Utilitarianism - Answers Account of human welfare or utility, Instruction to maximize utility,
giving equal weight to each person's utility
Distinction Between Standard of Rightness and Decision Procedure - Answers People should
keep promises and respect rights. Should not be U-Agents using utilitarian calculations reasons
for actions. Promises and rights should be of such importance that they are incurable to social
interest calculations.
Political Impact of Utilitarianism In Its Early Days vs Contemporary Society - Answers Early Days
- practises were the product not reason, but of feudal superstition, progressive and reform
minded, commitment to secularism and maximization (enhance rights of majority)
Contemporary - surprisingly conformists, rights force majority to accept policies not in the
interest of majority
Rawl's Theory of Justice - Answers All social primary goods equally distributed, Remove
inequalities which disadvantage others, Protect basic liberties.
Original Position - Answers Equality as moral persons, No one knows their place in society
(class, social position, fortune in terms of assets, abilities, intelligence, strengths and so on),
Max-Min strategy.
Primary Goods - Answers Certain things needed to pursue the ideal life.
Social Primary Goods - directly distributed by social institutions (income, wealth) Natural
Primary Goods - health, itelligence, vigour, imagination and natural talents, affected by social
institutions but not distributed by them
Dworkin's Insurance to Compensate For Inequalities of Natural Primary Goods - Answers They
start off in the original position with equal resources. Everyone can choose how much of the
resources to spend on insurance against having inequalities. Income tax would be used to pay
out insurances, and everyone must buy it.
Dworkin's Idea of an Auction To Distribute Social Primary Goods - Answers All resources are up
for sale. Equal Purchasing Power. Bid for resources which best suit their lifestyle. Rerun if it
does not work out. Everyone should prefer their bundle over another's (Envy Test). Each person
pays for their choices.
Nozick's Claim That Theory of Just Holdings Requires 3 Principles - Answers Transfer - what
acquired can be justly acquired. Initial Acquisition - account of how people come initially to own
things which can be transferred according to (one). Rectification of Injustice - how to deal with
holdings if they were unjustly acquired or transferred.
, Why Distribution of Wealth is Unjust On Nozick's Theory - Answers Capitalists have no right to
deprive workers of access to resources. Should redistribute wealth. Unjustly taken wealth from
others.
Skepticism About Morality - Answers Nothing right or wrong in people's actions. Better to refrain
from harming others if others also refrain from harming me.
No point to waste resources defending if we can be in stable cooperation.
If actions rejected of moral status, moral constraints must be artificial, rest on advantageous
conventions.
Prisoner's Dilemma - Answers Not confessing is the collectively rational choice, while
confessing is the individually rational choice.
Morality As Enlightened Self-Interest - Answers Should be countersigned by morality as defined
by mutually advantageous conventions.
Ought to follow these conventions if others trusted to.
Obligations before self-interest.
Traditionalist groups and "the liberal view of rational revisability" - Answers For liberals, how
should they deal with those who do not value autonomy (Traditionalists)?
Rawls' political liberalism and how it addresses that conflict - Answers A strong right of
individual freedom of conscience can protect smaller groups from being tormented by larger
groups (applies to religious and political groups).
The social thesis - Answers Its ideas include: Certain capacities that are distinctively human.
One of these is the capacity to decide: to choose, on the basis of reasons, what to judge, or
what to do (self-determination).
The full development of these capacities (including self-determination) can take place only in a
certain kind of society.
Why shared commitment to liberal-democratic values isn't enough to hold a country together -
Answers Minorities will often want self-governing rights and extra privileges simply because
they are not a majority.