Moral Philosophies

Question 1

Moral Relativism

Answer 1

pre-supposes that there are no universal moral principles; choice is congruent to the individual’s personal choices.

Question 2

Utilitarianism

Answer 2

“The greatest good for the greatest number”; primary concern is the maximization of happiness.

Question 3

Rule Utilitarianism

Answer 3

Action is right as it conforms to a rule that leads to the greatest good, or that “the rightness or wrongness of a particular action is a function of the correctness of the rule of which it is an instance.” No exceptions because happiness is not optimized.

Ex. It doesn’t matter if the person will be happy from being saved from removal of the program, cheating is wrong and morally unacceptable.

Question 4

Act Utilitarianism

Answer 4

Person’s act is morally right if and only if it produces at least as much happiness as any other act that the person could perform at that time.

Ex. Even though cheating is wrong as a general principle, if it makes this person happy because it saves them from being kicked out of the program morally acceptable.

Question 5

Deontology

Answer 5

Personhood creates a range of rights and obligations because every person has inherent dignity – something that is fundamental to and is held in equal measure by each and every person. Actions that obey these rules are ethical, while actions that do not, are not.

Ex. Do not lie, even if you were hiding jews in your basement and you were questioned by a nazi soldier asking if there were any jews there.

Question 6

Basic Tenets of Deontological Ethics

Answer 6

1. Any rational person would subscribe to that belief
2. Morality is constituted by conformity of beliefs, values, and principles that DO NOT have any exceptions.
3. Don’t treat people as your means to an end aka don’t use people.

Question 7

Rights Based Ethics

Answer 7

here are some rights, both positive and negative, that all humans have based only on the fact that they are human.

Ex. Right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, marry, work, bear children, a lawyer etc.

Question 8

Natural Law Theory (NLT)

Answer 8

The act congruent with human nature is moral. The intelligibility of the universe cannot be reduced to cause and effect.

Question 9

Rights based approaches in comparison to Deontology and Utilitarianism

Answer 9

Utilitarianism tends to be “majoritarian” whereas RBA focuses on the minorities. Similar to deontology in the emphasis on “autonomy of the subject” the act is moral which instances rational self-determination.

Question 10

Natural law in contrast to Utilitarianism and Deontology

Answer 10

Similar to utilitarianism because both are teleological (oriented to end/outcomes)—concerned with the human good. Similar to Kant (Deontology) because natural law theorists do not think happiness can be reduced to what is “pleasant” or “desirable.”

Question 11

Founder of Deontology

Answer 11

Immanuel Kant

Question 12

Founders of Utilitarianism

Answer 12

Jeremy Bentham - foundation for a rational morality is provided the tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain

John Stuart Mill - expands and develops theory to the maximization of “the greatest good for the greatest number” while optimizing happiness.

Question 13

Material Cause (NLT)

Answer 13

The stuff of which something is made.

Ex. Material cause of a chair is wood.

Question 14

Efficient Cause (NLT)

Answer 14

Causes that count for the creation of something.

Ex. Efficient cause of a chair is a carpenter.

Question 15

Formal Cause (NLT)

Answer 15

That which makes a thing what it is and not something else.

Ex. The formal cause of humans is the genetic code that gives us the ability to reason.

Question 16

Final Cause (NLT)

Answer 16

That for which entities exist presupposes that there is a “human good” that is accumulated in terms of a normative understanding of what constitutes being human.

Ex. The final cause of a human is to live rationally and the final cause of a chair is to sit in it.

Question 17

Virtue Ethics

Answer 17

Good choices make good persons. Participation in good communities enables/cultivates good persons who make good choices.

Question 18

Proportionality

Answer 18

The good effect is sufficiently desirable to compensate for the bad effect.

Question 19

Totality

Answer 19

Preservation of what is highest/most distinctly human- justification for amputation, voluntary organ donation.

Question 20

Pullman (There are Universal Ethical Principles That Should Govern the Conduct of Medicine and Research Worldwide)

Answer 20

All human beings have basic moral worth irrespective of any contingent historical, traditional, or cultural circumstances. The essence of morality is to guard, protect, and advance the fundamental value that there is intrinsic worth. Conception of dignity is that people have rights because they have dignity. Basic dignity is the formal, universal, noncontingent concept of fundamental worth. Personal dignity expresses something of morality’s content. The notion of this is to understand the fact that the self is socially constructed (self-esteem/respect). Content of moral discourse largely relies on social and personal dignity to do the work. Basic dignity functions as a meaning constraint on moral discourse.

Question 21

Decker (No Universal Ethical Principles)

Answer 21

Principles must be able to motivate particular judgement or they are morally meaningless. The history of bioethical principles demonstrates that it is hard to separate what is historically contingent from what is universal in them. There is an underestimation of how much a culture can differ ethically than his/her own. Kant believed that the ultimate moral principle must be universal in the sense that it applies to all rational being whenever. We should avoid assuming a false kind of consistency in principles that overshadow relevant differences in particular cases. Moral propositions must be self-evident or sustained by proofs or demonstration. A principle being universal doesn’t make it absolute. The normative force of principles is difficult to locate because it is dependent upon social, economic, educational, and religious influences.