How does each ethical theory we’ve covered determine right action? Be prepared to apply the theories to simple cases, including comparisons (e.g., deontology vs. utilitarianism).

Consequentialism

approach to moral reasoning. What makes an action right or wrong is its consequences 

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is a branch of consequentialism that emphasizes the Greatest Happiness Principle (actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness)  

• Utility – happiness 

• Happiness is pleasure in the absence of pain 

• Unhappiness – pain in the absence of pleasure

Hedonic utilitarianism

maximize the feeling of pleasure but can be denied by masochists or a depressed person 

Preference satisfaction – happiness consists in satisfying preferences  

Defense: 

Complain 1: Utilitarianism is a “doctrine worthy of swine” 

• Lower pleasures – bodily pleasures (food, sex, drinks) 

• Higher pleasures – intellectual in pleasure; sources that engage our intellect (ex: reading) 

Hedonism:

happiness is the only intrinsic good – all other goods are desirable because they produce happiness, or because they are a means to happiness 

Virtue

about being a morally good person 

Deontology

What makes an action right is the rule or principle behind the action, not its consequences 

Virtue Ethics

“What kind of person should I try to be?”

- Describes some character traits as good ways for a person to be (virtues) and bad ways for a person to be (vices) (vices can be like sins in christianity) 

rights actions are those that exemplify virtuous stakes of character (character meaning traits; dispositions we often act on which can be moral or immoral) examples include being honest or dishonest learned through habit

- Agent centered rather than act centered

EX: Virtue (aristotle) - a state that occupies a man between a vice of excess and a vice of deficiency

Vice of deficiency: cowardliness

Virtue: courage

Vice of excess: over willing, aggressive

Feminist Ethics

an action is right if it maintains or promotes relations of care 

- Relationship focused rather an act-focused 

- Natural caring – a natural impulse to care (enabling sentiment like mother an child)