Philosophical underpinning

Question 1

Must be agreed that

Answer 1

no ethical approach has all the answers

Question 2

Buddhism: 5 Precepts

Answer 2

• harming living things
• taking what is not given
• sexual misconduct
• lying or gossiping
• taking intoxicating substances e.g. drugs or drink

Question 3

Confucianism: core values

Answer 3

1) filial devotion
2) humanness
3) ritual consciousness

Question 4

Islam

Answer 4

17th chapter of the Qu’ran is on ethics

Question 5

Deontological- basic

Answer 5

Rule based ethics. Actions are judged instead of the outcome

Question 6

The normative ethical position that judges the morality of an action based on rules

Answer 6

Deontological approach

Question 7

Who is most associated with Deontological ethics

Answer 7

Immanuel Kant

Question 8

Deontological- more detail

Answer 8

• actions have intrinsic moral wealth, regardless of the consequence.
• focusses on the rightness or wrongness of an act

Question 9

Deontological approach example

Answer 9

e.g. lying is wrong regardless of the outcome (but what if you are lying to save someones life?

Question 10

deontology assumes that

Answer 10

there are universal wrongs and rights- however who decides these wrongs and rights?

Are ‘wrongs’, acts that if everyone did would not be good for society

Question 11

deontology research example

Answer 11

it is never okay to like to a research participant- but what about blinding/ use of placebos?
–> lying could save many lives

Question 12

Utilitarian ethics is part of a broader ethics called

Answer 12

consequentialisms

Question 13

fathers of utilitarianism

Answer 13

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Question 14

Utilitarian ethics- basics

Answer 14

Good outcomes are those that benefit the majority of people- the outcome not the act which is judged to be moral or immoral

Question 15

source of pleasure does not matter, as long as it brings pleasure to most people

Answer 15

utilitarianism

Question 16

utilitarianism example

Answer 16

there is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, thee are five people tied uo and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance of in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However you notice that there is one person tied up on the side track. You have two options:
1) do nothing, and the trolley kills the five people on the main track
2) pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person
Which is the most ethical

Question 17

who illustrated utilitarianism with the runaway trolley example

Answer 17

Phillips Foot

Question 18

negatives of utilitarianism

Answer 18

• who decides what the greater good is
• what of some peoples suffering is so severe it outweighs all the pleasure gained by the majority e.g. forced human/ animal testing

Question 19

Utilitarianism research example

Answer 19

this ethics suggest that it would be ethical to deceive participants if the research would benefit more people than it would hurt

Question 20

Deontology vs utilitarianism

Answer 20

a deontologist might argue that a promise ought to be kept simply because it is right to keep a promise, regress whether doing so would have a good or bad consequence. In contract, a utilitarian will argue that we should keep our promises only when keeping them results in better consequences than the alternative

Question 21

Virtue ethics was developed

Answer 21

by Plato and Aristotle

Question 22

Virtue ethics- basics

Answer 22

would a virtuous person do the same thing?

Question 23

Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings developed

Answer 23

Ethics of care within Virtue ethics

Question 24

Ethics of care

Answer 24

a feminist theory- caring about others is the central virtue

Question 25

Virtue Ethics- research example

Answer 25

its okay to deceive participants if you are going it because you care about them

Question 26

negative of virtue ethics

Answer 26

• virtues are different all around the world
• what constitutes as a virtue?
• are you more likely to behave more ethically towards someone you know, than a stranger?
• caring is not innate to all

Question 27

example of negative of virtue ethics

Answer 27

Harold Shipmen- killed 15 of his patients, but claimed he was doing it as a kindness§