Introduction to ethics:

Question 1

What is ethics?

Answer 1

The moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity.

Question 2

Ethics is usually centralised in:

Answer 2

• Practical reasoning
• The person
• Language
• Religion

Question 3

Practical Reasoning:

Answer 3

• Plato: wrongdoing was always the result of ignorance. Moral life comes from the understanding of the form of good.
• Aristotle: Moral life requires practical reasoning, just like art.

Question 4

Critique against Plato on practical reasoning:

Answer 4

-Smoking is harmful, but to continue to smoke does not prove an act of ignorance. Therefore, Plato’s argument remains invalid.

Question 5

Practical Reasoning: Conclusion:

Answer 5

Therefore, moral thinking is about what is manageable in particular circumstances.

Question 6

The person:

Answer 6

Ethics is about the person in a community, there must be an agreement on how this person should perform their moral duties.

Question 7

Ronald Dworkin (1931-2013):

Answer 7

Rights were not to be understood absolutely.

Question 8

Ingold Dalferth (1948):

Answer 8

The basic rights and above all human dignity is central,. Human dignity cannot be taken away like freedom can be. We are dignified in being ourselves.

Question 9

Language:

Answer 9

Language is used to phrase the world. We cannot think about morality without using language. Some words in language such as ‘good’ is usually conformed differently, doesn’t entirely mean something is morally brilliant. Its an adjective.

Question 10

Religion:

Answer 10

Most religions aim to provide guidance on what it means to be moral.
Natural Law theory aims to argue that what is right and what is wrong is knowable by reason.

Question 11

Theories of ethics:

Answer 11

• Normative: Sets norms on how we should behave and the character traits we should develop.
• Applied: Discusses ethical problems of living: i.e. medicine, politics or sanction.
• Metaethics: Questions language and meaning; i.e. what does it mean to be good or bad.

Question 12

Metaethical theories can include:

Answer 12

• Emotivism
• Subjectivism
• Existentialism
• Divine Command Theory
• Vulgar Relativism
• Natural Law Theory

Question 13

Emotivism:

Developed by Rudolf Carnap and A.J Ayer.

Answer 13

• A theory that argues that ethical statements do not express emotions, but emotional attitudes.
• EXAMPLE: To say “Lying is good”, means you approve of lying. To say Lying is bad” means you disapprove of lying.

Question 14

Subjectivism:

Answer 14

• The view that all ethical judgements are simply statements of the speaker’s beliefs and are right because the speaker says so.

Question 15

Existentialism:

Existentialists include: Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers and Jean- Paul Sartre.

Answer 15

A philosophical movement that believes that the universe just exists and has no meaning in itself. Any value it has is the meaning each individual chooses to give..

Question 16

Divine Command Theory:

Theological Voluntarism

Answer 16

• The theory that something is right because God commands something is right, rather than believing that God commands something because it’s right.

Question 17

Divine Command Theory Rejected by:

Answer 17

The following Christian Philosophers: Aquinas, Martin Luther and Pope St John Paul II.

Question 18

Vulgar Relativism:

Answer 18

• Relativism: The view that the rightness is culturally or religiously determined.
• All beliefs are relative, and all should be tolerated. This position is contradictory, because all tolerance should be a universal value, not a relative one.

Question 19

Natural Law Theory:

Answer 19

• Belief that moral rightness can be determined through careful reflection on the facts of the world.
• Supported by: Aristotle, Cicero, Aquinas, Richard Hooker, Hugo Grotius, Today and John Finnis.

Question 20

Theories of Normative Ethics:

Answer 20

• Deontic Ethics

- Aretaic Ethics

Question 21

Deontic Ethics:

Answer 21

Any type of ethics, such Kantianism or Utilitarianism, which emphasises the actions we should perform.

Question 22

Aretaic Ethics:

Answer 22

Term for virtue ethics which emphasises the types of person we should strive to be.

Question 23

Deontic Ethics are split into two kinds:

Answer 23

• Teleological Theories (called consequentialist):
• Any theory in which goodness or rightness is determined by the outcome. (Focuses on outcome)
• Deontological:
• Any ethical system which ignores outcomes, concentrating just on whether the act is good in itself. (ignores outcome)

Question 24

Teleological theories include:

Answer 24

• Utilitarianism = The moral doctrine that one should always seek the greatest balance of good over evil.
• Egoism = We all should seek to act in our best interests.
• Situation ethics = in each situation which should do something which results in a loving outcome.

Question 25

Deontological Theories include:

Answer 25

• Kantian Ethics = Emphasises the primary of ones duty regardless of the consequences.
• Agapism = “love is all you need” we should all just love.
• Divine Command Theory (can appear in Normative ethics as well as metaethics).

Question 26

Absolutism:

Answer 26

Believe that there are fixed and unchanging truths about right and wrong.
(Fixed Morals)

Question 27

Relativism:

Answer 27

Believe that morals are flexible and not absolute. It depends on the individual society and circumstances.
(Morals are not fixed)