PHIL 1030 - Exam 1

What are the branches of ethics?

Normative ethics, metaethics, and applies ethics

Which ethics is concerned with spelling out and justifying standards of right and wrong conduct?

Normative ethics

Which ethics is concerned with studying the concepts and judgments that are used in normative ethics (moral concepts)?

Metaethics

Which ethics uses moral standards derived from normative ethics to try to resolve practical moral issues?

Applied ethics

What are the special features of moral norms?

moral dominance, universality, impartiality, and reasonableness

What special feature of moral norms is the idea that a moral norms typically trump other kinds of non-moral norms (like etiquette)?

Moral Dominance

What special feature of moral norms is the idea that a moral norm applies to all relevantly similar situation?

Universality

What special feature of moral norms is the idea that all persons should be considered equal, and that everyone's interests should count the same when engaging in moral reasoning?

Impartiality

What special feature of moral norms is the idea that if our moral judgments are to have any weight, they must be backed by reasons and not be based on whim or simple personal preferances?

Reasonableness

What are the three types of actions?

obligatory, permissible, and prohibited

What type of action would be wrong not to perform?

Obligatory action

What type of action would not be wrong to perform?

Permissible action

What type of action would be wrong to perform?

Prohibited action

What are the five main moral principles?

autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, utility, and justice

Which main moral principle is a person's rational ability to direct her own life and make her own choices?

Autonomy

Which main moral principle demands that we not intentionally or unintentionally cause harm to others?

Nonmaleficence

What main moral principle says we should do good to others by advancing their welfare and preventing harm to them?

Beneficence

Which main moral principle says we should produce the most favorable balance of good over bad for all concerned?

Utility

What main moral principle involves people getting what is fair or what is their due?

Justice

What type of justice is concerned with the fair distribution of society's advantages and disadvantages?

Distributive justice

What is the basic principle of distributive justice?

equals should be treated equally

Does libertarian or egalitarian theory of justice emphasizes personal freedoms and the right to pursue one's own social and economic wellbeing in a free market without interference from others?

Libertarian theories of justice

Does libertarian or egalitarian theory of justice maintain that a just distribution is an equal distribution?

Egalitarian theories of justice

Death penalty vs life penalty is an example of what branch of ethics?

Normative ethics

"Are there moral facts in this world?" is an example of what branch of ethics?

metaethics

"Is abortion or gene editing wrong?" is an example of what branch of ethics

applied ethics

Norms

standards of correctness or indirectness

What type of norms is the idea of beauty and ugliness?

Aesthetic norms

What type of norms is the standards for polite social behavior?

Etiquette norms

What type of norms are actions or decisions that are based on careful consideration of practical consequences and the best long-term interests of oneself or others?

Prudential norms

What is the standard that is used to judge if we are good moral agents?

Moral norms

Moral Obligation

things we must/must not do to be good moral agents

moral values

things we judge morally good or bad, namely persons

absolute moral principles

applies without exception

prima facie principles

applies in all cases except when an exception is warranted (overridden by stronger moral principles)

Parentialism

restricts or overrides autonomy for the person's own good

restributive justice

doles out fair punishment that is deserved for wrong doing

What is the idea that there are at least some moral norms or principles that are true for everybody?

Moral objectivism

What is the idea that moral norms or principles allow no exceptions and must be applied the same way in all cases and cultures?

Moral Absolutism

What are moral norms or principle that are not objective but are relative to what individuals or cultures believe?

Ethical Relativism

Is subjective or cultural relativism the idea that an individual is the measure of what is morally correct?

Subjective relativism

Is subjective or cultural relativism the idea that one's culture is the measure of what is morally correct?

Cultural relativism

Problems with subjective relativism

each person is morally incapable of making mistakes or being wrong

moral disagreements are illusory

Argument for Cultural Relativism

1. If people's moral judgments differ from culture to culture, moral norms are relative to culture (there are no objective moral standards)

2. People's moral judgements do differ from culture to culture

3. Conclusion: Therefore, moral norms are relative to culture (there are no objective moral standards)

Problems with Cultural Relativism

- Implies moral infallibility (incapable of making mistakes)

- we cannot legitimately criticize other cultures

- makes it impossible to say that there has been moral progress over time

- cannot make sense of the possibility of moral reformers, who were morally in the right and whose societies were morally in the wrong

- difficulty spelling out the "society" which should serve as providing the standard for moral rightness and wrongness. We each belong to many social groups and there is no fact of the matter as to what counts as our "true society"

What theory maintains that the moral law depends on the will of God?

Divine Command Theory

Problematic Dilemma: Are actions morally right because God commands them, or does God command actions because they are morally right?

The first horn implies that the moral law is completely arbitrary.

The second horn denies the Divine Command Theory

Ethics involves

critical reasoning

What is critical reasoning concerned with?

concerned with the construction and evaluation of arguments

What is one or more statement that give support to or give reason for believing a further statement?

argument

What are supporting statements of an argument?

Premises

What is the supported statement of argument?

Conclusion

What type of arguments are that if premises are true, the conclusion must be true. So, said arguments can be said to be valid?

Deductive arguments

What type of arguments aim to provide probable support to their conclusions they can establish only that, if their premises are true, their conclusions are probably true

Inductive arguments

Strong inductive arguments

is inductive arguments succeed in lending probable support to their conclusions

Weak inductive arguments

if inductive arguments fail to provide probable support

What type of argument is when a valid deductive argument has true premises?

Sound argument

What type of argument is when a strong inductive argument has true premises?

Cogent argument

What type of argument is invalid or at least one false premise?

unsound argument

What is this an example of?

If p, then q

p

Therefore, q

Modus Ponens

What is this an example of?

If P then Q

Not Q

Therefore not P

Modus Tollens

What is this an example of?

If P then Q

Q

Therefore P

Affirming the consequent

What is this an example of?

If p, then q

Not p

Therefore, not q

Denying the antecedent

What fallacy distorts the representation of an opponent's views so that the views can be attacked more easily?

The straw man fallacy

What fallacy involves rejecting somebody's views or statement because it comes from that particular person, not because there is something wrong with the statement?

Appeal to the Person (or ad hominem)

What fallacy aims to prove something by appealing to something we don't know. It either involves claiming something is true because it has not been proven false or that something is false because it has not been proven true

Appeal to ignorance

What fallacy tries to establish a conclusion by using that very conclusion as its own support

begging the question

What fallacy is an argument that erroneously argues that a particular action should not be taken because it will inevitably lead to actions with much worse outcomes

a slippery slope

Normaltive moral theories tell us what

what makes actions right or wrong

Which normative moral theory tells us the rightness of actions depends solely on the consequences or results of the actions, that is, on how much good they produce?

Consequentialism

Which normative moral theory tells us the rightness of actions depends on their intrinsic nature. Rightness for actions depends on the kind of actions that they are, not on how much good they produce

Deontology

Which normative moral theory tells us right actions are those that result in the most beneficial balance of good over bad consequences for all involved?

Utilitarianism

Utilitarian Calculus

used to determine the best course of action or policy by calculating the total amount of pleasure and pain caused by that action

Which normative moral theory tells us one ought to act so as to best promote the happiness of humankind?

Principle of utility

Three subclaims of the principle of utility

Desirability, exhaustiveness, and impartiality

Example of Desirability

happiness is desirable as an end

Example of Exhaustiveness

only happiness is desirable as an end

Example of Impartiality

Each person's happiness is equally desirable

Happiness

the presence of pleasure and the absence of pain. Unhappiness, meanwhile, is the presence of pain and the absence of pleasure

Hedonism

pleasant sensations are the only ultimately valuable things

Act Utilitarianism

which is a consequentialist ethical theory that argues that the rightness of an action is determined by its ability to maximize overall happiness or well-being

Higher pleasures

pleasures of instinct, feelings, imagination, and of moral sentiments

Maximizing utalitarianism

humans are to bring about the most happiness possible to act in a morally right way

What does morally correct actions depend on?

It depends on being acted upon by the motive of duty

Deontological ethics

The idea that actions are right and wrong in themselves independently of any consequences

Kantian Ethics is an example of what?

Deontological ethics

What is Duty?

It is the respect one has for the moral law

What are moral laws?

They are laws that must hold for all rational beings

What is will?

It is Kant's term for the capacity to rationally set ends for oneself

Good Will

It is made good not because of its effects on the world but because of the good ends it sets for itself

What is Imperative?

It is a command to do something

What is a hypothetical imperative?

a command to do something if one wants to achieve a particular end

What is a categorical imperative?

a command that applies without exception and without regard for one's inclinations or optional ends

How many categorical imperatives are there in Kant's philosophy?

Only one but there are several formulations

What is the 1st formulation of the categorical imperative?

"Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law"

What is a maxim?

a principle or rule that guides your action

What is the 2nd formulation of the categorical imperative?

"Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end"

What is virtue ethics concerned with?

It is concerned with answering the question: "What makes a person have an ethically virtuous character?"

What is virtue?

It is a stable disposition to act in excellent fashion

It's not about following specific rules, but rather having a consistent disposition to do what a virtuous person would in any given situation.

What does it mean to be virtuous beyond just acting in the right ways?

Being virtuous is not just about acting correctly; it also involves having the right feelings and emotions that motivate one's actions.