Evil Philosophy 005

According to Arendt, what is the banality of evil?

Evil acts, performed by ordinary people, that are motivated and made possible by
thoughtlessness rather than a motive to harm

Augustine's conception of evil is:

Choosing the lower good over the higher good

What is the origin of a moralized conception of evil for Nietzsche?

Evil is the judgment the slaves direct at the nobles, out of resentment ; inversion of the
noble's valuation

What is Kant's notion of diabolical evil?

Freely acting without being constrained by the moral law

Why are you less free when you act less morally according to Kant?

To be (negatively) free is to behave in a way that is not determined by your given
inclinations/drives/desires, and instead to behave according to a principle that agents
could act on regardless of their (drives), and to be moral is to follow the CI

How is evil behavior possible for Mengzi/Mencius?

Lack of appropriate development of innate moral dispositions (moral education);
presence of corrupting influences of external factors

What explains the atrocities of the Holocaust according to Goldhagen?

The eliminitivist anti-semitism of the ordinary German population at the time (motive to
eliminate/kill the Jewish population), which existed prior to rise of Nazi power

How does organizing into a society explain evil according to Rousseau?

It causes us to be competitive and care about one another, makes us prideful

Give 3 explanations Augustine provides for stealing pears

-attraction of wrong for wrong's sake, -omnipotence, mob effect

What motive are agents choosing when they don't act according to the CI?

The motive of self-love/radical evil

According to Augustine, are we born good or evil?

inherit state of sin from free choice of Adam/Eve

Name three characteristics of the nature of the noble according to Nietzsche

Immediacy of his action, strong, aggressive

What is the difference the role of moral education plays in Mencius and Hsun-Tsu's views?

Developmental versus transformative

What is the crucial difference between predispositions and propensities for Kant?

Propensities involve choice

We had a unit using Human Nature to explain evil behavior. How does the situationist thesis
challenge this framework?

Situationism claims that the best explanation of behavior is not character or nature but
external features of the situation

If we had abundant resources, would we be in a war of all against all according to Hobbes?
Why?

Yes, we are competitive and self interested

What is the difference between the role of "morality" according to Hobbes and Hsun-tzu?

Transformative for Hsun-Tzu, always self interested for Hobbes

What makes us form a society for Hobbes? Rousseau?

Self interested =Hobbes, environmental pressures=Rousseau

What attitude(s) does Rousseau think we have towards our fellow man?

Mostly indifference

What is the difference between law of nature and right of nature for Hobbes?

LoN = Precepts or rules of reason that promote self-preservation ,
RoN= the right do anything consistent with one's self-preservation in the SoN

What are the four commitments of the POE?

Omnipotent
Omniscient

The POE challenges the theist to explain why god

allows there to be evil

How does the possibility that evil builds character help to solve the POE?

If building character makes the world better, and it can only happen with suffering, then
the best possible world would include character building and suffering, and the
conception of god is consistent with suffering

To accept the Free Will Defense, do you have to accept that god can't make free agents who
only do good?

No, if one is a compatibilist (like Leibniz), it's consistent to believe that God could have
created free agents who always choose the good, there must be reason for him not to
have created such a world

If you think freedom is the ability to do other than you actually do, why could be concerning
about god's foreknowledge?

If god has knowledge about what you do before you do it, he can't be wrong. This
means you can't do other than what he knows you will do

What is an example that supports Situationism?

Isen and Levin dime experiment,

If I think punishment is about preventing future wrongdoings, which theory of punishment do I
agree with?

Consequentialist

If Kant is right about when it is appropriate to hold people morally responsible, why would
moral luck be a problem?

Moral luck suggests chancy factors, which are out of our control, influence the moral
quality of our acts, so, according to Kant, these shouldn't be matters of responsibilit

Why does Nietzsche think Kant's view of free action creates/is an example of the myth of the
agent?

Kant's view involves the notion that there is a neutral 'agent' or substratum (rationality)
that can step back from the inclinations/drives and decide what to do without their
influence

Give one of Nietzsche's explanations of retributivist punishment

As payment to the injured party through revenge,
As a kind of compensation for
the benefits the criminal enjoyed in society
To communicate or
express resentment toward the wrongdoer

Revaluation of Values

The undermining old values and revaluing all values that exist

What is a Counterargument for slave morality conception of moral responsibility

People are responsible for each of their own action, person have their own perception of good and evil, and they can't separate the agent from impulse

The three of achievement human is breeding animals with prerogative promise

Human experience is forgetting right after
Negative experience helps to remember
Promise is a decision made ahead of time

Responsibility origin from cruelty because

Promise is remind through pain
Bad conscience influence that one's debt can't repaid, one must be punished
creditor debtor to repay and responsible via cruelty

The relationship between guilt and punishment is based on

Guilt

What's the difference between Goldhagen and Milgram?

That PBU 101 wants to kill because they were following order and they believe it was the right thing to do

What did Milgram experiment showed?

People unwillingness to comply, but still shocked to the subject

What is Retributionlist

addressing the past wrong doing

Utilitarian

Maximum happiness for max number of people

Hedoism

Individual drive for own pleasure

Epicurasm

Individual drive for tranquility

Egosim

If the action is justified to maximum individual good

Acsetism

abstinence from maximize individual good

Alutruism

Live for helping other

The difference between negative and protective distributions

Negative is wrongdoer may be punished
postitve is wrongdoer always be punished

The Nuremberg model

Punishment for the gulity

National Amnesia

Forget everything, nothing happened

Reconciliation

Through forgivness

Explain the difference between the three conceptions of forgiveness

Victim focused conceptions of forgiveness
Perpetrator focused conceptions of forgiveness
Reconciliation conceptions of forgiveness