Ethics Test 1

Act-utilitarianism

A form of consequentialism where the consequences of an action determine its moral worth, aiming to maximize welfare.

Applied ethics

The application of meta-ethics and normative ethics to specific real-world issues in various fields such as business and medicine.

Autonomy

The ability to act based on self-legislated reasons.

Categorical imperative

Genuinely moral duties/actions. Only ceases to apply when you are prevented from keeping through with it at no fault of your own.

Consequentialism

An ethical theory that focuses on the consequences of actions.

Contractualism

An ethical theory that suggests moral principles are agreed behind a veil of ignorance.

• Veil = tool to think impartially

• We are all equal

• Morality is motivating 

Deontology

Looks at the motives of why people do what they do. Duty based.

Look at the rules and try to determine which are right v wrong.

Descriptive claim

A statement that describes how the world is, rather than how it should be.

Ethical egoism

Doing whatever actions fulfil our own needs/desires no matter the effect of such actions on others

Ethical relativism

The belief that there are no universal moral standards and that we should tolerate different moral practices across cultures.

Hypothetical imperative

A command that binds an agent contingently.

Impermissible

Actions (or omissions) that are morally disallowed or considered wrong.

Maxim

A description of an action's intention and obligation.

Meta-ethics

Study of abstract questions concerning nature of moral justification or assessment.

Whether or not we have a reason to be moral 

Moral skepticism

The belief that there are no moral truths and that discerning right from wrong is impossible.

Normative claim

A statement about how the world should be.

Normative ethics

The study of how meta-ethics is grounded.

Original position

A hypothetical scenario where we are not aware of certain features (ones that impede impartial judgement). Socio-economic, race, gender, etc.

Permissible

The class of actions (or omissions) that are morally allowed or right

Phronesis

Practical wisdom. Allows the agent the ability to discern the correct way to achieve the human end.

Publicity argument

If a principle is deemed to be correct, we have a duty to make its principles public. If we want to justify holding people to account for breaching those principles, they have to know about them

Rule-utilitarianism

The belief that an act is only right if it conforms to a rule, that if everyone follows, will produce the best consequences.

Social contract theory

The idea that the right action is the one that follows the terms of the agreement amongst self-interested agents.

Supererogatory

Actions that go above and beyond the call of duty. Doing something is not a moral requirement (no punishment for not doing it), but potential for praise if you do do it.

Unity of the virtues thesis

To have any one of the virtues, you must have all of them

Universalizability

The ability of a maxim to be universally applicable. For this to happen it must not produced a contradiction.

Utilitarianism

An ethical theory focusing on the maximization of welfare.

Veil of ignorance

A tool to help up think impartially. It excludes knowledge of personal biases.

Virtue ethics

Located halfway between vices of defect and excess. Actions are made right by being the product of the correct character of the agent performing the actions.

Animal welfarism

The view that the primary bearers of value are individual animals (rather than species or ecosystems.

Anthropocentrism

The perspective that only humans have moral standing (genuine, morally relevant interests)

Extrinsic value

Value derived from the benefits something provides.

Intrinsic value

Value based on the mere existence of an entity.

Moral standing

For an entity’s existence and interests to have positive moral weight

• means others have to constrain themselves when dealing with such entities.

Negative right

The right to not be interfered with in specific ways.

Positive right

The right to be provided with conditions necessary for flourishing.

Speciesism

The belief that humans are superior

Bioaccumulation

Build-up of chemical substances in organisms in even greater quantities are they are passes up the food chain (biomagnification)

• Bioaccumulation is buildup in an individual animal

Biocentric egalitarianism

The view that the interests of all living things have equal positive moral weight.

Biocentrism

The belief that living beings have intrinsic value simply by being alive.

Biosphere

The totality of interlocking ecosystems on Earth

Conservationism

Protecting natural spaces is compatible with some form of human activity within those spaces

Deep ecology

Focusses on a radical emotional and cognitive “reorientation” of our lives and very selves in relation to nature

Dynamic equilibrium

Characteristic of a system that is neither purely chaotic nor in full stasis (equilibrium).

Ecocentrism

The view that the objects of primary moral concern are ecosystems.

Ecosystem

A geographically specific collection of plants and animals interacting among themselves and with the non-living (abiotic) things – rock, soil, climate – of that area.

Gaia theory

The view that the Earth is a self-regulating super-organism.

Individualism

The primary object of moral concern are individual plants or animals.

Inertia

The resistance to change within an ecosystem. Ecosystems can display varying degrees of inertia.

Land ethic

The view that an action is right to the extent that it protects or promotes the stability, integrity, and beauty of the “land”.

Preservationism

Protection of natural spaces should have as its goal the maintenance of the pristine condition. Thought to be mostly incompatible with human activity within those spaces.

Psychocentrism

What matters morally is the ability to have psychological experiences, such as pleasure and pain.

Resilience

An ecosystem’s ability, following a disturbance, to regain the pre-disturbance state.

Immanuel Kant

• Deontology

• Categorical imperative

  • Animals have only extrinsic value

    • People’s property

    • cruelty to animals is wrong not for the animal's sake, but because it might lead people to act cruelly toward fellow humans

Hobbes

• Social contract theory, 

  • People are motivated by self-interest

  • Agreement legitimizes government 

  • Morality exists where there is agreement to live under the rule of a sovereign or organized government 

    • (morality doesn’t exist in the state of nature)

Rawls

• Contractualism, the veil of ignorance, 

  • Act from a sense of fairness 

1. We would all want the broadest possible catalogue of individual basic rights and liberties

2. a. Everyone would have equal access to positions of power within society

b. If economic inequality is to be tolerated, it must be to the benefit of the worst-off in society 

Aristotle

Philosopher known for virtue ethics.

Peter Singer

• against speciesism

  • namely, the idea that some specific quality of a species makes its bearers alone the possessors of moral standing

  • equality of consideration

  • The only quality that can command moral consideration are needs and interests.

    • And these are grounded in the capacity to
      suffer

Claire Jean Kim

• Abolition

  • Criticises racism/speciesism comparison to the ‘abolitionist’ movement that opposes the mistreatment of animals

Bentham

• Right to equal consideration based on capacity to suffer

• Sentience is an entity’s most morally importance attribute 

  • Sentience proved by feeling pleasure/pain (which can be quantified)

Tom Regan

• Intrinsic value & rights to nonhuman entities

• Rights should not be violated no matter what

Donaldson & Kymlicka

• Animal citizenship

• Wilderness animals – sovereignty

• Liminal animals

Christopher D. Stone

• legal rights for natural objects.

Paul Taylor

• Biocentric outlook on nature

1. Humans are members of earth’s community on the same terms as other living members

2. Ecosystems are complex web of interconnected elements

3. Each ind organism pursues its own good in its own way

4. Reject that humans are superior 

Aldo Leopold

• The land ethic

• The land pyramid

Arne Naess

• Identification as a source of deep ecological attitude

James Lovelock

• The gaia hypothesis