Philosophy Final 201

Cultural relativism

o   Whatever your culture says is right is morally right and wrong is morally wrong

o   Whoever has the power determines right and wrong

What is appealing about cultural relativism

o   It is appealing because it avoids conflict and debate

utility

whether an action causes or reduces pain

experience machine

o   Immersive vr machine that if you plug into it you can interact with virtual people and have virtual experiences and all your experiences are the ultimate pleasure but you have to stay there for the rest of your life 

o   If you are a hedonist you would do it because pleasure is all you care about 

o   Most people wouldnt go into the machine therefore they dont only care about pleasure

principle of utility

·       Whatever action brings about the greatest balance of pleasure for everyone over pain is morally right, whatever action does not is morally wrong 

how to apply the principle of utility

o   Take an action and calculate how much pleasure and pain and do the thing that brings about the most pleasure and least pain for everyone 

Things to consider when applying the Principle of Utility

o   Intensity- how much pleasure at once

o   Duration- how long the pleasure lasts for

o   certainty - how guaranteed you will experience the pleasure 

o   proximity - how soon you will feel the pleasure 

o   Fecundity- pleasure followed by more pleasure 

o   Purity- does pleasure bring more pain with it 

·       How Mill responds to the objection that Utilitarianism is too low or base.

o   The objection that there are higher things like virtue honor etc he says that in the end those desires are just means to the end of pleasure 

o   But there are also pleasures that are a higher quality 

o   Those higher quality pleasures are better but some people who are ignorant prefer the more base lower pleasures 

o   The scale is virtue, knowledge, and family, at the top and eating and comfort more base

·       The role of competent judges, according to Mill.

o   Competent judges are those people who can properly judge pleasures because they have experienced the higher and the lower pleasures and they always choose the higher ones

o   Their role is to inform ignorant people of what the higher pleasures really are

·       Internal sanction.

o   Your conscience and the pleasure of doing what is right and the pain of doing what is wrong

·       External sanctions.

o   Punishment and reward

·       How Mill responds to the objection that Utilitarianism cuts God out of morality.

o   God wants us to be happy and have pleasure and the 10 commandments are really telling us what would reduce our pleasure and the bible tells us how to maximize pleasure 

·       Mill’s understanding of justice.

o   Giving people what they deserve impartiality, equality, respecting rights and a desire to see people punished for violating rights (things you can demand of the community)

o   Justice is good because it helps balance pleasure and pain

good will according to Kant

o   Will that always chooses for duty all morally good actions are motivated by duty and the only motivation is duty no pleasure 

·       Why Kant thinks a good will is the only thing that is good without qualification.

o   All other good things can be used for immoral purposes good will is intrinsically good

·       First formulation of the categorical imperative and its universalization test. Be able to apply the test to an action.

o   Act only according to maxims you could will to become a universal law 

§  action=steal a backpack maxim=if you want someones stuff take it 

§  action= promise to repay someone but never do it maxim=when you want money promise to pay them back but never do 

·       Contradiction in conception.

o   Can’t have a world where everyone can take anything they want because then no more private property 

o   Can’t have a world where u can promise to pay someone back but never do bc then the idea of a promise is destroyed 

·       Contradiction in will.

o   You can imagine a world like that but if you did it would contradict something else you will 

§  action= never helping others in need maxim=never need to help anyone in need 

§  No rational person would will this for themself because eventually they would need help 

·       Objection to categorical imperative and universalization test.

o   You can adjust maxims narrowly enough to make them pass the universal test but you could make any rule passable 

·       Second formulation of the categorical imperative.

o   Treat human beings always as an end and never as a mere means 

·       Objection to second formulation of the categorical imperative.

o   This rules out competition? Both sides want to win but if you want to win you are putting yourself as the end and the other side is a means to the end of winning 

·       Why Aristotle thinks wealth, pleasure, and honor are not happiness.

o   Wealth: happiness is the chief good meaning we seek it for its own sake, it is impossible to seek money for its own sake

o   Pleasure: pleasure is too low and too base to be sought for its own sake

o   Honor: too contingent on others and it depends on what the culture determines is honor

Honorable people don’t seek honor for its own sake, if you are seeking honor than you are less worthy of it

So, honor cannot be happiness because we seek happiness

·       Why virtue is not a passion or set of passions.

o   Passions: feelings anger joy fear longing

o   We dont choose our passions they are involuntary

o   Cannot be praised or blamed for feeling passions

o   Virtue is always good for passions it depends

o   You dont want to get rid of negative passions

·       Definition of virtue.

o   State of character concerned with choice lying in a mean relative to us determined by reason as a man of practical wisdom could determine

Steady disposition habit

Guide our actions according to reason

·       Mean relative to us.

o   Average between excess and defect

Aristotle on freedom

o   Can be praised or blamed for an action only if you have freedom

o   Free choice

1.     Voluntary: you yourself doing the action not smth external involuntary smth is coerced forced accidental or ignorant

Not enough bc animals and babies do things voluntary

2.     Deliberate: have to consciously consider action use reason can rationally deliberate between options

Narrow justice

o   virtue of acting proportionately

1.     Corrective: justice in punishment has to be proportionate to the crime

2.     Proportionality in exchange: if u did a service you deserve something back for your labor

3.     Distributive justice: each person should take equal share of goods and benefits but it needs to be proportionate to individual peoples merit and state in life

Broad justice

o   : virtue of doing what promotes good life of community as a whole

1.     Acting lawfully: you should always follow the law by agreeing to live in a country you agree to that law and you shouldnt go back on agreements