Philosophy 140 Lecture 3 Relativism Descriptive describing the ethics of society and prescriptive ethics morally permissible Cultural descriptive Ethical Prescriptive Just because people think them doesn t mean they are true You cannot derive from the fact that certain people are behaving a way from the parts of the world but you can derive that they mold them but it doesn t say what you ought to do Benedict s argument was not given good reasons to think that her hypothesis is the best one She gave a bad abductive argument Compare P1 some people think the earth is flat P2 Some people think the earth is round C The earth is neither flat nor round Is the conclusion the best explanation NO One might think that the comparison with facts about the earth is wrong because morality is different Right now we can learn facts about the earth If something is not provable why do you want to believe it It is impossible for us to prove which moral opinions are true and which ones are false Evaluative consequentialism whether an action is morally right depends on the value of consequences Maximizing the act consequentialism an act is morally right just in case it produces the best consequences it maximizes the good Ethical egoism defines the good as whatever the good is for me Happiness is a techinal term here meaning well being You can have lower and higher order goods Slavery what is having 5 of the population as slaves maximizes the good Fat man organ transplant scenarios According to deontological theories an action is right just incase it accords with the proper set of moral rules Different views Divine command theory What god commands Kantian Duty Ethics by reason duty ethics Universal ethical norm Moral Law If lying were permitted by law no one would trust each other Deontologists claim that at least some actions would be wrong to preform Justification of the rules Dilemmas trolley cases Nazi case Flower guy is it permissible to sell flowers Virtue ethics can be identified as the one that emphasizes the moral character and the intentions Cultural relaitivty are virtues and vices the same in every culture Justification of the virtues vices Abortion The killing of the fetus Killing a human being Permissible or not Sperm Ovum Conception Sperm fertilizing ovum Zygote fertilizing ovum Embryo unborn baby Birth Neonate Sentience When brain activity begins Quickening The poing in which the mother can feel the fetus move Viability The point in which the fetus can survive outside the womb Potential The is the potential of an entity to become human Nearly half o pregnancy amount Americans are aborted Fetuses are like paradigmatic beings that your ought not to kill Sperm and ovua do not seem to prima facie to have such moral status
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