Professional ethics exam 1 NWMSU

Judgments of Moral Value (aretaic)

judgments that apply a moral status to
certain traits of character or the character of
individuals.

Judgments of Obligation (deontic)

a judgment that applies a moral status
to a certain action or set of actions

act of commission

what act is a positive form of behavior; a doing of something.

act of ommission

failure to do something

voluntary action

s one performed by an
agent who (a) understands what he or she is
doing (understands the consequences of his or
her action), and (b) willingly performs the
action

involuntary action

is one where either of conditions (a) or (b) above do not obtain.

senses of ought

prudential, legal, and imperative

Permissible Action

an action that is consistent with our moral obligations.

Elective Action

an action that is neither required nor proscribed on moral grounds

Obligatory Action (Right Action):

an action that is required on moral grounds.

Supererogatory Action

an action that is praiseworthy on moral grounds, but not morally obligatory.

impermissible aciton

an action that is inconsistent with our moral obligations

Duty

A person has a moral duty to perform an

action if he or she has an obligation to perform

that action.

Right

A person has a moral right to be treated in

a certain way if all other moral agents have an

obligation to treat him or her in that way.

Key parts of Reflective Equilibrium

Ethical principles, Moral intuitions, and factual beliefs.

Principle of universalizability

if one judges that an action has a certain moral status, then one is committed to the judgement that any other action is like the first action in all relevant respects has the same moral statues.

Corollary 1 of universalizability

Moral intuitions must ultimately
be expressible in the form of
general moral principles.

Corollary 2 of Universalizability

moral principles must specify in some fashion what facts are relevant to moral judgment in particular moral situations

Corollary 3 of Universalizabilty

When considering different moral

situations that raise the same moral

issue, if either (1) the relevant facts of

the two situations are significantly

different, as defined by a principle, and

yet our moral intuitions are the same, or

(2) if the relevant facts are the same but

our moral intuitions differ, then we must

conclude that either our principle or our

intuitions are wrong.

Moral Conventionalism

Fallacy that offers conventional beliefs or practices as the sufficent grounds for supporting an ethical position.

Areas of ethical theory

Metaethics, theoretical normative ethics, and applied ethics

meta ethics

the meaning of moral terminology; the nature of moral justification

theoretical normative ethics

discovery of general moral principles

applied ethics

clarifying and addressing issues of contemporary moral concern

values

is any trait or characteristic of something that is either good or bad

moral value

a characteristic of a voluntary action that locates that action in the moral categories of impermissibility, obligation, or supererogation

nonmoral value

any value that is not moral

teleological ethics

the moral values of voluntary actions are wholly determined by the nonmoral values of their consequences

deontological ethics

the moral values of voluntary actions are not wholly determined by the nonmoral values of their consequences