2024 Mocks Dump

Question 1

four levels of law in natural law?

Answer 1

1. human law: customs and practices of society
2. natural law: reasoning based on scipture/synderesis
3. divine law: law revealed by God
4. eternal law: in the mind of God

Question 2

strengths and weaknesses of natural law

Answer 2

• deontological
• flexibility with double effect
• reliance on reason and room for interpretation
• overly focused on religion in an increasingly secular society
• issues with telos

Question 3

wider scholars on natural law?

Answer 3

• logical positivists: critical of non-empirical claims saying they are meaningless
• empirical criticisms from Bentham and utilitarians for natural laws lack of empirical basis
• existentialists would be sceptical of having such fixed rules

Question 4

what is everything you need to talk about in natural law?

Answer 4

• the five precepts
• the four tiers of law
• doctrine of the double effect
• real vs apparent good
• telos

apparent good = when you are misguided
doctrine of the double effect = if the good effect is intended then it’s fine

Question 5

overview of Kantian ethics?

Answer 5

• hypothetical and categorical imperative
• three formulations
  1. universal law
  2. people as ends in themselves
  3. kingdom of ends
• the three postulates
  1. freedom (we must have free will)
  2. immortality (there must be an afterlife to achieve summum bonum)
  3. God (He must exist)

Question 6

wider scholars for Kantian ethics?

Answer 6

• existentialists reject universal principles
• logical positivists want empirical evidence
• Schopenhauer argued for a more emotional and intuitive approach that was not so focused on reason
• Nietzsche called it ‘slave morality’ that suppressed individual creativity
• JS Mill criticised the specificity of maxims

Question 7

strengths and weaknesses of Kantian ethics?

Answer 7

• deontological
• encourages good actions and duty
• lacks empathy and asks people to act like robots
• abstract, too open to interpretation

Question 8

overview of utilitarianism

Answer 8

• hedonic calculus (intensity, duration, certainty etc.)
• act utilitarianism (always perform the act that leads to the greatest good)
• rule utilitarianism (always follow the rule that generally leads to the greatest balance of good over evil such as highway code)
• Mill’s higher and lower pleasures of intellectual stimulus

Question 9

wider scholars for utilitarianism?

Answer 9

• negative utilitarianism and Karl Popper <3
• Peter Singer and preference utilitarianism
• GE Moore, aesthetic experience is greatest pleasure
• Nietzsche, the greatest good for the greatest number suppresses individual creativity
• Robert Nozick, utilitarianism justifies unjust practices through a focus on aggregate happiness

Question 10

strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism?

Answer 10

• can progress with society unlike other theories like natural law
• it is democratic
• secular
• it does not allow for individuality
• ignores our integrity and asks us to do things we might be uncomfortable with
• justifies some pretty bad things

Question 11

overview of euthanasia?

Answer 11

• sanctity of life
• quality of life, peter singer five commandments e.g. respect a person’s desire to live or die, a life’s value depends on certain attributes
• voluntary, non-voluntary and involuntary euthanasia
• natural law would say no, situation ethics would say yes

Question 12

wider scholars for euthanasia?

Answer 12

• liberterian thinkers such as JS Mill’s harm principle
• Grisez, Catholic theologian in support of natural law
• John Paul II, spoke strongly against euthanasia in an encyclical
• James Rachles, story of the nephew in the bathtub, is there a moral difference between active and passive euthanasia?

Question 13

overview of business ethics?

Answer 13

• CSR
• Whistleblowing
• Globalisation
• Good ethics is good business, Adam Smith, when we provide good services it benefits us in the long term
• Kantian application, good ethics is more important than good business, his shopkeeper
• utilitarian application, in favour of minimal state intervention

Question 14

case studies for business ethics?

Answer 14

• tony’s chocolonely for globalisation
• Lush and Patagonia for good ethics is good business
• Trafigura scandal, illegally dumped toxic waste along the Ivory Coast for CSR
• Jeffrey Wigand in the 1990s about the addictive qualities of tobacco for whistleblows

Question 15

wider scholars for business ethics?

Answer 15

• Robert Solomon, C20, you can’t divide business from the rest of life. People often act in a way at work they would never act in their normal life
• Milton Friedman, only do what makes a profit, business’ are not people and therefore don’t have responsibilities

Question 16

what are the six propositions?

Answer 16

1. love is the only thing that is intrinsically good
2. love is the ruling norm in ethical decision making
3. love and justice are the same, justice is love distributed
4. love wills everyone good whether you like them or not
5. love is the end of and act and justifies any means
6. love decides on each situation without a set of laws

Question 17

what are the four working principles

Answer 17

1. pragmatism - based on experience not theory
2. relativism - absolute christian laws made relative
3. positivism - belief in the importance of love
4. personalism - persons are at the centre of situation ethics

Question 18

wider scholars religious experience?

Answer 18

• John Rawls: prominent political philosopher, argues for much more systematic approach to ethical decision making, criticised situation ethics for its lack of a structured moral framework
• Niebuhr said it lacked a solid foundation
• Pope Pius XII condemned it

Question 19

strengths and weaknesses of situation ethics?

Answer 19

• has a good degree of flexibility
• person centred and saves us from personal bias
• has no absolute boundaries, too ambiguos
• how far into the future do you look?
• it’s pretty similar to utilitarianism… is it even religious?

Question 20

overview of naturalism?

Answer 20

• moral values can be defined by observation of the natural world
• ethical terms are meaningful
• ethical realists not relativists
• cognitivist theory, ethical terms can be right or wrong and are meaningful

Question 21

what are the three versions of naturalism?

Answer 21

1. Aquinas: theological naturalism, moral values can be worked out by understanding our God-given purpose
2. F.H. Bradley: moral duties can be discovered through our position in life e.g. social status or role
3. utilitarian thinkers: Bentham and Mill, right and wrong is just what leads to pain/pleasure

Question 22

overview of intutionism?

Answer 22

• right and wrong are indefinable but self-evident
• we are able to know morality through intuition
• moral realists and cognitivists
• G.E. Moore pointed out the naturalistic fallacy of naturalism: it is a mistake to define moral terms with reference to non-moral things e.g. ‘pleasure is good’
• goodness isn’t recognised through empirical facts but is self-evident
• used the analogy of yellow, can’t define it just know what it is
• simple and complex ideas: horse is complex goodness is simple, what can and can’t be broken down

Question 23

overview of emotivism

Answer 23

• there are no moral truths, they are just based on a feeling of approval/disapproval
• non-cognitivist theory and anti-realist/relativist, ethical statements are meaningless
• inspired by the vienna circle’s verification principle, things are only meaningful if they are analytic statements true by definition of synthetic statements verified by the senses
• Ayer’s emotivism that says things are only meaningful if you could see how you would verify it
• moral statements are neither logical nor proven by the senses so are meaningless, ethical statements just show emotional feelings about things

Question 24

overview of prescriptivism

Answer 24

Hare’s prescriptivism
- we are not just expressing feelings with moral statements but prescribing that view to others, we are attempting to give imperatives to others

Mackie’s error theory
- there are only subjective values but we speak as if moral statements are cognitive
- objective values are built into moral language but this is false
- when viewed objectively these moral facts do not exist

Question 25

arguments for and against that ethical terms are objective and meaningful

Answer 25

• we have shared moral values, can mostly agree that torture, murder, rape etc. are wrong
• there is still significant cultural variation in morality, contentions even in same cultures e.g. abortion
• there is a need for a standard, if there is no objective right or wrong there can be no standard
• the moral standard changes through history
• subjective morality trivialises ethics and prevents intelligent and reasoned discussion
• just because objective morality is uncomfortable doesn’t mean it’s wrong
• intuitionism solves naturalism’s problem of the naturalistic fallacy and the is-ought question but fails that each person’s intuition is different, HA Pritchard tried to argue that some people’s intution is better than others but how do you determine this

Question 26

wider scholars for intuitionism?

Answer 26

• W.D. Ross agreed with Moore that morality is self-evident and used his 7 prima facie duties as examples (e.g. gratitude and justice)
• Alasdair MacIntyre said it lacks a coherent moral framework

Question 27

wider scholars for naturalism?

Answer 27

• sharon street, contemporary philosopher, linked in evolution, evolutionary origins of human morality make it difficult to link moral properties to natural properties
• this links to Dawkin and memes

Question 28

wider scholars for emotivism?

Answer 28

• Simon Blackburn, contemporary British, emotivism is too simple and struggles to account for the complexity and diversity of moral language