dPHIL 140 Mark Engelbert 10/21/12Fall Midterm Study Guide Empirical claims: A claim that can either be proven or disproven. Empirical claims can be thought of as “is.” (subject to scientific observation)Normative claims: A claim that is concerned with an ideal standard. These claims can be thought of as how the world “should be” (or “should not be”.) (good, bad, right, wrong)Moral theory: A set of general moral principles that explains what feature all good (and bad) actions have in common and offers guidance in cases where people disagree. The moral theories that we’re concerned with are utilitarianism, contractualism, and virtue ethics. Moral principle: tells you what to do in a certain situation. Moral principles follow moral theories.Consequentialism/Utilitarianism: A moral theory that states that we should always choose what produces the best possible outcome (with least negative outcome). Singer is an example of a utilitarianist. Think about the scale; whichever thing has the best outcome utilitarianists would say would be the most rational outcome to follow. Contractualism: A moral theory based on a (hypothetical) social contract where rational agents buy into a contract to determine what the rules of society should be. Carruthers is an example of a contractualist.Virtue Ethics: A moral theory which states that the basis of morality is moral character. It puts emphasis on virtues such as empathy, kindness, compassion, and honesty. Slote would be a good example of a virtue ethicist. Carruthers uses some virtue ethics principles when he says that torturing animals is wrong because it reflects poor character, which can have negative impacts on society/ other humans.Harm Principle: States that the actions (rights) of individuals can be justifiably limited by the government if they are causing (or would cause) demonstrable harm to others.Morally Prohibited: Actions that are not allowed from a moral standpoint (the example that Mark so loves is “throwing people into a van and stealing their organs”). If we commit a morally prohibited act, we are subject to moral criticism, and are liable to be punished (maybe). It’s morally prohibited to fail to perform a morally obligatory action.Morally Permissible: Actions that are allowed from a moral standpoint and that fall into three more narrow subcategories. Those are:Morally Neutral: Acts that are neither good nor bad. An example would be a person blowing his/her nose.Morally Obligatory: A moral duty that we have to live up to. An example would be a human taking care of his/her child. Failing to live up to a morally obligatory responsibility is morally prohibited.Morally Supererogatory: Actions that go above and beyond our moral obligations and are morally praiseworthy. An example would be giving a kidney away to a person in need. Animals – Why the following objections to moral vegetarianism are flawed:Vegetarian/vegan diets are unhealthy – Vegetarian and vegan diets can prove to be just as healthy, if not healthier, than diets with meat as a staple. An example is Scott Jurek, the 100-mile endurance race runner. No real evidence that the diets are unhealthy.Vegan diets are expensive – Vegan/vegetarian diets can be WAY cheaper than normal diets. If one were to live on just beans and rice, with fruits, vegetables, and tofu occasionally, living as a vegan would be extremely affordable; vegans are not more disadvantaged than non-vegans, everyone faces the same price challenges (other people should be eating just as many fruits and vegetables as well.)Predator species eat other animals all the time – The behavior of non-humans is not subject to moral evaluation. Animals do not have capacity for moral thinking. Why should we use animals as a model for human behavior?Humans are evolved/designed to eat meat – Just because we’re evolved to do so does not mean that it’s ok/that we should. I.E. humans have evolved to wage war, rape, etc. (if premise true then we would have to agree that waging war and rape are morally okay.) Pornography and Free Speech-Non-conscious attitudes in the argument against pornography: We saw that when the participants were primed with “old themed” words, they exhibited stereotypes of older people. The same principle applies with pornography. Pornography may cause people to acquire subconscious attitudes about women’s sexuality (and social/sexual norms) and may subconsciously affect one’s actions.-The moral issue of pornography is separable from the legal/policy issue of the censorship of pornography because behaviors that may be immoral should not be censored unless (it can be proven that) they harm anyone. (Also issue of “slippery slope” and importance of free speech.)Sex: the biological phenomenon of procreationSexuality: the ways that we understand ourselves as sexual beings, and what we find erotic. Sexuality is a culturally constructed concept.Pornography can be related to sexual violence in the sense that it can be used to make sexual violence intelligible(understandable). It contributes to the space of reasons that we use to explain sexual violence. Poverty and International Aid-Emphasis on different aspects of commonsense morality could lead to discrepancies between what is or is not morally supererogatory/obligatory etc. For example, Singer’s very strict moral theory would argue that giving to foreign aid agencies is morally obligatory, whereas nearlyeveryone else would argue that such an act is more morally supererogatory. (normal impulse/thought vs what Singer says is obligatory) Advantages of a highly demanding moral theory: -People generally rise or fall to the expectations that are set for them.-Gives something to aspire to, reason to try harder. Disadvantages of a highly demanding moral theory: -People will give up on having moral values if the standards are set too high. -We lose important distinctions between moral agents (saints vs psychopaths) Brief Summaries of Philosophical ArgumentsFor premises, E = Empirical claim, N = Normative claimAnimal RightsSinger: Singer argues that animals feel pain and distress when subject to harsh treatment, as a result, we should place their welfare somewhere into our moral consideration. If not, we would be exhibiting speciesism. Because animals on factory farms are being put through such harsh treatment and we can nourish ourselves in other ways, it is wrong to eat meat; especially when it