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Philosophy > PHIL 335 Midterm > Flashcards

PHIL 335 Midterm Flashcards

1
Q

Objective List Theory

A

Perfectionist theory of goodness
Variety of kinds of non-moral value for humans

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2
Q

Objective List Theories

A

Goodness is desire independent

Goodness can be indexed to different people

List of objective goods often linked to development and exercise of distinctive rational and affective capacities of human beings

Whether goodness can be achieved by a person may depend on the endorsement constraint

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3
Q

Standard entries on the Objective List Theory

A

Life
Friendship
Knowledge
Pleasure
Significant accomplishments
Aesthetic experience and creation

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4
Q

False consciousness and Adaptive preferences

A

Some preferences do not track peoples well-being accurately because they were formed under distorting conditions

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5
Q

Utilitarianism: Basic Idea

A
  1. A theory of goodness- where goodness is defined in terms of utility
  2. A criterion of rightness- rightness is defined in maximization of utility
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6
Q

3 competing methods of Ethics

A

Rational Egoism
Dogmatic Intuitionism
Utilitarianism

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7
Q

Rational Egoism

A

Each person has most reason to maximize their own happiness

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8
Q

Dogmatic Intuitionsim

A

Follow the intuitive dictates of common sense morality and treat these dictates as normatively basic

E.g. justice, promissory duties, truth telling, courage, humility

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9
Q

Dualism of Practical Reason

A

Rational egoism and Utilitarianism are equally credible accounts of practical reason, insofar as they diverge that practical reason is intermediate or contradictory in the guidance it offers

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10
Q

Measurement of Utility

A

Intrapersonal measurement of utility

Interpersonal measurement of utility

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11
Q

Intrapersonal measurement of utility

A

Possible to compare utility a !given person! receives from different things

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12
Q

Interpersonal measurement of utility

A

It is possible to compare the utility !different persons! receive from things

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13
Q

2 types of consequentialism

A

Generic consequentialism

Technical consequentialism

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14
Q

Generic consequentialism

A

consideration of consequences is relevant to making moral judgements

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15
Q

Technical Consequentialism

A

Rightness consists in the maximization of non-moral goodness (happiness)

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16
Q

2 types of utilitarianism

A

Simple Utilitarianism

Sophisticated Utilitarianism

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17
Q

Simple Utilitarianism

A

Utilitarian criterion of rightness is also employed as a decision procedure.

Simple utilitarianism’s set out to maximize overall utility and determine what course of action is right by explicitly engaging in utility calculations

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18
Q

Sophisticated Utilitarianism

A

Utilitarian criterion of rightness need not be employed as a decision procedure.

Criterion of rightness still identified with overall utility maximization but the utilitarian is guided most times by principles that are not utilitarian

Context sensitive

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19
Q

Blameless wrongdoing

A

Sophisticated wrongdoing allows that there are agents given their justified decision procedure have reason to perform even when the actions do not maximize overall utility and are therefore wrong

In these cases a person is wrong but not blameworthy

Ex: Parfits example of a woman helping her child rather than a stranger

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20
Q

Praiseless Right Doing

A

Can occur when a person performs an action that cannot reasonably be expected to generate a good outcome and indeed can be expected to have a bad outcome but as things turn out, generates a good outcome

E.g. a doctor administers a drug that is expected to kill the patient but actually saves the patient

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21
Q

Utilitarianism divided into…

A

Direct Act Utilitarianism

Indirect/Rule Utilitarianism

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22
Q

Direct Act Utilitarianism

A

The utilitarian criterion of rightness is applied in the first instance to the evaluation of acts.

Rights acts are acts that maximize overall utility.

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23
Q

Indirect/Rule Utilitarianism

A

The utilitarian criterion of rightness is applied in the first instance to general social rules.

Rule utilitarians attempt to identify rules which, if generally obeyed, will maximize overall utility.

A particular act is judged right or wrong by reference to these rules

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24
Q

Simple Direct Act Utilitarianism

A

Criterion of rightness applies in the first instance to acts & criterion of rightness serves as decision procedure

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25
Q

Simple/Indirect Rule Utilitarianism

A

Criterion of rightness applies in the first instance to rules & criterion of rightness serves as decision procedure

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26
Q

Sophisticated Direct Act Utilitarianism

A

Criterion of rightness applies in the first instance to acts but criterion of rightness need not be used as decision procedure

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27
Q

Sophisticated Indirect/Rule Utilitarianism

A

Criterion of rightness applies in the first instance to rules but criterion of rightness need not be used as a decision procedure

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28
Q

Actualism

A

Right action is a function of what actually maximizes utility

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29
Q

Probablism

A

Right action is a function of what is likely to maximize utility

30
Q

Total View Utilitarianism

A

As moral agents, our primary moral obligation is to the promotion of valuable states of affairs as such rather than to other persons.

Our objective as moral agents is to increase the total amount of value (i.e., utility) in the world

31
Q

Prior Existence Utilitarianism

A

Our primary moral obligation is to other (existing persons/sentient beings); must give equal consideration to each person’s interests; principle of utility is an interpretation of what impartial moral consideration of existing interests requires

32
Q

The Utility Monster

A

Thought experiment - Robert Nozick

Imagine a person- unlike others- who is incredibly efficient at transforming resources into happiness

Utilitarianism would require devoting merely all resources to such a person

33
Q

Objection to The Utility Monster

A

Objection by Derek Parfit

Such a person is not actually imaginable, it is a deep impossibility

Experiment does not provide an important objection to utilitarianism

34
Q

Problem for Total View Utilitarianism (only)

A

The Repugnant Conclusion -Parfit

35
Q

The Repugnant Conclusion

A

For any possible population of at least ten billion people, all with a very high quality of life, there must be a some larger imaginable population whose existence, if other things are equal, would be better, even though its members have lives that are barely worth living.

36
Q

How to find total view utilitarianism plausible?

A

Non-Identity Problem

37
Q

Non-Identity Problem example

A

Parfits 14 year old girl case

This girl chooses to have a child. Because she is so young, she give her child a bad start in life. Though this will have bad effects throughout this child’s life, his life will, predictably be worth living. If this girl had waited for several years, she would have had a different child, to whom she would have given a better start in life

38
Q

Non- Identity Problem

A

Time Dependency Claim

“If an particular person had not been conceived when he was in fact conceived, it is in fact true that he would never have existed.”

Time Dependency Claim 2

“If an particular person had not been conceived within a month of the time he was in fact conceived, he would in fact never have existed.”One’s identity as a person depends (in the usual case) on when one was born”

he difficulty in reconciling our intuition that impersonal actions can be morally good or bad, with the fact that they do not improve or worsen the lives of any specific people

39
Q

Person Affecting View

A

An act can be morally wrong only if the act harms an existing or future person

40
Q

Person affecting view of wrongness in total view utilitarianism and non identity cases

A

This view seems intuitively plausible but the non-identity problem suggests that it is mistaken.Total view utilitarianism does not embrace the person affecting view and hence might seem like a way of explaining the wrongs in non-identity cases such as the 14-year old girl and ‘depletion’.

41
Q

Non-Utilitarian Consequentialism

A
  1. Rightness consists in the maximization of non moral value
  2. Goodness is not narrowly defined in terms of human welfare that have intrinsic value and should be promoted (eg. Knowledge, friendship)

View is associated with objective list accounts of what makes a life go well

42
Q

Perfectionism

A

A variety of non-utilitarian (technical) consequentialism

43
Q

What claims does perfectionism make?

A

Right consists in the maximization of goodness

Locates good to be promoted in distinctive features of human nature that have intrinsic value, often associated with Aristotles idea of eudaimonia

Goods that have intrinsic value include: knowledge, friendship

44
Q

Utilitarian Impartiality

A

As between his own happiness and that of others, utilitarianism requires him to be as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator

45
Q

Negative Responsibility

A

Wiliams

An agent is just as responsible for the things they allow or fail to prevent as they are for the things they more directly bring about

46
Q

Examples from Negative Responsibility

A

George the chemist

Jim the botanist

47
Q

One Thought too Many Objection

A

For Williams Utilitarianism does not show appreciation for the relationship between man and wife

Utilitarianism via its mode of moral thinking can alienate people from personal attachements and commitments that supply their lives with meaning

48
Q

Integrity Objection

A

Persons have special personal relationships and commitments to ideals (‘ground projects’) which are a source of distinctive value to their lives. ‘Ground projects’ are (partly) constitutive the very identity of moral agents. The integrity of moral selves requires deep (though perhaps not unqualified) fidelity to such ground projects. Utilitarianism (and especially negative responsibility) can generate alienation from ground projects. Utilitarianism is objectionable because it corrosive to integrity

49
Q

Ashford 2 types of integrity

A

Subjective integrity

Objective integrity

50
Q

Subjective integrity

A

Subjective integrity locates the ground-projects constitutive of the self as the one agents just happen to have irrespective of the moral character of those projects

51
Q

Problem with subjective integrity

A

Agents’ integrity in the sense of their current unified self-conception can be incompatible with undoubtedly overriding moral demands.

So, revisions to an agent’s ground projects required by utilitarianism cannot be objectionable per se.

52
Q

Objective integrity

A

For the agent to have objective integrity, her self-conception must be grounded in reality: it must not be based on her being seriously deceived either about empirical facts or about the moral obligations she actually has. In particular, her self-conception as being morally decent must be grounded in her leading a genuinely morally decent life

Ashford says that agents have a sure grasp on moral obligations

53
Q

Does utilitarianism threaten objective integrity?

A

Yes it does, because in the correct world despite someone finding value in personal relationships and leisure in life, current world utilitarianism requires such ground projects to be forsaken.

54
Q

Supererogation

A

A supererogatory action is one that brings about good consequences but which is not morally required. (It can be praiseworthy but persons cannot be morally criticized for failing to do it.)

Utilitarianism seems to deny that there any genuinely supererogatory actions

55
Q

Different voice hypothesis

A

there are two distinct (and largely incompatible) ‘moral voices’ each associated with fundamentally different moral concepts. One focuses on ‘justice’, the other focuses on ‘care’

56
Q

Gender difference hypothesis

A

the ethic of care is a characteristically female moral perspective and the justice-based ethic is a characteristically male moral perspective. [There are now doubts about whether the empirical evidence supports this claim.

57
Q

Ethic of Justice vs. Ethic of Care

A

The ethic of justice is centered on maintaining obligation, equity, and fairness through the application of moral principles, rules, and established standards, whereas the ethic of care is centered on maintaining relationships through responding to needs of others and avoiding hurt

  1. Moral reasoning via abstract principles (‘justice ethic’) vs. moral reasoning focused on particularities & concrete fact
  2. Morality as impartial concern (‘ethic of justice’) vs. morality as fundamentally partial (‘ethic of care’)
58
Q

Demandingness objection

A

Since consequentialism in its standard form requires us to maximize the good, impartially considered, it looks like producing good is a never-ending project.

59
Q

Response to Demandingness objection

A

Acknowledge that morality CAN be demanding in some cases
Emphasize cooperative character of utilitarianism: the duty to maximize utility is shared by all
In most instances, when duty is discharged by all demands of utilitarianism are not excessively burdensome
Resist picking up moral slack of non-compliers

60
Q

Justice Based objections to Utilitarianism

A

The maximization of overall welfare can justify:

  • violation of legal rights
  • violation of moral rights
  • violation of considerations of moral desert
  • violations of promises/contracts
  • violation of fairness in the distribution of benefits and burdens
61
Q

Replies to Justice Objections

A

Constraint of Realism

Theoretical Sophistication

Priority of Theory over Intuition

62
Q

Constraint of realism

A

Troubling tensions between considerations of justice and utilitarianism only arise in highly unrealistic cases

63
Q

Theoretical sophistication

A

Justice considerations can be integrated into a sophisticated form of utilitarianism (e.g., by allowing that considerations of justice serve as decision procedures that generally serve the utilitarian criterion of rightness

64
Q

Priority of Theory over Intuition

A

Where there are genuine divergences in realistic cases between the requirements of utilitarianism and our intuitive judgements we should revise our intuitive judgements in light of the overall normative power utilitarianism as a moral theory

65
Q

Effective Altruism

A

a philosophy and community focused on maximising the good you can do through your career, projects, and donation

66
Q

Skepticism about Practical Reason

A

There are no reasons for action per se but reason can reveal causal relations that are relevant to facilitating the achievement of an agent’s ends. (On this view, strictly speaking, we can never say that an agent has a reason to act in anyway

67
Q

Instrumentalism

A

Non-sceptical view

reason can guide agents in the achievement of their ends and agents have reasons to pursue their ends but reason cannot assess the rationality or reasonableness of ends

68
Q

Qualified Instrumentalism

A

Non sceptical view

reason can guide agents in the achievement of their ends and agents have reasons to pursue their ends but whether pursuit of a given end is rational can depend on whether the end adopted by agent is consistent with what the agent would adopt under certain idealized conditions – e.g., full-information, calm reflection, absence of distorting factors.

69
Q

2 varieties of non-Instrumentalism

A
  1. Rational egoism
  2. Rational altruism
70
Q

Rational egoism

A

Reason can illuminate what is in a person’s interest and directs persons to maximally pursue their own interest (Rational Egoism endorses the Normative Primacy of Self Interest)

71
Q

Rational Altruism

A

There are many ends (including moral ends) that reason can identify as rational (or irrational/unreasonable) and reason can determine what it is most reasonable to do in given circumstances but reason does not always require agents to pursue their self-interest.

Philosophy (2 decks)

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