies the existence of a single, universally applicable moral standard. Insists that the correct morality is relative to one’s society
What are the three branches of ethics?
1) Virtue Ethics
2) Denotology
3) Consequentialism
What are the Consequentialist Theories?
1) Consequentialist Theory
2) Egoism
3) Hedonism
What’s the Consequentialist Theory?
measures the morality of an action by its nonmoral consequences
- Consider the ratio of good to evil that an action produces
- Right actions produce more good than evil
What is Egoism?
The most moral actions are those that provide the most benefits for myself long-term
- Consider negative consequences to our actions
What is Hedonism?
the only moral type of action is one that produces only happiness for myself (short-term)
- If It makes you happy, no matter how bad, it is it is ok
- Step-up from egoism - all hedonists are egoists, but
not all egoists are hedonists
What is Utilitarianism?
the standard of mortality is the promotion of everyone’s best interest
- We act morally when our actions produce the greatest possible ratio of goof to evil for the greatest number of people - Only pleasure or happiness has value - Right actions = pleasure, bad actions = pain - Like democracy
Which philosophers created Utilitarianism?
Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
What is the Utilitarian Moral Principle?
actions are right to the extent that they promote pleasure, wrong to the extent that they promote pain
What is utility?
the production of benefits, advantage, pleasure, good to prevent pain and unhappiness
What are the two types of utilitarianism?
Act and Rule
What is Act Utilitarianism?
- We should act to produce the greatest happiness for the most people (what will the consequences of my actions be good just for myself, but for everyone else?)
- Consequences good = action right
- End must justify the means
What is Rule Utilitarianism?
- We should follow the rules with the best consequences, not carrying out the act that has the best consequences
- We should act so that the rules governing our actions are those that will produce the greatest happiness for most people
- Less pain in the long term - everyone must follow moral
What are the steps to morality in Kant’s Categorical Imperative?
- Perfect duty to oneself – taking care/respective yourself is a basic principle we are taught from childhood
- Perfect duty to others – as citizens, we are responsible to others in operation within trust, honesty and basic courtesies
- Imperfect duty to oneself – we must recognize our own aptitudes/flaws in order to benefit society and ourselves
- Taking drugs from someone who got out of rehab –
should not steal but you’re doing it for the greater
good
- Taking drugs from someone who got out of rehab –
- Imperfect duty to others – while we try not to break rules/meddle in the lives of others, but sometimes we must do so in order to save/help others
*** NOTE - everyone must agree on something for it to be moral
What are the flaws of Kant’s Categorical Imperative?
- Almost universally impossible to find something that everyone agrees on - this is why Kant’s code is naïve
- Four duties conflict with each other with no foreseeable way to solve the conflict
What are Aristotle’s virtue ethics?
- moral actions are informed by a person’ good character rather than a universal law or potential consequences
- Cannot judge the morality of a person until they’re dead = look at patterns
What are Aristotle’s Ingredients to Happiness?
- Purpose (passion/career)
o Without one, you’re lost not direction, no motivation, no direction - Reason
o Purpose related to reason higher reasoning capabilities so the human’s purpose is above an animal
o Mankind is the only animal that can use reason
o Purpose must have reason so purpose must be something you’re good at - Moderation
o You have to find balance you can’t be good at everything, you can’ t be bad at everything
o Good work of art if you add anything it’s ruined, if you take away from it It’s ruined
o Must use reason to find purpose and then use moderation to pursue it - Love
o Friends are a means and an end
o In order to have friends and have them add to your virtue has to have a mutual affection, commitment, and selflessness
o Friendship is a reflection of one’s self
o Need to apply moderation to friendship (courage, temper, generosity, etc.)
According Aristotle, what is happiness?
A means to an end
What is Pragmatism?
- Pragmatism ethics deny that there are any pre-set criteria for morality – no pre-existing duties or rules,, no predetermined consequences, and no views of the “good” human
- Only principal worth pursing is whatever “works” to promote moral evolution at a given place and time
What is moral evolution?
when we continuously reform out old moral habits and belief by examining them, realizing they are not permanent but temporary arrangements that may have ceased to work for us, and revising them to make them work
What are the three flaws of pragmatism?
- Doesn’t provide ethical value
- Believes human nature is intrinsically good
- Assumes we’re all the same with the same
morals
-Just because you think T.O. is a safe city does not
mean you’d walk in certain neighbourhoods at
night
- Believes human nature isn’t essentially good
(paradox) - Inconsistency
- Seeks standards but doesn’t show a way to do so
- Ex. Test next week but not given what is on it
-Teacher says d/w because we’re all “great”
What are the excusing conditions?
- Ignorance
o What an agent does not know cannot be his/her moral responsibility (unless ignorance as avoidable)
o Ex. Doctor giving kid candy that he’s allergic to and kills the kid - Compulsion
o If an agent is forced to do something – only if force cannot be avoided and serious
o Ex. Gun pointed to driving away a robber - Trying
o If a moral agent genuinely attempts to do the right thing but is afterward unsuccessful
o Ex. Doctor surgically operating on people – person has stroke + dies
o Police shoots + misses a criminal cannot be blamed
What is Divine Command Ethics ?
Main principles are not given by “pure reason” but rather “revelation” from a divine being or beings
What is Deontology?
- Mankind’s duties (reason) to certain people (duty to yourself in idea of respect, your community and your people)
- A moral theory that centres on the concept of duty
