Intro to ethics

Question 1

What is Ethics?

Answer 1

Rational Inquiry into how to act and how to lead one’s life

Question 2

What is the difference between a normative enterprise and a descriptive enterprise?

Answer 2

A normative enterprise is guiding and prescriptive like ethics, while descriptive enterprise is observation based like social sciences

Question 3

Ethics of duty

Answer 3

the idea that all people are born with some inherent dignity, and duty towards humanity

Question 4

Utilitarianism

Answer 4

choosing the action that maximizes overall happiness of anyone who is affected by the decision

Question 5

Virtue Ethics

Answer 5

A person is more than their actions, emotions are involved, good or bad

Question 6

Are all human beings capable of being cruel?

Answer 6

• slave owner’s wife teaching Douglass how to read and then turning cruel she is learning this trait from her husband
  -Covey being cruel and then not hurting him after the fight: Covey seeing D as a human and unlearning this trait
• women being seen as other, or defective (Aristotle) or Imperfect men (St.Thomas)
• society was created for men by men and how they go own to define what being a woman is like even though they are not a woman
• it all depends on the person and the situation since in general all people can be inherently selfish
• nature vs nurture