Quiz 1 Flashcards
What are meta-ethics?
Transcendent realm of ethical existence; abstract
Meta-physics: beyond physical realm
Metaphor: beyond literal meaning
Normative ethics
General guidelines for how we conduct ourselves in a moral world
- Manuals for how to act
- Realm in which we come up with ethical guidelines & moral principles
Applied ethics
Related to everyday existence, apply normative ethics to specific situations
Involves application of normative guidelines to specific, concrete situations
How did philosophers think before the 17th century?
Plato = "justice" Aristotle = "virtue"
Not in terms of “moral ethics”
Who was Plato?
Student of Socrates, wrote Socrates’ dialogues, author o the Republic
Describe Glaucon’s idea of justice in Book II of Plato’s Republic?
If we could get away with being unjust we would
Humans are inclined to be unjust –> more success –> get what you want
BUT people won’t trust you if they know you’re unjust
Everyone wants to be treated justly
If you are just and are perceived as just you won’t vain as much as someone who is only perceived as just
If you are just but are suspected of being unjust – worst case scenario
Ideal situation is to be unjust but have people think you’re just
Describe Socrates’ rebuttal to Glaucon’s argument in Book II
Human soul requires justness to be well/healthy
Unjust soul is sick/unhealthy vs. just soul is healthy
If you are unjust you aren’t good to yourself/aren’t being healthy
Basic views of Aristotle
Humans are by nature virtuous (many kinds– political, rationality, etc)
Similar to Socrates
Not engaged in virtuous activity is not flourishing in life –> not living to ones full potential
Humans are flourishing most when engaged in virtuous activity
Basic views of Stoics
ONE distinct feature of humans is virtue
Have to be virtuous to be human
Virtue is THE distinctive trait
What did the ancients emphasize?
Self-interest (not the same as selfishness)
Interest of the moral agent
What happened in the 17th century?
Emphasis shifted from virtue/justice to morality
Morality as something obligatory regardless of self-interest
Historical shift towards the development of individual identity and conscience
Do things because they’re the right thing to do not because of self-interest
Internalization of right and wrong
What philosophers were influential in the 17th century shift?
John Locke- Human understanding
Thomas Hobbes- Leviathan
Sam Puffendor
Introduced morality as something obligatory regardless of self-interest
What does morality signify?
Sense that we ought to do certain things regardless of self-interest
What are Kant’s basic beliefs?
German
Focused on obligatory aspects of morality
Categorical Imperative- unavoidable, urgent, of paramount importance, you have to do regardless of personal interest, morally binding command, humans MUST follow
Hypothetical imperative- gauge choices in terms of potential good outcome (gauge self interest)
MORAL REASONING
Categorical Imperative
Unavoidable, urgent, of paramount importance, you have to do regardless of personal interest, morally binding command, humans MUST follow
Always wrong no matter the circumstance.
If we say that “torture is wrong” is a categorical imperative, it wouldn’t matter if the info was important it would never be morally justifiable.
Hypothetical imperative
Gauge choices in terms of potential good outcome (gauge self interest)
Prudential judgment
Like Kant’s hypothetical imperative
Prudence
Made from self-interested POV
Moral Judgment
like Kant’s categorical imperative
made from a more dissinterested/more impartial POV
Singular Moral Judgment
deals with a specific instance, draws on applied ethics
may use moral principles to come to conclusion, more like normative ethics
Conscience
Not transparent/obvious, historically inflected
Emerged with 17th century understanding of morality
Conscientia (latin) –> consciousness, awareness
Latin term embraces sense of ourselves as conscience
Locke instrumental in formulating idea of conscience in his Essay on Human Understanding
Acts as a moral guide/source of knowledge
Who was instrumental in formulating the idea of conscience?
John Locke
_____ had a large influence on the development of morality/conscience as a source of knowledge
Christianity
Christianity gave us what moral idea
our knowledge of right and wrong was implanted in us by God.
Draws on natural reason
Great Historical Shift
Command mode of morality –> self-governance mode of morality
Sense of right and wrong not imposed from the outside–> internalization of right and wrong + trust individuals to know morals
Shift towards ____ in the west
secularism
During shift towards secularism, knowledge of right and wrong comes from where
reasoning not from god, still required reason, but it’s not natural (god given) reasoning –> not dependent on divine
Principal of individual moral insight
we each have the ability ot know as individuals what is right and wrong
Consequentialism
evaluation of things in terms of consequence
Deontology
emphasizes sense of “ought” or obligatory aspect of morality
Kant
Intuitionism
Moral realists
Presume that moral truths (especially basic moral truths) are self-evident
Self-evident
universality, true in all circumstances, needs no supporting evidence, basic and requires no more rational justification
Ross
pluralist, intuitionist, multiple (7) basic moral principles
____ is not consistent though time
morality
cultural and individual morality change
Moral realists
objective reality where things are right or wrong
Structure of arguments
syllogism
What are the three major parts of a syllogism
- major premise (all humans are mortal)
- minor premise (Larry is a human) (secondary importance)
- conclusion (larry is a mortal)
In moral argumentation, what are premises?
justifying reasons, not explanatory ones
moral arguments have premises that consist of justifying arguments
Justifying arguments
confer reasonability
causality + explain the rightness of something
descriptions of the universe + moral principles
Justifying reasons have two parts
Descriptive statement + moral principles
Types of moral principles
Mediate moral principles can be justified by looking at more general moral principles
Basic moral principles are as general as you can get, the atom of moral principles, can’t be broken down
Mediate moral principles
can be justified by looking at more general moral principles
Basic moral principles
are as general as you can get, the atom of moral principles, can’t be broken down
G.E. Moore
In general, moral arguments are positing some good
how do we know what is good/right? get beyond personal
explore limitations of intuitionism
Infinite regress of argument
Where does right/wrong stop for intuitionists
stops at the gut
not rational
intuitive
They’re moral realists so they stop the process of rational justification by trusting our intuitive sense of what is right
Divine Command Theory
Stop justification because god says it’s right/wrong
also posits an ultimate good and that derives from the divine –> beyond human reason
Impartiality
God is impartial –> if we maintain impartiality we will be more like God/more moral
Informal definitions of deductive and inductive
Deductively valid arguments– logically binding if premises are true then conclusion must be true
inductively strong arguments are probabalistic
Formal logic
Deductive: general –> specific
Inductive: specific –> general
Natural Law
presumes existence of God
tied to Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic church
Positive Law
Constructed by humans and generally codified through legislation
Stoics
Founder = Zeno
Use nature as basis for philosophy, constant change, one event causes another
Stoic principles
recognition of change in nature
recognizable patterns –? provides regularity
patterns are rooted in God’s intelligence
what’s natural (aka a product of God’s intelligence) is good
unnatural = bad
Matter is inert and acted upon by God
every being has a purpose, human purpose is to reason
Natural order is established and maintained by God → natural order = good, must be maintained, conform to God’s plans
everything that exists/occurs is the product of intelligence (God’s intelligence)
Creatures must live in a way that allow it to continue to exist and do what it’s designed to do (benefit humans)
Idea that everything has a “proper function”
Controversial: everything is created to help humans/serve human interest
Aquainas
Everything has a purpose
human purpose is ETERNAL happiness (union with god, beyond this life)
material and immaterial
Foot
Deep happiness in the present
Natural goodness –> things that enable an individual to develop, maintain oneself, and reproduce –> will be different depending on the organism
natural defect –> lowers organism’s chances to survive and reproduce
for humans - deprivation rather than defect, if we don’t have the skills to be social or rational
ultimate human good is not happiness but living a good life
• it is right to behave in ways that will enable us to be deeply happy and wrong to act in ways that will prevent deep happiness
Hobbes:
secular and materialistic
laws of nature
humans are fundamentally social
happiness in the now not the afterlife
humans are self-interested (prudential)
people are a danger to each other as social self interested
we have to find a way to live with each other harmoniously
we all want to avoid an avoidable death
we’re more threatened as individuals
silver rule: don’t do unto others as you would not want them to do to you
Emphasis on impartiality– constant attribute of morality
Similar to Divine command theory –> emphasis on impartiality
silver rule:
don’t do unto others as you would not want them to do to you
how is Hobbes’ natural law theory similar to DCT
Emphasis on impartiality– constant attribute of morality
Similar to Divine command theory –> emphasis on impartiality
Plato
student of Socrates, founder of moral philosophy
three groups of plato’s writing
- early: end in state of puzzlements, lack of closure, a poria, no tangible answer to the philosophical question
- middle: republic, frequently introduce metaphysics, soul, nature of being
- late
key argument in the republic
soul has three parts
3 parts of the soul
- reason- highest part of the soul, if the soul is healthy it is the governing part of the soul, humans are governed by reason
- spirit- victory, honor, distinctions (angry domination), quest for social distinction
- appetite- desire for physical things
book 2
try to define justice
justice is one of “the virtues”
5 virtues
justice/righteousness, holiness, knowledge, temperance, courage
sometimes viewed as all one
what did Cephalus think justice was
honesty and abiding by the law
socrates– but what if there’s a madman with a weapon and someone could wrestle it away… according to this you’d have to let the madman have it and be implicitly responsible for any harm he causes
what did polemarchus think justice was
give people their due, help friends and punish enemies
socrates– but human judgment is fallible, friends can be bad, etc.
thrasymachus justice
justice is a ruse, it’s whatever the powerful say it is
might = right
justice is a way in which the strong take advantage of the week
glaucon and aedamantas play devils advocate and want socrates to argue that
- inherent good of justice without dismissing that just will look and suffer consequences while unjust will look just
-prove that justice is the highest pleasure (good in and of themselves)
if we’re looking at the world as though gods are just –> divine law rules –> one can appeal to the afterlife in arguments for justice BUT they don’t want socrates to appeal to the afterlife because gods can be swayed by offerings (you can be unjust but of you offer enough you will be forgiven)
does socrates advocate censorship? why?
yes
denegrates arts because depicts gods as doing unjust things/changeable/deceitful –> not how we want to view gods/not a good ideal for morality
Theory of forms
there are metaphysical entities, abstract, epitome of what’s real, different from usual idea that real = tangible
form
metaphysical entity that serves as a template for all things
opposite of hobbes’ materialism
reality = good, true, beautiful, everything in this world is a semblance of it’s form, a little less true/good than their forms
poetry is fundamentally bad because it’s
less true than reality which is less true than form– twice removed from form
why does socrates not want people in his state to read poetry
doesn’t want them to model after poetry that’s so far from the truth (form)
why does socrates describe state
state justice is individual justice writ large
examine state so we can see justice more clearly, illustration of justice
what does division of labor lead to
DOL –> specialization –> luxury –> need more people –> transactions –> greater opportunity for injustice as more people are interacting –> need for more space as state grows –> warfare
specialization –> injustice and war
3 classes in state
- warrior class: need people who specialize in war (Like Spirit part of soul, honor, victory)
- merchants/artisans/laborers (like appetite, hunger for material things)
- governing class: best leaders are philosophers, philosopher king, guardian of the republic (Reason)
Tripartite structure of social class and soul –>
justice for individual and society - harmonious coexistence between three parts of soul/society
individual justice
self-consistent and good (good = god, true, beautiful, god doesn’t change)
Society
consistent
warriors don’t overthrow philosopher king, philosopher king always rules, merchants know their place
justice is fundamentally
hierarchal
moral principles
judgment of a kind of action or omission
generalizations, broad ideas
universality
if it applies, it applies to everyone– different from absolute moral principle
absolute moral principle
ALWAYS right or ALWAYS wrong
what is a moral judgment
judgment that is not based purely on self interest
motive is not relevant
presupposes the existence of moral agents
If a moral belief would not be accepted if we were judging from the impartial perspective, then it is not justified or reasonable from a moral point of view
*
moral domain
the context must be one in which issues of harm and benefit arise
whose interests must be factored in when we make impartial moral judgments
anything that can be harmed or benefited
moral agents
beings that can freely choose how to act
Why do people disagree?
Disagree over facts, depends on self-interest
Intuitionists: People who argue that there is nothing morally wrong about being unjust don’t understand the network of concepts employed and presupposed in these claims. They don’t mean what we mean even if they use the same words
Why is the idea that immoral = illegal not absolute?
Laws are created by human beings in the context of politics, where the power of different groups determines what the laws will be
moral blindness
when intellect is short circuited by our emotions/desire to preserve self-interest
What is the controversial stoic principle
everything was created to benefit humans
who/which branch of philosophy had the idea of “proper functions”
stoics
Proper function of humans depends on role/relationships with others—parent, brother, citizen, farmer
For each role we play there are certain appropriate actions
Reason tells us the limitations and appropriate actions associated with each role
Aquainas
God created each thing with its own proper ends and an inclination to perform its own proper acts (acts that enable it to achieve its proper ends)
proper purpose usually tied to capabilities
it is always natural and right for something to act in a way that will enable it to reach its proper end/fulfil its proper function
…but is it always wrong if something does not act in a furtherance of its proper ends?
acting in a way that would benefit ones proper end is always allowed but not necessarily required
proper end of humans = eternal happiness, union with God, material and immaterial, this life and beyond
