Unit 2 Test (Sofia Notes) Flashcards
Human dignity
- who we are independent of how we behave
- Catholic view: we are made in the likeness of God so we all deserve a basic level of respect
- I.e Preferential option for the poor (social, wealth, health, spirit)(vulnerable)
Dignified
Viewed as prestigious/honourable but in reality is being worthy of respect
Love
- a choice, independent of feeling
- Tested by if we uphold our principles towards the people we don’t like/when we don’t feel like it
Prayer
- Present in all faith traditions i.e meditation/setting an intention, individual and in groups
- All have a desire/petition greater than ourselves
- Taps into a power that resides in us and outside of ourselves
Morals
- moralitas, latin for customs/manners→ actions that reflect our ethics/the ways to attain goodness
Ethics
- ta ethika, greek for good character→ our beliefs of right and wrong/what good people do
Aristotle
- Student of Plato, teacher of logic/astronomy/philosophy
- Believed Plato focused to much on ethics over morals
- Explored the natural world within philosophy
- Accused of not respecting the Gods and fled, was rediscovered by Thomas Aquinas
Aristotle’s beliefs about Essence/Happiness
- Everything had a unique essence
- Human essence= reason (knowledge) and love (compassion= to suffer with)
- Every human has the goal of being happy
- Temporary sources of happiness are pleasures (career/stuff etc.)
- Permanent happiness comes from knowledge/compassion
- Other people are necessary for us to be good to ourselves
Aristotles Beliefs in Habit
- Intention < action
- You are what you repeatedly do/creatures of habit
- We act according to our habits in moral stress
- Every habit began with a choice
- Habit in extreme is an addiction (dehumanizing)
Aristotle Theories (3)
- Polis: democratic idea that we have a right/responsibility to our community
- Teleology: to act ethically is to engage our capacity to reason as we develop good character
- Doctrine of the Mean: Belief that the good lies in the middle ground (between pleasure and happiness)
What did Christianity turn into?
- Eastern Orthodox and Western Roman Catholic
- Both were in excommunication
What did Western Roman Catholic Turn into after the Protestant Reformation?
Roman Catholic and Protestants
Types of Protestant
- Presbyterian
- Anglcan
- Lutheran
- Baptist
Puritan Sects: Mormon, Quakers, Amish
CALLED DUALISM
- Obedience to God
- Happiness is in Heaven
- Earth should be hard
- Distrustful of technology
- Dualistic (earth/body & soul/God)
- earth=domain of the devil
Kant
- Raised in Puritism/ tries to walk the line between Philosophy and his religion
- Seeked to determine the criteria for what is good
Kant Believed…
- The only pure good human thing is intention
- Our actions are slightly less pure than our intentions
- Intention is not pure if we do not act on our good intentions
- We must be good outside of out comfort zone to be good people (not exercise moral laziness)
- If we can conceive something, it must exist somewhere (God)
Kant’s Ethics (3)
- God: we cannot achieve supreme good without God (perfection)
- Freedom: we have to do what we can do, to have duty we must have a choice
- Immortality: there is a life beyond where we can achieve supreme good
Teleological
Aristotle’s ethics→ setting a goal then planning how to get there
Deontological
Kant’s ethics→ we have duties and obligations in our roles as people that we must withhold to a slightly uncomfortable degree
Maxims (Kant)
- principles that are objective and indefinite
1. Never act in such a way that you would not want to become universal law
2. Treat others always as an end and never as a means (except for services as there is a mutual intention)
Levinas
- Not religious for most of his life
- Became religious post WWII after surviving the holocaust/war camp
- Believed categories dehumanized people
Ethics of the eye/face
Believed:
- The only thing we know about another person is that they are not us
- Other→ superior to self, does for me what I cannot do for myself
- Uniqueness can be found in the eye (the only body part that could not be manipulated)
- When we look into the eyes of another, we see their plea, not to hurt them/love them and if were good people the only response is to love them back
Levinas Believes
- We all have a piece of the divine in us
- Our unique humanity is our divinity
- We cannot see our divinity
- Singularity of things vs Aristotle who believed in sameness
Agency
ability to foresee the consequence of an action and be held accountable for those consequences
Who are examples of Nonagents
- Children
- Mental Incapacity
- Disabilities
Agent
a person who acts freely and knowingly, who chooses to do or not do something and who is accountable
Human Actions
- make us human
- give us our identity, constructed by what we think/say/do as well as by what we undergo
- most important building blocks of who we are and become
- actions are dependent on the actor
- for every action there is an agent
Freedom
- human potential, the capacity/power to act
- action is the realization of that power
- when one uses their freedoms they can create change/intervention
Analytic Philosophy
- examines the language we use to communicate our actions and explores what constitutes a meaningful action
- 1920’s, logical positivists
- believed physics was the only real science
- Believed only things that could be proved through senses were true
- Didn’t understand free will because it could not be seen
Paul Ricoeur
- 1913, raised in a socialist, devout Christian Reform home
- Philosopher teacher, French veteran, prolific writer
- The war led him to become a Pacifist and join a Christian socialist community
- Wrote about peace/violence/power/communism/human rights and politics
- Wrote Freedom and nature that reflects on how humans make decisions and how actions affect the self
- Other book themes= language and impact of humans
Who? The Agent
- The agent makes an action
- Each person has the capacity to act
- Humans have intention in doing things (intending self)
- When you act, you will do this rather do ____ than all your other options
- Free choice: you are responsible for what you do and what you intend
- By intending to do certain things, you also reshape who you are.
Why? The motive
- Reason for action
- Every action is motivated by something
- Motives justify actions, can be underlying and unconscious when making a decision
- Ethics are the values behind our motives
How? With What means
- How you carry out an action indicates something about you
- Bad actions done with good intentions affect the goodness of the action overall
- The end does not justify the mean, the means qualify the action
Under what circumstances?
- Circumstances have an impact on your actions
- Every action has its aggravating or miti-gating circumstances.
- Circumstances affect how much the action is yours
- May reduce, or increase, your responsibility
- Circumstances must always be accounted for in evaluating actions.
With What Outcome?
The outcome of your actions affect the self whether intended or not
With or against whom
- When you justify your actions with a motive, you seek the approval, or seek to prevent the disapproval, of someone.
- You learn to evaluate your actions by evaluating the actions of others.
- Every action is also an interaction.
Naturalism: belief that…
- freedom is an illusion
- decisions are natural choices based on our genetic makeup and in alignment with hox genes
Social Determinism
- No freedom
- Actions are a result of upbringing
Religious Determinism
- We act how God made us
- No free will → predeterminism
Hox genes
genes identical across species, requires promoters that turn on the gene or not
Predestination
no control over going to heaven/hell/other
Providence
- God gives us strengths/weaknesses, talents/challenges (gifts to guide us) and with that paths that will make us more or less happy
- We have the choice to follow or not follow, but God will nudge us towards the happy path
- If we go against the path we will experience consequences but not judgements of being out of alignment
Narcissism
- Trait where one is self-focused
- Peaks in adolescence
- Believed to be an evolutionary strategy to secure partners
- In extreme cases, relates to machiavellianism/psychopathy
- Could be a result of rejection/inconsistency in childhood
Narcissist traits
- Attractive, exciting & entertaining
- High self-esteem/entitlement/vanity
- Manipulative/aggressive
Narcisistic Behaviours
- Crave attention (i.e reality tv, bragging) and power (relationship dynamics *more likely to cheat if they know there partner is invested)
- Cursing/arguing
- Searching for a better deal
- Go between social contexts and maintain weak ties to others
Narcissistic Men
- Attract dramatic women and women with saviour complexes
- Place emphasis on the looks of their partner
- Seek out wingmen
Narcissistic Woman
- Dress provocatively
- Seeks higher-status male friends
- Both male/female relationships with narcissist frustrate partners but more men seek out short relationships (don’t care as much)
Paradoxes - Narcisists
- They are insulted when told they aren’t brilliant but don’t care if their called jerks
- The more entitled and exploitative the narcissist, the more popular he/she is (able to exploit to seem fun-loving)
- Devalue others while needing their admiration
- Narcissists know that others find them obnoxious but don’t care
5 signs of a narcissist
- Bragging about a perfect family
- Hyper Generosity to the public
- Hypersensitivity/insecure
- Prone to negative emotions (depression/anxiety)
- Puts down others
Are you in love with a narcissist:
- Slow down
- Observe a variety of settings
- Consider the venue (clubs)
- Examine yourself
- Get out
- Take control
Optimistic Behaviour (not narcissistic)
acknowledge a negative consequence but don’t believe it can happen to you
Jean Twenge on Narcissism
- Materialism
- Interest in fame
- Inflated expectations
- Hookups vs relationships
- Gambling
- Cheating
6 Aspects of the Human Person Necessary for Ethics:
Number 1
The importance of others
* We are not isolated in decision making
* What is good for you must be good for others
Nunber 2
The importance of having a direction in life
* You need a direction in order to know how to get there
* Otherwise life just happens and you react
Number 3
The importance of communication and language
* Language gives meaning that can be allows us to communicate
* Sometimes meaning is debated
* Includes body language
Number 4
The importance of character and one’s body
* Small choices add up to our character
* Influence how we act in big moral moments
* Who we are is a part of our physical self
Number 5
The importance of conscience
* The voice of God/Love in each of us
* All humans have dignity and conscience (made in the image of God)
* Conscience tells us to be the most loving (not easy)
* Other voices can influence for or against conscience
* Our concise must be the final moral guide in decisions
* Superego/Gut reaction are not conscience and weaponize guilt
* Superego: backward thinking, Conscience: forward thinking
Making Moral Decisions
- Capacity: There is a better/worse choice in moral decisions
- Process: We are called to have an informed conscience (involves research, listening to others/God)
- Judgement: making a choice
Importance of developing our conscience
- Conscience is perfect, our ability to hear it is not
- This ability gets better as we mature, and experience difference
- Praying (listening) can help develop conscience
Psychological Boundaries
- Honouring our own needs (Ex. limiting exposure to ____ because it is uncomfortable/unsafe)
- As we mature, we will get better at setting boundaries
- Setting boundaries allows us to be happier and hear our conscience better (requires honesty)
A Sibling’s View by Barbara Hungerford
- You do not get to decide whether someone in a marginalized group should be offended when not part of that group
- Your interpretation of a words meaning is irrelevant is that word is hurtful to others
Reappropriation
A marginalized group who has been a victim of a term readopts the word for themselves to rob it of its power. (Includes non-verbal communication)
