Midterm 1 revised

Question 1

objective vs subjective utilitarian

Answer 1

subjective utilitarian - naive, sees utilitarianism as a form of decision making

objective utilitarian - sees utilitarianism as a standard of rightness

Question 2

Egoism

Answer 2

Ethical Egoism - view that an action is right if and only if it better promotes the agent’s interests than any other available action
Hedonistic Egoism - agent’s interests are reducible to pleasure

Question 3

Separation of Persons

Answer 3

Look at people separately when assessing well-being and suffering. Contractualism, Scanlon

Question 4

The Greater Burden Principle

Answer 4

It is unreasonable to reject a principle because it imposed a burden on you when every alternative principle would impose much greater burdens on others

Question 5

maxim

Answer 5

“subjective principle of volition” that expresses an agent’s intended action and their reason (not purpose!) for performing that action.
Performing an action because it is morally required = thinking of the maxim of the action as a kind of law (universal law)

Question 6

priori

Answer 6

can be known to be true just by thinking. No observation about the world needed

Question 7

The Simple Story

Answer 7

All else equal, we have a much stronger duty against killing a person than letting a person die

Question 8

Hypothetical Imperative

Answer 8

something is required in order to achieve an aim or goal, because it is a necessary means to that goal

Question 9

Categorial Imperative

Answer 9

something is required in itself, unconditionally, irrespective of any aim.

Question 10

Types of Moral Luck

Answer 10

actions or projects turned out
(blameworthiness; deservingness of punishment)
Circumstantial luck: luck involved in the kinds of problems and situations one faces (Fundamental Attribution Error; Obedience to Authority Experiment)
Constitutive luck: luck involved in one’s having the inclinations, capacities and temperament that one does
Causal luck: luck in how one is determined by antecedent circumstances (external vs internal luck)

Question 11

The Control Principle

Answer 11

Object of moral assessments must be factors under our control. Moral assessments (regarding agent’s praise- or blameworthiness; the rightness or wrongness of their action, etc) should be luck-independent.

Question 12

Incompatibalism (The Simple Argument)

Answer 12

If determinism is true, there can be no moral responsibility.
If the thesis of metaphysical determinism is correct, my actions are not ‘free’ in a sense that would make me morally responsible for them.

Question 13

Soft Determinism / Compatibalism

Answer 13

If free activity is unforced and unimpeded activity, then there is no inconsistency between determinism and the claim that I sometimes act freely.
There is a perfectly intelligible sense in which I could have acted otherwise, even if determinism is true, therefore free will exists

Question 14

Liberatarianism

Answer 14

Taylor
An action that is free is caused by the agent who performs it.
If things are not caused by my own free will, desires, and impulses, they are not caused at all.

Question 15

Principle of Alternate Possibilities

Answer 15

There is no moral blame or merit in anyone who could not have acted otherwise

Question 16

Frankfurt’s Responsibility Principle

Answer 16

We are morally responsible for action X if we have a second-order desire that our will be to do X

Question 17

First Order & Second Order Desire / Voalition

Answer 17

First order desire is the desire to do something.
Second order desire is the desire to have or not have the first order desire.
Second order volition is the desire for the first order desire to become a will.