PH 447 - Final Exam

What are the three requirements for respect for persons? - 1. Everyone should be regarded as worthy of sympathetic consideration and be treated as such. 2. No one should be regarded as a possession, instrument, or obstacle to satisfy someone else. 3. No one should ever be treated as an expendable What are the three basic criteria for respect for persons? - 1. Consequences 2. Obligations 3. Moral Ideals What are consequences? - The beneficial or harmful effects that result from an action and affect the people involved What are obligations? - Restrictions on our behavior Demands to do something or to avoid doing it What are moral ideals? - Aspects of excellence Goals that bring greater harmony within one's self and between self and others Concepts that help achieve respect for persons in moral judgements List the 4 steps of analyzing ethical issues - 1. Study the details of the case 2. Identify the relevant criteria 3. Determine possible courses of action 4. Decide which action is most ethical What errors should you avoid when analyzing ethical issues? - Generalizing Mine-is-better thinking Double standard Unwarranted assumptions Oversimplification Hasty conclusions Generalizing - Applying a rule to all situations Mine-is-better thinking - Our tendency to believe that our perspectives, ideas, possessions, etc. are superior to others Double standard - Consists of using one set of criteria for judging cases that concern us or someone we identify with and another set for judging other cases. Unwarranted assumptions - Taking too much for granted Oversimplification - Treatment of a case goes beyond reducing it to manageable proportions and distorts it. Fails to consider obligations or a significant consequence Hasty conclusions - Embracing a judgment before examining the case fully What makes consideration of consequences so difficult? - People behave unpredictably What can you do to make sure you consider all all significant consequences? - Develop the habit of using your imagination: Visualize the action taking place at a particular time and place, and ask probing questions. Take special care to consider the worst possible consequences that could occur. What are the three difficult questions? - 1. Is it justifiable to perform an evil act in order to achieve good consequences? 2. Is it justifiable to perform an act that is not in itself evil but produces mixed consequences, some of them beneficial and others harmful? 3. When only two actions are possible and both produce good consequences, which should be chosen? Principle of double effect - An act may be performed, even if accompanied by an unintended bad effect, if the act itself is good or indifferent, the good effect far outreaches the bad effect, and the intention of the act is the good effect. What is an important caution when considering consequences? - However clear and logical our determination of consequences may be, it is a prediction of future events and not a certainty Moral dilemma - Any predicament that arises from the impossibility of honoring all the moral values that deserve honoring What's the first thing you should consider in a moral dilemma? - Whether it's an apparent or a true dilemma