Meta ethics - right and wrong Flashcards
descriptive ethics
describes and compares ethical standards in different societies
normative ethics
asks questions about what ethical standards people should follow
applied ethics
concerned with how principles of normative ethics are applied to particular areas of ethical concern
meta ethics
concerned with nature and purpose of morality what is meant by right and wrong
cognitive ethical theories
fall into 2 catorgories ethical naturalism and ethical non naturalism
cognitive
ethical judgements state facts either true or false
non cognitive
ethical judgements are not statements of facts no objectively true
ethical naturalism
ethical views stem from facts about nature
ethical non naturalism
moral knowledge is factual property known by intuition or by God’s command
name the person for naturalism- utilitarianism
Bentham
name the person for utilitarianism
John stuart Mill
what is Benthams theory - 5
- Starts from observation of human lives focusing on maximisation of pleasure and minimum pain
- he assumes all happiness is good
- assumes all happiness outweighs pain causes action to be good
- all human action should aim to fill greatest happiness and greatest good for greatest number - hedonic calculus
- there are no difference in types of pain or pleasure
what is John Stuart Mills utilitarianism idea
- consequential idea
- rule over act
- Mill didn’t agree with Bentham
distinguished between higher pleasures and lower pleasures. quality of life rather than amount of pleasure - this assumption of higher and lower pain can’t be established by ultity alone
what does G E Moore say about Benthams idea?
‘How does Bentham know goodness should be defined this way?’
strengths ultilarianism - 1
- objective right or wrong enables us to assess our actions. gives guidelines and punishment for those who break
weaknesses - 2
- ethical non cognitivists reject the basis of moral judgement
- Moore accused naturalist theories of committing the naturalistic fallacy ‘is’ doesn’t lead to ‘ought’
name people for non naturalism -2
G E Moores
Ross
what is G E Moores argument - 2
1 good is an irreducible term
can only be recognised and understood
2. human knowledge of right or wrong comes from our fundamental morel intuitions our moral sense tells us if something is right or wrong without any appeal to consequences or reasoned argument
what does ross think about G E Moores argument
people disagree about what is right or wrong
what was ross’ 6 prima facie duties
- keeping promises
- paying back harm when done to others
- not injuring others
- returning favours
- not harming innocent people
- looking after parent
strengths to non - naturalism -2
- objective right or wrong enables us to asses or actions and gives us guidelines
- overcomes problem of ethical naturalise as what underlaying problem of right or wrong
weaknesses to non - naturalism - 2
- possible that we are unconsciously influenced by our upbringing good is a cultural subjective construct
- we don’t know where to locate intuition so maybe it doesn’t exist
people involved in divine command - 2
John Calvin
Karl Barth
what type of theory is divine command
- cognitive
- non naturalistic as it does not base on facts or natural experiences
moral commands come from God
what branch of christianity is dive command theory found in
Proteststant
humans created in image of God
nature corrupted from the fall so reliant on God to say right from wrong
how will god tell us right from wrong divine command - 2
1 through revelation
2. through conscience
Calvin - divine- 1
- humans are incapable of doing good without Gods help. shows divine command to take priority over all human thinking
Barth - divine
- human nature and reasoning has corrupted since fall. dive command takes priority over humans
strengths
- makes sense to religious believers as need to believe in an omnipotent God
- clear cut - God says its right or wrong
- promise of life after death gives purpose to morality
weaknesses - 3
- some rules seem out of date and immoral - difficult understand which commands should be obeyed
- limits human as anyone with any sense would obey God to ensure going to heaven - self interested
- is it right cause God said so or could God command something that is immoral