Ch.12 Flashcards
Moral statements
An assertion that an action is right or wrong or that something (person, motive) is good or bad.
• Serena should keep her promise to you. (Moral)
• Serena did not keep her promise to you. (Non-moral)
• It is wrong to treat James harshly. (Moral)
• James was treated harshly. (Non-moral)
A moral argument gives reasons in support of a moral statement.
• One premise must be a moral statement asserting a moral principle.
• At least one premise is a nonmoral, or descriptive, claim.
• Conclusion is a moral statement or judgment about a particular case.
• What should be or ought to be cannot be concluded from nonmoral statements about what is.
Sample Moral Argument
1) No prisoner of war should ever be intentionally mistreated. (Moral premise)
2) Torturing prisoners of war is a case of intentional mistreatment. (Nonmoral premise)
3) Prisoners of war should not be tortured. (Moral conclusion)
Note: Identify an implicit moral premise by supplying a plausible premise that makes the argument valid.
Moral principle
A general moral statement about a broad class of actions.
• Murder is wrong
• It is wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering.
• It is good to help those in need.
• Lying is wrong.
• People’s freedom over their physical bodies should be respected.
Evaluate moral premises by checking for conflict with moral principles, theories, or judgements we have good reason to trust.
• Moral theory: A general explanation of what makes an action right or what makes a person or motive good.
• Considered moral judgements: Moral judgements considered credible after careful reflection.
Counterexample method
Testing a moral premise by trying to think of instances in which it seems not to hold.
•Moral premise: “Anything unnatural is morally wrong.”
•Counterexamples: Antibodies, bottled water, riding a bicycle, using your nose to hold up eyeglasses, etc.
Moral theory
A general explanation of what makes an action right or what makes a person or motive good.
•Moral theories try to specify what all right actions and all good things have in common.
•Each of us has a moral theory.
•Like scientific theories, moral theories should be consistent and conservative.
Moral criteria of Adequacy
1) consistency with our considered moral judgements.
2) consistency with our experience of moral life.
3) workability in real-life situations.
Relativism
Subjective moral relativism:
• what makes an action right for someone is for it to be approved by that person.
• there are no objective or universal moral truths, just subjective truths.
Critics: Can never be mistaken in your moral judgements (even if your hitler or Ted bundy)
Social moral relativism makes 2 claims:
•all moral value judgements are determined by a society’s beliefs toward actions or behaviour.
•there are no objective or universal moral truths, just socially relative truth.
Critics: societies (even the nazis) cannot be wrong, we should always do what the majority set as the social conversation (slavery, genocide, human sacrifice, racism, intolerance of other cultures, etc)
Overall objection: why think there are subjective and relative moral truths? Why not think there are just no moral truths at all? (Emotivism)
Emotivism
•Moral judgements are merely expressions of our attitudes or emotions.
-rejects idea that moral judgements are in any way descriptions of objective (or subjective or relative) moral facts.
-moral judgements are no different from other personal judgements.
-“murder is wrong” is like saying “boo murder!” It isn’t true or false, like saying “brr” when you are cold.
•Another name for this view is nihilism, the rejection of any truths about value.
•Criticisms: Quality is a matter of propaganda wars, who has the most effective propagandist, because it isn’t about appealed reason, it is about manipulating someone else’s emotions.
•Nazis aren’t wrong, slavery isn’t wrong, racism isn’t wrong, because nothing is wrong.
•Can still say “boo Nazis!” etc.
Divine command theory
God make some things right and wrong.
•Morality is about following God’s commands.
•Critics: which religion do we follow? Scripture open to different interpretations.
•Euthyphro Dilemma
-It’s something right because God commands it? Or does God commanded because it is right independently?
-Could God make cruelty right? If not, then it seems like cruelty is wrong independently, morality doesn’t depend on God’s commands.
Egoism
The basic principle that everyone should act in order to maximize his or her own individual pleasure or happiness.
-Reduces the moral judgement of an action to the outcome of its consequences to one person, the active agent.
All humans ought to pursue their own personal pleasure.
Criticisms:
-How can we know all the true future consequences of our actions?
-How do you define happiness or pleasure for everyone?
-How do we measure or quantify amounts or degrees of happiness or pleasure?
-If helping someone has no benefit to you, it is immoral for you to do it.
Utilitarianism
Right actions are those that maximize overall happiness, everyone considered.
•The consequences of actions are what matter.
•Critics: Utilitarianism is inconsistent with our considered moral judgements involving rights.
•Cases: organ donor, Christians and lions, aliens who get lots of pleasure.
•Can justify anything as long as it would really maximize happiness overall.
Kantian ethics
Morality is about confronting our actions to Universal moral rules derived from reason.

•Actions are right only if they are consistent with such rules.
•People deserve praise for right actions only if they act solely from a sense of duty.
•What if everyone did that? Would it lead to a contradiction? Would it not be in your own self interest?
•Lying: need everyone to believe we ought not to lie to deceive anyone.
•In a world of liars, no one would ever believe you’re alive.
•Critics: absolute moral rules are inconsistent with our considered moral judgments.
•Cases: murderer at the door, ticking time bomb, killing 1 to save 8 billion. 
A coherent worldview
A philosophy of life; a set of beliefs and theories that help make sense of a wide range of issues in life.
•Good worldviews consist of good theories.
•good worldviews are internally consistent.
