Ethics Final Exam 2024 EDITION ALL 100% CORRECT GUARANTEED GRADE A+

What are the three branches of ethics? Descriptive: How do people actually live? Normative: How ought people to live? Applied: What ought people to do in specific situations? What are the five traits of moral principles? Prescriptivity: Moral principles are intended to guide human behavior. Universalizability: Moral principles can be applied to all similar people in similar situations. Overridingness: Moral principles take precedence over other kinds of principles. Publicity: Moral principles must be made public. Practicability: Moral principles must not be unduly burdensome such that they become too difficult to put into practice. Four domains of ethical assessment Action, Consequences, Character, Motive Action Right acts can be: Obligatory: You are required to do x. Optional: You are permitted to do x. Supererogatory: You are morally exemplary if you do x. Wrong acts are impermissible. Deontological approaches to ethics argue that an action is intrinsically right or wrong. For example, breaking promises is inherently wrong. It can never be justified. Consequences One may also assess a situation by considering what will happen if one acts in certain ways. Teleological approaches to ethics argue that an action is morally right if it leads to the best consequences for those affected. Promise breaking may be morally permissible if breaking the promises leads to the best consequences. Character We tend to value certain traits that characterize a "good" person. We call these traits virtues. Vices by contrast are traits that characterize a person of bad character. Virtue ethics is an approach to morality that emphasizes the formation of good character as essential to the good life. Motive Why we act as such is critical to our moral assessment of situations. An example: Tom observes his rich neighbor James who has recently been robbed and now lays beaten and bloodied in front of his home. Tom decides to help his neighbor. He does what is right. Tom doesn't really like James. Tom decides to help James because he knows James to be a generous person and believes he will be financially compensated for his troubles. Metaethics Metaethics—a branch of ethics concerned with questions like: Why should I be moral? What is the status of moral claims? Are moral claims objective or subjective? What does it mean to say that something is morally right or good? Divine Command Theory Moral claims are right if they correspond to the will of God. Moral claims are wrong if they contradict the will of God. Morality, argue advocates of DCT, is theonomous (God-determined), not autonomous. Problems with DCT DCT makes the claim "God is good" redundant. DCT says an action is good if God commands it. If this is true, than to say "God is good" is simply to say that God does what God says he will do. However, usually when we say "God is good" we presume that our statement has real substance. DCT also renders morality completely arbitrary. If God commands a person to rape and kill, would this make raping and killing right? DCT suggests that this would be the case. If God is love, than aren't we also saying that God is limited to doing and commanding loving acts? The independence thesis Moral rightness is independent of God's will. "God is good" means that God always obeys the moral law. Kant Kant argues that morality can be established through reason alone, but God still plays an important role in the moral life. Kant's moral argument for the existence of God: Ought implies Can. We ought to be morally perfect, but we cannot achieve perfection in this life. Thus, there must be an afterlife that exists for us to progress toward moral perfection. God exists as one who rewards virtue and punishes vice. The case for religion The Christian story offers a range of assurances absent from secular ethics: Good will ultimately win over evil. God's justice reigns over the world. God's love inspires us to moral action. Moral epistomology How is moral knowledge possible? How does one justify moral claims? Are moral claims essentially truth claims (i.e. statements about the way things are), or do they resemble statements of preference or taste? Moral objectivism The view that there are universal moral principles valid for all people and social environments. Ethical Nihlism The view that no valid moral principles exist, that morality is a complete fiction. Moral relativism Moral principles are relative to some independent agent and/or culture Subjectivism Moral principles are justified by virtue of their acceptance by individual agents. "Morality is in the eye of the beholder." Conventionalism Moral principles are justified by virtue of their acceptance by particular cultures. Moral absolutism : a position that claims there are objective universal principles valid for all people and all social environments, principles which are nonoverrideable. Thomas Aquinas and Natural Law Theory There exists an eternal moral law binding upon all humanity. This law, while established by God, corresponds with human nature and reason. Natural law is accessible to all via human reason. All of human life has a natural end; what is right corresponds to what furthers achievement of these ends. Principle of Double Effect sometimes it is permissible to cause a harm as a side effect (or "double effect") of bringing about a good result even though it would not be permissible to cause such a harm as a means to bringing about the same good end. Four Conditions of PDE The nature-of-the-act condition: The action must be either morally good or indifferent. The Means-end condition: The bad effect must not be the means by which one achieves the good effect. The right-intention condition: The bad effect must only an unintended side-effect of the action. The bad effect may be foreseen, but it may not be intended. The proportionality condition: The good effect must be at least equivalent in importance to the bad effect. Prima facie duties rules that we should generally adhere to unless there are compelling reasons to act differently. Relative absolutism (in which there are no duties that apply equally to all cultures Core Morality constitutes those moral principles that are binding on all rational beings. Ethical situtationalism Objective moral principles are to be applied differently in different contexts. This is not relativism. Situationalism assumes that there are universal moral principles; it does, however, admit that these principles will operate differently because of cultural diversity. Intrinsic values things that are valuable for their own sake. Some proposed examples: Pleasure Joy Avoidance of Pain Instrumental values Things that are valuable for helping us to attain things that are intrinsically valuable. Some examples: Wealth Medicine Food Example of instrumental + intrinsic values knowledge and health Hedonists assert that the only thing that is an intrinsic value is pleasure Two types of hedonists Sensualists: Equate pleasure with sensual enjoyment. Satisfactionists: Equate pleasure with the satisfaction of interests (only some of which are sensual). Nonhedonists argue that some value(s) other than pleasure are important to the good life. Two types of nonhedonists Monists believe that there is a single intrinsic good but that this good is not pleasure (e.g. Plato). Pluralists believe that there are multiple intrinsic goods, including things like knowledge, friendship, beauty, freedom, love, etc. Plato and the good life Each part of the soul has its corresponding virtue: ReasonWisdom SpiritednessCourage Bodily AppetitesModeration The good life is found when I fulfill all three parts of myself. Our lives need to be rightly ordered, with reason ruling over our passions and appetites. A classical example of objectivist accounts of value. Plato and three human natures reason- the philosopher "wise" [ruler], spiritdness- the warrior "courageous" [gurardian], bodily appetites- craftsman, money makers, "moderate" [ruled] Aristotle the good life and the good society 4 Principles: All things in nature have a natural end (e.g. an acornan oak tree). The natural end is good for a thing, and that which impedes achieving this end is bad. City-states are self-sufficient and exist to promote the good life. Individuals need community to achieve the good life. The wellbeing of a community depends on right rule. state of nature humans live outside of government, free to pursue their own wants, desires, and interests. Thomas Hobbes a world in motion The world does not naturally tend toward rest (contra Aristotle). The world is unruly, inhabited by humans driven to and fro by instinct and impulse. Motion and conflict are inevitable facets of life in this world Hobbes' view on the state of nature "nasty, brutish, and short." why do we need moral rules in society? Rules reduce human suffering and promote human flourishing. Rules also help us to address conflicts of interest when we lay claim to the same things. Rules help us to determine what is praise/blameworthy and how people should be compensated. psychological egoism a reductive view of human nature that doesn't account for the possibility of human altruism. two types of egoism Psychological egoism: empirical—a position that claims that humans always act to further their own interests. Ethical egoism: moral—a position that claims that humans ought to act in ways that further their own interests. Augustine argues that sin leads human love to become disordered. Proper ordering of loves: Love of God Love of Neighbor Love of Self Love of "Lesser Things" The hedonist paradox Those who intentionally aim at pursuing happiness are often those who are least happy. We achieve happiness only by pursuing other worthy things for their own sake. ethical egoism We ought always to act in ways that further our own self-interest. paradox of egoism Friendship is part of our best interest. Friendship requires that I value my friend for his or her own sake. So for me to be an egoist I have to give up egoism to some degree by sharing relationships that have some degree of altruism. challenge to ethical egoism (posterity problem) the problem of future generations Telos goal or end consequentialism theories of obligation evaluate the right on the basis of whether or not an action maximizes the good ethical universalism one ought to do only that which produces the greatest balance of good over evil in the universe ("utilitarianism"). consequentialist principle the rightness or wrongness of an act is determined by the goodness or badness of the consequences of the act. utility principle The only thing that is good in itself is some specific state—happiness, pleasure, fulfillment of preferences, etc. CONTINUED...