LDSP midterm Flashcards
Value Theory
- All branches of moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and sometimes feminist philosophy and the philosophy of religion
- A broad category that includes
ethics
-Considerations of
Good, better, best
Right, wrong, good, bad,
Where values come from,
Intrinsic and instrumental value,
Monism and pluralism,
Relationship between what is valuable to what we ought to do
Ethics
-Moral philosophy
-Involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior
Various topics:
Good, bad, right, wrong
Ought and ought not
Moral beauty
Character
Virtue, vice
Moral dilemmas
Flourishing, suffering
Rights, what is ‘owed’ to one another
Freedom
Natural law
Laws of nature pertaining to humans
Metaethics and its various theories
Meaning of moral language
Moral realism
-Moral facts that are true
Moral Anti-Realism
-There are no objective moral values
- different views of Moral Anti-Realism
—- Nihilism
——— There are no objective values because there are no moral truths; Nothing matters
—-Skepticism
——— No moral beliefs are certain
—-Non-cognitivism
———Moral statements are not true or false because they aren’t propositions
——— different kinds
————–Emotivism
——————-Moral statements are expressions of one’s emotions toward a thing
————–Prescriptivism
——————-Moral statements are expressions of direction for someone else’s behavior
—-Relativism
———Cultural relativism
————–Moral values are relative to different societies
———Subjectivism
—————Moral values are relative to individuals
*Normative ethics
–Moral rules or systems
–How we ought to act
–Deontology/Kantian
—–Duty
—–Regardless of consequences
–Virtue ethics
—–traits/virtues
—–Emphasizes the virtues, or moral characters
–Consequentialism
—–Results of your actions
—–Don’t think about the actions
Consequentialism
Results of your actions
Don’t think about the actions
Deontology
Duty
Regardless of consequences
Judge the morality on the basis of choices made, not the end results
Is opposed to consequentialism
Some choices cannot be justified by their effects
No matter how good their consequences, some choices are morally forbidden
Virtue Ethics
traits/virtues
Emphasizes the virtues, or moral charactres
Stabe qualities of your person
To be a good person is to have certain qualities and perform certain actions and not to have certain qualities or perform certain actions
E.g. Plato, Aristotle, Anscombe, Annas, Miller
Applied Ethics
Medical ethics
Business ethics
Environmental ethics
Sexual ethics
Leadership ethics
Criteria - to be an applied ethical issue, it must be:
Controversial
–Significant disagreement
Distinctly moral
Examples
–Abortion
–Infanticide
–Animal rights
–Environmental concerns
–Capital punishments
–Nuclear war
Plato
429-347
Wrote about everything
Wealthy Athenian
Founded the Academy
Wrote in dialogue
Philosphy is a living conversation
That’s what Socrates said
Socrates’ was strongly opposed to written philosophy
Socrates’ is the lead interlocutor in all but one of Plato’s dialogues
Plato’s views don’t equal Socrates’ views
Euthyphro
Piety
–Reverence, purity
First definition
–Piety is doing what I’m doing right now
Second definition
–Piety is what’s pleasing to the gods
Third def
–Something that’s loved by all the gods
Wrong
–Is it pious because the gods love it
Or do the gods love it because it’s pious
Foruth def
–Kind of justice that cares to the gods
Kind of justice that cares to the gods
Wrong
–Can’t take care of the gods
Values – Rokeach
(1) the total number of values a person possesses is relatviely small
(2) all men everywhere possess the same values to differrent degrees
(3) values can be organized into value systems
(4) the antecedents of human values can be traced to culturee, society, and its institutions, and personality
Source of humans values
(5) the consequences of human values will be manifested in virtually all phenomena that social scientists might consider worth investigating and understanding
——————————————–
(1) Intuitively appealing yet capable of operational definition
Common sense
Come up with a definition that can be measured
(2) value concepts should be distinguishable from other concepts (like attitude)
Difference between value and social norm
Value
Something you value
Beliefs
Social norm
Something society values
Actions
What you do on a collective basis
(3) it should avoid employing circular, undefined terms (ought)
(4) the study of values should, itself, not be a value-laden inquiry
Individual and supraindividual
Supraindividual =df more than one person
Supraindividual level
–Guide decisions about organizational goals, allocation of resources, formation of new policies
Individual level
–Help us to have priorities, make decisiosn about occupational goals and interests, how to spend money, for whom to vote
Terminal and instrumental
Terminal values
–goal
Instrumental
–means to that end
Value hierarchies
Organizations of values
Permit us to resolve the conflict
Moral Lives of Babies
Children are born with an innate sense of morality
–Limitations
—-We and they
——It’s groupish
It groupish
Local
Show preference for people who look like them and those who are infront of them
What difficulty peersisted in pursuing these questions in the lab?
Difficulty of testing
No language access
Behvaiorally limited because they can’t fully control their limbs
How did they get around these limitations?
Babies can control their eyes
What babies ar ecapable of
Mimesis
–Immitate
Emotional exchange
–Smiling at someone when they smile at you
Emotional contagion
–If someone’s sad, they get sad
They have some grasp of how people think and why they act as they do, anticipating that people will “move rationally in accordance with their beleifs and desires”
When slightly older, they try to assuage people’s pain
Helping behavior
Toddlers help without any prompting, encouragment, or reward
What babies are capable of, morally speaking
Basic understanding of right and wrong
–Show pereference for good
Agents, subjects, patients
Agents
- Free will to act on morals
Subjects
–Can be held responsible
–Like a toddler/kids, dog
–Not held responsible like an adult would be
–Lack the freedom of robust agency
Patients
– Passive
– But can suffer harm
– Like infants
