Download Moral Philosophy: Deontic Concepts, Ethical Relativism, and Psychological Egoism and more Quizzes Introduction to Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity!
What kinds of things are deontic concepts
typically used to describe? Given an example
of a deontic concept.
Deontic concepts are concepts used to evaluate the moral status of actions (such as your keeping a promise, your telling a lie, your betraying a friend, or your helping someone in need). These concepts are part of its theory of right conduct. The main deontic concepts are right, wrong, obligatory, and permissible. TERM 2
- Explain the difference between a things
being (a) intrinsically good, and its being (b)
extrinsically good.
DEFINITION 2 Intrinsic value: the value a thing has just because of its nature, not because of its relation to anything else. Extrinsic value: the value a thing has because of its relation to something else. TERM 3
- According to Ethical Cultural Relativism,
when is an action morally right?
DEFINITION 3 A persons performing an act is morally right if and only if her performing that act is deemed to be morally right by the culture to which that person belongs (and similarly for the act being wrong) TERM 4
- State and briefly explain TWO objections to
Ethical Cultural Relativism.
DEFINITION 4 Problem 1: ECR rejects the legitimacy of moral criticism of cultural practices (such as slavery) that most of us think is appropriate. Problem 2: If ECR is true, then there can be no such thing as moral progress. Problem 3: If ECR is true, then the radical moral reformer is simply promoting immorality. TERM 5
- Explain the difference between Ethical
Cultural Relativism and Individual Ethical
Relativism.
DEFINITION 5 ECR: A persons performing an act is morally right if and only if her performing that act is deemed to be morally right by the culture to which that person belongs (and similarly for the act being wrong) IER: What is right and wrong is determined by what a person thinks is right and wrong.
- State and briefly explain TWO objections to
Individual Ethical Relativism.
Problem 1: IER leaves no room for moral mistakes. Whatever you believe is right is right for you (no matter how crazy it is). Problem 2. No one may legitimately criticize someone who does what he thinks is right, no matter how harmful the act is. Problem 3. No person can make genuine moral progress but just undergo a change of mind. TERM 7
- According to the Divine Command Theory,
what makes an action right or wrong?
DEFINITION 7 An act is morally right or wrong if and only if God command or approves it, or if and only if God permits or disapproves of the act. TERM 8
- What is Euthyphros dilemma (you dont need
to explain here how it might ground an
objection to the Divine Command Theory)?
DEFINITION 8 Does God command an act because it is the morally right action, or is it the morally right action because God commands it? TERM 9
- Briefly explain how Euthyphros dilemma
shows that the Divine Command Theory is
inconsistent with the claim that God always
acts with good reason (i.e. how it shows that
either the Divine Command Theory is false, or
that God does not always act with good
reason).
DEFINITION 9 First answer: God commands an act because it is morally right action. This presupposes that morality is independent of what God commands. If this answer is correct, then the Divine Command Theory is false. Second option: The morally right action is morally right because God commands it. This is consistent with the Divine Command Theory i.e. this is the answer a supporter of the Divine Command Theory needs to defend. TERM 10
-State TWO objections to the Divine
Command Theory.
DEFINITION 10 Problem 1: Which God (or Gods)? Problem 2: Which texts? EX: Old or New Testament
-Explain the difference between Active-
Desire-Fulfillment-Psychological-Egoism and
Lifetime-Desire-Fulfillment-Psychological-
Egoism.
Lifetime-Desire-Fulfillment PE: Our only motivation is to try to maximize the satisfaction of our self-regarding desires over the course of our lifetime Active-Desire-Fulfillment PE: We always act from some active self-regarding desire, but dont necessarily try to maximize satisfaction of our desires over the long-term. TERM 17
-Describe a case that suggests that Lifetime-
Desire-Fulfillment-Psychological Egoism is
false.
DEFINITION 17 Sometimes we just act on the impulse of the moment, without thought for the long-term. EX: Ron lights up a cigarette, without thinking about lung cancer. TERM 18
-Describe a case that suggests that Active-
Desire-Fulfillment-Psychological Egoism is
false.
DEFINITION 18 One kind of counterexample would be acts done from a desire to help others: 1. Virginia Postrel, who donated a kidney to the author of Desperately Seeking a Kidney 2. Parents acting to help their children. 3. A soldier sacrificing his own life to save others from a suicide bomber TERM 19
-Describe a case that suggests that
Hedonistic-Psychological-Egoism is false.
DEFINITION 19 If you had to make this decision, would you pick Choice A (your sister is killed but you spend the rest of your life believing she is alive and helping orphans in Afghanistan), or Choice B (your sister is alive and helping the orphans, but you spend the rest of your life believing she has been killed)? According to Hedonistic PE, you would make the decision by calculating which choice would lead to the maximum number of enjoyable states of consciousness (warm glows) for yourself over the rest of your life (say, 60 years). TERM 20
-What is a counterexample? Given a
counterexample to the claim that all fruit are
yellow.
DEFINITION 20 A counterexample is a single example that proves a universal claim is false. Bananas are yellow.
- James Rachels describes two arguments
that have been given in favor of Psychological
Egoism. Briefly describe one of these
arguments, and describe one of Rachels
objection to this argument.
(1) Provided that an act is done voluntarily, the agent always does what he most wants to do. (2) Doing what one wants to do just is acting in ones own interest i.e. acting out of self-interest. so, (3) The only motive from which anyone ever acts is self-interest. Argument to premise (1): This premises presupposes that all voluntary acts involve people doing what they want to do. Rachels offers a counterexample to this claim: suppose you keep a promise you made because you feel you ought to keep it even when you really dont want to. TERM 22
-Give an example in which it is plausible to
think that (a) you act on a desire, yet (b) you
do not act in your own self-interest.
DEFINITION 22 Example: suppose I give you flowers because I want you to be happy. This act is not motivated by self-interest. If the object of my desire is the good of another (e.g. I want you to be happy), then I am not acting out of self-interest. TERM 23
-Explain why Ethical Egoism might advise
those who believe it not to admit this fact to
others.
DEFINITION 23 Ethical egoists will often not want others to believe that ethical egoism is true. In the hockey example, it is better for me that you dont believe EE is true. Hence, ethical egoism will likely recommend its adherents to pretend as if they dont believe it either! EE tells me that I ought to do whatever is in my best interest. If everyone (else) believed EE to be true, then social co-operation (and social life itself) would be far more difficult. It would be in my best interest if everyone (else) cooperates with one another. So, EE recommends that I convince others that some other moral theory is true. TERM 24
-State TWO objections to Ethical
Egoism.
DEFINITION 24 Example 1: most of us believe that it is morally wrong to kill someone to take their money even if it were in ones best interest. Example 2: most of us believe that one ought morally to keep a promise, even if it would be in ones best interest to keep it. If EE is true, then we would be mistaken about these and many other beliefs about the nature of morality. TERM 25
-Briefly explain Act-Utilitarianisms account of
what makes an act morally right.
DEFINITION 25 AU: An action is morally right if, and only if, of those actions available to the agent in the circumstances, it would produce the greatest total net happiness.
-Explain how Rule-Utilitarianism can plausibly
explain why it would be morally wrong for a
doctor to kill an innocent person in order to
use five of his organs to save five other
innocent persons.
RU: An act is wrong if, and only if, it is contrary to a (possible) rule, such that were society to have a practice of enforcing that rule (formally or informally), this practice would maximize overall net happiness. Requiring or allowing doctors to harvest organs would likely undermine trust in hospitals and doctors, even if very few cases. According to RU, the right act would be the act according to this rule i.e. rule 2 (never kill patients to harvest organs). TERM 32
-What is Will Crouchs Weak Claim about
ethical careers?
DEFINITION 32 The Weak Claim: typically, it is ethically preferable to pursue professional philanthropy through a morally innocuous career than to pursue a career in the charity sector. TERM 33
-What is Will Crouchs Strong Claim about
ethical careers?
DEFINITION 33 The Strong Claim: often, it is ethically preferable to pursue professional philanthropy, through a morally controversial career than to pursue professional philanthropy through a morally innocuous career. TERM 34
-Explain TWO arguments that Will Crouch
offers in support of the claim that it is
typically ethically preferable to pursue a
career as a professional philanthropist than a
career as a charity worker.
DEFINITION 34 (1)The financial discrepancy argument With the extra money Sophie could make with the lucrative job, she could (i) pay for someone better qualified than herself to take her place as a charity worker and she could also (ii ) pay for several other charity workers (positions that would not otherwise exist). (2) The Fungibility Argument Money is fungible i.e. it can be used to further almost any cause. A professional philanthropist can chose to donate to the very best cause. A charity worker likely cannot choose to work for the best cause there is. TERM 35
-According to Will Crouch, what is a
professional philanthropist?
DEFINITION 35 A professional philanthropist: someone who deliberately pursues a lucrative i.e. high-paying career in order to donate a substantial proportion of their earnings to the best causes. E.g. become an investment banker earning $400,000/year (average over work-life)in order to donate 75% to charity.
-Explain why Will Crouch believes that it is
often ethically preferable to pursue
professional philanthropy via a morally
controversial career than via a morally
innocuous career.
Often, morally controversial careers are more lucrative than morally innocuous ones. If you earn more money, you can give more away, and so make more of a difference (save/improve more lives). This argument only supports the Strong Claim if there is no other moral reason to prefer morally innocuous to morally controversial careers. TERM 37
-Why does Will Crouch not regard the danger
of corruption as a worrisome objection to his
views regarding ethical career choice (and
what exactly does he mean by corruption)?
DEFINITION 37 Corruption: working in a lucrative profession, one might be seduced by the trappings of the lifestyle and so give up on ones goal to give away lots of money. To mitigate the risk of corruption, you could publicly declare ones intentions. One more reasons: (1) These worries (burnout, corruption) would suggest that it is only better to be a charity worker than a professional philanthropist because some young people are weak-willed That is not the common-sense view!! TERM 38
According to utilitarianism, money is
intrinsically morally valuable
DEFINITION 38 False TERM 39
If Psychological Egoism is false, then Ethical
Egoism must be false
DEFINITION 39 False
