CMB2000/L08 Ethical Reasoning Flashcards
Define moral absolutism/dogmatism.
‘Knowing’ that something is right or wrong
Define moral relativism.
The statement that X is right or wrong is synonymous with the statement that an agent approves or disapproves of X
Define Pyrrhonian moral scepticism.
Believing that something is right or wrong but still accept judgement and understand other peoples opinions is valid.
Give 3 tools of the ethics trade.
Logic
Analogies/thought experiments
Avoiding slippery slope arguments
What is a formal ethical theory?
About the sorts of abstract principles and values that should matter
What is a material ethical theory/axiology?
About the concrete things/entities that should matter
Give the 4 principles of formal ethical theories.
Autonomy
Beneficence
Non-maleficence
Justice
Give 3 more formal ethical theories.
Consequentialism
Deontology
Virtue ethics
Care ethics
Describe the connection between axiologies and ontologies.
Questions of which things deserve moral consideration
How much moral significance should be attributed to them
Ontology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being, existence, and reality.
Axiology (the study of values, including ethics and aesthetics) and onto
Which answers may stem from different axiologies? (5)
Strong speciesism
Weak speciesism
Animal egalitarianism
Radical biocentrism
Ecocentrism
Which 2 ontologies have dominated Western philosophy?
Mechanistic materialism
Dualism
Define mechanistic materialism. (2)
The ontology that reality is composed of things that act in a machine-like fashion
All components carry out programmed functions with mathematical precision determined by: the Great Builder or aimless forces e.g., gravity
Define dualism.
The view that reality is composed of two fundamentally distinct things
Things with minds and things without minds
Define panexperientialism.
The belief that all matter is capable of experience
Describe how panexperientialism has levels.
DIfferent matter has different levels of agency/subjectivity
Collections of these can either be aggregates or true/compound individuals
