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Ethics in America

Terms in this set (179)

empirical (descriptive)
_____________ evaluation can be tested and is considered to be a fact.
normative (moral)
_____________ evaluation demonstrates the belief of the evaluator
empirical & normative
What are the two categories of evaluation?
normative, applied, meta-ethics
What are the 3 major categories of ethics?
normative
____________ ethics is the search for a norm or a standard of behaviors
applied
_____________ ethics is applying ethics to specific problems or issues.
meta-ethics
_____________ is the study of the terminology, systems, and concepts of ethics.
relativism vs. objectivism
consequentialists vs. deontologists
universal vs. absolute
What are three basic concepts in ethics?
objectivists
_____________ believe that their truth is absolutely true, regardless of circumstance. That is, "what is right is always right" and "what is wrong is always wrong"
relativists
_____________ believe that right and wrong are defined by cultural or individual circumstances. They do not believe that virtues and vices are fixed and absolute.
cultural relativists and personal relativists (subjectivists)
What two categories can relativists be divided into?
cultural
_____________ relativists believe that each society defines virtues and vices for that individual.
personal relativists (subjectivists)
_____________ believe that each individual defines virtues and vices for that individual
consequentialists
____________ believe that the morality (ethics) of an action is determined by the consequences of that action.
deontologists
_____________ believe that the morality (ethics) of an action is not determined by its consequences. The action is right or wrong regardless of the result.
universal
A _____________ ethical principle should apply to all people. So if it unethical for a son to lie to his father, it must also be unethical for a father to lie to his son.
absolutist
What is an exception that arises to the universal ethical principle?
absolutist
A(n) _____________ holds that an ethical principle should apply without exception. Most people today find these ethics difficult to accept/defend.
Greece, 4th & 5th century BC
Western ethical thought originated where and when?
Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
What are some prominent Greek philosophers?
Thucydides
_____________ believed that war was caused by human nature, which is unchanging (history repeats itself).
Thucydides
According to _____________, Athenians knew the concept of "a life of virtue" but simply ignored it in favor of a concept that would come to be called "might makes right"
Socrates
_____________ is regarded as the first major "ethical philosopher" and focused less on what the world is made of and more of how we should behave.
Socratic method, not
_____________ is a method of reasoning based on aggressive inquiry, in which everything is open to question. Was it popular or not at the time?
Socrates
_____________ believed that the ultimate human good is happiness, which comes from a "virtuous souls". If a person is aware of this, they will make virtuous choices in all aspects of life.
Socrates
_____________ taught that "virtue is knowledge"
virtue is knowledge
Socrates' teaching, _____________, encompassing people acting virtuously because it is good for the should, and that people who do not act virtuously do not know that non-virtuous behavior is bad for the soul (happiness/unhappiness)
The Symposium, Republic, The Apology
What are some of Plato's writings?
Republic
In _____________, Plato's most famous work, Socrates contrasts the life of virtue with a life of self-interest. He also describes the structure of the perfect city.
Philosopher kings, warriors, workers
What are the 3 classes in the "perfect city" according to Plato?
appetite, reason, spirit
Plato wrote that the soul is structured with what three distinct parts?
when ruled by a tyrant
When would the "perfect city" degenerate?
Socrates' defense at his trial
What is Plato's Apology about?
wisdom, courage, temperance, justice
What are the four fundamental virtues Plato believed were the ultimate source of happiness?
Aristotle
_____________ taught that man alone was a rational animal and that rationality should be used among other things to develop virtues.
golden mean
Aristotle believed in the _____________, an action that avoids under and over responding based on the facts of a situation.
Courage is the golden mean between cowardice and recklessness.
Give an example of the golden mean.
Aristotle
_____________ wrote Nicomachean Ethics, which proposes that virtue of character is using reason to choose and act well, and virtue of intellect is acquired wisdom or learning.
Hebrew bible
The _____________ tells of the creation of man and the relationship between god and his chosen people, the Israelites.
genesis
In _____________, man and woman are found in the garden of eden, living in a state of moral perfection. However, after disobeying god's command, they are punished by expulsion from the garden.
covenant
eventually, god offers abraham and the israelites a contract called the _____________, in which the israelites become the chosen people of god and in return, agree to obey his holy laws.
ten commandments
God renews the covenant with Moses, giving him _____________ and a body of rules by which the israelites are expected to live. They are abstract rules of behavior.
divine commands
The Hebrew bible proves a framework for acceptable behavior based on _____________, which neither offer or provide justification.
Christian bible
The _____________ is based on the concept of the golden rule.
love god, love thy neighbor
What are the two great commandments in the christian bible?
afterlife
What is the main difference between the Hebrew bible and the Christian bible?
divine command
According to the _____________ theory, what god commands is ethically right and what god prohibits is ethically wrong.
moral law
_____________ is a tradition that includes numerous variations with a common basis. It is similar to physical, scientific laws in that it is universal.
natural law theory, social contract theory, Kantism
Moral law encompasses what three theories?
natural law
Central to _____________ theory is the belief that life is immeasurably good. As a result, intentions play a major role in determining whether an action is good or bad (i.e., intentionally killing an innocent person cannot be justified by a good outcome.
double effect principle
According to the _____________ principle, action with both good and bad consequences is moral if the action is not evil, the evil is not the means to do good, the evil is not intended, and there are sufficiently good reasons for permitting the evil.
stoicism
_____________ is a form of natural law theory that suggests that individuals have a duty to follow nature rather than convention. They emphasized rationality and emotional control.
Epictetus, St. Thomas Aquinas
Who are some notable Stoics?
Epictetus
_____________ was a Grecian who believed that to lead a happy, virtuous life in the midst of uncertainty, one should "do what is in accordance with nature".
St Thomas Aquinas
_____________ was a Dominican monk and teacher who created a structure of natural law theory that was the basis for western ethics for hundreds of years. Taught that all existence is subject to God's eternal law, which defines good and evil.
Summa Theologica
St Thoma Aquinas's _____________ is one of the most coherent and plausible ethical arguments since the Greek period.
St Thomas Aquinas
Who believed that to act against one's conscience is always a sin?
St. Thomas Aquinas
Who wrote that natural laws are self-evident and that an unjust law is no law at all.
social contract theory
_____________ proposes that ethics are the result of groups of individuals who, out of self-interest, enter into a kind of contract with each other. They give up some individual freedoms, but gain the benefits of group strength and safety.
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke
David Hume
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Thomas Jefferson
John Rawls
Who are some notable proponents of social contract theory?
Thomas Hobbes
_____________, an Englishman, believed that ethical rules were created out of fear and our search for self-preservation. He is best known for his book Leviathan.
Leviathan
The book _____________ describes the state of nature, the right of nature, the laws of nature, and the laws and enforcement that makes up the social contract.
social contracts
Thomas Hobbes argued that ethical laws do not originate from God, but from agreements entered into by individuals and groups. He stated that powerful self-interest led humans to enter into _____________.
absolute monarch
Thomas Hobbes proposed that the price of social peace was that an _____________ should rule society.
John Locke
_____________, an Englishman, believed that ethical rules were more than just an attempt at self-preservation. He believed that in addition to self-preservation, humans had an obligation to preserve others as long as such acts did not threaten their own well-being.
property, natural property
John Locke believe that each person had rights to their own _______a______, which included the person, the person's labor, and the fruits of that labor (_______b______)
life, liberty, property
Locke's most famous contention is that each individual has the right to _____________, _____________, and _____________.
democracy
Locke encouraged participation by all in the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government; i.e., a _____________.
David Hume
_____________, an Englishman, was known as one of history's great skeptics. He proposed that ethics were based on an individual's sympathy for fellow humans.
naturalistic fallacy
David Hume developed the _____________, which says that just because things are a certain way, does not mean that they should be that way.
communitarianism
Hume further suggested that the needs of the community should be weighted against the needs of the individual, a view that has come to be called _____________.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
_____________, a Swede, believed that the extremes of great wealth and great poverty worked to destroy freedom. He didn't assert that all people should be equally powerful & wealthy, but said that extremes were destructive.
The social Contract
In _____________, Rousseau asserted that by giving up their natural rights to the general will, individuals gain both safety and freedom. It stated that the general will was literally the will of all.
Thomas Jefferson
_____________, believed that laws, made for the common good, are to be institutionalized in the political system (executive, legislative, and judicial branches), and that laws, not men, rules society.
John Rawls
_____________, an American, believes that a society that abandons its least fortunate in an effort to care for the "greatest number" is unjust.
veil of ignorance
_____________ is a situation stated by Rawls' A Theory of Justice in which since initially none of the people entering into an agreement know if they will be wealthy or poor, the resulting agreements will be fair to all.
original position
_____________ is a situation stated by Rawls' A Theory of Justice in which individuals must be as free as possible without infringing on others. Further, expected privilege must be to everyone's advantage and those privileged positions must be open to all.
Immanuel Kant
_____________ was a German who wrote Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals, which is based on the idea that ethical behavior is founded on adherence to a set of absolute rules.
imperatives
Kant saw life as a set of _____________, both hypothetical and categorical.
hypothetical
_____________ imperatives tell us what actions could be followed, but not whether those actions are good. They are driven by desire.
categorical
_____________ imperatives are ethical obligations that require actions, regardless of the individual's desires. They are based and driven by reason and are universal.
universality
Kant believed in free will and _____________: if I can ethically do something to you, then you should be able to ethically do it to me.
Josiah Royce
_____________, an American, extended Kant's deontological path and proposed that the highest duty was loyalty.
Ayn Rand
_____________, in her books Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, encourages a choice of values based solely on reason. She strongly supported Libertarian causes and strong individualism.
Robert Nozick
_____________, another modern American philosopher. He opposed the right to tax labor and challenged Rawls' belief that exchange of wealth should benefit the least wealthy.
consequential ethics
The _____________ tradition includes a wide range of theories and concepts for which the common ground is the belief that an action is good or bad, based on the consequences of the action. It encompasses hedonism, utilitarianism, and ethics of altruism and egoism.
hedonistic
The _____________ ethical theory states that "good" is pleasure and "bad" is pain. Therefore, the most desirable action is that action that creates either the greatest pleasure or the least pain.
Epicurus
_____________ believed that "good" is pleasure, freedom from physical pain, and from a troubled mind. He also believed that moderation was the greatest virtue.
Cyrenean ethics
_____________ is the ethical theory proposing the pursuit of pleasure without moderation.
utilitarianism
_____________ holds that an action is good if the good consequences outweigh the bad consequences for all.
act, rule
The two major variations of utilitarianism are _____________ and _____________.
act utilitarianism
_____________ says that an act is morally required if it produces the most good for the most people.
rule utilitarianism
_____________ says that there are rules behind the act that produce the most good for the most people.
Jeremy Bentham
_____________ was an Englishman and social reformer who introduced several new ideas to utilitarianism.
principle of utility
_____________ states that the only good thing is pleasure and the absence of pain. It is the first idea that gives consideration to animals as well as humans
hedonic calculus
_____________ is Betham's attempt to develop rules to quantify happiness. There are seven factors: intensity, duration, certainty/uncertainty, propinquity or remoteness, fecundity, purity, extent.
John Stuart Mill
_____________ believed that pleasure was the only thing that humans desire for its own sake alone.
quality
Mill believed that the _____________ of happiness must be considered in addition to the quantity.
greatest happiness principle
Mill developed the _____________, stating that the degree of goodness was determined by the degree or amount of happiness produced, not just in the acting individual but also in all people affected.
harm principle
The _____________ states that the government should be able to coerce people only when required to prevent them from harming others.
altruism
Ethics of _____________ contends that for an act to be good, it must produce more happiness and less unhappiness "for others".
theory of egoism
The _____________ states that for an act to be good, it must produce more happiness and less unhappiness "for myself".
psychological egoism
_____________ is the believe that people are primarily motivated by biological self-interest.
ethical egoism
_____________ is the belief that a person should act in his or her own self-interest, though it is not a biological necessity.
Adam Smith
_____________ wrote Wealth of Nations, which advances the egoistic belief that the common good is best advanced by the pursuit of self-interest. This theory has been used to ethically reinforce the foundations of modern Western capitalism.
John Stuart Mill
___________ developed the greatest happiness principle and the harm principle.
feminist
___________ ethics claim that all traditional ethical theories have a major, built-in male bias
Carol Gilligan
___________ was an American educator & psychologist who made assertions based on her observations of differences between how young boys & girls play games.
Nel Noddings
___________ was an American educator & philosopher who advanced discussions of care ethics (natural caring vs ethical caring)
ethics, morality
___________ is a wider view of what is right or wrong, while ___________ are someone's personal values and feelings about ethical subjects.
adultery, homosexuality, faith conflict
What are some relationships between people that are sometimes ethically questioned?
sex without marriage, abstinence, double standard, birth control, porn, prostitution
What are some moral issues of sexuality?
euthanasia, suicide, abortion
What are some moral issues of life & death?
active euthanasia
___________ is when an individual causes someone's death, such as lethal injection
passive euthanasia
___________ is when an individual allows someone to die by not intervening with natural processes, such as removing a feeding tube.
economic inequity, poverty, and equal opportunity
What are some moral political issues?
equal opportunity
___________ means that individuals with equal skills and experience have equal opportunity for employment and advancement.
Title VII
___________ is the broadest and most significant law affecting employment opportunity rights
age discrimination in employment act of 1967
___________ states that there should be no discrimination based on age of persons over forty
equal employment opportunity act
___________ extended Title VII to government workers & others
vocational rehabilitation act
___________ states that federal employers with contracts over $2500 must take action to hire disabled individual
ADA
___________ states that employers must make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities or religious preferences
civil rights act
___________ states that discriminated against employees can seek punitive damages
Racism
___________ is a conscious or unconscious set of actions based on the belief that members of another race are inferior in one or more ways.
affirmative action
___________ means that an advantage is given to applicants from a group that has previously suffered discrimination.
restitution
(n.) the act of restoring someone or something to the rightful owner or to a former state or position; making good on a loss or damage. Supporters of affirmative action.
reverse discrimination
the practice or policy of favoring individuals belonging to groups known to have been discriminated against previously. (anti-affirmative action)
distributive (social)
___________ justice is the extent to which our laws distribute justice fairly.
retributive
___________ justice refers to the fairness of punishment.
compensatory
___________ justice refers to the fairness of the compensation offered to the harmed party.
- war is never acceptable (pacifists)
- personal belief that one cannot take a human life
- war is abhorrent but sadly justified in some cases
What are the 3 levels of opposition to war?
just war tradition
___________, as defined by the Catholic Church, has 3 major requirements: must be authorized by competent authority, must be for a just cause, must be fought for the right intentions.
self-defense
Many think that ___________ is the ultimate justification for war & that those nations have the same rights of individuals.
strength as a deterrent
some argue that a demonstration of ___________ is a defense against aggression
pre-emption
this position is based upon self-defense. the argument is that striking first is actually a defensive action
revolution/civil war
it is widely held that ___________ can be justified, based on the conditions imposed by the ruling government
intervention
___________ by a third party is often justified based on self-defense. it may also be in response to humanitarian issues or even political obligations.
last resort
the just war theory holds that war should result only when all other methods fail (aka ___________)
reasonable chance of success
it is believed by most that to fight beyond any hope of success or advantage is not ethical (aka ___________)
proportional
this position suggest that a response should be ___________ to the aggression.
treatment of non-combatants
treatment of combatants
waging a "just" war involves what 2 major considerations?
autonomy
___________ is the ability to make rational choices and decisions.
offensive principle
___________ states that the government has the right to restrict behavior that "offends" others
paternalism
___________ states that the government can restrict people from harming themselves even if the person is a competent adult
harm principle
___________ states that the government can only prevent the harm of others (unless "self" is a child)
legal moralism
___________ states that the government can restrict people from activities that the government deems to be immoral, even if no one is harmed by the activity
right to life
right to political participation
freedom rights
subsistence rights
The UN declared what human rights to be universal?
biomedical
___________ ethics cover topics such as informed consent, healthcare, and animal rights
informed consent
___________ must meet the conditions of having minimal risk to the patient, making sure patients understand risks/benefits, being able to end participation, and keeping patient information confidential
- reproductive technology
- premature infants
- organ transplants
- doctor assisted suicide
- measures to prolong life
What are some healthcare dilemmas?
- could the problem damage the people or the community?
- does the problem go beyond legal or institutional concerns?
How do you recognize an ethical or moral issue?
Happiness is based on personal virtue
Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
What are the principles of Greek tradition? Who were the supporters?
Jewish Bible
Christian Bible
Divine command
What are the principles of religious traditions?
Ethics based on fixed, universal laws
Double effect principle
What are the principles of moral law?
Natural law
Epictetus
What are the principles of stoicism? Who was the supporter?
Natural law is self-evident
Restrained by human reason
Aquinas
What are the principles of natural law? Who was the supporter?
Social contract defines ethics
Naturalistic fallacy
Theory of Justice
Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Jefferson, Rawls
What are the principles of social contract? Who were the supporters?
Categorical imperative
Formulations
Duty
Kant, Royce
What are the principles of Kantism? Who were the supporters?
Ethics based on consequence
What are the principles of consequential ethics? Who were the supporters?
ethics based on pleasure, moderation
Epicurus
What are the principles of hedonism & epicureanism? Who was the supporter?
Ethics based on pleasure, no constraints
What are the principles of Hedonism?
good consequences must be greater than bad consequences, act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, greatest happiness principle
Bentham, Mill
What are the principles of utilitarianism? Who were the supporters?
Most good for myself, modern capitalism, psychological egoism, ethical egoism
Smith, Rand
What are the principles of egoism? Who were the supporters?
ethics of care, based on caring/concern/not hurting
Gilligan, Noddings
What are the principles of feminist ethics? Who were the supporters?
moral character traits
What are the principles of the ethics of virtue?
a priori
A stated position is _____________ if it is true without experiment or proof
absolute right
_____________ is a right that cannot be ethically violated
arete
_____________ is Greek "excellence" or "virtue"; the concept of being the best one can be
axiology
_____________ is the study of the nature and meaning of values, in particular ethical values
beneficent
_____________ is an ethical obligation to act in the best interest of others
civil disobedience
_____________ concept claims that an unjust law is no law at all
conscience
_____________ is the awareness of conscious of actions being morally right or wrong
Deism
_____________ affirms the existence of a divine being who created the natural universe, but denies an additional interaction between the deity and its creations
derivative rights
_____________ describes rights that you have based on other rights
dogmatism
_____________ is a stubborn refusal to accept challenges to point of view
extrinsic good
_____________ is an act that is good or bad based on its effects or consequences
four noble truths
_____________ state that existence consists of suffering, cravings, are the source of suffering and bind us to existence, suffering can be overcome by eliminating cravings, and suffering can be overcome by means of an eight-step path, resulting in enlightenment
intuitionism
_____________ is an ethical theory that proposes that ethical principles are known by intuition
pascal's wager
_____________ is the idea that even if all arguments for god's existence fail, it is still the more prudent bet to believe in god, because if god does not exist we have eternity to gain, and if god does not exist, we have lost little by believing
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