Ethics - Concepts Flashcards
Vincible ignorance
Ignorance that can be blamed for lack of trying and thus morally wrong
Invincible ignorance
Ignorance that is independant of the person and thus meaning they can have done no moral wrong.
Sexual Ethics - Paul
- Paul against homosexuality. Man and wife
- Possibly against “Fornication” -> Greek orgies as an example.
Sexual Ethics - Augustine
- Was a player during university age
- Possibly felt guilty on sex
- Original Sin from sex
- Viewed sex as blinding and ungodly.
Sexual Ethics - Sex is good, religion is bad (4)
- Church is biased since Augustine was a player + felt guilty
- Patriarchal society tries to repress + hold power over women
- Cultural tradition is the ones enforcing sex as bad
- Secular society is more open and accepting
Sexual Ethics - Religion is good, sex is bad (6)
- Gods laws are for protection
- There would less problems if Religious teaching were followed
- Healthier families from religious traditions, cohabiting psychologically weakens ect..
- Individualism is dangerous.
- Jesus was progressive for the time, and was a radical reformer for the time. Much more lenient than realised.
- Sex inside marriage is much healthier
Sexual Ethics - Tim Keller
Covenental vs consumerist society
-> people are seeing each other as commodities vs commitments. People need to focus more on marriage + loving beyond dry spells.
Sexual Ethics - Catholic Church (3)
- Sex is not okay outside of marriage, but not the end of the world (forgiveness)
- No homosexual acts are allowed
- Unitive + Procreative
Sexual Ethics - Kant (5)
- Marriage is the only place two can have sex and keep their dignity
- Cannot use people
- Extra Marital + Pre Marital is not allowed. Using / used more than the other and broken promise of marriage.
- Needed for procreation
- Cannot universalise homosexuality. Doesn’t make sense.
Sexual Ethics - Kant evaluation (3)
- Does not rely on religion (works in secular society)
- Can universalise homosexuality
- Divorce rates are increasing
Sexual Ethics - Simone De Beavouir
Women are enslaved in marriage.
Sexual Ethics - Utilitarianism (6)
- Bentham, “two sovereign masters, pleasure and pain.”
- one night of pleasure is not worth pain.
- Premarital is fine as long as it’s done with no risk of Conception, Detection and no risk of Infection (STI’s)
- Love affairs adds greater pleasure that’s rare. As long as not caught it’s fine.
- No-harm principle. If it doesn’t hurt anyone it’s fine.
- Mill campaigned for more contraception (act is not issue. It’s consequences)
Sexual Ethics - Peter Singer
Driving a car is more of a moral issue than sex.
Meta Ethics - Alaster Mackintyre (After Virtue (book))
- Ever since enlightenment, they distance right and wrong into an academic exercise, and thus remove themselves from the practical life. It is a distraction from the real issues people face. Intuitionism + Emotivism are a waste. Naturalism is the only way.
Sexual Ethics - Michael Foucault
We are no longer required to look at things through the lens of normal and abnormal.
Euthanasia - Glover (2)
- People would often prefer death to coma / permanent unconsciousness.
- No intrinsic value for people who are unable to respond to stimuli
Euthanasia - Hot and Cold cognition
Difficulty in predicting our wants when our moods shift.
Case Study - Tony Bland
Suffered PVS after accident in 1989 at Hilsborough stadium. Died after 4 years by passive euthanasia. (14 days to death, by starvation)
Euthanasia - Quality of Life
Developed by Nobel Prize winner peter singer, it provides a potentially better method of adjusting life. Similar to NICE’s QALY.
- Determines a life’s quality by their potential to do things, and respects their choice to di.e
Euthanasia - Jack Kevorkian
The right to die must be protected as modern medicine is capable of saving majority of people who can be saved.
Case Study - Dr Jack Vorking
Dr Death, argued that you should kill based on how medicine is using extreme bounds to keep people alive.
Catholic Church rule on Euthanasia
One not need strife officiously to keep one alive.
Slippery slope
- Idea that once something is permitted it snowballs easily out of control
- Countered by popper in Netherlands where there is no evidence of slippery slope.
Sexual Ethics / Euthanasia - Non harm principle
J.S Mill, idea that people can do what they want as long as it doesn’t hurt others.
Euthanasia - Rachels
Death by omission may be crueler than active, as it prolongs suffering.
Example of inheritance on death of nephew. Smith arranges drowning, Jones doesn’t act. Both equally guilty, despite society saying Smith is worse.
Euthanasia - Netherlands
Peter Singer noted of 48,000 euthanised, only 2 were supposedly killed without their consent.
