PHIL 147 midterm

Mill - Greatest Happiness Principle

Actions are morally right in proportion as they tend to promote overall happiness and wrong as they produce pain

Mill - Higher vs Lower Pleasures

Higher pleasures involve intellectual/moral faculties; lower pleasures are physical/sensory. Higher pleasures are qualitatively superior

Mill - Competent Judges

Individuals with experience of both higher and lower pleasures who decide which pleasure is qualitatively superior

Mill - Rule vs Act Utilitarianism

Act evaluates individual actions directly; Rule evaluates conformity to rules that maximize long-term utility

Mill - Experience Machine

Thought experiment by Nozick showing people value real connection over simulated pleasure, refuting pure hedonism

Rawls - Original Position

Hypothetical bargaining situation designed to select fair principles of justice among free and equal citizens

Rawls - Veil of Ignorance

Conceptual filter stripping decision-makers of knowledge regarding their personal class, talents, race, and religion

Rawls - Two Principles of Justice

Equal basic liberties for all, plus fair equality of opportunity and the Difference Principle

Rawls - Overlapping Consensus

Political stability achieved when citizens with diverse comprehensive doctrines endorse the same political justice framework

Aristotle - Three Levels of Life

Nutritive (plants), appetitive (animals), and rational (humans)

Aristotle - Happiness & Good Life

Eudaimonia (flourishing) achieved by fulfilling the distinct human function of acting according to reason

Aristotle - Virtue & Habit

Moral virtues are not innate; they are cultivated through continuous habituation and practice

Aristotle - Virtue as Golden Mean

Virtue is an intermediate state of character lying between a vice of excess and a vice of deficiency

Aristotle - Moral Exemplar

A person of practical wisdom (phronimos) who demonstrates virtuous actions and serves as a model

Kant/O'Neill - Categorical Imperative

An unconditional moral obligation binding on all rational agents regardless of personal desires

Kant/O'Neill - Maxim

The underlying subjective rule, goal, or principle behind an action

Kant/O'Neill - Universal Law Formula

Act only on maxims that you can at the same time will to become universal laws without logical contradiction

Kant/O'Neill - Formula of the End in Itself

Treat humanity always as an end and never merely as a instrument or means to an end

Kant/O'Neill - Perfect vs Imperfect Duties

Perfect duties allow no exceptions (e.g. no lying); imperfect duties allow latitude (e.g. helping others)

Smith/Marx - Division of Labor

Smith views specialization as increasing economic efficiency; Marx views it as degrading worker autonomy

Smith/Marx - Commodification of Labor

The transformation of human effort into a commodity bought and sold for a market wage

Hayek - Information in Economy

Economic knowledge is decentralized, tacit, and dispersed across individual market participants

Hayek - Price System vs Planning

Prices act as dynamic coordination signals; central planning fails to capture local tacit knowledge

Weber - Labor as Calling

Religious concept transforming daily work into a moral duty, catalyzing modern capital accumulation

Locke - Property and Labor

Private property is created when an individual mixes personal labor with unowned natural resources

Locke - Lockean Proviso

Private property appropriation is valid only if enough and as good remains in common for others

Hume - Justice & Property

Property rights are artificial conventions created to manage moderate scarcity and limited altruism

Hume vs Locke Property

Locke grounds property in natural rights; Hume grounds property in social utility and conventional stability

Rawls - Formal vs Fair Opportunity

Formal prohibits legal discrimination; Fair guarantees equal life chances regardless of social origin

Rawls - Difference Principle

Socio-economic inequalities are permissible only if they maximize the position of the least-advantaged

Rawls - Four Types of Equality

System of Natural Liberty, Liberal Equality, Natural Aristocracy, and Democratic Equality

Marx - Primitive Accumulation

Historic violent process of enclosing common lands and separating peasants from their means of production

Marx - Property vs Capital

Property is general ownership; Capital is value invested to extract surplus value from labor

Nozick - Entitlement Theory

Justice in initial acquisition, justice in transfer, and rectification of past injustice

Nozick - Wilt Chamberlain Example

Illustrates that voluntary individual choices inevitably disrupt any patterned distributive scheme

Piketty - Growth vs Capital Returns

When capital returns outpace economic growth (r > g), wealth concentration and inequality widen

Piketty - Capital Taxation

A progressive global tax on net capital wealth to restrain extreme economic divergence

Hardin - Tragedy of Commons

Depletion of open-access shared resources caused by individuals pursuing self-interest

Hardin - Escapes from Tragedy

Privatization of property or mutual coercion mutually agreed upon via regulation

Paine - Agrarian Justice

Landowners owe ground-rent for privatizing land, funding universal capital dividends for all citizens

Paine - Positive vs Negative Freedom

Negative is absence of external constraint; positive is actual material capability to act

FDR - Economic Bill of Rights

Proposal for constitutional rights to living employment, healthcare, housing, and education

FDR/Maxwell - Reasons for Rights

Moral duty to respect human dignity, and practical need to prevent economic decay and fascism