Ethics paper 2 OCR
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_den0ap
hierarchy of laws, telos--> naturalist approach
eternal--> divine--> natural--> human law
5 primary precepts --> preservation of life, ordered society, edu-
cation ( of children), worship God , procreation
- DEONTOLOGICAL APPROACH
- Aristotelian- Thomistic thought, 'purpose', telos
- Peter Singer--> 'semi-official doctrine of the Catholic Church'
'- Hugh Grotius, William Paley, John Locke, Aristotle
- Romans 13--> law is 'written at the heart of the gentiles'
- Cognitivist Realist ideal, we should act to achieve GOOD-
NESS--> DUTY
NATURAL MORAL LAW - PROPONENTS
doctrine of double effect , virtue ethics
virtue ethics- Marcus Aurelius, Divine Providence has placed rea-
son in man
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics--> material, efficient, formal, final
Ahluwalia--> liked NML as he believed it combined faith with
reason
provides a fixed ethical foundation, no room for subjectivity, an
absolute true/ false
- Pope Benedict XVI- NML provides a good counterbalance for the
hedonistic trends of modern day
NIELSEN--> NML makes the mistake in assuming that everyone is
working towards the same end e.g. different sexualities/ religions
BARTH--> postmodernist, doesn't believe in 'telos', eudaimonia
and natural theology doesn't exist
- Protestants rejected NML, too out of touch with contemporaries
NATURAL MORAL LAW--> CRITICISMS
- MOORE's NATURALISTIC FALLACY
- HUME'S IS-OUGHT PROBLEM
FALLACY OF ASSUMPTION AND CONSUMPTION
- WORKS ON THE ASSUMTPION THAT EVERYONE IS WORK-
ING TO THE SAME 'END'- NIELSEN
- deontological, duty-based ethics
- emphasis on reason and rationality, ' DO YOUR DUTY THOUGH
THE HEAVENS FALL' ' GOOD SHINES FORTH LIKE A PRE-
CIOUS JEWEL'
moral statements are axioms--> favours the CATEROGICAL IM-
PERATIVE (three formulations--> universalisation, kingdom of
KANTIAN ETHICS - PROPONENTS ends, means to an end) over HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVES (if
I do.... then...)
- three postulates--> freedom, immortality, God
- The Summum Bonum, aka The Good Will
- GOOD WILL+ DUTY= MORAL ACTION
- COGNITIVE REALIST , a set 'good' and 'evil'
- imperatives, people obligated to be HONEST
Vardy- Kant's God a 'fairly pale' figure, uses him as a means to an
end
-Ross--> suggests there should be a select few non-absolutist
prima facie duties which people follow - Kant's ideas too obligatory
and absolutist
- Nagel--> Kant ignores complex situations like the Axeman sce-
KANTIAN ETHICS--> CRITICISMS nario
Hume- IS-OUGHT PROBLEM
- fails the Verification Principle
- Constant- Kant's ideas are impossible- if we couldn't lie, society
would disintegrate and cannot be reasonably applied in practice,
e.g. Axeman scenario and lying for someone's benefit
Clark- we cannot rely on one westernised model of ethics
1/9
, Ethics paper 2 OCR
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_den0ap
postmodernist 'hippie ethics', second-wave feminism
- consequentialist view and focus on agape
- conscience a VERB and not a NOUN
- 'the situationist follows a moral code or violates it according to
LOVE'S NEED' , AGAPE as a SELF- SACRIFICING LOVE OF
GOD
- 'blessed are the poor' , The Beatitudes, 'love thy neighbouir'
- The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus risking persecution when
healing people --> ' the sabbath was made for man, not man for
SITUATION ETHICS- PROPONENTS
the sabbath'
Archbishop Desmond Tutu--> evil of apartheid, importance of
gaining justice and upholding love of the oppressed
- Six Propositions--> love is the only intrinsically good thing, love is
the ruling norm of ethical decision-making, love+ justice, love wills
the neighbour's good, love is the end goal, justifies any means,
love applied situationally
- FOUR WORKING PRINCIPLES--> Positivism, Relativism, Prag-
matism, Personalism
could sink into anarchic nihilism/ antinomian relativism
- good is subjective--> Proverbs 16:2 --> ' all ways of man are clean
in one's eyes'
Hobbes vs Rousseau - l'homme sauvage, tabula rasa
- could lead to chauvinism and negative prejudice
SITUATION ETHICS--> criticisms - 1952- Pope Pius XIII- situationism is too individualistic and
subjective- could be abused
- Barclay- man has not yet 'come of age', Robinson would say
otherwise
cognitive ideal of what is 'good'
COGNTIVE REALISM--> CONSEQUENTIALIST ETHICAL THE-
ORY, NORMATIVE FOUNDATION
- UTILITY PRINCIPLE--> 'GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREAT-
EST NUMBER'
- derived from Epicurean hedonism
- Bentham- qualitative act utilitarianism
- hedonic calculus--> purity, richness, remoteness, richness, in-
tensity, certainty, extent, duration
Rule Utilitarianism
- higher and lower pleasures, qualitative approach to utilitarianism
- 'it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied'
UTILITARIANISM- PROPONENTS
- libertarian ideal
- HARM PRINCIPLE--> ' my right to swing my fist ends at the tip
of your nose'
Peter Singer--> preference utilitarianism
Altruism--> does what furthers the preference of those affected -
radical veganism. doesn't define 'good', just what people want -
satisfaction of preferences
- takes into account everyone involved
humans are psychological hedonists by nature
2/9
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_den0ap
hierarchy of laws, telos--> naturalist approach
eternal--> divine--> natural--> human law
5 primary precepts --> preservation of life, ordered society, edu-
cation ( of children), worship God , procreation
- DEONTOLOGICAL APPROACH
- Aristotelian- Thomistic thought, 'purpose', telos
- Peter Singer--> 'semi-official doctrine of the Catholic Church'
'- Hugh Grotius, William Paley, John Locke, Aristotle
- Romans 13--> law is 'written at the heart of the gentiles'
- Cognitivist Realist ideal, we should act to achieve GOOD-
NESS--> DUTY
NATURAL MORAL LAW - PROPONENTS
doctrine of double effect , virtue ethics
virtue ethics- Marcus Aurelius, Divine Providence has placed rea-
son in man
Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics--> material, efficient, formal, final
Ahluwalia--> liked NML as he believed it combined faith with
reason
provides a fixed ethical foundation, no room for subjectivity, an
absolute true/ false
- Pope Benedict XVI- NML provides a good counterbalance for the
hedonistic trends of modern day
NIELSEN--> NML makes the mistake in assuming that everyone is
working towards the same end e.g. different sexualities/ religions
BARTH--> postmodernist, doesn't believe in 'telos', eudaimonia
and natural theology doesn't exist
- Protestants rejected NML, too out of touch with contemporaries
NATURAL MORAL LAW--> CRITICISMS
- MOORE's NATURALISTIC FALLACY
- HUME'S IS-OUGHT PROBLEM
FALLACY OF ASSUMPTION AND CONSUMPTION
- WORKS ON THE ASSUMTPION THAT EVERYONE IS WORK-
ING TO THE SAME 'END'- NIELSEN
- deontological, duty-based ethics
- emphasis on reason and rationality, ' DO YOUR DUTY THOUGH
THE HEAVENS FALL' ' GOOD SHINES FORTH LIKE A PRE-
CIOUS JEWEL'
moral statements are axioms--> favours the CATEROGICAL IM-
PERATIVE (three formulations--> universalisation, kingdom of
KANTIAN ETHICS - PROPONENTS ends, means to an end) over HYPOTHETICAL IMPERATIVES (if
I do.... then...)
- three postulates--> freedom, immortality, God
- The Summum Bonum, aka The Good Will
- GOOD WILL+ DUTY= MORAL ACTION
- COGNITIVE REALIST , a set 'good' and 'evil'
- imperatives, people obligated to be HONEST
Vardy- Kant's God a 'fairly pale' figure, uses him as a means to an
end
-Ross--> suggests there should be a select few non-absolutist
prima facie duties which people follow - Kant's ideas too obligatory
and absolutist
- Nagel--> Kant ignores complex situations like the Axeman sce-
KANTIAN ETHICS--> CRITICISMS nario
Hume- IS-OUGHT PROBLEM
- fails the Verification Principle
- Constant- Kant's ideas are impossible- if we couldn't lie, society
would disintegrate and cannot be reasonably applied in practice,
e.g. Axeman scenario and lying for someone's benefit
Clark- we cannot rely on one westernised model of ethics
1/9
, Ethics paper 2 OCR
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_den0ap
postmodernist 'hippie ethics', second-wave feminism
- consequentialist view and focus on agape
- conscience a VERB and not a NOUN
- 'the situationist follows a moral code or violates it according to
LOVE'S NEED' , AGAPE as a SELF- SACRIFICING LOVE OF
GOD
- 'blessed are the poor' , The Beatitudes, 'love thy neighbouir'
- The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus risking persecution when
healing people --> ' the sabbath was made for man, not man for
SITUATION ETHICS- PROPONENTS
the sabbath'
Archbishop Desmond Tutu--> evil of apartheid, importance of
gaining justice and upholding love of the oppressed
- Six Propositions--> love is the only intrinsically good thing, love is
the ruling norm of ethical decision-making, love+ justice, love wills
the neighbour's good, love is the end goal, justifies any means,
love applied situationally
- FOUR WORKING PRINCIPLES--> Positivism, Relativism, Prag-
matism, Personalism
could sink into anarchic nihilism/ antinomian relativism
- good is subjective--> Proverbs 16:2 --> ' all ways of man are clean
in one's eyes'
Hobbes vs Rousseau - l'homme sauvage, tabula rasa
- could lead to chauvinism and negative prejudice
SITUATION ETHICS--> criticisms - 1952- Pope Pius XIII- situationism is too individualistic and
subjective- could be abused
- Barclay- man has not yet 'come of age', Robinson would say
otherwise
cognitive ideal of what is 'good'
COGNTIVE REALISM--> CONSEQUENTIALIST ETHICAL THE-
ORY, NORMATIVE FOUNDATION
- UTILITY PRINCIPLE--> 'GREATEST GOOD FOR THE GREAT-
EST NUMBER'
- derived from Epicurean hedonism
- Bentham- qualitative act utilitarianism
- hedonic calculus--> purity, richness, remoteness, richness, in-
tensity, certainty, extent, duration
Rule Utilitarianism
- higher and lower pleasures, qualitative approach to utilitarianism
- 'it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied'
UTILITARIANISM- PROPONENTS
- libertarian ideal
- HARM PRINCIPLE--> ' my right to swing my fist ends at the tip
of your nose'
Peter Singer--> preference utilitarianism
Altruism--> does what furthers the preference of those affected -
radical veganism. doesn't define 'good', just what people want -
satisfaction of preferences
- takes into account everyone involved
humans are psychological hedonists by nature
2/9
