Short answer topics Flashcards
What are the different types of egoism? brieftly explain each of them
1) Psychological egoism:
- this form of egoism focuses onhow we ought to act based on how all actions are prompted by desires and impulses being each our own
- Through the achievement of what we desire we experience pleasure (this links to the thought that everything we do is linked to serving our pleasures).
2) Individual ethical egoism (narssism) :
- this form of egoism focuses on what we ought to serve based on what’s in the best interest even when it conflicts other peoples best interests
- this egoism is the idea of the ideal world is linked to the concerns of our own desires and not everyone elses
3)universal ethical egoism:
- This is the idea of egoism that focuses on they way we ought to act based off of what serves our own best interests even if it conflicts with the interests of others.
What are the three main arugments that are presented against psychological egoism? Explain them briefly.
1) this form of egoism is unfalsifiable:
- this is opinion based form of how we ought to act and can not be proven wrong as there is no hard evidence to argue against
2) This form of egoism makes the false assumption that everything we do is what we want to do:
- this assumption can miss describe our wills as we can go above our desires in order to achieve a goal
3) This form of egoism reduced all humans to a single motivation (self-interest):
- not everything we do comes down to acting on self interest as duties and decisions that we do not neccessarily want to do must still be done
What are the two arugments that are presented against ethical egoism? Briefly explain both of the arguments.
1) it is not a sound theory of morality or moral point of view:
- this does not focus of the overall greater good made by change and more so is self focused driven
2) In order for these two forms of ethics to be used we must assume that psychological egoism is false:
- This is false in of it self as one of the arguments that are presented against psychological egoism is that it can not be falsified
What are the different types of Relativism? Briefly describe them.
1) cultural relativism:
- the overal judgements where it is lead to believe that all cultures have different and conflicting moral beliefs and prinicples
2) Subjectivism:
- this is a form of ethical relativism where overall judgements depend on individual acceptance
- the truth is individual based on what we think is best for ourselves or views on other people
3) conventionalism:
- this is the judgement where there is no objective or cross cultural values
- all of the actions are based off of the cultural acceptance in the case
Do the facts usually cited by cultural relativists alone justify ethical realitivism
- it partially justifies ethical relativism but only the conventionalism portion of it. Thiis is because both cultural realitivism and conventionalism both focus on there being no cross cultural values, however, conventionalism is a little more focused on a moral aspect related to the lack of cross cultural views.
- however this is not likely to justify eachother as one of these forms of relativism can be present without the other, therefore they will not always be displayed in corraltion therefore not being able to 100% justify eachother
Why is an appeal to tolarence not a sound way to defend subjectivism or relativism?
- the appeal to tolerance should not be used to defend the moral stance viewed in subjectivism or relativism because these forms of realtivism are not connected directly connected to the idea of tolerance. Furthermore, tolerance focuses on fair and objective behaviour towards others however, we can not pin point the exact idea of fair since our idea of good in forms of relativism are similarity based and not exactly the same
What are some of the problems facing subjectivism?
- this form of relativism makes it too easy for a person’s moral judgment to be false or incorrect
- this form of analysis of judgements are also subjective to the truth not truly being the truth (however by not accounting for the truth value of individual’s judgments, it then moves more into nihilism)
what is the difference between nihilism and subjectivism?
with nihilism all moral judgments are false and not able to be justified whereas as with subjectivism all moral judgements are justified in terms of individual beliefs (seeks out the truth behind the actions based off of individual concepts)
What are some problems facing nihilism?
- this form of moral judgement is not common in today’s and is only temporalily followed if there is no justification against the actions based off of beliefs or opinions
- one of the main beliefs of philosophers are that nihilism is not a moral idea as it does not attempt to view actions
What does ‘teleology’ mean and why is this concept important for Aristotle?
teleology: this idea is the explanation of phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause that arises from doing this action
- this is important for Aristotle because as he studied virtue ethics, this method help him understand what it takes to make a good person and a good life (Aristotle focused on individuals finding the good life and living by the means of what justifies it)
- This idea is also further related because Aristotle was a teleologist and thought that everyone and thing has good or can attribute to good
What is the “cultural dependency thesis” and what is the difference between its strong and weak versions?
the cultural dependency thesis is the idea that there is a connection between cultural relativism and ethical relativism
- looks at how all cultures have different moral beliefs and there are no cross culture values
How does Aristotle define ‘virtue’?
virtue is which we stand well or badly with
reference to the passions
- with reference to anger we stand badly if we feel it violently or too
weakly, and well if we feel it moderately; and similarly with reference to the other passions
(how we feel about matters)
What is the difference between intrinsic and instrumental value?
intrinsic value: it is the property of anything that is valuable on its own (the value an action or object has for its own sake)
instrumental value: is the property of anything that has a value that is in relation to another thing
Why does Aristotle claim that there cannot be only instrumental values?
“In many actions we use friends and riches and
political power as instruments; and there are some things the lack of which takes the lustre”
- we use the value of other people for what they are capable of bring to us to succeed in our values or desires because of this those people have their one values (intrinsic) however to us there properties are instrumental
In what sense do the stoics claim that our actions are “free”?
- with stoicism they focus on how each individual views the meaning of life sifferently and we get to make up the meaning of life individually. Based off of this
Why do the stoics argue that only virtue is intrinsically good?
- the stoics view virtue as the good which is sufficient for happiness.
- this is then take to know that virtue is intrinsically good because since happiness is internal then it does not concern itself of internal good meaning that it is out of control for everything else
Why do both the stoics and the epicureans argue that death is not morally significant and that suicide can be permissible?
- the epicureans believe that death is out of our control so why worry about something that we can not control
the stoics believe in living according to nature
What does Augustine think is the good for human beings? Why?
- Augustine believes that the good for human beings is the union with the ultimate reality and eternal life (the idea of god)
- He believes that by living in accordance of the mortal good, we are rewarded with moral life and avoid the punishment of going against this
(immortal death) - his beliefs formed this way as his views included a more religious aspect to them
Explain Augustine’s argument that evil is a privation of good?
- his argument in this matter is that evil only seeks out the things that are produced by good therefore corrupting only good things
- Due to this fact he believes that evil can not simply exist on its own since it is only relatiant upon on the intrinstic views of ‘the good’ during these times
- human evil can be linked to good as we are given the gift of life and free will but we use that against us
Explain the difference between actual and hypothetical contractarianism.
- actual contractarianism focuses on the judgement of behaviours or actions by an actuall agreement or social contract (this theory focuses on the overall understanding)
- Hypothetical contractarianism focuses on the judgement of behaviours of actions by a hypothetical agreement or social contract (this theory rather focuses on the hypothetical ideas that a regular guideline or thought process would produce)
What is the difference between Categorical Imperative and the golden rule?
- CI justifies that an action or behaviour is morally correct if and only if its maxim is universalizable (the majority or likely decision is explainable due to the common beliefs of everyone)
- CI is more self regarding
- GR justifies that an action or behaviour is morally correct if in performing the action the agent refrains from treating others in a way in which they would not want to be treated back
- GR is subjective as the person may not have a clear view of exactly what is right or wrong on a general scale
Explain Kant’s idea that there are two different kinds of consistency in willing a maxim to be a universal law. What kind of duties do these kinds of consistency relate to?
- Kant believes that there are conceptual inconsistencies and practical inconsistencies
- the conceptual inconsistency is linked to perfect and strict duties. These duties can be used to benifit either yourself or others
- the practical inconsistencies can be linked to imperfect or meritorious duties which is performing the duties that we need in order to survive
Why does Kant think that lying is morally wrong?
- Kant thinks that lying is morally wrong as it goes against the principles of CI (). Due to going against this principle he believes that if everyone were to lie than then promise are not capable of being kept
How does Jeremy Bentham attempt to resolve the problem of the incommensurability of value?
- Bantham proposes that there are large difference between pleasures which means that pleasures can then be measured and aggregated on the same cardinal or ordinal numeric scale
- aka this means that in order to measure the amount of pleasure brought on by two different situations, we can focus on the duration and intensity that one fells in the occasion of those actions.
