Secular Ethics Flashcards
Philosophy
Love of wisdom
Philos=Love
Sophia=wisdom
Metaphysics
Branch of philosophy
Study of what something really is. Reality
Ontology
Branch of metaphysics
Study of Being
Epistemology
Branch of philosophy
Study of knowledge, how we know what we know
Ethics
Branch of philosophy
(Moral philosophy) study of morals and moral decisions. Hw to decide
Ethos
Character
Moral absolute
Ideas that apply universally know matter situation or consequence
Impracticable
Unable to be carried through. Can’t be practiced
Secular ethics
Ethics based on logic, emotion, etc. and not on religious belief.
Telos
Final cause
Teleological
Everything is working towards achieving a final cause. Abnormality to nature gets in its way.
Eudaimonia
Happiness
Virtuous
Being able to control feelings, desires, and wants
Virtue
State of being allowing one to judge, behave, and respond to situations appropriately
Vice
Extreme response or choice, leading to harmful behavior. Deficiency or Excess.
Good will
Freely choosing to do good (moral duty) because it is good
Utility
What is the most productive
Utilitarianism
Morality of an action is a function of what follows it. Happiness id pleasure and absence of pain. Most good for most people.
Based solely on observation and human reason
Utilitarian
One following utilitarianism. Must make sacrifices for the good of the whole
Intrinsic good
Good with value of its own. According to Kant, this is only good will
Rights
Protection from outside interference regarding a specific activity
Socrates
Teacher of Plato
Known from Plato’s “Dialogues”
Died by drinking Hemlock
Plato
Socrates student
Started Academys
Wrote “Dialogues?
Idealist: highest form of all things is the ideal
Aristotle
Plato’s student
Started the Lyceum school
Peripatetic (to walk) teaching style
Virtue ethics, was a realist empiricist
Author of Nicomachean Ehtics
Immanuel Kant
Grounds ethics in the human ability to reason
Jeremy Bentham
Utilitarian
Greatest good for the most people
John Stuart Mills
Utalitarian (consequentialist)
Morality of action is its consequences. Happiness is pleasure and absence of pain. Pursuit the more valuable pleasures
John Locke
Rights of life, liberty, ame property (because God)
Tom Regan
All people and animals have same inherent value because humans and animals are conscious creatures with desires and feelings. (Not because of Gos or rationality)
John Rawls
Rights determined from social contract,
Use of veil of ignorance (no social groups)
Equal rights because it is in everyones best interest
Moral Relativism
No moral value should apply to all cultures and people, mo person should impose morals on anyone else
Common cultural ethics
Moral guidelines created by a shared set of values between a group
Mean of virtue
Middle way of a virtue
Categorical imperative
Moral law must be one appling to all
(Not a directive)
(General test to determine morality)
Rules= could be used by everyone (universal) and no one can be used
Only act if what you followed could become a universal law of nature?
Deontology
Duty or obligation
Universal law
Law that can be applied to everyone and any one
Rational and non-rational parts of the mind
Rational= reasons, thinks, judges
Non-rational=involuntary mental work (appetitive and vegetative)
Appetitve and vegetative parts of mind
Non rational
Appetitive=desires, feelings, emotions
Vegetative=involuntary functions (breathing, growing, etc.)
Justice/distributive justice
Sense of duty, applied uniformly to all
Social contract
One gives up certain rights to recieve protection of others from gov.
Rights theory
Virtue of Justice
Depends on social contract
Allows access and protection of rights
