Religion exam Flashcards
-Deontological ethics
Immanuel Kant
Kant (unlike Aristotle) sees goodness in the individuals (in their private life and inner conscience).
Good will — doing our duty, because it is our duty.
Kant’s theory is deontological, as ‘dean’ refers to duty.
A human action is morally good if it is done for the sake of duty.
Real worth is measured by the motive behind them.
Ethics
A discipline that deals with the nature of the good, the nature of the human person, and criteria that we use for making right judgements.
Morality:
Customs, manners, habits.
Morality is the reality/actions
A system of right conduct based on fundamental beliefs and obligation to follow certain codes, norms, customs and habits of behaviour.
Obligation
Something you are bound to do by duty; your responsibility.
- Teleological Ethics
All things in this world aim for goodness
Derives from discovering the finality (telos) of what we are intended to be.
Ethics discovers the finality (teleos) or purpose of something — what completes us?
Good person — one whose actions are based on excellent reasoning and spend a great amount of time thinking.
- Aristotle
Happiness is the aim of the good life
Aristotle believed that the happiness of a person (citizen) was found in community.
Aims to discover what is good for us human beings
Pursuit of happiness
Telelogy
- Kant (Deontological (duty/obligation))
The Good Will:
Kant (unlike Aristotle) sees goodness in the individuals (in their private life and inner conscience).
Good will — doing our duty, because it is our duty.
Kant’s theory is deontological, as ‘dean’ refers to duty.
A human action is morally good if it is done for the sake of duty.
Real worth is measured by the motive behind them.
- Levinas (Ethics of the face)
The good is infinite
The good — the central question of all philosophy
The good goes beyond being.
The unique things and persons are called traces of the good (aka. God).
Everything we encounter is finite (that is why we only see traces of God).
The face as witness of the Good
The face is the most naked part of the body.
We can see the traces of God in the face (Lewinas was against make-up)
In someone’s eye, we make immediate and direct contact.
When you have an experience looking into someone’s face, you see their uniqueness.
The face as ethical
Recognizing the others hardships in the face allows good to prevail by making us act to help that person, makes you responsible.
Difference between ethics and morality
Ethics is more interested in the good that humans tend toward.
Examples: Happiness & Freedom
Morality is the customs, manners, habits.
Ethics does not concern what somebody does, it tells you what is right. It is the should.
The ideas & thoughts/standards.
Morality is the reality/actions
You can’t have one, you need both.
Ethics guides morality, it gives us the vision of our action (we can’t paint with our paint brush).
Ethics gives us an understanding of the essential principles underlying our activity.
- Key questions of the conceptual framework of action
What is it?
CFOA is the understanding of the human capacity to make things happen
The following questions with their answers are needed to help describe action
Who, what, where, when, why, how.
The WHO: The Agent:
Agent — The person who makes things happen
You are a ‘self’ who intends to do things
You have free choice and you are responsible for what you do
With the intention of doing certain things, you reshape who you are.
The WHAT: The Action:
What the agent does
Your action shapes who you are
Examples — doing homework, shoplifting, etc.
The WHY: The Motive:
The reason for the action
Helps understands the action
The why are the reasons for what we intend to do
Providing a reason for the action is to say why it is worth doing.
The HOW: With what means?:
How you perform an action reflects who you are as a person (the agent)
Help give quality to the action
Examples — How do you respond to someone when they are yelling at you?
With whom or against whom:
When one justifies an action, the agent is either seeking approval or to prevent disapproval from another person.
Every action is always an interaction with someone else.
When you act alone, you aren’t really acting for others.
You either act for others, with others or without.
Under what circumstance:
Every action has aggravating or mitigating circumstances (other things consider)
Circumstances (positive or not) reflect how much of the action was really in your ownership.
Circumstances can increase/decrease.
With what outcome?:
The outcome of one’s actions — intended or not
Good or bad affects the person
Consider the following: If you drive drunk, crash into a tree and kill your passenger, are you responsible, even though you did not intend to kill her/him
- Prophet;
Do not attempt to call attention to their own person as much as their message.
Often do not see themselves as worthy or capable of the mission God has given them to do, and often ask not to be chosen.
Although they may themselves be the centre of controversy, they promote unity, peace and justice
Willing to sacrifice their lives if necessary in order to be true to the message they proclaim.
Are always concerned about the welfare of people
- Beatitudes;
Beatitudes are a form of pronouncement. They presuppose that a good or happiness has already been given or is about to be received. The gift here is the kingdom of heaven. The first four beatitudes express an action of God toward the poor, etc., while the second four talk about our behaviour toward our neighbour.
- Parousia
This term refers to the second coming of Christ, which is to take place
“at the end of the age.” This time ends time: it is the ending of the story of salvation. The end is described as a completion: the full revelation of God.
Church;
Church — The sacrament of God’s grace:
The Church shapes Moral Character
The Church guards and maintains moral tradition.
The Church is a community of moral deliberation whenever and wherever moral issues emerge.
How does the church shape moral character?:
The Church’s ethical position on ethical and moral issues is reported widely in its own publication, the press, the TV, and internet, churches, Catholic schools, and Catholic homes.
The Church guards and maintains moral tradition:
The faithful
Theologians (people who dedicate their life to learn religion and share their information)
Priests and pastoral workers (monks, nuns)
The magisterium (Teaching authority for Roman Catholic Church, Pope and council of bishops, worldwide bishops, responsible for publications, necessary changes)
The Church is a community of moral deliberation:
Ethical positions are not developed in a vacuum.
Bishops consult experts in the field
Bishops enter into dialogue and debate on moral issues so that everyone may arrive at moral maturity.
— The sacrament of God’s grace:
The Church shapes Moral Character
The Church guards and maintains moral tradition.
The Church is a community of moral deliberation whenever and wherever moral issues emerge.
Gospel
Jesus teaching is an ethics based on the New Covenant (Thomas Aquinas),
Jesus’ teaching was good news for the people, it was hopeful.
Gospel means good news, the teaching was to inspire goodness (good people, good relationships, good livelihood).
What is eschatological?
Pertaining to the end of time
In other words a different kind of time than ordinary clock time, the time of the KOG.
- What is conversion?
Not just “changing one’s mind” — involves a radical transformation of values.
Means “turning around” — an intellectual level, an awareness and openness to truth and true knowing.
Moral level — when I recognize myself as free and responsible.
Religious level — my preoccupation with myself is taken over with the love of God and love for others.
- What is exegesis?
Analyzing texts in their original context (history, culture, linguistics, etc) to discover the original intent of the author (page 86-106).
What is the passage about?
The facts.
- What is hermeneutics?
A way of interpreting texts and events to help us understand what they mean for us in the twenty-first century.
What is the message?
What is your speculations
- What is the Magisterium?
(Teaching authority for Roman Catholic Church, Pope and council of bishops, worldwide bishops, responsible for publications, necessary changes)
Common Good;
The general well-being of all within
society.”The sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.” (CCC, #1 906)
Law;
The judgment of a lawmaker about the means
necessary to promote and protect the common good.
Maxim;
good advice, things that make sense but don’t have any consequences attached to them if you choose to follow it. Maxims, proverbs or rules of thumb offer guidelines or advice.
Norm;
Norms are guides for action. They come in the form of laws, rules, principles, commandments, and maxims. They come with varying degrees of obligation
Rule;
absolute (apply in all circumstances) or generally blinding (apply unless there is another compelling rule in conflict. CONSEQUENCES
Capitalism
An economic system based on private or corporate ownership and control of resources and means of production and distribution, Goods and services are exchanged in a free market
