Application of ethical theories Flashcards
Natural law on theft:
Theft could sometimes violate the preservation of life – if you steal a person’s limited resources.
Theft is against the primary precept of an orderly society
However if someone is in danger and theft is the only way to save them, then theft can be justified and shouldn’t techincally be called theft. Double effect could allow this if the intention is to save life and theft is beside the intention
Situation ethics on theft:
Situation ethics would be in favor of an action when it maximises agape and against it when it does not.
Theft could be justified to save a starving family.
Theft would not be justified if it was unnecssary and purely done for greedy purposes eg stealing a textbook to do well on a test isnt pragmatic its selfish
Virtue ethics on theft:
Aristotle regards theft as ‘base’ meaning it is always wrong.
However, the context is that Aristotle’s ethics is meant to be relevant to rich Greek men of high social status. Theft would always be wrong for them, but it could be acceptable for those of a lower class if it is to save others which would enable eudaimonia. Anscombe would certainly argue this.
Natural law on lying:
Lying goes against the orderliness of society.
Aquinas accepts that to prevent harm or danger it could be acceptable to ‘hide the truth prudently, by keeping it back’. E.g. the murderer at the door example. If they ask where their victim is, and you know, you should simply not tell them. An evaisive truth
Situation ethics on lying:
Situation ethics would be in favor of an action when it maximises agape and against it when it does not.
Lying could be justified to save a life or prevent danger (murderer at the door).
Lying would not be justified if it was done for unloving purposes of manipulation, e.g. lying to someone in order to defraud them.
Virtue Ethics on lying
Depends on the situation, and what virtues they call for.On complete moral phronesis ( practical wisdom ). If it is important to be honest as it benefits the situation then we cannot lie, but if it is kinder to lie in order to spare a person’s feelings, we must lie.
Natural moral law on animal issues
In most cases, animals have no rights within Natural moral law as they were explicitly created for human use, so battery farming is moral.
However, if it breeds cruelty within humans we can infer secondary precept not to participate in blood sports because it doesn’t maintain order in society.
Issues of human life and death: examples for each
embryo research; cloning;
‘designer’ babies
*PGD an infant boy from London, born with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome (MDDS), a rare genetic disorder that causes progressive brain damage and muscle failure. Charlie Guard
ABORTION
Olga Reyes, Nicaragua
Olga Reyes, 22, waited in pain for hours at the hospital ward in 2006. She had already been turned away from one hospital but arrived at the next one with the proof that she needed urgent care: an ultrasound scan from a private clinic that showed an ectopic pregnancy was rupturing her fallopian tube. New abortion law justcamein , doctors didnt act.The 22-year-old law student, who had celebrated her wedding only two months earlier.
voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide
Noel Conway, British man with motor Neurones disease. Lost battle with supreme court.
capital punishment.
Angel Diaz, killled raped tortured family.
Steven Lawrence- Killed brutally by a gang of white boys at a bus stop, for being black.
Issues of non-human life and death
use of animals as food; intensive farming
use of animals in scientific procedures; cloning
blood sports
animals as a source of organs for transplants.
Who was Angel Diaz? What are the implications of his case on punishment?
A young man who, not alone , went to an employer, murdered him and raped and tortured his wife and 16 year old daughter.
What does Peter Singer believe?
Animals have personhood- ie consciousness sentience emotionality etc. They also have rights that must be protected. They feel pain/ pleasure, and his ideas are rooted in preference utilitarianism.
Thompson and Venables
Two schoolmates around 10 that kidnapped and murdered a toddler , Jamie Buldger. Both had absent or neglectful parents and one had many rough and abusive siblings. Evidence for or against freewill? And implications to our justice system which did sentence them both as guilty.
Why might some Christians disagree with harming animals?
In the bible, it clearly stated our stewardship and dominion over animals, as re iterated in Laudato sei Letter from St. Francis
Peter Singer
Preference utilitarian.
He says that animals have PERSONHOOD and can feel pain and pleasure as equally at times as us. Therefore there must be laws in place to protect them and they should have rights. Animals have sentience and intelligence and awareness of time.
Why are VE SE and NML normative ethical theories? And what is the difference between metaethics and normative ethics?
