Study Guide for Exam Fall 2013 Ethical Issues As a reminder the following texts have been covered or assigned Fundamentals of Ethics Introduction Chs 1 3 and Chs 11 12 The Ethical Life EL 17 Trying Out One s New Sword Mary Midgley EL 1 Letter to Menoeceus Epicurus EL 2 John Stuart Mill Hedonism Selections from Plato and Aristotle posted to Blackboard from the Republic and Nicomachean Ethics respectively EL 11 Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle EL 8 The Good Will and the Categorical Imperative Immanuel Kant For the test you should be able to 1 Explain what Mary Midgley means by moral isolationism Give and briefly explain the questions that she puts to the moral isolationist to show that it is an impossible position Because we cannot understand other cultures we cannot judge them o Moral isolationism o Moral isolationists the world is divided into separate societies sealed units each with its own system of thought they feel that the respect and tolerance due from one system to another forbids us from ever taking up a critical position to any other culture Moral judgment can only stay inside own country of origin Her five arguments o There is contradiction between the claim that we cannot understand these cultures and the claim that we must respect them We have to know understand someone enough to make a favorable judgment i e we cannot understand someone so we must respect we can understand others o Does the barrier keep others from criticizing us If we accept critiques if western civilization offered by members from other cultures we should be willing to accept that we re going to critique others o Does the isolating barrier block praise as well as blame If we accept praise there is no barrier that will block forbid critical assessment o What s involved in judging moral isolationists do this Crude judgments Judgment per se Objecting to crude judgment doesn t mean full objection Her claim is o Judging is a loaded word There s a lot about our own culture we don t understand Could not judge within our own culture o If we can t judge other cultures can we really judge our own We use comparison of other cultures to critique criticize what we want to understand model after stay away from in our own culture o Ethical relativism more radical version of we cannot judge accepting the claim that we cannot judge others is just a We need moral judgment As an example to aim at or avoid Without it we would have no framework of comparison for our own policy o No chance of profiting from others insights or mistakes o Internally self contradictory Angry at others despising oppressing steamrolling other cultures We think this is wrong that thought is a moral judgment o We re not all just a quirk of our own culture Actual consequences of M I inaction and suspension of all moral judgment o Midgley won t accept that o She will justify a Samurai s not so moral position on life because there is no right for her criticism o It is possible to understand explain and morally approve of foreign customs Internal contradiction here o Her attack on the fundamental assumption If isolating barriers existed our culture couldn t have been formed All cultures are formed out of many streams We all have to deal with digesting and assimilating things o At the beginning they didn t understand everyone s 2 Explain why Epicurus thinks we should believe that death is nothing to us While you re alive you don t have to deal with being dead o You don t have to deal with it when you re dead either because you re not there when we exist death is not yet present and when death is present we do not exist irrelevant even though it causes considerable anxiety worry only creates an umbrella over the experience of living o people either believe there s life after death and you must please the gods as to not be punished in their after life o OR they re saddened terrified at lack of existence afterwards Souls dissipate when we die Even the stuff that keeps us in tact doesn t matter Only thing that matters is continuity of experience o Severed by parting of body and soul We already know what it s like not to exist before birth Nothing bad about not existing or if a friend doesn t exist anymore either It s an ingratitude to resent the limitations of life o It s like a greedy dinner guest who expects an indefinite number of courses and refuses to leave the table 3 Explain Mill s distinction between higher and lower pleasures Give an example of each kind of pleasure Explain why the distinction is important for his philosophical views Higher o Strive for this o Appropriate for humans o Mental pleasure o Friendships o People choose over different pleasure even if it s accompanied by discomfort and won t trade for any amount of pleasure o Intellectual pleasures Reading a good book Seeing a good play Edifying pleasures o Great pizza and beer o Add and supplement for other things o Sensual pleasures Best of food drink sleep sex etc Lower Unquestionable fact given equal access to all kinds of pleasure people choose those that appeal to their higher faculties o Won t choose to be an animal o Won t choose to be ignorant Highest good is what produces the most pleasure o Are the intellectual pleasures really the most pleasurable Ex Most pleasurable physical pleasure sex Most pleasurable intellectual pleasure curiosity maybe o A book you cannot put down Compare the two o Reading an amazing book you cannot put down o Sex is available But person is infinitely patient and willing to wait Do you o A put down the book and defer it for an hour for sex o B defer sex and finish reading If you choose o A Mill is onto something o B utilitarianism is nothing 4 Explain Mill s argument for why we should believe that pleasure is desirable Happiness is pleasure in presence of happiness Happiness and happiness alone is desired as an end His arguments o If anything is desired as an end we have the only evidence we could have that is desirable as an end If it s visible someone can see it If it s audible someone can hear it If it s desirable someone can desire it Objections if anything is visible it s capable of being seen Desired doesn t mean it s capable of being desired It means worthy of being desired o Happiness is desired as an end Mill Maybe And this is the only evidence we have Not enough evidence to make this claim Cannot observe happiness being good o Therefore we have the only evidence we could have that happiness is desirable as an end Each person s happiness is
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