Module 14, Module 15, Module 13, Module 12, Module 11 Quiz, Module 10, Module 9, Module 8 Prisons and Capital Punishment, Module 7 Global Economic Inequality, Module 6 Feminist Ethical Theory or Ethics of Care, Module 5, Module 4 Kant, Module 3 Utili...

There is no argument whether it is a violation of animal rights if we breed an animal, hunt them, or eat them.

False

According to Kant, we have direct duties toward animals.

False

A speciesist utilitarian response to justifying eating animals is to say that the pleasures and pains of human beings is worth more than other animals by virtue of our intellect.

True

The claim that animals have no moral standing because they do not have the kind of strong family relationships exhibited by humans has been undermined by

science.

According to Peter Singer, if a man and a pig were both experiencing intense pain, we must assume that

the man's pain should be taken as seriously as the pig's.

A central idea of ecofeminism is making women and their ideology central to how we rule the environment.

False

According to social ecology, environmental problems are directly related to societal problems.

True

If moral obligations come from the interests of humans, then once humans and their interests cease to exist, so do moral obligations.

True

An anthropocentrist sees animals, plants, and ecosystems as

means to serve the ends of human beings.

Some people argue that we should extend moral standing to the environment, and even to things like individual trees.

True

Using contraception is immoral according to natural law theory.

True

According to Kant, sex is permissible outside of marriage if the two people are committed to one another.

False

Given a definition of sex as coitus, homosexual sex is conceptually impossible. This means that homosexual sex cannot be immoral, because it isn't sex at all.

True

An open marriage is defined as

A marriage where sexual exclusivity is not expected.

The absolute definition of sex is penile vaginal penetration, or coitus.

False

If someone's end of life care wishes are unknown for whatever reason, the centrality of autonomy in bioethics requires that decisions for that patient's care be based on wishes they have expressed in the past.

True

Autonomy means:

self-determination

Physician assisted dying requires that:

a lethal injection be administered by the physician.

The practice of a physician providing the means for a person with decision-making capacity to take his or own life, usually with a prescription for barbiturates that patient takes himself or herself, is called:

Physician Assisted Death

The centrality of autonomy concerning end of life care is not criticized for recognizing that humans are part of a complex network of relationships.

False

The conservative opposition to abortion is based on the idea that the fetus is human being from the moment of conception.

True

The Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health SCOTUS ruling allows for a medical exception to abortion bans if the life of the mother is at risk.

False

IVF treatments could be impacted by the Dobbs ruling, because of the routine practice of discarding embryos.

True

Fetal movements are a stage of fetal development known as

quickening

Which position would be consistent with the idea that an early fetus is not a person?

Moderate

The result of Citizens United is that corporations are now limited in the amount of funds that they can spend on political advertising.

False

Friedman thinks that for a CEO to act in accordance with social responsibility indicates that they have not convinced others that this action is necessary, and failed to acquire political unanimity.

True

Milton Friedman thinks that if a CEO acted in accordance with social responsibility with company funds that he would be:

spending someone else's money.

Schwenkenbecher argues that business do not have any special obligation to mitigate climate change.

False

The Citizens United ruling resulted in the creation of PACS. PACS and Super PACS are primarily funded by whom?

wealthy individual donors

Lawrence Blum insists that every instance of racial conflict, insensitivity, discomfort, miscommunication, exclusion, injustice, or ignorance should be called racist.

False

Currently, blacks and dark-skinned racial minorities lag well behind whites in virtually every area of social life; they are about three times more likely to be poor than whites, earn about 40 percent less than whites, and have about an eighth of the net worth that whites have.

True

Some philosophers, known as race skeptics, believe that race has a physical scientific basis and argue that the concept of race should be the main focus of science.

False

The traditional idea about race is that it consists of heritable biological features common to all members of a racial group—features that explain the character and cultural traits of those members. However, most scientists and philosophers believe that this view is false.

True

According to Carl Cohen, "No matter who the beneficiaries may be or who the victims, preference on the basis of race is morally wrong. It was wrong in the distant past and in the recent past; it is wrong now; and it will always be wrong." Cohen's position rejects strong affirmative action policies on nonconsequentialist grounds.

True

Abolitionists

Those who wish to abolish capital punishment

Retentionists

those who wish to retain the death penalty

Punishment

The deliberate and authorized causing of pain or harm to someone thought to have broken a law

Capital punishment

Punishment by execution of someone officially judged to have committed a serious, or capital, crime

Retributivism

The view that offenders deserve to be punished, or "paid back," for their crimes and to be punished in proportion to the severity of their offenses

Two views of punishment:

The sole reason we should punish the wrongdoer is because he morally deserves punishment; his desert is the only justification required.

The only proper justification is the good consequences for society that the punishment of offenders will bring—most notably, the prevention of future crimes and the maintenance of an orderly society.

Capital punishment throughout the world

Most countries have officially abolished the death penalty or simply stopped using it.

The nations not using capital punishment include Canada, Mexico, and all Western European countries.

In 2013, most of the executions around the world were carried out by Iran (369), Iraq(169), and Saudi Arabia (79).

1972, Furman v. Georgia:

The Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment as it was then being applied in certain states was unconstitutional.

1976, Woodson v. North Carolina:

The Court declared mandatory death sentences unconstitutional.

2002, Atkins v. Virginia

The Court held that the execution of mentally retarded persons is cruel and unusual punishment and is therefore unconstitutional.

First-degree murder:

Killing (1) with premeditation;

(2) while performing a major crime (felony); or

(3) involving particular egregious circumstances such as the deaths of several people or of a child or police officer

Second-degree murder:

Killing without premeditation but with some degree of intent

Manslaughter

unlawfully killing another without planning in advance

Retentionist views

Utilitarian:

The death penalty achieves overall utility through prevention—preventing the criminal from striking again.

The death penalty can achieve overall utility through deterrence—the dissuading of possible offenders from committing capital crimes.

Abolitionist responses

The evidence for capital punishment's prevention or deterrence effect is very weak.

Even if the death penalty is a more severe punishment than life in prison, it does not follow that the death penalty deters murderers better.

Pojman's "commonsense" case for deterrence

It is obvious that most people want to avoid jail and that long sentences will deter most potential criminals better than short ones—and that there are good reasons to believe that the death penalty deters better still.

Van den Haag's retentionist argument

If we use the death penalty, we risk killing convicted murderers (and saving innocent lives)

If we abolish the penalty, we risk bringing about the deaths of innocent victims (and saving the lives of murderers)

If we must risk something, it is better to risk the lives of convicted murderers than those of innocent people.

Thus, our best option is to retain the death penalty

Response to Van den Haag's argument:

The retentionist fails to take into account the possibility that the death penalty could encourage violent crime instead of just deterring it

Violent criminals who know they are likely to get the death penalty may commit murder to avoid being captured.

Capital punishment has a brutalizing effect on society.

Abolitionist views

Utilitarian

More net happiness is created in society by sentencing murderers to life in prison without parole than by executing them.

The death penalty is too costly

Nonconsequentialist views

Abolitionist

Everyone has a right to life, even hardened criminals, and the death penalty is a violation of this right.

Retentionist response:

People do indeed have a right to life, but this right is not absolute.

Nonconsequentialist views 2

Abolitionist:

• Our penal system is inherently unjust, sometimes executing innocent people.

Retentionist response:

• Injustice does not stem from the intrinsic nature of the institution of capital punishment; it results from the administration of the death penalty.

Nonconsequentialist views 3

Retentionist:

• Offenders should be punished because they deserve to be punished. Punishment is a matter of justice, not social utility.

• Capital punishment (for the crime of murder)shows respect for persons.

Abolitionist response:

• Penal retribution is not justice—it is revenge.

An abolitionist argument:

1. If the death penalty discriminates against blacks, it is unjust.

2. If the death penalty is unjust, it should be abolished.

3. The death penalty discriminates against blacks.

4. Therefore, the death penalty should be abolished.

The United Nations has called for a moratorium on the death penalty.

True

Capital punishment successfully deters serious violent crimes.

False

Select an argument that is made in favor of the death penalty.

All of these are arguments in favor of the death penalty.

African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; once arrested, they are more likely to be convicted; and once convicted, and they are more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences.

True

In terms of capital punishment, retribution is the punishment of the guilty.

True

Nozick's Entitlement Theory and his Principles of Justice

Justice in acquisition: the appropriation of natural resources that no one has ever owned before. The best-known such principle, someversion of which Nozick seems to endorse, is the one enshrined in Locke's theory of property, according to which a person (being a self-owner) owns his labor, and by "mixing his labor" with a previously unowned part of the natural world (e.g. by whittling a stick found in aforest into a spear) thereby comes to own it.J

ustice in transfer: The second principle would be a principle of justice in transfer, governing the manner in which one might justly come toown something previously owned by another. Here Nozick endorses the principle that a transfer of holdings is just if and only if it isvoluntary, a principle that would seem to follow from respect for a person's right to use the fruits of the exercise of his self-owned talents,abilities, and labor as he sees fit.

Justice in rectification: The final principle would be a principle of justice in rectification, governing the proper means of setting right pastinjustices in acquisition and transfer.Entitlement Theory: Anyone who got what he has in a manner consistent with these three principles would, Nozick says, accordinglybe entitled to it - for, his having abided by these principles, no one has any grounds for complaint against him.

The Great Gatsby Curve

More Inequality is associated with less mobility across the generations.

Inequality

increases environmental degradation (affects poor the most)

increases health risks

reduces the normal opportunity range of a person. Fewer opportunities for betterment exist.

Redistribution Objection 1

By redistributing, incentive to work goes down, productivity decreases, and the economic pie shrinks.

Taxation is not as bad as forced labor

If taxed, you could work less and pay fewer taxes. Under forced labor you cannot

Libertarian reply: why should the state force you to make that choice?

Redistribution Objection 2

Unjust because violation of rights. Taking money without consent is coercive.

This is a good reason to persuade the wealthy to help the poor of their own free choice, butnot a justification for coercion.

Redistribution Objection 3

Jordan doesn't play alone. He owes a debt to those who contribute to his success.

Sure, but those other people have been paid the market value for their choices. Even if Jordan does owe them something, it is hard to justify taxing him.

Redistribution Objection 4

Jordan is not really taxed without his consent

Democratic consent is not enough. Should the majority be able to tax the minority? Take property or liberty?

Redistribution Objection 5

Jordan is extraordinarily lucky.

his talents are not his he does not own them. If he doesn't, then he does not own himself. If he doesn't own himself, then who does?

The minimal state

The idea that the role of the state must be restricted in order to preserve individual liberty.

No paternalism, no morals legislation, no income or wealth redistribution. Minimal state services.

The poor need the money more

Nozick's Theory

A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice in acquisition is entitled to that holding

A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice in transfer, from someone else entitled to the holding, is entitled to the holding.

No one is entitled to a holding except by(repeated) applications of 1 and 2.

Nozick says that there is nothing wrong with inequality. Just so long as there is justice in holding and acquisition.

Milton Friedman

Those who advocate a free market are market libertarians

Jordan

If I own myself, I own my labor. If I own my labor, I am entitled to the fruits of my labor.

Nozick would say it would be unjust to take some of Jordan's money and redistribute it

To redistribute any of it is to say we (the community) are part owners of him

Social Contract

A voluntary agreement among individuals to secure their rights and welfare by creating a government and abiding by its rules.

Rawls is another social contract theorist.

He advocates using the veil of ignorance to figure out what the best social contract would be like

Veil of Ignorance

making decisions with a blind eye to extraneous factors that could affect the decision

Suppose we gather to figure out what kind of society to make. After we decide, our lives begin. Before we decide, we don't know whether we will be rich or poor, smart or dull, our race, sex, or ethnicity. We don't know if we'll be healthy or frail. The ONLY things we know are things that we need to know to figure out how to make a society—nothing more.

Contracts

Contracts are binding but may not always be enough.

Problems with consent—what counts as consent, and when is consent valid? Baseball cards, 78.

Another problem—contracts that are beneficial are not always good contracts, especially when we don't agree to them

Rawls

We wouldn't choose utilitarianism because we would not want to chance being repressed

We wouldn't want to find ourselves in poverty either. Even if inequalities existed in wealth, we would want the worst off to still be decently well off.

Rawls' Two Principles

First Principle: Each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all;

Second Principle: Social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions

Objection 1 Incentives

The talented can benefit from their talents only insofar as it makes the least well off better off than they were before. Won't they work less, lacking incentive?

For Rawls, inequalities are just only insofar asthe inequality benefits the least well off, not because Jordan or CEO's deserve to make more

Objection 2 Effort

Our talents are not entirely of our own doing.

Objection: But what about all the hard work done in developing those talents?

Rejecting Moral Dessert

If Rawls is right, then we must reject moral dessert, or the idea that we are entitled to the fruits of our efforts

Two reasons

My talents are not entirely my own

The qualities that a society values at any time is also arbitrary (paying basketball players vs. paying teachers).

Singer's Central Argument

• The way that affluent countries react to the need for foreign aid cannot be justified

.• Most of us feel no obligation to help alleviate suffering abroad.

• We need to alter how we look at our moral conceptual scheme

.• As a result, we need to alter our way of life, which we largely take for granted.

Singers Central Argument

P1 Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad.

P2 General Principle: If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.

P3 (I can prevent people's dying of starvation by giving more money to famine relief than I currently give.)

P4 (By giving more money to famine relief than I currently give, I would not be sacrificing anything morally comparable to the evil of dying of starvation.)

Basic Premises

P1 Suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad.• This much is just assumed, and Singer does not provide an argument for the premise.P

2 General Principle: If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.• Singer allows that this principle could be softened to cover "something very bad from happening...

Drowning Child Example

If I am walking past a shallow pond and see a child drowning in it, I ought to wade in and pull the child out. This will mean getting my clothes muddy, but this is insignificant, while the death of the child would presumably be a very bad thing

How Far Does the General Principle Extend?

• Is your tuition money morally significant?

• Is your car morally significant?

• Is your time morally significant?

• Is your freedom morally significant?

J.O. Urmson

We need to have a basic moral code that is not too far beyond the capacities of the ordinary man, or there will be a general breakdown of compliance within our society

Income and wealth inequality are both doing what in the United States?

Static

Wildly fluctuatuing

Rising

Falling

Rising

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, black Americans were never systematically denied mortgages, leading to housing segregation and a disparity in home ownership.

False

According to the Council on Foreign relations, there are not large wealth and income gaps across racial groups due to slavery and racist economic policies.

False

According to Nozick, inequality is:

a consequence of choosing unjust principles in the original position.

a way for people to express their love of the free market.

fine, so long as there was no coercion or deceit.

unjust.

fine, so long as there was no coercion or deceit.

Rawls refers to his theory as:

justice as fairness

Annette Baier

- Baier is critical of theories that present personhood as a test that some entities pass and others fail. She believes that personhood tests often reflect the narrow values of those who design them.

- Personhood

• Men follow an idea of justice

• Women follow a sense of trust or caring

Feminist ethics challenges the traditional view of western morality in four additional ways.

First:

The dubious record of liberal morality:- Has not always considered women as morally considerable

- Kant: Women were not rational creatures

- Liberal ethical theories were sometimes used to justify oppression

Feminist ethics challenges the traditional view of western morality in four additional ways.

Second:

Inattention to the presence of inequality or a false pretense of equality:- Old ethical theories removes moral agents from unequal power dynamics, but of course we exist in a world where we are not often equal to those we have relations to!

Feminist ethics challenges the traditional view of western morality in four additional ways.

Third:

Exaggeration of scope of choice, or the inattention to unchosen relations- We don't choose many of our relationships(parents, family, co-workers)

- All of these relations constrain the choices we have available to us. Some choices that old ethical theories say we should make may not even be available

Feminist ethics challenges the traditional view of western morality in four additional ways.

Fourth:

Challenges rationalism: That we need not worry what passions a person has so long as they are controlled by a rational will

- Our choices are often not based on reason

- The feelings of a person are also morally considerable; they are not simply part of a moral calculation, or a casualty of a moral law

Caring

Requires commitments

We take on these commitments by becoming engrossed in the other person

We recognize that this kind of caring is superior

Active creation & nourishing of empathetic & caring relationships