Wednesday Flashcards
What are the 3 strands of ethics?
Meta-ethics, Normative ethics and Applied ethics
What is Meta-ethics?
Meta-ethics is concerned with the meaning of terms such as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.
What is Normative ethics?
Normative ethics is the study of ethical action. How should we make decisions and what are the principles that should guide this?
What is applied ethics?
Applied ethics is concerned with the practical application of ethical theories to big issues such as war, euthanasia and animal testing.
What is Kantian deontology?
Kant argued that humans have a ‘built in’ morality and suggested that we can build a deontological, duty-based ethical system around this.
What did Kant introduce as the categorical imperative?
Universal law, humans are important, the kingdom ends.
What is Rule Utilitarianism?
Mill pointed out that act Utilitarianism was terribly flawed, allowing people to do awful things in the name of ‘the greatest good’’
What did Mill argue in Rule Utilitarianism?
he argued that we should make a distinction between:
Higher pleasures and Lower pleasures
To help us aim for the higher pleasure, we should have some basic underlying rules; such as ‘Do not harm’ or ‘Do not lie’.
What are high pleasures?
Higher pleasures - the pleasure of the mind like reading a book or learning a language,
What are low pleasures?
Lower pleasures - pleasures of the body, like eating a big cake or having a warm bath.
What is the main weakness of Rule Utilitarianism?
weakness= Rules utilitarian leaves a consequentialist idea in danger of becoming absolutist. Also, who makes the rules?
