19.Modern Ethics Personalities and their ethical ideas. Flashcards
1.Hobbes (“The condition of man is the condition of war of everyone against everyone”)
- Human condition is a state of insecurity
- Human nature is inherently selfish.
- Social contract is pre-condition of morality.
- Security is more valuable than freedom.
2.Locke (“We are like Chameleons, we take our hue and the colour of our moral character, from those who are around us.”)
- Ethics should be rooted in natural rights. Life, liberty,property needed for ethical system.
- Rule of law to preserve and enlarge human rights.
- Legitimate role of government
- The right to revolt.
3.Rousseau(“Man are born free, yet everywhere are in chains”)
- Human nature is essentially good but civilization has corrupted.
- Idea of social contract
- About child rearing practices.-protect from corruption of society.boarding schools.breast feeding
- About romance-advocated it.
4.Francis Bacon (“Whatever deserves to exist, deserves to be studied and understood.”)
- Knowledge is power.
- Stumbling blocks in learning.
- Modern idea of progress.-technological for moral and material betterment
5.Descartes
“I think, therefore I am”
- Sense not a reliable source of knowledge.
- Dualism of mind and body.
- Mind as source of all knowledge.
- Idea should be grounded in reason and individual experience.
6.Max Weber(“The great virtue of bureaucracy is that it is an institutional method for applying general rules to specific cases.”)
- Ethics of rationality
- Value fragmentation in modern times.
- The ethics of conviction and responsibility
7.Voltaire (“Prejudices are what fools use for reason”)
- Religion is privately useful but its public use create social differences.
- Public use of individual critical reason secure civil liberties.
- Empirical facts are the solvent of prejudice and blind adherence to irrational thinking.
- Social tolerance is the consequence of humanity.
8.David Hume(“The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason”)
- Human are creature of sentiment rather than reason.
- Real knowledge comes through senses.
- Utility is a moral quality of good action.
- Concept of quality is inherent in our mental process
9.Immanual Kant(“
Humans are ends not a means to an end”)
- Human mind is gullible and prone to moral corruption.
- Actions are morally justified when universally applied.
- Duty based ethics.
- Government must ensure freedom to use public use of one’s reason.
- Beauty embodies ethics.
10.Charles Darwin(“The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.”)
- Humans and animals shared a common ancestry.
- Struggle for survival and evolution.
- Environment and adaptation.
- Compassion for unfit.
11.Hegel(“Truth is found neither in theses not in anti-theses but in syntheses.”)
- Important parts of ourselves can be found in history.-wisdom from all places cant be learnt.
- Learn from idea one greatly dislike.
- Progress is messy.
- Art has a purpose.
- Civil society as important part of ethical life.
- Institutions give flesh to ideas.
12.Jeremy Bentham(“Greatest happiness to greatest number is the measure of right and wrong.”)
- Pleasure and pain as ultimate end/utility of morality
- Greatest happiness to greatest number to maximize utility.
- Moral arithmetic.
13.Adam Smith(“No society can flourish if greater parts of its members are poor and miserable”)
- Specialization kills curiosity.business remind workers of purpose
- Consumerism is good for society.
- How to treat the rich-give honours for they give donation treat workers well etc.
- Educate consumers to environment.
14.Raja Rammohan Roy(“A maker of Modern India”)
- Traditionally sanctioned social violence against women is unjust.
- Cosmopolitanism (citizen of the world ).
- Modern education as best bill for Indian social bads.
- Freedom of press.
15.Marx(“Nothing can have value without being an object of utility”)
- Work can be source of greatest joy.
- Economy generates false values.
- Work is unfair.
- Capitalism is very unstable and bad for even capitalists.
16.John Stuart Mills(“Happiness is intended pleasure and absence of pain”)
- Conformity is manufactured in society
- Limits to liberty
- Freedom of opinion and expression.
- The cultivation of individual is fundamental to moral progress.
17.Fredrick Neitzsche(“He who has a why to live for , can bear almost any how.”)
- Own up to envy
- Religion is a giant machine for bitter denials.
- Never drink alcohol.
- Religion is useful in some life-helping cope with life problems
18.Sigmund Freud(“Ethics is a highway code for traffic among mankind.”)
- Ethics as a necessary evil.
- Childhood behaviour should not be morally judged.
- Human personality is not harmonious but made of conflicting elements.
- Conscious moral restraint should replace neurotic repressions.
19.Albert Einstein(“Imagination is more important than knowledge”)
- Need for ethical culture.
- Imagination is important than knowledge.
- Religion and science-separate morality from religion and treat secular for dignity and happiness to all people.
- Ethics of nuclear war.-terrifying
20.Swami Vivekananda(“By the study of different religions we find that in essence they are one”)
- Religion can survive only when it is spiritual force.
- Universalist thinkers with nationalist aspirations.
- Education as manifestation of inner perfection
21.Helen Keller(“The sense of justice is continuous with the love of mankind”)
- Advocacy for people with disabilities.
- Self pity suffocates wisdom.
- People have sight but not vision.
22.John Rawls(“The sense of justice is continuous with the love of mankind”)
- Things as patently unfair but we took no notice.
- Veil of ignorance.
- We know what needs to be fixed.
- What to do next ?
23.Nelson Mandela(“No country can develop unless its citizens are educated “)
- Leadership about quality of individuals not position.
- Democratic morality
- Moral authority is superior than political authority.
24.Rachel Carson(“Man is a part of nature and his war against nature is inevtably a war against himself.”)
- Humanity is part of nature not centre of life on earth.
2. Human war on nature is war against civilization