Ethics 1

Question 1

What are the three different ways of thinking about justice?

Answer 1

1. Maximizing welfare
2. Respecting freedom
3. Promoting virtue

Question 2

What do the standard case for unfettered markets rest on?

Answer 2

1. Markets promote the welfare of society as a whole by providing incentives for people to work hard supplying the goods that other people want.
2. Markets respect inidividual freedom; rather than impose a certain value on goods and services, markets let people choose for themselves what value to place on the things they exchange.

Question 3

What is the virtue argument (on greed)?

Answer 3

Greed is a vice, a bad way of being, especially when it makes people oblivious to the suffering of others. More than a personal vice, it is at odds with civic virtue. Excessive greed is a vice that a good society should discourage if it can.

Question 4

What does Aristotle teach about justice?

Answer 4

He believes that justice means giving people what they deserve. In order to determine who deserves what, we have to determine what virtues are worthy of honour and reward. Aritsotle maintains that we cant figure out what a just consitution is without first reflecting the most desirable way of life. For him the law cant be neutral on questions of the good life.

Question 5

How do modern philosophers think about the law and virtue?

Answer 5

They argue that our rights should not rest on any particular conception of virtue, instead a society should respect each persons freedom to choose their own conception of the good life.

Question 6

What are things that a just society does (according to Aristotle)?

Answer 6

Distributes goods in the right way, each person what they are due. The hard question begins when we ask what people are due and why.

Question 7

What is a moral dilemma?

Answer 7

We need to figure out which principle has greater weight, or is more appropiate.

Question 8

What is the impulse of philiosophy?

Answer 8

Feeling the force of confusion, and the pressure to sort it out. This moral reflection emerges naturally from an encounter with a hard moral question.

Question 9

What doest moral reflection consist of?

Answer 9

Seeking a fit between judgements we and and the principles we affirm.

Question 10

What is Plato’s point on the meaning of justice and the nature of the good life?

Answer 10

To grasp the meaning of justice and the nature of the good life, we must rise above the prejucies and routines of everyday life.