REL 3170 01 Midterm Review Fall 2015 10 19 2015 Terms Aristotle emphasizes virtue ethics virtue ethics the role of one s character and the virtues that they use to determine or evaluate ethical behavior in explaining virtues First of all must know what he is doing Secondary he must choose to act the way he does and he must choose it for its own sake an in the third place the act must spring from a firm and unchangeable character Immanuel Kant emphasizes deontology deontology judges morally of an act by that actions adherence to rules It sometimes described as a duty deon or rule based ethic Stanley Hauerwas Christian Pacifist Reinhold Niebuhr Christian Realist Evans R2P Doctrine Virtue Ethics emphasized by Aristotle o Focus on the person s character o One should develop the kind of virtuous character that would serve as a disposition to moral action judgment and feeling o Being good is connected to living a good life o Ultimate goal is eudemonia happiness fulfillment flourishing o We are what we repeatedly do excellence then is not an act but a habit o Virtue acts Follow the phronimos habituation training Follow the Golden Mean this standard will be different for different people o Critiques Moral behavior is the mean between two extremes at one end is excess at the other deficiency Find a moderate position between those two extremes and you will be acting morally Some bad people do good and some good people do bad How does character development help Conflict of virtues Deontology emphasized by Kant o Focus on the type of act o One can know what to do by using principles gained from reason o A prior independent of experience o Categorical imperative Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should be a universal law Always act in such a way that you never treat humanity merrily as a means but always as an end itself o Kant can be extreme If a law is to have moral force it must carry with it absolute necessity Example think of the murderous mob conversation from class o Foundations and Critique Based on reason Kantianism Based on God s will Divine Command Based on human nature Natural Law Right based ethical theories Human Rights will treat consequentialism and utilitarianism as the same thing in this class Consequentialism o Focus on the overall balance of benefit over harm of the action o Varieties of Consequentialism To self ethical egoism To one s group Tribalism To everyone but oneself altruism To all concerned universalism Utilitarianism J S Mills o Happiness pleasure versus unhappiness pain o Quantity and quality o Critique Issues between consequentialism and common sense ethics Certainty over outcomes Can t privilege yourself or your family Too permissive Lindbeck s Theories of Religion o Cultural linguistic the thought that our culture background and language shape the way we view the world o Experiential expressivist think that different religions are expressions of a common core experience This experience while conscious may be on an unconscious level and is present in all human beings o Cognitivist Propositionalist stresses the ways in which religious claims function as informative propositions or truth claims Sunnah Hadith trodden path tradition and experience o Part of Islam Ethics o Example of the prophet as paradigm for believers o Collection of sayings stories about the prophet hadith o No definitive collection of a hadith exists There are a number of collections though there is more agreement around just a few o This is whatever Muhammad said did or silently confirmed Qur an recitation revelation o 114 suras chapters in order of length o incorporates narrative from Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament o analogue for Qur an not Hebrew Bible or New Testament but Jesus Christ himself Shari a o Meccan vs Medinan passages o This is poetry given to Muhammad from an angel and the main religious text o The primary foundation is composed of the Qur an and Sunnah o Islamic laws o This is considered the way to water o Requires the use of human reason but also requires a knowledge of tradition o Moral legal system o Religion is about belief Political Realism o Win at all cost o Morality does not belong in war Pacifism o Morality is the most important thing o Violence is never justified Christian Realism o It s God s job to punish us Just War o Deals with the justification of how and why wars are fought o Criteria for Jus Ad Bellum used to justify the decisions to go to war Just Cause Competent Authority Comparative Justice Right Intention Last Resort Probability of Success Proportionality Discrimination Proportionality o Criteria for Jus in Bello used to justify military actions Sex o Refers to physiological difference o Could refer to external genitalia o Novak and Paul VI suggest that it is also about how we understand ourselves in relation to the societies in which we live o Sexuality is rooted in the natural order of God o Novak s Ideal Sex Relationship Human Heterosexual Outside your family Consensual Monogamous Married o Christian Sexual Ethics Procreation Satisfaction of sexual desires or drives Marital commitment Positive affective relationship between partners Heterosexual o Changes from Augustine Aquinas reformers Sex is for bearing children Most people are not called to singleness Needs temperance It is a holy act when done in marriage o Human Vitae Marriage and sex are related to God because it symbolizes God s marriage to the church a covenant Gender o refers to personality characteristics behaviors and social rules that are expected of or assigned to an individual depending on whether that individual is male or female o Cahill Biblical Examples Paul s letters household codes supports traditional gender roles God creates women last o Wadud and Islamic Feminism Allah transcends gender meaning that women have rights Dualism the design by creation Overtime there has been a steady emancipation of women from anything even resembling slavery Monogamy Structural and Attitudinal Racism o Structural racism includes housing education voting and health o Racism is a bodily attitude o Racism in America is marked by white domination according to Coates Grace Questions From The Reading some can be answered under terms Basics o What is the main issue question raised by the Euthyphro Is something holy because it simply is or is it because God said it is holy Does doing good a good life o Name the four sources of religious moral reasoning