PHI 2630 Ethical Issues and Life Choices Study Guide Ethics the role of ethics is to figure out which actions are right and which actions are wrong from a moral standpoint Not subjective or merely a matter of opinion Every view is equally right We have good reason to believe some are right and some are wrong The right ethical views are those which tell us correctly what things are morally right Be properly justified supported which is why they should Incorporate or at least be comparable the available evidence empirical research and what things are morally wrong Ethical views should 1 2 Be based on arguments 3 Be consistent no contradictions Ethical views should not 1 Be based on biases 2 Knee jerk immediate reactions 3 Emotions 4 Hunches 5 Peer pressure Moral Dumbfounding when our views or moral issues are based on gut instinct reactions No justification Ex cleaning bathrooms interracial marriage Reasoning Errors Fallacies 1 Fallacy of Majority Belief based justified on the majority opinion 2 Fallacy of Common Practice it proceeds from a statement about what most people typically do concluding that it is the right thing to do Ex lie to your friends morality is not determined by majority opinion or practice 3 Appeal to False Authority taking someone s view on something because of who they are even when they are not an expert on the topic Ex Tom Cruise s view on medication 4 False Dilemma make it seem as if there are only two options to choose from Ex gun control 5 Slippery Slope if you don t do something all these bad things will happen no relevant connection Ex legalizing marijuana gay marriage 6 Ad Hominem Ad Hominem Circumstantial o Attacking the person not the argument o Personal attacks o Circumstance attacks based on friends jobs etc More Reasoning Errors Conflation of morality with legality o Morality is not the law ex Something is illegal It s immoral Something is legal It s moral Something is immoral It should be illegal Something is moral It should be legal Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc after the fact then before the fact Ex Friends episode with Rachel and Joey and the fridge needing to be fixed Mistaking Correlation for Causation appear at the same time Ex ice cream vs homicide Hasty Generalization Fallacy generalize a sample of people things based on one person Ex I was cut off three times on the way to school all Tallahassee drivers are bad The Perfectionist Fallacy it doesn t solve things perfectly so it s not good Ex background checks on guns won t prevent EVERYONE from getting guns so it s not a good plan Straw Man Ignore the real argument 1 2 Create a pretend argument 3 Defeat the pretend argument 4 Claim victory over the real argument 5 Do a victory dance Ex assisted suicide opponent might say people could go around murdering people Introduction to Ethics Normative Ethics the branch of ethics concerned with giving a general account of what is right wrong Some leading moral theories o Will fill in this biconditional an action is right wrong if and only if 1 Consequentialism results based theory an action is right if and only if its consequences would be at least as good as the consequences of any alternative action that the agent might instead perform o Act consequentialism any version of consequentialism according to which it is the net intrinsic value of the consequences of particular alternative actions open to an agent in some situation that determines the rightness or wrongness of those alternative actions o Rule consequentialism the view that rightness and wrongness of an action depends on whether it is required permitted or prohibited by a rule whose consequences are best o We can determine rightness wrongness of doing something solely by looking at the consequences caused by that action o This means that no type of action is inherently wrong not even murder o value based maximizing alternative actions comparative impartial short long term consequences One prominent version of consequentialism 2 Utilitarianism maximizing happiness and welfare o Prominent version of consequentialism 3 Hedonistic Utilitarianism Bentham Mill o Consequentialism an action is right just in the case it has the best consequences o Hedonism pleasure is the only thing that is valuable o Universalism the consequences for every being including non humans such as animals at every time are relevant 4 Rule Consequentialism an action is right if it is in accord with that set of rules the universal acceptance of which would make things go best o Act Consequentialism and Rule Consequentialism might give us different reasons in the same situation ex stealing 5 Deontological theories duty based o Some actions are wrong right in themselves regardless of the consequences o Our moral obligations are not entirely tied with the consequences of our actions consequences o There are some things that are always wrong even if they produce really good o There are universal more rules it is always wrong to kill innocent people 6 Kantian Moral Theory suggests the following principle of morality Categorical Imperative o Formula of humanity act in such a way that you treat humanity whether in your own person or in the person f any other never merely as a means to an end but always at the same time as the end o Ex rape o Ex trolley case 7 Ross Ethics of Prima Facie Duty o According to Ross there is a series of prima facie duties including Fidelity Justice Reparation righting past wrongs make amends Gratitude Non maleficence you shouldn t harm Beneficence helping people Self improvement o These duties do not reduce any others o When duties clash we must use our common sense to decide which one takes precedence 8 Virtue Theory o Virtue theorists understand what I right in terms of the virtuous A virtuous agent is one who has virtues desirable character traits honesty courage Vices are bad character traits greed o An action is wrong if and only if and because it would not be performed by a Prescriptive normative morality is relative to culture place Descriptive different cultures have different moral codes According to prescriptive normative relativism no moral code is objectively better virtuous agent Relativism than any others Free Speech Key issues o The clash of different individual rights o The relationship between an individual and the society o The role of the gov and limits of its intervention o The relationship between the moral and legal question First Amendment constitutionally unprotected categories
View Full Document
Unlocking...