Final Study Guide 1 Argument An argument consists of a set of premises that are meant to give us reason to believe that a conclusion is true It is a chain of thought in which reasons premises are offered in support of a particular conclusion Example 1 If A then B 2 A 3 Therefore B 2 Validity A quality of how multiple statements relate to each other such as the premises supporting the conclusion The truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion Example 1 Today is either Saturday or Sunday 2 Today is not Sunday 3 Therefore today is Saturday 3 Soundness A good argument is a sound argument When the premises of an argument are true and there is support and validity soundness is created If the premises are true then the conclusion MUST be true Example 1 Socrates is a man 2 All men are mortal 3 Therefore Socrates is mortal 4 Hedonism The view that pleasure is the only thing that is intrinsically valuable and that pain or unhappiness is the only thing that is intrinsically bad Hedonists view that the best life is the one that has the most pleasure and least amount of pain Example Euthanizing a patient that is in a lot of pain and persistently requests to be killed would decrease the amount of misery in the world 5 Supererogatory Requires you to go beyond the call of duty Supererogatory acts are morally good although not strictly required no such thing to consequentialism Example An act that goes beyond the call of duty is if an innocent bystander walking down the street runs into a burning building to save the lives of victims trapped inside 6 Consequentialism Consequentialism is the idea that the morality of actions policies motives or rules depends on producing the best result and maximizing the amount of goodness in the world Consequentialism aims to maximize the balance of goodness over badness in the world endorse hedonism and endorse impartiality Example Pushing a fat man off the bridge in front of a train in order to save 5 lives 7 Virtue Ethics An ethical theory that says that an action is morally right just because it is something that a virtuous person acting in character would have done in that situation Example An example of a virtuous person is someone who has consistent and reliable habits their emotions guide them in the right direction they have the natural inclination to act well and practical wisdom 8 Thought Experiment Create a fictional scenario meant to parallel a real world scenario Fictional scenario can be a far fetched science fiction type scenario but differences between scenarios cannot be morally relevant The task is to seek morally relevant differences between the fictional scenario and real life Example Judith Jarvis Thomson creates a thought experiment of an individual kidnapped for their kidneys by a famous violinist to parallel the real life situation of being raped and impregnated She says it is morally permissible to unplug from the violinist and abort the fetus 9 Prima Facie Wrong Primarily wrong yet wrongness of an action can be overridden by other weightier moral consideration Example Marquis s belief that abortion is impermissible 10 Two human limitations emphasized by Public Choice Economics Two human limitations emphasized by Public Choice Economics is the limitation of motivation meaning we are not extremely altruistic angels but are often motivated by self interest The second limitation is the limitation of knowledge we often are incapable of understanding complex phenomena and solving complex problems 11 Broken Window Fallacy Proposed by philosopher Frederic Bastiat where a young hoodlum breaks a window of a local bakery the repairman takes money from the baker to fix the window but if the window was never broken he could have used that money to stimulate other parts of the economy Example This fallacy is often used to show how going to war does not stimulate the economy 12 Hazlitt s One Lesson in Economics The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act of policy it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups 13 Empathy Distinctions of empathy correlate with moral distinctions we don t have to be saints to avoid wrong doing Empathy is a problem to overcome Example Seeing a child drowning in a fountain and saving the child 14 Emotions Somatic Marker Hypothesis An important role of human emotions is to guide our behavior and decision making When it comes to morality our emotions such as empathy help us detect what our moral obligations are and motivate us to fulfill them Example When you give money to a homeless man on the streets because you feel guilty for his misfortune 15 Natural Right The natural right of self ownership imposes a duty on others to respect that right Example refraining from unjustified coercion 16 Self Ownership Individuals own their own bodies A person has the right to exercise control over his own body in a manner similar to the way one may exercise control over one s other property Example the former belief that a woman has the right to do what she wants with her own body the latter belief that the fetus is a distinct person and the woman does not have the right to harm its body 17 Political Authority The hypothesized moral property that permits governments to coerce people in certain ways not permitted to anyone else and that imposes an obligation on citizens to obey governments in most situations in which they would not be obligated to obey anyone else Example Police officer has a right to arrest you for committing murder but an ordinary person does not have the right to lock you in their basement because you murdered someone 18 Coercion A person s use of physical force violence or threat to use it against another person Example torture 19 The Method of Intuitionism I shall start from moral premises that are initially relatively uncontroversial common sense morality We must then attempt to reason from these premises to conclusions about the problem of political authority 20 Tacit Consent Every man that hath any possession or enjoyment of any part of the dominions of any government doth hereby give his tacit consent John Locke By enjoying the benefits of living under a government a citizen acquires the duty to obey and cooperate with that government 21 Principle of Fair Play Everyone who participates in a reasonably just mutually beneficial cooperative practice has an obligation to bear a fair
View Full Document
Unlocking...