Ethics Terms & Concepts Flashcards
Define Moral Reletavism
There is more than one true morality
Define Moral Skepticism
We cannot identify a true morality
Define Moral Subjectivism
Right and wrong is determined by what the subject happens to believe is right or wrong
Define Cultural Reletavism
Right and wrong is determined by what a particular group of people (a particular culture) accepts as right and wrong at the time
Define Moral Objectivism
Right and wrong is determined by a standard independent of the subject or a certain group of people
Define Moral Egoism
Right and wrong is determined by what is in my best interests; that is to say, it is immoral to act against my best interests
Define Psychological Egoism
Acting only in my best interests
Define Empirical Thesis
There are numerous profound disagreements about morality
Define Meta-ethical Thesis
The truth of moral judgments is relative to a particular group of people
Define Consequentialism
The consequences of an act make it right or wrong
Further: An act, rule or principle is right, if, and only if, it promotes the greatest good for the greatest number of persons (or perhaps sentient beings).
Define hedonist theories
Pleasure is the only thing that is intrinsically valuable.
Compare act and rule utilitarianism
Act utilitarian: considers only the results or consequences of the single act
Rule utilitarian: considers the consequences that result of following a rule of conduct
Compare descriptive and prescriptive theories
A descriptive theory sets out to describe, explain, and predict certain phenomena. It operates with factual statements.
A prescriptive theory sets out to prescribe judgements, choices, actions, procedures, etc. it operates with factual and with normative statements.
What is a maxim?
A maxim is an expressed intention.
Maxims usually include whatever one intends to achieve and the way she intends to do it.
What are the different types of duties?
- perfect duties toward ourselves
(must always refrain from committing suicide) - perfect duties toward others
(must always refrain from making promises you have no intention of keeping) - imperfect duties toward ourselves
(should sometimes work to improve oneself) - imperfect duties toward others
(should sometimes work to help others)
Compare anthropogenic and anthropocentric values
Anthropocentric values – values centred on human beings. X is valuable to the degree it is valuable to humans.
Anthropogenic values – values generated by human beings. X is valuable because human beings identified it as such.
What is ethical naturalism
Ethical naturalists acknowledge instances of “x is valuable for y”, when y is a nonhuman organism, and x is a particular property of y (e.g., water is valuable for trees).
Ethical naturalism is compatible with anthropogenic valuation
What are prima facie duties?
- Real duties that we accept as such intuitively (duty to tell the truth, obey the law, etc.).
- the significance of these duties does not depend on circumstances, but their applicability does.
What are the two definitions of Rights?
1: A right is a justified claim on others
2: A right is a justified liberty
Compare negative and positive rights and provide examples
Negative rights: oblige inaction (being left alone, right of non-interference)
Positive rights: concern an action (receiving medical attention)
Negative right: nothing being done to you
Positive right: something being done to you
Describe Peter Singer’s stance on animal rights
Singer argued from analogy that nonhuman animals have rights. He posited that if discrimination based on sex, race, or gender is morally unjustified, then so is speciesism.
Singer expands Act-Utilitarian principles to all sentient beings.
What is Speciesism?
The unjustified preference of the members of one’s own species over the members of other sentient species.
Describe Tom Regan’s tance on animal rights
Regan bases his theory on the view that beings can have experiences, have inherent moral value, and must be treated with respect. A being has rights if it has inherent value. As sentient animals are “experiencing subjects of a life” they have inherent value, and so have rights.
What did Tom Regan advocate for?
- The total abolition of the use of animals in science
- The total dissolution of commercial animal agriculture
- The total elimination of commercial/sport hunting and trapping
What are the four components of Paul Taylor’s Respect for Nature?
- Humans are part of the biotic community
- All ecosystems are interconnected networks
- Each individual organism is conceived as a teleological centre of life pursuing its own good
- Humans are not in any superior to any other species, to think so is irrational
What is Kenneth Goodpasters stance on being Morally Considerable?
- Goodpaster doesn’t see a reason for thinking that rationality/sentience are necessary for moral consideration
- There is a distinction between moral rights and moral considerability; a non-human organism might not bear rights, but may still deserve moral consideration
- There’s a distinction between moral considerability and moral significance
- Goodpaster seeks to show that all living things have moral standing
Who are the ‘main figures’ in Virtue Ethics?
Artistotle and Hume
What question does Virtue Ethics answer?
“What kind of a person ought one to be”
Virtuous character guides and contrains practical deliberation
Describe eudaimonia and what are the two functions of pleasure?
Eudaimonia is living a florishing, complete, successful life that suits a human being
Pleasure serves as an indication of perfection of the senses, and is a driving force to experience things
What are virtues?
Character traits, or dispositions to act
What do Hume and Aristotle think of virtues?
Hume: emotional disposition that is useful to oneself and others.
Aristotle: the golden mean - a virtue stands between two vices
What is the Humean Theory of Motivation?
- Motivation requires a belief (realm of reason) and a desire (realm of passions)
- Reason alone only defines means to ends, and cannot motivate
- Passions define ends
- Hume: “reason is a slave of the passions”
According to Aristotle, why should you be virtuous?
- Virtuous action constitutes eudamonia, a virtuous life is a florishing one
- virtuous action has intrinsic value
- The truly virtuous gets pleasure from acting virtuously
What is Virtue Ethics about?
Virtue ethics is about looking at particular actions, and ask whether they are moral, by looking at the dispositions behind the action, and investigating whether they are virtuous
What is a GMO?
An organism that has been altered through recombinant DNA technology
- most common GMO’s are crop plants
- Microbes first organisms to be genetically modified
What are the methods of creating transgenic organisms?
- DNA Microinjection - a foreign gene is injected directly into a fertilized egg that is put into female animal to act as a surrogate
- Retrovirus-Mediated Gene Transfer - retrovirus attaches to an organism’s DNA and changes its characteristics
- Embryonic Stem Cell-Mediated Gene Transfer - the blank stem cell is modified and added to an embryo
What are the common types of GMO’s?
- Foods - modified to develop resistance to herbicides and increase nutrient content
- Medicines - can be made cheaper and easier
- GM Bacteria - important in producing pure human proteins; producing blood clotting factors for treating hemophillia; human growth hormones
Constrast selecting breeding vs genetic modification
Selective breeding is slow, imprecise, and modify genes that naturally occur in the organism - occurs between members of the same species
GM is very fast, precise, and can introduce new genes that don’t occur naturally - can occur between different species
What is the non-identity problem?
Our decisions today will have impacts to anyone in the future, but if our choices (social, environmental, economical) are detrimental to the well-being of future generations, our choice cannot be seen as worse than any other choice for any of the future people, because those people would not exist if we had made a different decision that day
What are some arguments for genetic manipulation?
Libertarian: It is a matter of individual liberty to decide what genetic enhancements one wants –> deontological perspective, you can decide what you want to do with yourself
Utilitarian: GM produces an overall better group of people
What are some arguments against genetic manipulation?
Respect for autonomy argument: violate’s a childs autonomy by choosing a future for them, sometimes using the child as a mere means
Genetic manipulation performed either in utero, or during childhood would seem to threaten the right to make one’s own choices
What is paternalism? Compare hard, weak, and soft paternalism
Paternalism is when a representative of the state, restricts autonomy in any way for the good of the person
Strong paternalism: interference in a competent person’s liberty for their own good
Weak paternalism: interfence with liberty is justified in order to prevent people from acting in ways that are likely to defeat their goals
Soft paternalism: interference in an incompetent person’s liberty for their own good.
Define competence, what things factor into competence?
Relation between ones ability and a certain activity
Factors in competence:
- being adequately informed
- consistent goals
- age factor
Define reasonable person standard
Information a statistically defined reasonable person should expect in order to make an intelligent decision
Define modified reasonable person standard
Information a ‘situationally’ defined reasonable person should expect to have in order to make an intelligent decision
What is a collective action problem?
When everyone in a group, has a choice between two alternatives, and if everyone actions rationally they choose the same option. However, the outcome will be worse for everyone invovled if they all make the same choice.
Ex. depleting a resource
Define freeriding with respect to the collective action problem
In a Collective Action Problem in which most agents choose to Cooperate, Defectors are referred to as FREERIDERS, because they benefit from the Cooperation of others, but are unwilling to reciprocate Cooperation
- great incentive to free-ride, you do nothing and reap the benefits
What is the tragedy of the commons?
There is a common resource, freely accessible to every member of the society. When an individual agent realizes that her wellbeing will increase if she’ll use more of the common resource without affecting its sustainability, she uses more of it. However, every other agent discovers the same thing. So every other agent uses more and more of the commons. This leads to the depletion of the common resource
