Vocab Ethics 1 Flashcards
2 Types
Absolutism
1) the claim that moral rules or principles do not admit any exceptions.
2) the claim that there exists a universally valid moral system, which applies to everyone whether they realize it or not.
* opposed to moral relativism (denies the existence of universally applicable moral) principles.
Applied Ethics
branch of ethics devoted to the treatment of moral problems
* practices
* policies:
* personal life
* professions
* technology
* government
applied ethics takes its point of departure in practical** normative challenges. **
the application of normative ethics to particular issues of practical concern such as
* abortion
* euthanasia
* cloning
* animal rights
* criminal punishment
* sometimes using the conceptual tools of meta-ethics as well.
contrast to traditional ethical theory- concerned with purely theoretical problems: development of a general criterion of rightness
Divine Command Theory
- morality is somehow dependent upon God
- moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s commands.
- claim that morality is ultimately based on the commands or character of God
- morally right action is the one that God commands or requires.
- The specific content of these divine commands varies according to the particular religion and the particular views of the individual divine command theorist, but all versions hold in common the claim that morality and moral obligations ultimately depend on God.
The Grounding Problem
the search for a solid foundation of our moral beliefs, that would make them true in a way that is clear, objective, and unmoving.
Give at least 3 questions
Metaethics
Give at least 3 questions
the attempt to understand the
* metaphysical
* epistemological
* semantic
* psychological
* presuppositions
* commitments of moral thought, talk, and practice.
it counts within its domain a broad range of questions and puzzles, including:
* Is morality more a matter of taste than truth
* Are moral standards culturally relative?
* Are there moral facts?
* If there are moral facts, what is their origin
* How is it that they set an appropriate standard for our behavior?
* How might moral facts be related to other facts (about psychology, happiness, human conventions…)?
* And how do we learn about the moral facts, if there are any?
Moral Skepticism
names a diverse collection of views that deny or raise doubts about various roles of reason in morality
Different versions deny or doubt
* moral knowledge
* justified moral belief
* moral truth
* moral facts/properties
* reasons to be moral
Despite this diversity among the views that get labeled “moral skepticism”, many people have very strong feelings about moral skepticism in general.
One large group finds moral skepticism obvious, because they do not see how anyone could have real knowledge of the moral status of anything or how moral facts could fit into a physical world.
Others see moral skepticism as so absurd that any moral theory can be refuted merely by showing that it leads to moral skepticism. Don’t you know, they ask, that slavery is morally wrong? Or terrorism? Or child abuse?
Nihilism
not about what is semantically or metaphysically possible.
It is a substantive, negative, existential claim that there **does not exist anything that is morally wrong. **
usually supplemented with an explanation of why people hold moral beliefs that are false (jstory of Descartes’s deceiving demon is supposed to explain why our perceptual beliefs are false).
This thesis of moral nihilism has been supported by various reasons, including the pervasiveness of moral disagreement and our supposed ability (with the help of sociobiology and other sciences) to explain moral beliefs without reference to moral facts. Since people do take moral nihilism seriously and even argue for it, moral nihilism cannot be dismissed as readily as Descartes’s deceiving demon.
4 theories
Normative Ethics
1 of 3 main component areas of inquiry of philosophical ethics. Normative ethics, also known as normative theory, or moral theory, intends to find out which actions are right and wrong, or which character traits are good and bad.
There are four normative theories:
1) Utilitarianism: principle of utility as the basic moral principle
2) Kantianism: the categorical imperative as the fundamental moral principle
3)** ethical intuitionism** (in its methodological sense) with a plurality of moral principles;
4)virtue ethics with virtues as its focus.
the two others being meta-ethics and applied ethics
Relativism
the view that truth and falsity, right and wrong, standards of reasoning, and procedures of justification are products of differing conventions and frameworks of assessment and that their authority is confined to the context giving rise to them. Relativists characteristically insist, furthermore, that** if something is only relatively** so, then there can be no framework-independent vantage point from which the matter of whether the **thing in question is so can be established. **
Values
principles or standards that are considered important or desirable.
Vice
a moral quality or characteristic that is considered to be bad or undesirable
Virtue Ethics
virtue ethics is 1 of 3 major approaches in **normative ethics. **
It may, initially, be identified as the one that emphasizes the virtues, or moral character
Suppose it is obvious that someone in need should be helped.
A utilitarian will point to the fact that the consequences of doing so will maximize well-being
A deontologist to the fact that, in doing so the agent will be acting in accordance with a moral rule such as “Do unto others as you would be done by”
virtue ethicist to the fact that** helping the person would be charitable or benevolent.**
in contrast to the approach that emphasizes **duties or rules (deontology) **or that emphasizes the consequences of actions (consequentialism)
