Ethics chapter 3 Flashcards
Ethics
The systematic reflection on morality.
Morality
The totality of opinions, decisions, and actions with which people express, individually or collectively, what they think is good or right.
Descriptive ethics
The branch of ethics that describes existing morality, including customs and habits, opinions about good and eval, responsible and irresponsible behavior, and acceptable and unacceptable action.
Normative ethics
The branch of ethics that judges morality and tries to formulate normative recommendations about how to act or live.
Descriptive judgement
A judgement that describes what is actually the case, what was the case, or what will be the case (present, past, future).
Normative judgement
Judgement about whether something is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, right or wrong.
Values
Lasting convictions or matters that people feel should be strived for in general and not just for themselves to be able to lead a good life or to realize a just society.
Intrinsic value
Value in and of itself.
Instrumental value
Instrumental value (or extrinsic value, contributory value) is the value of objects, both physical objects and abstract objects, not as ends-in-themselves, but as means of achieving something else.
Norms
Rules that prescribe what actions are required, permitted or forbidden.
Virtues
A certain type of human characteristics or qualities.
Normative relativism
An ethical theory that argues that all moral points of view - all values, norms and virtues - are equally valid.
Universalism
An ethical theory that states that there is a system of norms and values that is universally applicable to everyone, independent of time, place, or culture.
Absolutism
A rigid form of universalism in which no exceptions to rules are possible.
Utilitarianism
A type of consequentialism based on the utility principle. In utilitarianism actions are judged by the amount of pleasure and pain they bring about. The action that brings the greatest happiness for the greatest number should be chosen. (Shouldn’t this be, greatest net happiness?)
Consequentialism
The class of ethical theories which hold that the consequences of actions are central to the moral judgement of those actions.
Hedonism
The idea that pleasure is the only thing that is good in itself to which all other things are instrumental.
Utility principle
The principle that one should choose those actions that result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
Moral balance sheet
A balance sheet in which the costs and benefits for each possible actions are weighted against each other. Bentham proposed the drawing up of such balance sheets to determine the utility of actions. Cost-benefit analysis is a more modern variety of such balance sheets.
Criticisms for utilitarianism
- Happiness cannot be measured objectively
- May lead to exploitation
- Ignores the problem of distributive justice / marginal utility
Distributive justice
The value of having a just distribution of certain goods, like income, happiness and career.
Marginal utility
The additional utility that is generated by an increase in a good or service (ie $100 more if you already have a million is less effective than if you only have a thousand).
Act utilitarianism
The traditional approach to utilitarianism in which the rightness of actions is judged by the (expected) consequence of those actions.
Rule utilitarianism
A variant of utilitarianism that judges actions by judging the consequences of the rules on which these actions are based. These rules rather than the actions themselves, should maximize utility.
