BIOETHICS L2 PT.2

The indicative plus the imperative equals the normative.

situational Christian ethics provides a tactical formula for the strategy of agape:

Situation ethics

it combines love and justice in treating ill patients

Agapeic love

it serves to check selfish motives, as well as uncaring health personnel; it enjoins no preferential treatment for either erotic or filial considerations.

Charles Peirce (1839-1914) and William James (1842-1910)

Pragmatism was attributed by ______

Pragmatism

it has been America's most distinctive and major contribution to the world of philosophy.

William James

he earned a medical degree from Cambridge and taught anatomy and physiology at Harvard in 1873.

Charles Peirce

he was the founder and inventor of the term pragmatism.

Pragmatism

it is more of a theory of knowledge, truth, and meaning rather than of morality.

Pragmatism

it argues that the true and valid form of knowledge is characterized as practical, workable, beneficial, and useful.

practical, workable, beneficial, and useful

Pragmatism argues that the true and valid form of knowledge is characterized as _____

practical

Being _____, it is one that can be practiced and can produce practical results

workable

Being _____, it is one that can be put to work, can be worked out, and works.

beneficial

Being ____, it benefits people.

useful

being ____, it is one that can be used to attain good results

consequences

The truth of an idea is determined by its _____; if an idea is devoid of results, it is inconsequential; hence, it is meaningless.

William James

he explains that ideas become true and are made true by events. He wants to make it clear that truth is part of an experience that can provide workable guides to practical behavior.

truth

 As part of a process, _____ is made by the process of successful experience or behavior.

experimentalism and instrumentalism

pragmatism's forms:

experimentalism

its claim that truth must always be verified and tested by an experiment.

experimentalism

it determines the truth or falsity of an idea

Pragmatism

in experimentalism, ____ becomes an experimental method, a process of verifying and validating the verity of truth

instrumentalism

As ideas are also instruments of action and tools for solving problems, pragmatism is also known as ____

instrumentalism

If ideas prove to be effective instruments, they are true; otherwise, they are false.

Thinking

_____ is an instrument-people think and judge for a purpose.

reconstructionism

Dewey's theory is referred to as _____

reconstructionism

ideas are tools used for the reconstruction of experiences.

progressivism

 Dewey's reinterpretation of pragmatism also assumes the name of _____

progressivism

ideas become legitimate if they allow an individual to progress, grow, and develop intellectually and morally through his/her own experiences and self-activity. This is because knowledge is a process of experiencing, doing, understanding, and progressing.

 The pragmatist has been accused of being too materialistic because of a pragmatic claim that truth is the cash value of an idea.

Truth

___ as the cash value of an idea directly means that moral judgment is good, or that a statement is true, depending on the monetary considerations that such judgment or statement will incur.

Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill

Utilitarianism is found in the writings of two English philosophers, _____

Utilitarianism

this ethical doctrine states that the rightness or wrongness of actions is determined by the goodness and badness of their consequences.

Utilitarianism

Actions are good insofar as they tend to promote happiness, bad as they then to produce unhappiness

Utilitarianism

One ought to choose the action that produces the most benefits at the least cost of pain or unhappiness

principle of utility

In utilitarianism, there is one and only one moral principle which is _____

Principle of the greatest Happiness

Action is good insofar as it produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people; bad insofar as it produces more harm that benefit for the greatest number of individuals.

act and rule

two factions of utilitarianism:

 act

it holds that the utilitarian principle should be applied to particular acts in particular situations or circumstances on a case-by-case basis.

rule

it maintains that the principle at issue should be used to test moral rules, then the rules can be utilized to decide on which moral judgment is right or wrong under the circumstances

act utilitarian

it takes into account the possible results of each particular act

rule utilitarian

it considers the possible results in light of a rule.

situationalistic

act utilitarianism is ____ insofar as it applies the principle of utility to particular cases in particular situations.

absolutistic

Rule utilitarianism is somewhat _____, for once a rule or policy has been formulated, it must be followed.

• it justifies the imposition of discomfort or suffering on a few for the sake of the many

• the impractical attempt to determine all the possible legitimate results that must be taken into account before a moral decision can be adjudged as right or wrong

•  it ignores the motives from which some moral decisions are made.

Difficulties of utilitarianism