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Conduct, Change, & Consequences > Midterm Exam > Flashcards

Midterm Exam Flashcards

1
Q

Conditions for good arguments

A

The need a premise and a conclusion.

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2
Q

What must you do when evaluating arguments?

A

You must first determine if the premises are true and then determine if the conclusion is true or likely to be true based on the premises.

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3
Q

What is one word that indicates a premise?

A

Because

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4
Q

What are two words that indicate a conclusion?

A

Therefore or So

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5
Q

What are 2 characteristics of bad arguments?

A

Include at least one false statement and/or the premises don’t support the conclusion.

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6
Q

What are sound arguments?

A

Valid and true, also the best kind of argument.

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7
Q

What is validity?

A

A matter of how well an arguments premises support its conclusion.

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8
Q

T/F: An arguments validity is a matter of the arguments structure and has nothing to do with the actual truth or falsity of an arguments premises or conclusion.

A

True

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9
Q

How to test for validity

A

Assume all premises to be true and determine if the conclusion is true based on those premises.

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10
Q

Deductive Argument

A

An argument that is intended to be valid. The premises are intended to be valid. The premises are intended to prove such strong support for the conclusion that, if the premises are true, then it would be impossible for the conclusion to be false.

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11
Q

Inductive argument

A

The premises are intended only to be so strong that, if they were true, then it would be unlikely that the conclusion is false.

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12
Q

Moral Skepticism

A

The view that there are no objective moral standards. Also sometimes taken to refer to the view that we can have no moral knowledge.

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13
Q

In Moral Skepticism what is morality lacking?

A

Any real authority.

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14
Q

Objective Moral Standards

A

Those that apply to everyone, even if people don’t believe that they do, even if people are indifferent to them, and even if obeying them fails to satisfy anyone’s desires.

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15
Q

Ethical Relativism

A

The view that correct moral standards are relative to individual or cultural commitments.

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16
Q

What two forms can ethical relativism take?

A

Cultural relativism or ethical subjectivism.

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17
Q

Cultural Relativism

A

The view that an act is morally right just because it is allowed by the guiding ideals of the society in which it is performed, and immoral just because it is forbidden by those ideals.

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18
Q

Ethical Subjectivism

A

The view that an act is morally right just because A) I approve of it, or B) my commitments allow it. An action is wrong just because A) I disapprove of it, or B) my commitments forbid it.

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19
Q

Moral Nihilism

A

The form of moral skepticism that says that the world contains no moral features, and so there is nothing for moral claims to be true of.

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20
Q

What are the two major forms of Moral Nihilism?

A

The Error Theory and Expressivism.

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21
Q

Error Theory

A

The metaethical view that there are no moral features in this world; no moral judgements are true; our sincere moral judgements try, and always fail, to describe the moral features of things; and there is no moral knowledge.

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22
Q

Expressivism

A

The version of moral nihilism that denies that there are any moral features in this world; claims that there is nothing for moral judgements to be true of; and analyzes moral judgements as expressions of emotions, orders, or commitments, none of which are the sorts of things that can be true or false.

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23
Q

Ethical Egoism

A

The normative ethical theory that says that actions are morally right just because they maximize self-interest.

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24
Q

Psychological egoism

A

The view that all human actions are motivated by self-interest, and that altruism is impossible.

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25
Q

Altruism

A

The direct desire to benefit others for their own sake, without any ulterior motive.

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26
Q

Consequentialism

A

A family of normative ethical theories that share the idea that the morality of actions, policies, motives, or rules depends on their producing the best actual or expected results. (Greatest net of well being)

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27
Q

Utilitarianism

A

The doctrine that an action is right insofar as it promotes happiness, and that the greatest happiness of the greatest number should be the guiding principle of conduct.

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28
Q

Act Consequentialism

A

The normative ethical theory that says that an act is morally right just because it produces the best actual of expected results.

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29
Q

Rule Consequentialism

A

The normative ethical theory that says that actions are morally right just because they would be required by an optimific social rule.

30
Q

Optimific

A

Producing the best possible results.

31
Q

Optimific Social Rule

A

A rule whose general acceptance within a society would yield better results than any other such rule.

32
Q

Act Utilitarianism

A

The version of act consequentialism that says that only well-being is intrinsically valuable, and so says that a act is morally right just because it maximizes overall well-being.

33
Q

Rule Utilitarianism

A

The version of rule consequentialism that says that well-being is the only thing of intrinsic value.

34
Q

Principle of Utility

A

The ultimate utilitarian moral standard which says that an action is morally right if and only if it does more to improve overall well-being than any other action you could have performed in the circumstances.

35
Q

Absolute

A

Never permissibly broken, violating an absolute moral rule is always wrong.

36
Q

The Moral Community

A

The set of those beings whose interests are intrinsically important. Membership signifies that you are owed respect, that you have moral rights, that others owe you moral duties for your own sake.

37
Q

Slippery Slope Argument

A

A utilitarian line of reasoning that advises against certain social innovations by predicting that allowing them will have very bad results whose badness will go unnoticed in the future.

38
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

Measuring Well-being

A

It is impossible to measure well-being because it does not come in quantities and because we can’t account for differences in types of well-being. Utilitarianism is true only if there is a precise unit of measurement that can determine the value of an action’s results -> There is no such unit of measurement -> Therefore, utilitarianism is false.

39
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Deliberation)

A

Utilitarianism seems to require complicated calculations that are difficult, if not impossible, to perform.

40
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Deliberation- Response)

A

We generally have enough information available to us, given our background knowledge, to make optimific decisions. Taking too much time to make a decision prevents us from doing good.

41
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Motivation)

A

Utilitarianism seems to require us to be benevolent and selfless at all times.

42
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Motivation- Response)

A

We should not always focus on brining about the most net well-being because doing so will prevent us from succeeding in doing so.

43
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Action)

A

Utilitarianism forbids such actions as going on vacation when the money would do more good when donated to charity.

44
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:
Is utilitarianism too demanding?
(Action- Response)

A

Morality is demanding. So much the worse for us, if we don’t live up to it.

45
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

Problems with Impartiality

A

Utilitarianism required that everyone’s interests be considered equally.

46
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

Problems with Impartiality (the upside)

A

No one is more morally important than anyone else.

47
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

Problems with Impartiality (the downside)

A

One is not allowed to weigh the interests of loved ones more heavily than the interests of total strangers and if everybody’s interests count equally, then this may allow seemingly wrong acts to count as right.

48
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

The Argument from Injustice

A

The correct moral theory will never require us to commit serious injustices -> Utilitarianism sometimes requires us to commit serious injustices -> Therefore, Utilitarianism is not the correct moral theory.

49
Q

Difficulties with Consequentialism:

The Argument from Injustice (Response)

A

Justice is also intrinsically valuable, injustice is never optimific, and justice must sometimes be sacrificed.

50
Q

The Theory of Kantian Ethics

A

It is based on the view that the only intrinsically good thing is a good will; an action can only be good if its maxim is duty to the moral law.

51
Q

The Golden Rule

A

The normative ethical principle that says that your treatment of others is morally acceptable if and only if you would be willing to be treated in exactly the same way.

52
Q

Self-regarding Actions

A

Actions that affect only oneself.

53
Q

The Principal of Universalizability

A

The feature of a maxim that indicates that every rational person can consistently act on it.

54
Q

Three Part Test for a Maxim’s Universalizability

A
  1. Carefully frame the maxim.
  2. Imagine a world in which everyone shares and acts on that maxim.
  3. Determine whether the goal within the maxim can be achieved in such a world. If so, the maxim is universalizable. If not, it isn’t.
55
Q

Maxim

A

Principle of action that you give to yourself. It contains your intended action and the reason you are doing it.

56
Q

Amoralists

A

Those who do not care about living up to the moral views they sincerely hold.

57
Q

Hypothetical Imperative

A

A command of reason that requires a person to take the needed means to getting what she wants.

58
Q

Categorical Imperative

A

A command of reason that requires a person’s obedience gets him anything he wants.

59
Q

The Argument for the Irrationality of Immorality

A
  1. If you are rational, then you are consistent.
  2. If you are consistent, then you obey the principle of universalizability.
  3. If you obey the principal of universalizability, then you act morally.
  4. Therefore, if you are rational, then you act morally.
  5. Therefore, if you act immorally, then you are irrational.
60
Q

Absolute

A

Never permissibly broken; violating an absolute moral rule is always wrong.

61
Q

T/F: Kant fails to establish that immoral action is irrational, but universalizability respects consistency and fairness.

A

True

62
Q

Principle of Humanity

A

Kant’s thesis that one must always treat a human being (oneself included) as an end, and never as a mere means.

63
Q

In Kant’s Principle of Humanity what does “Humanity” refer to?

A

All rational and autonomous beings, no matter their species.

64
Q

In Kant’s Principle of Humanity what is a “Mere Means?”

A

When someone is used like a tool or object.

65
Q

In Kant’s Principle of Humanity what is a “Means?”

A

When people help facilitate a mutual goal or project.

66
Q

Moral Worth

A

The praiseworthy feature of an action that fulfills one’s moral duty.

67
Q

5 Problems with the Principle of Humanity

A
  1. The notion of treating someone as an end if vague, and so the principal is difficult to apply.
  2. The principle fails to give us good advice about how to determine what people deserve.
  3. The principle assumes that we are genuinely autonomous, but that assumption may be false.
  4. The principle assumes that he morality of our actions depends only on what we can autonomously control, but the existence of moral luck calls this into question.
  5. The principle cannot explain why those who lack rationality and autonomy are deserving of respect.
68
Q

Moral Luck

A

A case in which the morality of an action or a decision depends on factors outside of our control.

69
Q

Argument Against Autonomy

A
  1. Either our choices are necessitated, or they are not.
  2. If they are necessitated, then they are out of our control, and so we lack autonomy.
  3. If they are not necessitated, then they are random, and so we lack autonomy.
  4. Therefore, we lack autonomy.
70
Q

Argument Against Animals

A
  1. If the principle of humanity is true, then animals have no rights.
  2. If animals have no rights, then it is morally acceptable to torture them.
  3. Therefore, if the principle of humanity is true, then it is morally acceptable to torture animals.
  4. It isn’t.
  5. Therefore, the principle of humanity is false.
71
Q

Contrasting Kantian Ethics with Utilitarianism

A
  • Kant: easier to make sense of responsibility, since a right action is within one’s control.
  • Kant holds that the morality of actions NEVER depend on their consequences; it depends on the maxim guiding the action.
  • Autonomy and rationality determine membership in a moral community, rather than the capacity to suffer.
  • Happiness and well-being have no intrinsic value.
72
Q

Are there moral truths/properties?

A 
I. NO (meta ethics)
   A. Moral Skepticism
        1. Moral Nihilism
            i. expressivism
            ii. error theory
        2. Ethical Relativism 
            i. Ethical Subjectivism
            ii. Cultural Relativism
II. YES (normative ethics)
    A. Ethical Objectivism
         1. Ethical Egoism
         2. Consequentialism
              i. Act Utilitarianism
         3. Kantian Ethics

Conduct, Change, & Consequences (1 decks)

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