Before Midterm Flashcards
Argument
An effort to defend a controversial belief with reason.
Controversial
An claim a person might reject.
Effort
Trying to persuade
Conclusion
The claim being defended. The claim the arguer wants to prove.
Premise
The reason or evidence used in the effort to defend the conclusion.
Knowledge
To know something is to be certain. It cannot be wrong.
Opinion
Anything with less certainty.
Explanation
This provides understanding or illuminates something. It provides justification.
What are the three types of questions?
Objective questions, Subjective questions and Normative questions.
Moral Beliefs
Right and wrong conduct, good person, dignity.
Moral Philosophy
Critical reflection on moral beliefs.
Moral Subjectivism
Something is moral for you as long as you believe it is. Something is immoral when you believe it is.
Moral Worries
Absurd consequences.
Moral infallibility.
Requirements for Natural rights to life
A. Capacity to reason
B. Capacity to make free choices.
C. Concept of “self”.
D. Sentience
Sentience
Capacity to feel pain and pleasure.
Enlightened Anthropocentism
Only human beings have moral value. Other things have value indirectly if we give them.
– Rollin
This means animals deserve moral consideration.
Utilitarianism
The right action is the one that does the most good overall for everyone affected.
The right approach
This means having dignity or autonomy.
Common good
What’s good for your community is good for you.
Virtual Approach
If I do this what kind of person will I become?
Language
Clarity in arguments.
Ambiguity
In the context, a word or phase could have any one several district meanings.
Semantics
Many words have more ham one meaning. Context usually helps.
Vagueness
In the context, we can’t determine what the word applies to. No distinct meaning at all in context.
Fallacy of equivocation
A key word in an argument is used in two or more sentences and the premises seem to support the conclusion only because the senses are not distinguished.
