Ethics Flashcards
What is Divine Command Theory?
What is right and wrong is decided by god.
What is a Self-Evident Truth?
A truth that does not require reasoning. It is so basic and applies to everyone.
What is an Atheist?
Someone who does not believe in gods.
What is a Theist?
A person that believes in god/gods.
What is Moral Rationalism?
Knowledge and truths can be found using reason. All moral laws and reasons are the result of human logic, and they apply to everyone.
What is Natural Law Theory?
Something is good as long as it fulfills its purpose.
What is The Best Reasons Approach?
Things are justified if the person has good intentions.
What is The Categorical Imperative?
An unconditional moral obligation that is true no matter what the circumstances or intentions are.
What Does Innate Mean?
The mind is born with morals and logic. It is not a blank slate. Not all knowledge is gained through experience or senses.
What is Moral Relativism?
Moral relativism is the view that what is morally right for one culture may not be morally right for another. It also means that what may be right for me may not be right for you. Moral relativism suggests that this contradiction is an ethical necessity that should not be scrutinized.
What is Moral Scepticism?
No one has any moral knowledge. They doubt and question how anyone can have any morality when it differs from person to person.
What Are Intrinsic Qualities?
If something comes from within, doing a job you love because you love it, not for money.
What is Ecocentrism?
This is a nature-centred view instead of a human-centred view.
What is Environmental Anthropocentrism?
This is the view that humans are above every other living thing.
What is The Animal Rights View?
Anything is a person that can know it lived in the past and hopes to continue living in the future. A baby cannot so it is not a person, but a chimp is because it can. It also says it’s not wrong to kill animals but what is wrong it that it puts them through pain and suffering.
What is Epicureanism?
“The school rejected determinism and advocated hedonism (pleasure as the highest good), but of a restrained kind: mental pleasure was regarded more highly than physical, and the ultimate pleasure was held to be freedom from anxiety and mental pain, especially that arising from needless fear of death and of the gods.” (Wikipedia)
What is Hedonsim?
The pursuit of happiness and short-term pleasure.
Who Were The Cynics?
There was a group of ancient Greek philosophers who believed that the pursuit of wealth was not good. This group of philosophers were called the Cynics. The Cynics went against the typical views of their contemporaries. They felt that to live a life of poverty was good. They lived with as few possessions as possible and went around homeless and in rags. They did not believe that people could behave morally or altruistically.
What is Virtue Theory?
We should not focus on what rules to follow, but the characteristics of a morally good person. If you need to be courageous in a situation, you should act how a courageous person would.
Who Were The Stoics?
Another ancient Greek and Roman group that presented ideas about how to live a good moral life were the Stoics. The Stoics felt that living a life of virtue was good. They felt that the most important virtue to live by was that of reason. They also believed that there was such a thing as universal reason, which was viewed more highly than individual reason. Virtues such as intelligence, modesty and bravery were seen as universal morals and the highest morals to follow.
What is Utilitarianism?
Actions are right and wrong based solely on their consequences. The best consequences follow the best right actions. Consequences can be judged by how much happiness they cause. Everything else is irrelevant. In this equation, no one’s happiness is more important than anyone else’s. Wealth, colour, and position don’t matter.
What is The Greatest Happiness Principle?
You should do what makes the greatest number of people happy.
What is Consequentialism?
Actions should be based solely on the consequences.
What is Ethical Egoism?
You should act based on your own self-interest.
What is Nihilism?
A group of people that believed life was meanless. You can do whatever you want because, in the end, it doesn’t matter.
What did William Goulding Say Was The Reason That Morality Should Exist?
-To promote the survival of society.
-To resolve conflicts of interest justly.
-To ameliorate (alleviate) human suffering.
-To promote human flourishing.
What Important Questions Did Plato Ask About Where Morality Comes From?
He wanted to know how something could be determined to be good or moral. Was it through independent reasoning or through a divine source.
What is The Purpose of a Moral Theory?
It is meant to cover any situation that it applies to. It exists to provide societies with general principles to cover things that might happen in their life. A good moral theory can save you from a moral dilemma. The answer would be obvious when the theory is used.
Who Was John Stuart Mill?
He said people should do what will do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. This is called utilitarianism.
What Arguments Might be Made Against Utilitarianism?
-Is happiness all that matters? Happiness is not a thing but rather a response to other events. Not everyone is made happy by the same thing.
-Are consequences all that matter? What about justice? What about rights?
-It is not practical to try to calculate every one’s happiness before making any decisions.
What is Noncognitivism?
Noncognitivism does not describe the world how it is, cannot be true or false, and express an attitude towards the world.
Describe Milgram’s Experiment? How Did it Relate to Morality?
They had a teacher asking questions to a person they could not see. If they got it wrong, they would shock the person, worsening. The person getting shocked, as an actor, did not get a real shock. They would start to get worse, and the actor would beg to stop. If the person asked the proctor, they would say the experiment needs to continue. Eventually, the actor would stop responding, which was considered a wrong answer, and the person would continue to shock a presumed dead body. This was to see if a person would blindly follow an authority figure. This was to question the morality of a person, specifically to see why the Nazis did what they did. About 60% of people continued to follow authority, with no fear of punishment, until the person died.
What Message Was Presented in Malleus Maleficarum?
It was two Dominican monks, not actually Dominican, most likely Germans, who blamed women for their desires. They wrote a book that said women were evil and witches. This led to the witch trials that spread through Europe and North America, where thousands of women were killed and tortured, as the book said they were evil. The book blamed women for being seductive and tempting men. They were evil and should be tortured and killed. The methods to do so were outlined in the book. This is similar to the Milgram experiments. People will blindly follow authority. Women were killed and tortured because a book told people they were evil.
Who Was Diogenes?
He believed that there was no such thing as an honest man. He walked around during the day with a lamp to find one. He had very few possessions, a cloak, a cup, and a bag. He threw away his cup once he saw a kid drinking with their hands. He was a cynic. It is said alexander the great meet with him one day as he was interested in the lifestyle. He showed up in rags and lay down in a sunbeam. He asked alexander to move as he was blocking his light. They were homeless and lived very minimally.
What is The Anachronistic Fallacy?
“When an inference is made resulting from the misappropriation of concepts and ideas in time, the resulting fallacy is known as an anachronistic fallacy.”
What Did Henry David Thoreau Say About Following The Law?
He felt that if there are unjust laws, then people should break them even if they end up in jail. He used taxes as a form of protest. The unjust government could collect taxes when they become morally right.
Explain Kant’s Categorical Imperative.
This is a principle of practical rationality. “a rule of conduct that is unconditional or absolute for all agents, the validity or claim of which does not depend on any desire or end. “Thou shalt not steal,” for example, is categorical, as distinct from the hypothetical imperatives associated with desire, such as “Do not steal if you want to be popular.” For Kant, there was only one categorical imperative in the moral realm, which he formulated in two ways. “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law” is a purely formal or logical statement and expresses the condition of the rationality of conduct rather than that of its morality, which is expressed in another Kantian formula: “So act as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in another, always as an end and never as only a means.” (Britannica, 2017).
