Philosophy Final Exam

Eudaimonia/happiness

–Final good: a good desired for its own sake

Happiness, or eudaimonia = living and doing well (Aristotle)

virtue

Virtues are “states” or habits that enable us to exercise practical reason well, with ease and consistency

Consequentialist theory of morality (consequentialism)

•Morality is all about producing the right kinds of overall consequences

•Morally right actions are the ones that produce the best overall consequences

•A right action = one that causes the most happiness

•Denies that moral rightness depends on anything other than consequences

Deontological theory of morality (deontology)

•Morality of action is based on its conformity to a moral norm, not on the consequences of the action

•Some choices can never be justified by their consequences, no matter how good those consequences may be

•Prioritize the Right over the Good

Agent centered theory of morality

emphasis is on the person – “how should I be?”

Greatest happiness principle

The Greatest Happiness Principle: actions are right insofar as they promote happiness

Virtue of prudence

–Prudence: right reason about things to be done

–Deals with particular human concerns and things open to deliberation

Discerns the proper means to attain a good end

–Applies universal knowledge to particular situations

Moral saints

“a person whose every action is as morally good as possible, a person, that is, who is as morally worthy as can be.”

•Loving saint: their own well being consists in loving others

•Rational saint: retains non-moral, perhaps selfish desires, but does not act on them

•Moral sainthood subsumes all other values under morality

•Morality requires us to prioritize moral action and virtue over every other kind of action and virtue

Just law

man-made law that is in harmony with the moral law/divine law

Unjust law

–Man-made law that is out of harmony with the moral law

–A code inflicted by the majority on a minority that is not binding on the majority

–A code inflicted on the minority which that minority had not part in enacting or creating because it did not have the unhampered righ to vote

Simple ignorance

being aware of one’s own ignorance

Divine command theory

•morality is somehow dependent on God—on God’s commands and/or character

•Moral obligation consists in obedience to God’s commands

•Moral rightness = what God commands or requires

Cartesian skepticism

•Method to seek out knowledge: rejecting every belief we have some reason to doubt

•Only those beliefs that cannot be doubted are certain and true

•Sense perception is unreliable because we can be deceived by our senses

Ontological argument for the existence of God

•Derives the conclusion that God exists through reason alone, not empirical observation

•Derives God’s existence from a conceptual definition of God – reflecting on what a thing is (concept) to deduce its existence

•Concept of God: “that which none greater can be conceived” proves the existence of God (for Anselm, at least)

Cosmological argument for the existence of God

•Arguments that prove God’s existence by starting with empirical observations about the world: the existence of plants, motion, creatures, etc.

• makes inferences about the ultimate cause of these things as consisting in God Himself

•Aquinas’s argument:

•Reductio ad absurdam: an argument that “reduces to absurdity” some assumption that would lead to irrational results

•NOT trying to prove the existence of the God of Christianity, just the existence of an ultimate First Mover/Cause of all things

Pragmatic argument for the existence of God

it’s better to believe than not believe in God

Theodicy

•Theodicies suggest reasons for which God would cause or allow the suffering and evil of the world around us

•Attempts to uphold belief in an all-powerful and morally perfect God in light of the problem of evil.

Friendships of virtue

•Good friends who are similar in virtue, who wish good to one another for their own sake

•We love the other, not for any benefit or pleasure they may bring to us, but for their own well-being and good

•Long lasting and enduring – not easily dissolved

•Rare and hard to come by!

Artistic labor

•Artistic labor: work that produces something according to judgment or creativity

•Productive indeterminacy: the gap between the “know-how” to produce something and actually producing it

•Requires judgment and creativity to produce a desired outcome (not just knowledge of the rules)

Scientific labor

•Scientific labor: work that produces something according to pre-given rules

Existentialism

•An eclectic philosophical movement held together by a few key attitudes/themes:

•Emphasis on anxiety, absurdity, and meaninglessness of human life

•Challenges ”commonsense” assumptions about a good human life

Categorical desires

desires that give us reason to stay alive: life projects and plans (they motivate us to live on and are important parts of our characters)

John Stuart Mill (match his identity to what he thought about morality)  

•The Greatest Happiness Principle: actions are right insofar as they promote happiness

•Happiness = pleasure and the absence of pain

•Pleasure and the absence of pain = the only things desirable as ends

•Human beings must seek to impartially bring about happiness for everyone, not just themselves as individuals

Immanuel Kant (match his identity to what he thought about morality)

•Only good thing without qualification = a good will (a person of good will)

•What makes it good? à the will must be governed by basic, universal moral principles (duties)

•Moral action assessed by the will behind it (its adherence to duty)

•“Act so that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in that of another, always as an end and never as a means only.”

Blaise Pascal (match his identity to what he thinks about the existence of God)

belief in God is not something that can be rationally proved through human reason

But, it’s better to be on God because of what’s at stake: you have everything to gain (eternal life) and little to lose

Aristotle (match his identity to his understanding of the “function” of humans)

•Function of human beings: living well through the exercise of reason

Jean Paul Satre (match his identity to his understanding of the purpose of human life)

Existence precedes essence

•Human life has no pregiven nature, purpose, or inherent meaning

•Human beings are “thrown” into existence and then must “create” themselves through individual choice and action

The active life (think about what kinds of activities characterize this way of life)

•Aristotle, Kant, Mill, among others, emphasize the importance of philosophy for helping us live and do well.

•Moral exemplars like MLK Jr. invite us express our understanding of what is true and right through our actions to promote the common good.

The contemplative life (think about what kinds of activities characterize this way of life)

Marcus

•Stoic principles help us respond virtuously to any and every circumstances

•Contemplation reminds us of what is really important – the state of our soul

Thoreau

•Being present in nature reveals the lasting beauty and truth of the eternal world

•Contemplation reminds us of who we are as human beings

Anti-theodicy (think about Ivan’s character in the Brothers Karamazov)

•Rejects any attempt to rationally justify the existence of evil in light of the existence of God