PH FINAL EXAM

Flashcards on Justice, Ethical Egoism, Utilitarianism for exam review.

Distributive Justice

How society's resources and opportunities should be fairly shared among individuals and groups.

Original Position

A hypothetical situation where individuals choose the principles of justice without knowing their place in society, behind a veil of ignorance.

Rational Person in Original Position

A rational person would want to maximize the amount of primary social goods that each member of society gets.

Equality of Maximal Rights

Each person must have an equal right to the greatest amount of liberties compatible with a similar liberty for everyone else.

Compensation for Inequalities

Social and economic inequalities are only permissible when they benefit everyone.

Rights supported by Original Position

The right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of thought, freedom of person, the right to hold personal property, freedom from arbitrary arrest, search, and seizure.

Compensation for Inequalities

Prioritizes fairness and individual rights over maximizing total welfare.

Difference Principle

Inequalities are justifiable only if they ultimately improve the situation of the worst-off members of society.

Priority of Equality of Maximal Rights

Even if an inequality benefits everyone, if it restricts the rights or liberties of some group, then it would be impermissible.

Justice for Special Groups

Some special groups deserve special privileges in the rules for society.

Agreement View

A wage is just if and only if it is fairly negotiated by the earner and the business owner(s).

Desert View

A wage is just if and only if it is no higher or lower than what the earner deserves to be paid for the job he or she does.

Utility View

High wages attract and retain talented managers and motivate workers to succeed and compete for them.

Moriarty's first assumption about Desert View

A person’s economic contribution is the only variable that determines what pay a worker deserves.

Moriarty's second assumption about Desert View

there is a mathematical function that determines, given a person’s economic contribution x, how much that person deserves as compensation f (x), and the slope of that function is no greater than y = x (so, f (y) − f (x) ≤ y − x)

Attraction & Retention Utility View

This view says that a level of compensation is morally just if and only if anything lower would fail to attract and retain sufficiently capable workers to the position.

Motivation Utility View

A level of CEO compensation is morally just if and only if anything lower would fail to engender such things as: 1. The motivation of the CEO themselves to work hard, 2. The alignment of the CEO’s motivation with shareholder interests, 3. The motivation of other workers to compete for the CEO position by working hard.

Non-monetary perks objection

Those other jobs have “non-monetary” perks (e.g., the feeling of fulfillment one gets from public service). Top CEO jobs are just as demanding, but lack such perks; therefore, top CEO compensation has to be higher to make up for this and attract sufficiently capable people.

Exceptional People Objection

Sufficiently capable people could be attracted to top CEO jobs if the average salary was lowered substantially, but truly exceptional people wouldn’t be attracted to them.

Friedman's Shareholder Theory

A manager’s primary duty when acting as a manager is to seek to fulfill the business goals of the owners (shareholders).

Unelected Taxation Argument

A manager who in their role as manager pursues “social” goals that are not shareholder goals is acting as a civil servant.

Frederick’s Argument Against Shareholder Theory

If the shareholder account is true, then any business practice that is lawful and that maximizes profit is not immoral.

Stakeholder Theory

Managers have a fiduciary duty not just to shareholders, but to all stakeholders in the company.

Freeman's Legal Argument

Over the last century, the law in many countries (including the US) has evolved to constrain, in many ways, the legal freedom with which managers can pursue profits for shareholders.

Freedom to Dispense Owned Goods principle (FDOG)

No one has a right to an equal chance at a good they do not “own”, hence no one’s rights are violated if the owner distributes it preferentially.

Equal Opportunity for Partly-Owned Goods (EPOG) principle

When an applicant for receiving a good is themselves a part-owner of that good, they have a right to an equal chance at getting it.

Debts of gratitude

If the owners of a good owe a debt of gratitude to someone, then so long as the majority of them agree to do so, they can preferentially dispense that good to that person, and justly override the right to an equal chance at that good that other part-owners of that good may have.

Compensation for the past wrongs

The owners of a good mistreated or harmed someone substantially in the past, then they can preferentially dispense the food they own to that person, an thereby justly override the right to an equal chance at that good that other part-owners of that good my have

Arguments (in the logical sense)

Uses declarative sentences that make a statement that is meant to either be true or false.

Conclusion indicator

A word or phrase that marks a sentence or independent clause as being of an argument’s conclusion.

Premise indicator

Words or phrases used to indicate the premise (reason).

Golden Rule of Logic

An argument is valid and you deny its conclusion then you must also deny at least one of it premises.

Moral Code

A list of rules for behavior.

Moral Universalism

There are some moral rules that APPLY TO everyone no matter what, and these rules SHOULD NEVER be broken by anyone, regardless of if they accept it.

Cultural Relativism

It is morally permissible to do whatever the moral code accepted by your society or culture says is permissible and no rules have to be accepted by all societies or cultures.

Cultural Variation

A descriptive claim that different societies have different moral codes

Moral Skepticism

Moral skeptics claim you don’t know — and cannot ever know — whether those actions are right or wrong.

Individual Relativism

Morality is determined by each individual's beliefs.

Observation Argument Against Moral Universalism

People disagree about morality even after debate. If disagreement persists, then all moral beliefs must be equally correct. If all beliefs are correct, there is no True Moral Code.

Undeniable Wrongs Argument

Some actions (e.g., torturing babies for fun) are always wrong, even if a society accepts them.

Moral Progress Argument

If Cultural Relativism is true, societies can change but cannot morally improve.

One Person Many Cultures Argument

People belong to multiple cultures, which often have conflicting moral codes. No single culture determines morality.

Consequentialism

An action is wrong if and only if there is something else you could do instead that would as a matter of fact have better consequences.

Ethical Egoism

An action is wrong if and only if there is something else you could do that would result in a higher lifetime well-being level for you.

LWL

A person's lifetime well-being level.

Prisoner's Dilemma

The group outcome is not optimal when everyone looks out for their well being

Utilitarianism

An action is wrong (immoral) if and only if there is something else you could do that would result in a higher UHWL.

Universe History Well-being Level (UHWL)

A hypothetical measure of overall well-being across all individuals.